Well, if nothing changes until 8.9., many many players will most likely go to Destiny 2, including myself. (not a goodbye post)

Tylos001 wrote: »

I want them to do what they did in Runescape which was put them in this special arena where everyone got to damage them and finally you chose how they got to be executed!! Then there items were spread out fairly for those who attended! People who reported Bots that were found to be actual got special titles

I like this method.

I think we need more in game gms searching for bots and banning them on sight.

I also think that someplace in every zone there should be an area where the banned botters characters are impaled on spikes, to serve as a deterrent. Not that it'd work but it would show us how active the gms are

Turelus wrote: »

ifDoubtNerfIt wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

ifDoubtNerfIt wrote: »

Quigster wrote: »

I have a very low tolerance for this type of activity. First occurrence, 90 day account suspension. Second occurrence within one year of reinstatement, account perma-ban. Any other account found botting or gold selling at same IP address, perma-ban by IP address. The people who play by the rules, regardless of whether or not they sub, should never be affected by cheaters / griefers.

IP bans are worthless in EU, because 99% of ISPs in the EU have dynamic IP addresses which means, every 24h you get a new IP address. Better ban on the evidence of the MAC address for example.

I wish I could say if they kept up the bans fast enough then they'd at least keep buying the game, but from what other companies have said in security talks the people doing it normally just use stolen credit card information any way (sometimes from their own customers).

The people doing real botting (not rubberband levelling) are normally in it to make money as a business, they don't have a damn about anything else including their customers.

I do wonder if the rubberband levelling is a paid for service or it's just players thinking they can do it for easy levelling.

As I said before: I would love to see that ZoS starts to legally prosecute the botters.

Normally done from locations outside of their jurisdiction or there is no way to bring a case? I figure if this was possible it would have happened before from other large companies.

Sorry for late response, but anyways, here is for example Blizzard's legal department at work
https://www.invenglobal.com/heroes/articles/1349

Heroeric1337 wrote: »

Make it so after 3 hours or so of straight gameplay, for one of those "Im not a bot" things to be required to check or be booted from the game.

Imagine that happening to you in the middle of a boss fight for a placement.
IMO, it would be the best to deal with the bots in real life and not through the game, but still I want to hear Gina's response to this thread, but she wasn't online today....

Kodrac wrote: »

Violynne wrote: »

I selected "Other" because I see no impact these botters have on the game as it relates to my play. They don't affect me, and I couldn't give a care less if they want to level up by "botting".

Now, if these players do start to affect my play, I'll change my answer.

"If it doesn't effect me personally I don't care." Great attitude to have. You do realize you are part of a community don't you?

This person isn't wrong in the slightest. Few, if any, people are really harmed by bots. Anyone art their keyboard is more likely to get loot than a bot is.

Quigster wrote: »

Prive wrote: »

Those are the "dumb" bots you are talking. The bots that actually farm scraps, in a train of 3-4 people, are way better designed. they don't attack if there's no mob, they don't stop to loot if they didn't kill anything. They walk several routes, they use different skills, they move farming spots automatically and they are even designed to auto empty their bags into the bank after a certain amount of time.

If ZoS would create a mechanic for them to move around, they will make a new route that avoids the dmg. Or they will implement a healer in their route that auto heals.

And for what it matters;

[img][/img]

As said, these bots don't care about the spawn time. They simply don't attack if there's no mob to attack on their route.

Is that what I saw today in Shadowfen? Looked like a lead character running a path with 3 or 4 player characters following immediately on it's heals. Every turn, stop, move, perfectly followed. When they would approach a monster, they would all attack until the monster was dead, then the entire train would continue on. I managed to report one of the characters as botting and described the activity. But really, I have seen this more than once over the last week or so just in Shadowfen. Would be pretty easy for a GM to go there and find the activity, if they wanted to find it.

yes, that is exactly what you saw.

First I want to say that I think ZOS is doing well in their attempts to address the botting issue. You can't police every square inch of a game the size of ESO. However, there are several known problem spots that should be fairly easy to deal with.

The way I'd like to see it handled??? I'd like to see them blown sky high kind of like you would see the coyote in a Road Runner cartoon. And the ones that are mobile running around in a line??? Erect a magical brick wall for them to run into. I know, it's not very mature, but it would be very satisfying.

FWIW, I think more could be done. I spent a considerable amount of time over the years in WoW, and noticed on several occasions GMs in-game supervising activities. Several GMs even contacted me in-game regarding complaints I had lodged. I have never once seen a GM in-game here, nor have I ever been contacted in-game by a GM. IMHO, they (ZOS) need a stronger presence in-game.

An easier one button report system.
As long as I don't see them where I'm playing at I'm happy.
They can farm in their secret places, just don't ruin other players experience.

I don't know what bot is and doesn't sound like I care lol. I rather they focus on fixing the lag.

Prive wrote: »

Merlin13KAGL wrote: »

Provide us (the players) the means. Teleports, nearby mobs that will aggro those that find a high spot, high damage but easily counterable damage skills that require interaction (think AoE that requires you to move to a green safe zone - even one of the 'doughnut' AoE's) would quickly ascertain if someon's AFK w/the rubber band auto-attack...

If you want to farm, by all means, farm, but you should at least be there. (Sorry, Netflixing doesn't count.)

Those are the "dumb" bots you are talking. The bots that actually farm scraps, in a train of 3-4 people, are way better designed. they don't attack if there's no mob, they don't stop to loot if they didn't kill anything. They walk several routes, they use different skills, they move farming spots automatically and they are even designed to auto empty their bags into the bank after a certain amount of time.

If ZoS would create a mechanic for them to move around, they will make a new route that avoids the dmg. Or they will implement a healer in their route that auto heals.

And for what it matters;

[img][/img]

As said, these bots don't care about the spawn time. They simply don't attack if there's no mob to attack on their route.

@Prive , knockback (immovable immune), 90% snare, or some kind of major debuff (90% dmg redux) that is easily purgeable via some ingame mechanic would go a long way here.

It would have to be something that would be easily removed by a non-AFK person, but harder to view/anticipate for a botted program.

How about a 'magnify x100 and reflect all damage for 10 seconds' with a very obvious visual cue - a negate would do it - see if the keystrokes continued... Or throw a creature in the mix with a special ID - same individual(s) kill it so many times in a row, cooldown timers kick in. It's basically what they do for delve/world boss drops...

Nestor wrote: »

ifDoubtNerfIt wrote: »

IP bans are worthless in EU, because 99% of ISPs in the EU have dynamic IP addresses which means, every 24h you get a new IP address. Better ban on the evidence of the MAC address for example.

However a combo of IP Ban and Hardware ID ban can be done effectively. ZOS already recognizes our hardware, heck I had to re-validate my machine when I upgraded a video card (same brand, same drivers). So, they have a couple of methods in place to uniquely identify a player. Before you say it, Hardware Spoofing really only works on HDD's, and it is a sophisticated enough process to do this that 90% of the botters will stay banned.

@ifDoubtNerfIt , MAC addresses have been easily spoofable for years now.

What @Nestor mentions though, about the hardware signature, is more effective and can be one of say three tied to an account. Log in on a different machine, require revalidation. Log in frequently on different machines, require explanation...

I suspect the third party anti-cheat/anti-hack assistance they are looking at will entail signature checks (for the program), 3rd party program checks (such as CE, etc), and pattern detection algorithms.

The ability for players to tag a suspected botter would go a long way towards identifying these. After so many tags, code could kick in to monitor things more closely (it could probably even run client side), sending back extra bits of information via network packets (always - only the content would change), and ultimately request presence of a GM or automated response (something to disrupt the automation, teleport to new location to see if the behavior continued, etc).

The 'report a player' BS is just there to quell the masses, often ending with the usual canned response, and not much more, I suspect.

There would have to be variances in it - a 'right answer,' if you will. The wrong one kills, you, knocks you well out of range, etc. It could be a bs puzzle that has to be solved. (It could be as simple as a random "Don't move a muscle" mechanic from CoS)

Agreed, there will be people that will find workarounds for it, but it would cut out a large percentage of the basic level botters/AFK'ers which are likely the majority. Unless someone is full on reversing the network stream or they're posting things in accessible API's (which would be dumb), it could be made to work.

I just don't have a lot of faith in them sending GM's out and about to each area - the automatons, in that case, will simple script to relocate from time to time.

I forsee insta-level 50 options in the crown store, very, very soon. This way they still get paid (crown XP scrolls = $) and people aren't forced to do the incessant grind.

It's why I still like the idea of putting some of the power in the hands of the players - after a majority tag on such an individual, action could be taken or monitored via one of the ways mentioned above.

I want cheaters perma-banned, no warning. I am not talking about people exploiting bugs. They should simply have the yield from their exploits subtracted from their account. People who utilize 3rd party software should not receive warnings, they should be banned.

ZOS has garnered a good reputation online for listening to its community. This is a hard won trust that is easily shattered again. They should not continue to remain silent on this matter.

Remember that silence is the music of death... also for game developers reputations....