PSA: a solution to resource node bots

Aurielle · September 2018

Annoyed with all those stealthed node bot campers/gold sellers who harvest nodes automatically before any legitimate player who is ACTUALLY playing the game can loot them?

Here’s what you do! Wait until they loot the node. Position yourself directly in front of them, move backwards slightly, and place down a bear trap. The bot will move toward the trap and “loot” it. Back up slightly. Repeat. Do this until you’ve successfully dragged the bot away from the node. Bonus points if you can get a wolf to attack it! To speed up the process, work with friends who also have the bear trap memento. I have video footage of this strategy in action, but since ZOS would consider this “naming and shaming”, I can’t post it here.

Enjoy!

BWS2K · September 2018

I would encourage folks to be careful about what they share like this. It's easy enough for the botters to read and adapt to it. Best to find them, confirm them, report them, and move on. By all means, keep doing it - just don't tell people you're doing it in a public space, lol

That said, I've seen videos of it working as well.

Aurielle · September 2018

BWS2K wrote: »

I would encourage folks to be careful about what they share like this. It's easy enough for the botters to read and adapt to it. Best to find them, confirm them, report them, and move on. By all means, keep doing it - just don't tell people you're doing it in a public space, lol

That said, I've seen videos of it working as well.

True, though that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Also, I doubt they’d be able to adapt on console. They’re programmed to loot by spamming the interact button. As far as I know, it’s not possible to distinguish between nodes and any other interactable object.

Starlock · September 2018

Aurielle wrote: »

BWS2K wrote: »

I would encourage folks to be careful about what they share like this. It's easy enough for the botters to read and adapt to it. Best to find them, confirm them, report them, and move on. By all means, keep doing it - just don't tell people you're doing it in a public space, lol

That said, I've seen videos of it working as well.

True, though that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Also, I doubt they’d be able to adapt on console. They’re programmed to loot by spamming the interact button. As far as I know, it’s not possible to distinguish between nodes and any other interactable object.

It’s possible. I’ve seen mobile node farming bots on xbox.

Aurielle · September 2018

Starlock wrote: »

Aurielle wrote: »

BWS2K wrote: »

I would encourage folks to be careful about what they share like this. It's easy enough for the botters to read and adapt to it. Best to find them, confirm them, report them, and move on. By all means, keep doing it - just don't tell people you're doing it in a public space, lol

That said, I've seen videos of it working as well.

True, though that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Also, I doubt they’d be able to adapt on console. They’re programmed to loot by spamming the interact button. As far as I know, it’s not possible to distinguish between nodes and any other interactable object.

It’s possible. I’ve seen mobile node farming bots on xbox.

That’s too bad.

Well, for now, at least, a certain starter area is officially bot-free. Also? I dragged a bot to a wolf spawn point about an hour ago. The wolf is STILL attacking the bot. Either battle scaling is way better than I remembered, or that bot has capped resistances.

Nightfall12 · September 2018

after reading this post, i started to look at some stationary folks a bit more closely....especially ones nearby a known node.....Sure enough they harvest instantly. I have seen plenty of roving botters before as their routes and behaviors are so easy to spot, but i never really though about the one not moving well after seeing this thread I have learned something very usefull.

I don't want to report anyone that is a real person. I have had people think my farmer was a bot/cheat once based on my speed, but they sent a tell....and I answered and shared my speedy build, its easy to get stuff nothing fancy. This person shared that they dont like reporting without checking to see if Bot or Not, and i agree......

BUT NOW we have a way to check, just by dropping a trap close by those bots come RUNNING for it....!!

So while they may find a way to work around this, it is a usefull trick to check if a real person or not.

Armatesz · September 2018

Nightfall12 wrote: »

after reading this post, i started to look at some stationary folks a bit more closely....especially ones nearby a known node.....Sure enough they harvest instantly. I have seen plenty of roving botters before as their routes and behaviors are so easy to spot, but i never really though about the one not moving well after seeing this thread I have learned something very usefull.

I don't want to report anyone that is a real person. I have had people think my farmer was a bot/cheat once based on my speed, but they sent a tell....and I answered and shared my speedy build, its easy to get stuff nothing fancy. This person shared that they dont like reporting without checking to see if Bot or Not, and i agree......

BUT NOW we have a way to check, just by dropping a trap close by those bots come RUNNING for it....!!

So while they may find a way to work around this, it is a usefull trick to check if a real person or not.

On xbox na easiest way to see if they are a resource node boss is their level, but that is not always the case as there are high level bots out there, another safer bet is their gamerscore is really low. But there are new players that can flag this as well so we have to be very careful to not call someone a bot unless they are actually a bot. Now how to tell a low level new gamerscore is a person is usually how they interact with certain things, like a sort of awe that an actual person would give with seeing something different. There are a lot of ways to do this so you can be very creative on that.

Aurielle · September 2018

Armatesz wrote: »

Nightfall12 wrote: »

after reading this post, i started to look at some stationary folks a bit more closely....especially ones nearby a known node.....Sure enough they harvest instantly. I have seen plenty of roving botters before as their routes and behaviors are so easy to spot, but i never really though about the one not moving well after seeing this thread I have learned something very usefull.

I don't want to report anyone that is a real person. I have had people think my farmer was a bot/cheat once based on my speed, but they sent a tell....and I answered and shared my speedy build, its easy to get stuff nothing fancy. This person shared that they dont like reporting without checking to see if Bot or Not, and i agree......

BUT NOW we have a way to check, just by dropping a trap close by those bots come RUNNING for it....!!

So while they may find a way to work around this, it is a usefull trick to check if a real person or not.

On xbox na easiest way to see if they are a resource node boss is their level, but that is not always the case as there are high level bots out there, another safer bet is their gamerscore is really low. But there are new players that can flag this as well so we have to be very careful to not call someone a bot unless they are actually a bot. Now how to tell a low level new gamerscore is a person is usually how they interact with certain things, like a sort of awe that an actual person would give with seeing something different. There are a lot of ways to do this so you can be very creative on that.

Another easy way to tell is to check out the character names. On PS4 NA, they’re always gibberish. Like “Hgguibddsd” (not a real example, lest I be accused of “naming and shaming”).

Anyway, the bots adapted to this trick quickly. The 20+ bots I disabled yesterday were back at their nodes, and they had a significantly reduced loot range compared to yesterday. I couldn’t pull them away solo fast enough, thanks to the memento’s cool down, so I enlisted in zone’s help. Another player and I managed to pull three bots away from their nodes. Within about fifteen minutes or so, they logged out. When they logged back in, they were in their original location — not their location when they logged out. This suggests to me that the bots are programmed to move to specific coordinates upon login.

We have reported these bots so many times, and ZOS does nothing. It’s very discouraging.

Ah well. For at least six hours yesterday (maybe longer) I prevented 20+ known bots that have been reported NUMEROUS times from auto harvesting nodes. Newbies and legitimate crafter/trader farmers were able to loot those nodes during that time. I at least did something, unlike the company that supposedly has TOS that forbid unattended gameplay.

XxCaLxX · September 2018

I think they have every node in bkeakrock covered on Xbox NA. Isn’t there a way they could get “gamemasters” back in game to insta kick these bots. I know they keep making more so there needs to be a quick response time on kicks so after awhile it will lessen them.

Aurielle · September 2018

XxCaLxX wrote: »

I think they have every node in bkeakrock covered on Xbox NA. Isn’t there a way they could get “gamemasters” back in game to insta kick these bots. I know they keep making more so there needs to be a quick response time on kicks so after awhile it will lessen them.

I wish. We shouldn’t have to take matters into our own hands. The starter areas are great for harvesting nodes quickly, and it’s unfair that we can’t loot these nodes because of gold sellers and account sellers who aren’t even playing the damn game.

ookami007 · September 2018

What the heck is a bear trap and how do I get one?

Aurielle · September 2018

ookami007 wrote: »

What the heck is a bear trap and how do I get one?

It’s a memento you get from Toothmaul Gulley. Just slot it where you would normally slot your potion.

BWS2K · September 2018

Aurielle wrote: »

For at least six hours yesterday (maybe longer) I prevented 20+ known bots that have been reported NUMEROUS times from auto harvesting nodes. Newbies and legitimate crafter/trader farmers were able to loot those nodes during that time. I at least did something, unlike the company that supposedly has TOS that forbid unattended gameplay.

I don't play Xbox but keep up the good work!

Inarre · September 2018

Aurielle wrote: »

BWS2K wrote: »

I would encourage folks to be careful about what they share like this. It's easy enough for the botters to read and adapt to it. Best to find them, confirm them, report them, and move on. By all means, keep doing it - just don't tell people you're doing it in a public space, lol

That said, I've seen videos of it working as well.

True, though that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Also, I doubt they’d be able to adapt on console. They’re programmed to loot by spamming the interact button. As far as I know, it’s not possible to distinguish between nodes and any other interactable object.

It is very possible

Valrien · September 2018

Aurielle wrote: »

Armatesz wrote: »

Nightfall12 wrote: »

after reading this post, i started to look at some stationary folks a bit more closely....especially ones nearby a known node.....Sure enough they harvest instantly. I have seen plenty of roving botters before as their routes and behaviors are so easy to spot, but i never really though about the one not moving well after seeing this thread I have learned something very usefull.

I don't want to report anyone that is a real person. I have had people think my farmer was a bot/cheat once based on my speed, but they sent a tell....and I answered and shared my speedy build, its easy to get stuff nothing fancy. This person shared that they dont like reporting without checking to see if Bot or Not, and i agree......

BUT NOW we have a way to check, just by dropping a trap close by those bots come RUNNING for it....!!

So while they may find a way to work around this, it is a usefull trick to check if a real person or not.

On xbox na easiest way to see if they are a resource node boss is their level, but that is not always the case as there are high level bots out there, another safer bet is their gamerscore is really low. But there are new players that can flag this as well so we have to be very careful to not call someone a bot unless they are actually a bot. Now how to tell a low level new gamerscore is a person is usually how they interact with certain things, like a sort of awe that an actual person would give with seeing something different. There are a lot of ways to do this so you can be very creative on that.

Another easy way to tell is to check out the character names. On PS4 NA, they’re always gibberish. Like “Hgguibddsd” (not a real example, lest I be accused of “naming and shaming”).

Anyway, the bots adapted to this trick quickly. The 20+ bots I disabled yesterday were back at their nodes, and they had a significantly reduced loot range compared to yesterday. I couldn’t pull them away solo fast enough, thanks to the memento’s cool down, so I enlisted in zone’s help. Another player and I managed to pull three bots away from their nodes. Within about fifteen minutes or so, they logged out. When they logged back in, they were in their original location — not their location when they logged out. This suggests to me that the bots are programmed to move to specific coordinates upon login.

We have reported these bots so many times, and ZOS does nothing. It’s very discouraging.

Ah well. For at least six hours yesterday (maybe longer) I prevented 20+ known bots that have been reported NUMEROUS times from auto harvesting nodes. Newbies and legitimate crafter/trader farmers were able to loot those nodes during that time. I at least did something, unlike the company that supposedly has TOS that forbid unattended gameplay.

Tbh that name just reminds me of Goblins :P

Donny_Vito · September 2018

If you've played MMO's in the past then you've seen this trend before. ESO is 4.5 years old and on the decline. They are not going to go out of their way to ban people who are still playing the game. Yes, that person is a bot and not really "playing" but chances are they have a main account and ESO+ to hold all the craftables, and banning that person might result in losing that subscription(s) and all the potential money they might spend in the game.

danger241 · September 2018

Did this too awhile back in Stos and got the bot killed with a beetle. Only stops them for a few mins. Then they revive (since they are low level and have free revives) and move back into position

Seems like they have a guy monitoring the bots.

UPrime · September 2018

The problem with bots is that it's hard to distinguish them from real players with 100% guarantee that you'll never have false positives. For instance the teleporting aspects of bots. It can happen to a player with a bad net connection where the server doesn't get timely move commands. And then the client says I'm over here now. You just didn't get all the commands. And the server accepts it.

The other thing is that can ZoS prove that it's actually not a team of players? It's obvious they're just farming and not "playing" the game. But is that against the terms? This gets very gray very fast. So now they have to watch them.

It's a hard problem to solve without impacting real players.

Aurielle · September 2018

UPrime wrote: »

The problem with bots is that it's hard to distinguish them from real players with 100% guarantee that you'll never have false positives. For instance the teleporting aspects of bots. It can happen to a player with a bad net connection where the server doesn't get timely move commands. And then the client says I'm over here now. You just didn't get all the commands. And the server accepts it.

The other thing is that can ZoS prove that it's actually not a team of players? It's obvious they're just farming and not "playing" the game. But is that against the terms? This gets very gray very fast. So now they have to watch them.

It's a hard problem to solve without impacting real players.

If you place down an interactable memento and the bot turns around IMMEDIATELY to loot it, then it's a bot. No real player would do that. No real player would also continue to "loot" the memento when I back up slowly and drag it away from the node. No real player would stand there doing nothing when the node I've pulled it from has respawned if they were legitimately farming that node.

I've sent ZOS a video of this happening. Still no response.

EDIT: I wish I could post this video here. I can't, though, because the bot's name is visible. It's amazing that I could be reprimanded for naming and shaming, while an account engaging in unattented gameplay through the use of macros/illicit programming/WHATEVER they're using to do it continues to farm that node and prevent real players from harvesting it.

BWS2K · September 2018

I can't speak to Xbox but I can tell you that I and many others have been pretty vigilant in one particular zone on PC for two weeks and the turn around time to getting the bots kicked was 24hrs or less even on weekends, so results are possible unless we literally do nothing. That said, there are many ways to distinguish a bot from a player. You can upload a video to YouTube as Unlisted and then reply to the e-mail that you get after you submit a report in-game with the link for it to be reviewed, along with any screenshots.

Aurielle · September 2018

BWS2K wrote: »

I can't speak to Xbox but I can tell you that I and many others have been pretty vigilant in one particular zone on PC for two weeks and the turn around time to getting the bots kicked was 24hrs or less even on weekends, so results are possible unless we literally do nothing. That said, there are many ways to distinguish a bot from a player. You can upload a video to YouTube as Unlisted and then reply to the e-mail that you get after you submit a report in-game with the link for it to be reviewed, along with any screenshots.

I did that today (uploaded an unlisted video and sent it to ZOS via their automated email response). I'll be curious to see if that results in anything, because myself and others have just been reporting the bots in-game to no avail.