doomette wrote: »

volkeswagon wrote: »

Another idea is to change the way duals work. In order for you to turn off auto decline you must be level 50. So if you are below level 50 you must manually decline. If you Don't decline within 30 seconds it starts. That way we can kill any bot we see.

I hate bots, but hellllllll no. That would be beyond obnoxious, because there’d definitely be some trolls who’d spam duel invites to any random sub-50 who ran by.
I think barring any sort of gathering while your pet is in combat might help. That way they can’t keep running and hoovering up nodes if they aggro something.

I am already really annoyed when some mob whizzes past my pet(s) to stop me harvesting a node just as I am almost done. They then usually retreat before I can even attack them.

Bots are annoying, but that solution would also aggravate the frustration!

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

doomette wrote: »

volkeswagon wrote: »

Another idea is to change the way duals work. In order for you to turn off auto decline you must be level 50. So if you are below level 50 you must manually decline. If you Don't decline within 30 seconds it starts. That way we can kill any bot we see.

I hate bots, but hellllllll no. That would be beyond obnoxious, because there’d definitely be some trolls who’d spam duel invites to any random sub-50 who ran by.
I think barring any sort of gathering while your pet is in combat might help. That way they can’t keep running and hoovering up nodes if they aggro something.

I am already really annoyed when some mob whizzes past my pet(s) to stop me harvesting a node just as I am almost done. They then usually retreat before I can even attack them.

Bots are annoying, but that solution would also aggravate the frustration!

Honestly if your pet is in combat you shouldn't be able to pick up a node. If you don't have a pet and go into combat you have to fight said add then harvest.

We all know that if the bots were able to affect the crown store negatively we'd never see another one in the game.

I ran into the pack of Sorc and Familiar bots in Auridon earlier today, Shattered Grove where the bears and wolves are. I've started a couple of new toons, and of course it would be when I need to catch a bear for the related quest that I ran into the mass-pack bot running around.

Before I had an issue in Grahtwood during the performer's quest where you have to get mudcrab ingredients for the shalks, same exact type of bots that were killing all the mudcrabs (making it impossible to complete that quest due to the location demand).

I remember back when I first started the game, I thought it was some kind of copying skill because I didn't know all of the mechanics yet (plus people botting on Xbox is such a wild work-around I didn't even consider it). Now that I'm aware of them, trying to farm becomes a game of "find a place the bots aren't" or "cross your fingers they'll be gone when you log in".

Frustrating!

Fennwitty wrote: »

Curious, are the bots always pet sorcs?

Maybe changing overland pet behaviors would be enough to discourage lowbie node bot farmers. (EDIT: At least partly, they'll always find ways around it.) Maybe the pet stops self-defense after the player inputs no combat commands for long enough.

All of the bots that I've seen over the years have always been pet sorcs. The botters also program the characters to cast lightning form at specific intervals. The pets aren't even really needed to kill anything. Lightning form, being used by 5-10 bots, will just passively kill things.

One of the only real solutions would be to remove the ability to get gold mats from level 1 tier scraps/hides. That way, the botters would actually have to waste time leveling characters high enough to harvest.

As it stands now, the accounts are disposable, and usually just have characters that are level 5 or so. So, if they get banned, it's not like they're losing a lot of time or effort into the accounts. They'll just make more.

doomette wrote: »

volkeswagon wrote: »

Another idea is to change the way duals work. In order for you to turn off auto decline you must be level 50. So if you are below level 50 you must manually decline. If you Don't decline within 30 seconds it starts. That way we can kill any bot we see.

I hate bots, but hellllllll no. That would be beyond obnoxious, because there’d definitely be some trolls who’d spam duel invites to any random sub-50 who ran by.
I think barring any sort of gathering while your pet is in combat might help. That way they can’t keep running and hoovering up nodes if they aggro something.

I agree. I am not a bot, but I am ABSOLUTELY NOT INTERESTED in dueling someone I dont know, so I have auto decline on from the get go. When I first started at seriously newbie level 8 a person wanted to duel me, and I didnt know enough that a level 10 could have advantages coming from their other characters. They slaughtered me. Then followed me for half an hour making fun of how bad I was on area voice and chat. That kind of crap I dont need or want in my game.

DawnsLight65 wrote: »

LoLiPoPW wrote: »

So in the past week me and my boyfriend have been in betnikh every day to farm. Id say bots show up every 2 days. When they do we mass report them. I also put it in area chat to report them. It seems to be helping id say about a day after they show up they are gone after reporting them alot. So I can see that with the mass reporting method it seems to help. But they always come back a couple days later.

Definitely not a permanent solution but better than nothing. So if there is an area they are covered in mass report them. Get some people to help.


It's still very irritating that their pets allow them to keep farming while in combat. Why did even did that is beyond me. If your pet is in combat you should be too

I thought pets were Non Combat? That only familiars, associated with Wardens, and some summoned shades, etc could fight alongside you?

Sorcerer's Daedric Summoning skill line has two skills with a total of three different daedric creatures that are summoned as familiars that most of the game base refer to as "pets." They work similarly to the Warden bear as that as long as you have the skill double-barred they will persist until killed or unsummoned. Couple this with the changes ZOS made about a year ago to how pets take damage, and even a level 4 sorc's pet(s) is invincible in 99% of overland combat.

Nightblades have their temporary shades, and Necromancers have something (to be honest I have never played a necromancer so I don't know how their familiar skills work). Sorcerers have been around since base game day one and the daedric pets have been a huge part of their identity the entire time (for better or worse).

Edit to add: All the pets sold in the crown store, acquirable through crown crates or DLC packages such as cats, dogs, wolf pups, etc. are non-combat and serve virtually no purpose other than vanity - however there have been two pets added that increase all your characters' inventory by 5 slots each whether they are equipped or not. When you see someone refer to pets in a combat sense, they're most likely talking about a sorc's daedric familiars or possibly a warden's bear.

It's a seller's market.