How do bots work on console?

RebornV3x · January 2018

On Xbox its actually not that hard to bot or run scripts as it might seem the Xbox One is pretty much a modified windows 10 machine more or less at this point I would get into more details but its too much to type out on here

Eyesinthedrk · January 2018

Not all countries concern themselves with international trade agreements and patent laws.

Unfortunately those same countries manufacture the bulk of all the components used in the hardware they are pirating.

So they can make whatever they want and have it do whatever they want. If they get caught there is no legal recourse. If you brick their hardware they make a new one for pennies of the dollar.

Then you add in their interpretation of human rights and now you have an ability to make as many people as you want each controlling as many accounts as you choose for as many hours a day as you desire.

Eyesinthedrk · January 2018

One thing ZOS can do right now is move the pet abilities to the end of their skill trees so they don’t unlock until level 40 and 45.

At that point the botters would have to put in time on each toon to get their mass farming done. As it is now a sorc walk out of cold harbor with the ability to do passive farming.

CromulentForumID · January 2018

Eyesinthedrk wrote: »

One thing ZOS can do right now is move the pet abilities to the end of their skill trees so they don’t unlock until level 40 and 45.

At that point the botters would have to put in time on each toon to get their mass farming done. As it is now a sorc walk out of cold harbor with the ability to do passive farming.

This change would be fantastic. You could also remove the ability to "Hold Down" the button and heavy attack. I think both of those would help a lot.

Tan9oSuccka · January 2018

Eyesinthedrk wrote: »

One thing ZOS can do right now is move the pet abilities to the end of their skill trees so they don’t unlock until level 40 and 45.

At that point the botters would have to put in time on each toon to get their mass farming done. As it is now a sorc walk out of cold harbor with the ability to do passive farming.

This is a great idea! These bots usually get banned well before then.

Elsonso · January 2018

Tan9oSuccka wrote: »

Eyesinthedrk wrote: »

One thing ZOS can do right now is move the pet abilities to the end of their skill trees so they don’t unlock until level 40 and 45.

At that point the botters would have to put in time on each toon to get their mass farming done. As it is now a sorc walk out of cold harbor with the ability to do passive farming.

This is a great idea! These bots usually get banned well before then.

It is not a great idea because it punishes people who are not botting.

Along those lines, I have some other ideas that would break up bot trains.

1. Picture captchas that require that the player pick all of the "door" pictures, then replace whatever is picked with random pictures that could include more "doors" for 5 minutes.
2. Every 15 minutes, mail a 16 digit hex code to every player. Make them type the code in (randomly, have them type it in backwards) before they can collect any loot or XP. If they get it wrong, boot them from the game for 15 minutes.
3. Every 15 minutes that the player is logged in, teleport them to random coordinates in a random zone. Disable "travel to" and all wayshrines cost 1000g to use for the following 5 minutes.
4. If you die to any monster or NPC, they take your gold, equipment, and XP. You do not get it back. Mobs have a random attack that is equal to 2x your max HP and cannot be blocked or dodged.

On a more serious note...

I have contemplated the idea of a purgatory system along the lines of a rumored "social ban". If an account gets identified as a bot (automatically or by X number of player reports), flag that account. Until CS has a chance to review the account, they are always put into a "bot instance" of the game where mobs and resources never spawn after they are taken. They can get out by opening a ticket with CS from the website, which results in the "chance to review" happening. In this manner, they don't have to worry about automatic bans catching innocents, bots are ineffective at what they are supposed to be doing, and there is a way out for players accidentally caught up in it.

Also not a great idea, but it might be fun.

Eyesinthedrk · January 2018

I don’t see the change hurting anyone. Having curse, bound armor or ward in any order is just as useful to a new player.

However I do know of many guilds that use mass reporting as a tactic against an op player. Had one guild do it to a friend when she wouldn’t drop campaign so their guildie sitting at #2 could get crowned. Of course that was after flooding her inbox with spam and calling her every name in the book.

Varana · January 2018

No, they're not as useful. The Clannfear has been really good for tanking and healing on lower levels, and that's not adequately replaceable by a ward or similar things that still get you attacked and need to be recast, instead of distracting the enemy.
As an experienced player, you can certainly do that. But that is, like, the opposite of "new player".

Also, it may mildly inconvenience the current botting meta. It certainly won't stop it. And for mild inconvenience, it's really not worth it.

Kanar · January 2018

I would think easiest path would be to create a controller replacement that supports programmable input. 3rd parties are allowed to manufacture controllers right? That means there is some public information about how to send button press signals. So they just need to create a piece of hardware that can be plugged in like a controller, that can be programmed with a script. No hacked console needed.

Probably a strong market in places like China, to support the creation of this hardware.

O_LYKOS · January 2018

They're not bots lol

LordSemaj · January 2018

O_LYKOS wrote: »

They're not bots lol

They're bots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOYWLQdl6Fw

Diminish · January 2018

It's not jail broken consoles, it's not rubber banded controllers, and it's not taped down buttons. I wont say what it is, because you can get what is necessary to do this relatively cheap (about $80 USD), and we don't need more bots.

On the flip side, if I tell everyone how this is being done on consoles, we may see an influx in botting which may force ZoS hand to actually do something about the problem for once.

Elsonso · January 2018

Diminish wrote: »

On the flip side, if I tell everyone how this is being done on consoles, we may see an influx in botting which may force ZoS hand to actually do something about the problem for once.

Won't make a difference, other than probably getting you in trouble. If you know it, the internet knows it, and anyone can find it.

QUEZ420 · January 2018

mb10 wrote: »

They dont lol

Most people can do is rubber band but getting a character to act on its own without being there in person is impossible on console.

Ummm bro... u cant b serious lol.

TequilaFire · February 2018

Remove PS4 NOR chip hook to Raspberry Pi SIO, read NOR chip contents, modify and write back edited contents.
Reinstall NOR chip - profit by running unsigned code and change MAC address.
I left details out and you have to be capable of surface mount chip desoldering and reflow work but the Chinese are very good at those things. As an electronics engineering tech I understand and could do this if I was the nefarious type.

Asardes · February 2018

If they made overland mobs like vMA arenas 5 & 7 there wouldn't be bots

zaria · February 2018

LordSemaj wrote: »

O_LYKOS wrote: »

They're not bots lol

They're bots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOYWLQdl6Fw

This is an macro, probably running on the d-pad, you can get controllers who can run macros.
you might even use an pc or similar to send the signals
it also run by some multiboxer as all characters is perfectly in sync.

An real bot will run around and target enemies.

undead84 · November 2018

Bump. Saw some bots like in the video above a few weeks ago on xb1 eu (ebonheart starting island, sry i dont know the english name ). Btw i reported all of them but got just an automatical generated answers containing instructions how to set players on ignore list

Do we have GMs watching the console servers? If yes, i never saw one walking around.

MLGProPlayer · November 2018

mb10 wrote: »

They dont lol

Most people can do is rubber band but getting a character to act on its own without being there in person is impossible on console.

Botting and hacking are pretty rampant on consoles. It's a myth that it doesn't happen (it's just less common because it takes more effort).

Hotdog_23 · November 2018

LadyLethalla wrote: »

Since I started again on PS4 NA I have seen bots, bots and more bots - and I would venture to say, more bots thanI ever encountered on EU, where I have spent most of my game time. Bots in Betnikh. Bots in Camlorn, killing werewolves. I have a screenshot saved of the carnage. And last night, in Alik'r, a group of sorcs, standing in a clump, all popping Lightning Form simultaneously and killing mudcrabs. So it's definitely possible.

I have reported that group like 3 times on back to back days already in the last 2-3 weeks. I just quit looking at them and move on since nothing ever happens to them.

Sad really.

IWinWithPewPew · March 2019

just my guess

What if ... PC players hacked a way into ps4 and Xbox servers of eso?

Liferefugee · March 2019

Any console that will allow keyboard commands can be ran with macros. There are devices you can program then hook up.

Prof_Bawbag · March 2019

Edit: Deleted

therift · March 2019

My favorite PS4 bot trains are the groups of 8-12 petsorcs that move in perfect unison like a reflection in multiple mirrors... which probably points to how it is done.

Once, I stepped into the Rawl'kha bank just in time to catch a line of 10 petsorcs fast travel somewhere. The timing was exact. I suppose they had just offloaded their loot.

The player names are always random letters/numbers.

The player PSN profiles are always set to Simplified Chinese

The gold seller chat spam always points to a domain registered to Red China.

The area voice broadcasts are always computer-generated text-to-voice recordings.

Rather than trying to ban IPs perhaps the solution is to ban the People's Republic of China. They're nothing but intellectual property thieves anyway.

FlopsyPrince · March 2019

Prof_Bawbag wrote: »

Even if it were possible to get some sort of script to run on console and as things currently stand, it would be impossible to get custom processes to run on either of the xbox and ps4 and use the console online. With ESO being online only for obvious reasons, the console would be banned in no time. Xbox do this on a regular basis too. That's why these people remain offline. It's why people go for certain OS builds. As soon as you go online, you console updates and both Sony and MS pick up on this and brick your console and ban your account. Their respective forums are littered with these kids all crying about not being able to use their console as they erroneously connected to the respective console network.

This is clearly not true. I have seen bot mat farmers that act in a manner that has to involve coding, not a live player.

I don't know how, but they are working around the system. This was on the PS4.

ArchMikem · March 2019

TequilaFire wrote: »

Yes and those bots are more than likely Chinese farmers who do it for a living and have invested in the hacked hardware.

Getting paid a dollar an hour to farm a video game.

sedi · March 2019

Controller hack. Get a special controller that has a chip that can mimic buttons being pressed to repeat set command inputs then run a farming route (ie kill mud crabs at their spawn) and put it on repeat all day long. Just a guess.

Wish they could make things like spawn locations for mobs and nodes more randomised as it would help stop this.

devilsTear · March 2019

Let's say I had a '' friend '' who had a '' hacked '' ps3 and showed it to me.. I Iaugh at the people who say you couldn't go online with it, keep believing that. he or she used to experiment with that sort of stuff and it was perfectly possible to play online and not get banned. Also people who think that the ps4 can't be hacked are delusional, not saying anything more about it.

WeylandLabs · March 2019

I been farming here before tamrial one and after and it's horrific now. For 3 years I been reporting bots and I just see it getting worse.

Yet I still report and that's all I can do. Nobody really cares about this problem I feel a few get bots banned, but doesn't resolve anything. 10$ ps4 subscription and a month of farming can yeild upwards to 500$ on these p2w sites. And that's just 1 bot keep that in mind.

Kalik_Gold · August 2019

Not sure why Zos can't stop this seems easy to ban them. Even if they try again, if they had a few (2-3) people dedicated to this problem.