Bots grinding

Adzer2 · November 2020

I have submitted a few tickets about this, but there's a large contingent of bot accounts running around Na-Totambu's Landing in Alik'r, it looks like they are grinding materials to sell om

Should I just keep reporting the accounts or can something be done about it?

Adzer2 · November 2020

Another spot just North West of Ancestors Landing (Also Alik'r)

Is bot grinding like this actually acceptable? Am I wasting my time reporting the accounts?

Spawniaq · November 2020

yea! ban the accounts please

Zodiarkslayer · November 2020

How do you know they are BOTs? As in not human?

Maybe they are just students wanting to make a buck...
Or they are furnishing crafters on the hunt for more mats.

Back when Summerset event gave double mats from nodes I grinded all day and night. Made a hefty amount of money. Could aford a house afterwards...

[edited to remove problematic content]

Spawniaq · November 2020

because they have the same rota at the same time.. if you watch them for 5 mins u see they do the same thing, if you go 1 step forward and take the material before them they stuck for 2 seconds , realizing there are no materials , and starting moving again... i guess you want to be popular with nonsence comment or you own a bot

eather ways not cool ..

[edited to remove problematic content]

Zodiarkslayer · November 2020

Spawniaq wrote: »

because they have the same rota at the same time.. if you watch them for 5 mins u see they do the same thing, if you go 1 step forward and take the material before them they stuck for 2 seconds , realizing there are no materials , and starting moving again... i guess you want to be popular with nonsence comment or you own a bot eather ways not cool

Neither. I just advocate caution over shaming.
And human farming is very difficult to differentiate from bots farming.

MishMash · November 2020

Those of us that have played this game since 2014 (daily) can easily tell if its a bot. Just watch them and you will see. Example if when you see a few Sorcs with their pets all doing the exact same thing (constantly) and following the same route/pattern time after time -- its a bot!

When it comes to node bots -- just watch they don't move and as soon as a node appear they take it. They can stand there hours upon hours. If you're not sure its a bot just put a bear trap down in front of them. If they automatically keep going for the bear trap well you know its a bot. You can easily crash a bot -- Just get out your mudballs and go to town!

When some of us follow the rules, and ORGANICALLY run around farming -- we put in our time and effort to do so. Those that cheat do not deserve the rewards!

VaranisArano · November 2020

Yes, report them. I've noticed in the past that ZOS seems to delete bots in batches, like they'll wait for enough reports and then go make a big sweep of it.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

How do you know they are BOTs? As in not human?

Maybe they are just chinese students wanting to make a buck...
Or they are furnishing crafters on the hunt for more mats.

Back when Summerset event gave double mats from nodes I grinded all day and night. Made a hefty amount of money. Could aford a house afterwards...

Ways to tell bots grinding:
1. They follow a precise path without deviation, several times. Multiple right angle turns are a dead giveaway. Also multiple characters making the same right angle turn or follow the same precise path after each other
2. They don't deviate from their path, even when you've cleared material nodes in front of them, multiple times.
3. Some bots stand still over resources and pick them up when they spawn. They will also pick up the Questionable Meat Sack multiple times if placed in front of them.
4. Massed groups of them run around killing things in a tight pack with a level of coordination my PVP raid leads would kill for.
5. If nothing else, you say something about reporting bots in zone or say chat near the bot.

I also farm along repetitive routes. But as a human player personally controlling my character, butt in chair, fingers on keyboard, there are many tiny variations in how I farm a route that would suffice to show anyone watching me (or ZOS, checking a bot report) that I'm a human player.

Bots?
Not that hard to spot the non-human behaviors when you know what to look for.

Zodiarkslayer · November 2020

MishMash wrote: »

Those of us that have played this game since 2014 (daily) can easily tell if its a bot. Just watch them and you will see. Example if when you see a few Sorcs with their pets all doing the exact same thing (constantly) and following the same route/pattern time after time -- its a bot!

When it comes to node bots -- just watch they don't move and as soon as a node appear they take it. They can stand there hours upon hours. If you're not sure its a bot just put a bear trap down in front of them. If they automatically keep going for the bear trap well you know its a bot. You can easily crash a bot -- Just get out your mudballs and go to town!

When some of us follow the rules, and ORGANICALLY run around farming -- we put in our time and effort to do so. Those that cheat do not deserve the rewards!

Never seen any of that. Then again, I probably wouldn't notice anyway. I also don't play since 2014.... so.. yeah...

Adzer2 · November 2020

MishMash wrote: »

Those of us that have played this game since 2014 (daily) can easily tell if its a bot. Just watch them and you will see. Example if when you see a few Sorcs with their pets all doing the exact same thing (constantly) and following the same route/pattern time after time -- its a bot!

When it comes to node bots -- just watch they don't move and as soon as a node appear they take it. They can stand there hours upon hours. If you're not sure its a bot just put a bear trap down in front of them. If they automatically keep going for the bear trap well you know its a bot. You can easily crash a bot -- Just get out your mudballs and go to town!

When some of us follow the rules, and ORGANICALLY run around farming -- we put in our time and effort to do so. Those that cheat do not deserve the rewards!

Mudballs, got it! Im off to crash some bots then, they are very obvious

Spawniaq · November 2020

nice job! they always look the same and sorcerer of course since years ...

Adzer2 · November 2020

Seems Mud Ball Pouch (Revelry Pies too) have zero affect on them, it doesnt even register with the bot.... any chance a ZOS admin can comment on this please?

Fennwitty · November 2020

That screenshot would have gotten past the doubt

Adzer2 · November 2020

The 2nd location, North West of Ancestors Landing

Adzer2 · November 2020

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

MishMash wrote: »

Those of us that have played this game since 2014 (daily) can easily tell if its a bot. Just watch them and you will see. Example if when you see a few Sorcs with their pets all doing the exact same thing (constantly) and following the same route/pattern time after time -- its a bot!

When it comes to node bots -- just watch they don't move and as soon as a node appear they take it. They can stand there hours upon hours. If you're not sure its a bot just put a bear trap down in front of them. If they automatically keep going for the bear trap well you know its a bot. You can easily crash a bot -- Just get out your mudballs and go to town!

When some of us follow the rules, and ORGANICALLY run around farming -- we put in our time and effort to do so. Those that cheat do not deserve the rewards!

Never seen any of that. Then again, I probably wouldn't notice anyway. I also don't play since 2014.... so.. yeah...

You haven't played since 2014 but yet you have a Warden character, a class that wasn't released until 2017.....??

kip_silverwolf · November 2020

Good job on reporting them! The more players that do, the better. Btw what platform & server are you on OP, as I'll go report them as well if they're still there and you're on Xbox or PC.

Also, for those on PC who may not know, the Bot Scanner 2000 mod is an excellent tool for making bot reporting simple. It came in handy the other night to report 2 bot trains in Harridan's Lair farming plunder skulls from the main boss. 14 sorcs in all!!

https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html

Adzer2 · November 2020

kip_silverwolf wrote: »

Good job on reporting them! The more players that do, the better. Btw what platform & server are you on OP, as I'll go report them as well if they're still there and you're on Xbox or PC.

Also, for those on PC who may not know, the Bot Scanner 2000 mod is an excellent tool for making bot reporting simple. It came in handy the other night to report 2 bot trains in Harridan's Lair farming plunder skulls from the main boss. 14 sorcs in all!!

https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1818-BotScanner2000.html

PS4 EU

starkerealm · November 2020

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

And human farming is very difficult to differentiate from bots farming.

Human players are instantly distinguishable from bots.

Human players rarely run on direct vectors, with instantaneous hard angle turns. The only way you'll see that on m&kb is if the player switches their movement key without touching their mouse. On a controller, it's fundamentally impossible. You can mess with the directional thumbstick, but there's going to be a softness to the move that makes it impossible to replicate the bot's movements.

Human players rarely run with overlapped geometry. This is just a functional impossibility. If you and your friends want to hold a three legged race in ESO, it's theoretically possible, but you're going to have to coordinate just to get two characters to run in each other. Bot swarms, however, will see up to 24 bots running inside of one another on fixed movements. This is functionally impossible to engineer with live players at the control, to say nothing of hideously inefficient outside of performance art. Where as, bots farm like this. They'll run in a tight cluster, precisely replicating the same movement across all clients. Literally, humans cannot do that on a whim, and can't maintain it for hours.

kip_silverwolf · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

PS4 EU

oh bugger, the one platform I don't have ESO on!
Hopefully others will take the time to put reports in. Bots are something I really detest as I hate playing with cheaters (how I miss being able to call for a GM in game to deal with them!)

Scion_of_Yggdrasil · November 2020

I gave up. I've reported several bots before, but nothing (as far as I could tell) came of it. Until they make some actual changes, or employ moderators like a healthy MMO... ESO will always have a bot problem.

-PS4 NA

Adzer2 · November 2020

Its really disappointing that they don't take a zero tolerance to this level of cheating, no doubt the money/materials they make from the farming is being filtered into a guild somewhere, should be pretty easy to trace the actions of the bots to shutdown the cheaters

starkerealm · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

Its really disappointing that they don't take a zero tolerance to this level of cheating, no doubt the money/materials they make from the farming is being filtered into a guild somewhere, should be pretty easy to trace the actions of the bots to shutdown the cheaters

In theory, the actual botting itself is zero tolerance, unfortunately, actual enforcement is suspect at best.

We can go into a zone, and consistently see bots operating every day, all day, but when we hand it over to the moderation staff, they're like, "I didn't see nothin."

robwolf666 · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

I have submitted a few tickets about this, but there's a large contingent of bot accounts running around Na-Totambu's Landing in Alik'r, it looks like they are grinding materials to sell om

Should I just keep reporting the accounts or can something be done about it?

I've been reporting bot accounts like this for years (literally) and nothing is done about them as far I can tell.
They might disappear now and then for a week or so, but they always come back.

Starlock · November 2020

robwolf666 wrote: »

Adzer2 wrote: »

I have submitted a few tickets about this, but there's a large contingent of bot accounts running around Na-Totambu's Landing in Alik'r, it looks like they are grinding materials to sell om

Should I just keep reporting the accounts or can something be done about it?

I've been reporting bot accounts like this for years (literally) and nothing is done about them as far I can tell.
They might disappear now and then for a week or so, but they always come back.

Yup, pretty much. ZoS can't be arsed to hire a few interns to GM the servers and delete all these on sight in spite of the fact that this game doubtlessly rakes in tens of millions of dollars every year and could easily afford to do so. It's too bad, because GMs could also host on-the-fly in-game events and add a lot of really cool things to the game.

VaranisArano · November 2020

robwolf666 wrote: »

Adzer2 wrote: »

I have submitted a few tickets about this, but there's a large contingent of bot accounts running around Na-Totambu's Landing in Alik'r, it looks like they are grinding materials to sell om

Should I just keep reporting the accounts or can something be done about it?

I've been reporting bot accounts like this for years (literally) and nothing is done about them as far I can tell.
They might disappear now and then for a week or so, but they always come back.

I mean, the base game costs like $10 or something. If the botters can make back the cost and more with gold selling before they are deleted by ZOS, there's no incentive for them to stop.

Iarao · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

I have submitted a few tickets about this, but there's a large contingent of bot accounts running around Na-Totambu's Landing in Alik'r, it looks like they are grinding materials to sell om

Should I just keep reporting the accounts or can something be done about it?

take names and report them. be sure to reply to what zos sends back. i report and report.

Smitch_59 · November 2020

I see groups of bots in Alik'r often. I've never bothered reporting them. Sometimes I'll stand there with them and drop AOEs if I'm running low on mudcrab chitin.

Alchemical · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

PS4 EU

Adzer2 wrote: »

Seems Mud Ball Pouch (Revelry Pies too) have zero affect on them, it doesnt even register with the bot.... any chance a ZOS admin can comment on this please?

Not a ZOS admin, but a mostly fail proof method to 'botcheck' on PS4 is to apply some kind of movement increase/decrease effect, or some kind of push/pull/knockback. Basically anything that will force a variation in their movement. You can't always crash them like PC bots because console ones don't 'get confused' when their task fails to resolve as they expected, they will just move on to the next 'task' that's been scripted, so you need to attack their whole routine by getting them out of alignment with their targets.

starkerealm · November 2020

Adzer2 wrote: »

Seems Mud Ball Pouch (Revelry Pies too) have zero affect on them, it doesnt even register with the bot.... any chance a ZOS admin can comment on this please?

This shouldn't be much of a surprise. Mudballs force an animation on the recipient, but it has one of the lowest animation priorities. It will override idle stances, and some emotes (I think), but that's about it. Basically, it's not a friendly enabled CC, which shouldn't be much of a surprise, because even as they are, they were used extensively to troll players at dye stations back when the pouch was first added to the game. If you could actually interfere with players using mudballs, they'd be a top tier griefing tool. As is, it's just cosmetic. It might cause some confusion for the PC bot scripts, but I doubt it.

rrimöykk · November 2020

Stopped reporting any bots in PS4 after I reported them two weeks straight every single day and they still keep farming unbanned months after.

There are several zones plagued by bots yet nothing happens even though multiple reports by multiple players.

Guess it is allowed to use them.

UntilValhalla13 · November 2020

I've reported quite a few, as well, PS4/NA. There's always a "main one", who in this case, I saw later spamming zone chat, selling mats. Their names used to be gibberish. Now they've evolved into a certain naming pattern. It's usually two words separated by an underscore, with a number at the end, like "baked_potato6". (That's not an actual name, just an example.) If you click on their profile, they have no trophies, and only play on eso.

https://youtu.be/LnI_sG20qQQ