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There is an easy solution to the bot farming epidemic, stop giving gold mats for Lvl 1 resources

Twohothardware
Twohothardware
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I don't know what's going on with the lack of them getting banned on PS4 but they've just about taken over the starter zones. They're everywhere now.

And the reason why? Because it's so easy to farm gold materials they can sell for money.

Every one of these bots they use is under lvl 10 because it takes way too long to level up all these characters that occasionally do finally get banned.

The solution is simple. Stop giving gold materials from farming basic lvl 1 resources. Nobody is crafting lvl 10 armor or jewelry and then upgrading it to gold. You shouldn't even have a 1% chance for a gold temper from Iron Ore or Chromium Grains from Pewter.

The issue will be addressed and you guys can go back to not monitoring the game.
  • Gariele
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    That’s not true, there are bots of all levels. This is not a fix to the problem but a hinderance to new players.
    PC/EU
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  • Nestor
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    Sounds good, but what about all the high level players who do not spend the 50 to 60 skill points in material passives just to farm?

    What ZOS needs to do is start IP Banning accounts. Sure it's not a perfect solution, but make it difficult and the gold sellers will infest other games. Gold Sellers do not make much more than minimum wages, so any impact on the dollar per hour will have a huge impact.
    Edited by Nestor on August 17, 2019 8:53PM
    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • Twohothardware
    Twohothardware
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    Gariele wrote: »
    That’s not true, there are bots of all levels. This is not a fix to the problem but a hinderance to new players.

    I've not see any bots above around lvl 10 and under on PS4 NA. They're all new characters and the majority are Sorcs with a pet. They all have a name like aljkdljkdjfjf.
  • Twohothardware
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    Nestor wrote: »
    Sounds good, but what about all the high level players who do not spend the 50 to 60 skill points in material passives just to farm?

    What ZOS needs to do is start IP Banning accounts. Sure it's not a perfect solution, but make it difficult and the gold sellers will infest other games. Gold Sellers do not make much more than mine wages, so any impact on the dollar per hour will have a huge impact.

    IP banning is difficult. Not everyone even has a static IP, some providers use shared IP's, and with all the low cost VPN's nowadays you can easily change your IP by just connecting through a different VPN server.
  • idk
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    Gariele wrote: »
    That’s not true, there are bots of all levels. This is not a fix to the problem but a hinderance to new players.

    Pretty much this and also assumes that is the only source of gold for the botters.

    Also, one suggested IP banning. It is not hard to change your IP.
  • Nestor
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    Nestor wrote: »
    Sounds good, but what about all the high level players who do not spend the 50 to 60 skill points in material passives just to farm?

    What ZOS needs to do is start IP Banning accounts. Sure it's not a perfect solution, but make it difficult and the gold sellers will infest other games. Gold Sellers do not make much more than mine wages, so any impact on the dollar per hour will have a huge impact.

    IP banning is difficult. Not everyone even has a static IP, some providers use shared IP's, and with all the low cost VPN's nowadays you can easily change your IP by just connecting through a different VPN server.

    Used to do it all the time when I was a moderator on the Bethesda Forums. Very effective at getting rid of problem people. Most ISPs/Institutions use IPV6 as the need to track what is done on the internet out weighs any ip convience. Not all that many people use VPNs, so coddling them is a good risk reward trade. No real reason ZOS can't just say no vpns.

    If we wait for a perfect solution, it will never come.
    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • idk
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    Nestor wrote: »
    Nestor wrote: »
    Sounds good, but what about all the high level players who do not spend the 50 to 60 skill points in material passives just to farm?

    What ZOS needs to do is start IP Banning accounts. Sure it's not a perfect solution, but make it difficult and the gold sellers will infest other games. Gold Sellers do not make much more than mine wages, so any impact on the dollar per hour will have a huge impact.

    IP banning is difficult. Not everyone even has a static IP, some providers use shared IP's, and with all the low cost VPN's nowadays you can easily change your IP by just connecting through a different VPN server.

    Used to do it all the time when I was a moderator on the Bethesda Forums. Very effective at getting rid of problem people. Most ISPs/Institutions use IPV6 as the need to track what is done on the internet out weighs any ip convience. Not all that many people use VPNs, so coddling them is a good risk reward trade. No real reason ZOS can't just say no vpns.

    If we wait for a perfect solution, it will never come.

    Forum goers are mostly normal people. Botters are hackers as a profession. This is their living of sorts and they have the tools to go to greater lengths.

    If tackling the bots was as easy as blocking their IP address then I doubt we would be seeing as many bots as we do. I do not think Zos management is that incompetent that they would not use such an easy tool if it was that effective.
  • Imza
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    Nestor wrote: »
    Nestor wrote: »
    Sounds good, but what about all the high level players who do not spend the 50 to 60 skill points in material passives just to farm?

    What ZOS needs to do is start IP Banning accounts. Sure it's not a perfect solution, but make it difficult and the gold sellers will infest other games. Gold Sellers do not make much more than mine wages, so any impact on the dollar per hour will have a huge impact.

    IP banning is difficult. Not everyone even has a static IP, some providers use shared IP's, and with all the low cost VPN's nowadays you can easily change your IP by just connecting through a different VPN server.

    Used to do it all the time when I was a moderator on the Bethesda Forums. Very effective at getting rid of problem people. Most ISPs/Institutions use IPV6 as the need to track what is done on the internet out weighs any ip convience. Not all that many people use VPNs, so coddling them is a good risk reward trade. No real reason ZOS can't just say no vpns.

    If we wait for a perfect solution, it will never come.

    well - actually - if you implement a no vpn policy you will lose a lot of the south pacific players.
  • Darsaga
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    Most everyone has already mentioned that IP bans will not work on these people. What does work is actual communication with the hardware developers and getting the actual PC/Console ID banned. This method is usually reserved for extreme cases though because of the effort involved to get it done.
  • vesselwiththepestle
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    Uh, what they'd need is a person solely dedicated to bot banning who actively searches for bots, checks if it really is a bot, and moves forward with the banning process. Players repeatedly report, that after reporting bots it takes weeks or even longer until a bot is banned. Maybe ZOS could even code a warning system, which gives an alert if an account produces vast amounts of mats, but doesn't do anythin else. A real person could then check it out.

    In my country static IP are very unusual. Normally IP change here every time you reset your router. Actually, at least a few years ago the routers reset every 24 hours automatically, because the providers didn't want you to have a static ip. Static IP are here mostly reserved for universities, server structures, state departments etc.

    So if you'd ban a IP, the person would just have to reset its router - and randomly completely different people would appear IP banned. I don't understand how you can use IP ban as a valid tool.


    1000+ CP
    PC/EU Ravenwatch Daggerfall Covenant

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  • redgreensunset
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    *snip*.

    In my country static IP are very unusual. Normally IP change here every time you reset your router. Actually, at least a few years ago the routers reset every 24 hours automatically, because the providers didn't want you to have a static ip. Static IP are here mostly reserved for universities, server structures, state departments etc.

    So if you'd ban a IP, the person would just have to reset its router - and randomly completely different people would appear IP banned. I don't understand how you can use IP ban as a valid tool.


    This right here. What a lot of people here either don't know or arrogantly choose to ignore is that outside the US/North America static IPs are very rare. As in, government institutions and big wig companies have them, maybe big education centers such as universities, but no one else does. Because globally there's a lack of IPs and since not everyone is online all the time when you go offline your IP will get reassigned to someone else. What's more is that often sessions are timed, ie you only have an IP for X number of hiurs then, whether you're online or not, it gets changed. Which sometimes means you have to reboot or reset your internet connection to make th web work properly for you again.
    If you simply ban an IP you will outside the US end up banning a lot of innocent people who got allocated an IP that a botter was using at the time they were banned. The botter meanwhile will have to do nothing more than reset their router which t akes abiut 3 minutes, to get a new IP and continue on their way. The people who claim IP is an "efficient tool" are woeduly ignorant pf how the internet worka outside their own littlw backyard called the Us.
  • Gnortranermara
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    Bruuuuuuuh.

    Love this solution. Absolute perfection.
  • Ohtimbar
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    The prevalence of bots is a staffing/budgeting problem and it won't be solved.
    Edited by Ohtimbar on August 20, 2019 10:41PM
    forever stuck in combat
  • Zulera301
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    all this would do would make gold mats become rarer and thus jack up the price.
    Im all for banning the bots, but don't make a rare item become even rarer than it is just because bots.
    Shortly after the formation of the Ebonheart Pact, a Nord woman was given a tour of the Tribunal Temple. When later asked about the experience, she seemed upset. Suffice to say, the Dunmer were not pleased to hear this, and thus they inquired further.
    "Well," the Nord frowned, "the priests were very angry and unwelcoming. They kept shouting things at me like "you can't drink that mead in here!" and "somebody stop her, she's running naked!" and "we can't catch her; she's covered in grease!""
  • Twohothardware
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    Zulera301 wrote: »
    all this would do would make gold mats become rarer and thus jack up the price.
    Im all for banning the bots, but don't make a rare item become even rarer than it is just because bots.

    Eliminate the chance for gold mats on lower level resources and increase the chance on max resources to compensate. Problem solved.
  • SenpaiNFT
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    Nah leave the bots. They keep mats at a cheap price, they’re useful to the economy.

    Cigarettes and alcohol are terrible but they provide tax money so they’re still allowed. It’s all for the sake of the economy.
  • unclesheosnephew
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    Whos not upgrading lower level gear to gold? NA Server Live can easily show the gear is realluzv5e7zel31.png
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  • Nordic__Knights
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    Zulera301 wrote: »
    all this would do would make gold mats become rarer and thus jack up the price.
    Im all for banning the bots, but don't make a rare item become even rarer than it is just because bots.

    Eliminate the chance for gold mats on lower level resources and increase the chance on max resources to compensate. Problem solved.

    That wouldn't solve your problem the only thing you would do is force your bots to level up
  • jeanbulinckxub17_ESO
    Gariele wrote: »
    That’s not true, there are bots of all levels. This is not a fix to the problem but a hinderance to new players.

    I've not see any bots above around lvl 10 and under on PS4 NA. They're all new characters and the majority are Sorcs with a pet. They all have a name like aljkdljkdjfjf.

    I just found this little guy. He/It's high level and even got a nice nickname.
    https://youtu.be/OY2_SffXHPo

    Tried to chat, invite to trade, duel, group and it keeps harvesting the same node for at least 30 min.
    Reported and, as always, got an (auto) email from Zenimax.

    I hope Zenimax can fix it by simply pinpointing the player position and looking for patterns. For scrutinizing players with large farming records, etc.

    And most important, pay someone to actually do gamemaster duty 24/7 in all servers.
  • Dusk_Coven
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    And most important, pay someone to actually do gamemaster duty 24/7 in all servers.

    This.
    Or at least have a faster turnaround time on tickets. In FFXIV, for even a complaint about too much cussing in the Mentor Network, you can expect an initial response in 24 hours from a real person, not a bot picking up keywords.
    Within 48 hours you can expect the situation to have been investigated and handled.

    At first, it will seem overwhelming to one person to do it. BUT once people start realizing there's a live person who can respond very quickly, things will start to quiet down because you just don't know when lightning's gonna strike.

    Yes, it will mean that existing tickets will still be "in the queue" to be processed. But by immediately putting someone on the front line, you can start to slow the generation of new tickets simply by the policing presence. And some of the bans handed out will probably handle some of the tickets waiting to be processed.

    It occurs to me that maybe the Character Delete cooldown wasn't such a great idea. Sure it probably cut out a lot of RMT chatter, but that always takes away leads. You can report a toon by @name, so it doesn't matter how many toons they churn with delete and create, you just delete the entire account and possibly freeze all accounts using the same IP at the time. For reasons people have stated, don't ban the IP.
    Zulera301 wrote: »
    all this would do would make gold mats become rarer and thus jack up the price.
    Im all for banning the bots, but don't make a rare item become even rarer than it is just because bots.

    I understand what you are saying, but at the same time I think you need to realize that this also just enables and supports botting.
    Can we possibly have it both ways?
    If bots are lowering the price of things, then we are passively benefiting, although with no real way of boycotting except to do our farming ourselves.
    PC platform has Addons and people actually complain about having too many surveys banked. But Console can't alt-farm daily writs on 18 toons per day as easily.
    Edited by Dusk_Coven on September 30, 2019 8:04AM
  • Emma_Overload
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    *snip*.

    In my country static IP are very unusual. Normally IP change here every time you reset your router. Actually, at least a few years ago the routers reset every 24 hours automatically, because the providers didn't want you to have a static ip. Static IP are here mostly reserved for universities, server structures, state departments etc.

    So if you'd ban a IP, the person would just have to reset its router - and randomly completely different people would appear IP banned. I don't understand how you can use IP ban as a valid tool.


    This right here. What a lot of people here either don't know or arrogantly choose to ignore is that outside the US/North America static IPs are very rare. As in, government institutions and big wig companies have them, maybe big education centers such as universities, but no one else does. Because globally there's a lack of IPs and since not everyone is online all the time when you go offline your IP will get reassigned to someone else. What's more is that often sessions are timed, ie you only have an IP for X number of hiurs then, whether you're online or not, it gets changed. Which sometimes means you have to reboot or reset your internet connection to make th web work properly for you again.
    If you simply ban an IP you will outside the US end up banning a lot of innocent people who got allocated an IP that a botter was using at the time they were banned. The botter meanwhile will have to do nothing more than reset their router which t akes abiut 3 minutes, to get a new IP and continue on their way. The people who claim IP is an "efficient tool" are woeduly ignorant pf how the internet worka outside their own littlw backyard called the Us.

    This is the best explanation. ZOS will never ban IP for this reason.
    #CAREBEARMASTERRACE
  • MajBludd
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    We need more bots, the infused jewelry trait is almost impossible to find in traders. Wtf, bots?
  • Epicasballs
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    MajBludd wrote: »
    We need more bots, the infused jewelry trait is almost impossible to find in traders. Wtf, bots?

    @MajBludd I'm sure ZoS would love for bots to purchase Summerset and complete some of it's main story to unlock the ability to farm Aubric Amber... it'd be great for sales.

  • MajBludd
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    @Epicasballs it would be. They could even up their claim to have more then 14 million unique accounts!
    But seriously, farm infused jc trait, bots. Stop wasting my time farming mud crabs.
  • loki504
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    Did i miss something? Or how does it work?
  • Alienoutlaw
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    simple way in theory to stop the node bots is to randomise the spawn times and move the node each time by a foot or two, that way the scripted runs would be useless, also could use more interaction with the node instead of one click
  • RouDeR
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    If they ban the botters by IP/Mac/ Hardware this will significantly reduce the Game sales,

    Lets assume there are 500 people who use bots across all the servers.

    Each of them will probably have like 10 accounts thats 5000 accounts, now let's assume all of these accounts are getting banned every 3 months or so and the botters have to buy new accounts (around 10$ per account) so this is 50 000$ every 3 months or 200 000$ per year, just a simple math guys ^^
  • themaddaedra
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    Well just because there are one or two higher level bots it doesn't mean they are as spread as the low level ones. I too see a LOT of low level bots in PC-EU and i'm yet to see one single high level.

    The perfect solution may never exist but not letting them farm gold mats sub 10 level would be a big improvement. Don't even get me started with the low level players, like nobody wants to say yes to bots just because one or two low levels out of thousands would feel like golding their armor.

    Also, if you are online on PC-EU you can just go check Glister Vale in Auridon, i bet my arse you'll see at least 4 bots killing wolves in there. Been like that for more than a year and i reported like a hundred of them.
    PC|EU
  • themaddaedra
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    simple way in theory to stop the node bots is to randomise the spawn times and move the node each time by a foot or two, that way the scripted runs would be useless, also could use more interaction with the node instead of one click

    This one also sounds fair.
    PC|EU
  • MLGProPlayer
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    Well just because there are one or two higher level bots it doesn't mean they are as spread as the low level ones. I too see a LOT of low level bots in PC-EU and i'm yet to see one single high level.

    The perfect solution may never exist but not letting them farm gold mats sub 10 level would be a big improvement. Don't even get me started with the low level players, like nobody wants to say yes to bots just because one or two low levels out of thousands would feel like golding their armor.

    Also, if you are online on PC-EU you can just go check Glister Vale in Auridon, i bet my arse you'll see at least 4 bots killing wolves in there. Been like that for more than a year and i reported like a hundred of them.

    The high level bots are active players who just run a script when they go to bed to make some extra gold. They're a problem too, although definitely not as big as the throwaway account bots (not many people have the balls to bot on their active accounts).
    Edited by MLGProPlayer on September 30, 2019 3:43PM
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