How much is ZoS getting owned... yeah.. its THIS bad..

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

I watched an ACTUAL GM show up today in a dungeon.. suddenly the 10 templars in tutorial gear named AASJDSHF spamming spears were all banned. A bunch of us cheered. FINALLY seeing some real balls out of ZoS GM's..

My wife and I, along with about 4 other people.. got our boss kill the following spawn (about 5 minutes later.)

As we turned to leave the room... 10 more templars in tutorial gear named AHDGCCSS ran in and took position next to the boss spawn.. and sure enough.. instant spear spam the second the boss spawned.

That was when my wife and I cancelled our accounts.

ZoS is getting completely owned by chinese farmer bots.. and the tiny drop in the ocean they just stopped was replaced within 5 minutes. (Bet me it was the SAME farmer who had probably another 30 templars parked outside ready to form spear spam groups.)

Absolutely pathetic.

LareliRose · April 2014

Did you report the new bots?

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

According to the one dude there.. that same bot group had been there since launch day. So that's about what? 2 week response time to exploiting/cheating? Yeah.. you'll pardon me if I didnt want to waste any more of my time when they cant be bothered to waste any of theirs.

htoncic · April 2014

You're right, the GM should have used their clairvoyant powers to ban all those future bots, too.

BTW, can I have your stuff?

Arsenic_Touch · April 2014

What's funny, every time I see a group of bots, there's someone complaining in zone and when you ask if they reported them you get "I don't know how" or "It's not worth it" or "It takes too long" and they wonder why there's nothing being done.

Slash8915 · April 2014

Atleast ZOS is starting to show initiative. Maybe they'll do it for 30 minutes this next time and get even more.

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

nope, already gave it all away. Sorry. As for "powers" .. you are ABSOLUTELY right.. just one small problem.. THEY ARE CAMPING EVERY BOSS IN EVERY DUNGEON this game has. You cannot find ONE dungeon in this game right now without 10 templar bots in tutorial gear spear spamming the boss. NOT ONE. Common friggin sense dictates that another group will IMMEDIATELY replace the first.

Now.. the ONLY logic I can possibly see to this.. is that maybe that GM moved to another instance to ban more bots. In which case.. it's still an uphill losing battle they will NEVER win.. because the core mechanics of the game have designed them to fail.

I choose not to watch them get slaughtered anymore. That is all.

Cously · April 2014

There's only sellers because there's buyers. Now, shall we say half of ESO sales are made from bots? I don't see how that would be much a problem for them...you know endure the bots this first month to show how good ESO sold in the first month...hmmm...maybe I'm just paranoid.

Daendur · April 2014

I think bots pay ZoS for every account as anyone does. So 10 ban = 10 more keys sold = more $ to ZoS and less $ to farmers... Any step is important, i think.

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

I especially love the idiotic comments made by some people (and bound to show up here as well..) "Oh i turned off zone chat, does that make me a bot?" or "So cause I camp a boss Im a bot?"

No you friggen morons, that does NOT make you a bot. Having 10 templar accounts in tutorial gear spamming spear.. THAT makes you a damn bot. It's so stupidly easy to spot it's not even funny. Level 14 Templars in Tutorial gear spamming spear on a boss.. gee.. golly.. could HE be a bot?!

knaveofengland · April 2014

know that feeling I think they are trying you can see the evidence so they are out and about, but for me lost 40 bank slots 10k gold I did get some of it back but no where to what I lost, so they even break the laws if they loose some thing they have to replace it in my case they haven't so, they do what they like so I probally will stop playing

Mailmann · April 2014

For GMs to be effective in dungeons, it's going to take a fair number of GMs at least a month (probably longer) of persistent bot banning before you see the number of bots begin to wain. It would be a big commitment by ZOS, but this is a triple 'A' title and this problem is going to require a 24 hour a day zero tolerance policy to fix it.

Calaban · April 2014

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO wrote: »

THEY ARE CAMPING EVERY BOSS IN EVERY DUNGEON this game has. You cannot find ONE dungeon in this game right now without 10 templar bots in tutorial gear spear spamming the boss. NOT ONE.

This just isn't true.

In fact, I just went through a dungeon in Stormhaven - the name escapes me at the moment - and there were NO bots and barely any players camping the boss. I killed the boss 3x, got a blue, and got out of there.

You're being slightly dramatic, imo.

Nox_Aeterna · April 2014

Why do you think the guy only spent 15 mins of his time?

The simple fact is , it would cost a LOT of man power to counter this , it is not viable.

Zen will eventually make a change that makes this less atractive , and only then this problem will be solved.

Majic · April 2014

Nice to know they do, at least, have in-game GMs.

(And no, I'm not being facetious. I honestly didn't know for sure until now, because I had never seen or heard of one despite submitting several tickets.)

Mailmann · April 2014

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

Why do you think the guy only spent 15 mins of his time?

The simple fact is , it would cost a LOT of man power to counter this , it is not viable.

Zen will eventually make a change that makes this less atractive , and only then this problem will be solved.

I don't think a large team of in-game GMs is a viable long term solution... not by a long shot. However, sometimes in order to save profits, a company needs to be willing throw some money at the problem while they come up with a more long term solution.

Slash8915 · April 2014

Calaban wrote: »

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO wrote: »

THEY ARE CAMPING EVERY BOSS IN EVERY DUNGEON this game has. You cannot find ONE dungeon in this game right now without 10 templar bots in tutorial gear spear spamming the boss. NOT ONE.

This just isn't true.

In fact, I just went through a dungeon in Stormhaven - the name escapes me at the moment - and there were NO bots and barely any players camping the boss. I killed the boss 3x, got a blue, and got out of there.

You're being slightly dramatic, imo.

Gotta agree with you. I've been through many dungeons leveling up to VR2, and I haven't seen a single bot in a dungeon. NOT ONE. Lol. I've only seen them standing at wayshrines, personally.

Hexi · April 2014

Not a single bot in veteran content, not one.

Thete · April 2014

One thing this does show is that having GMs just come in an manually ban bots it an utter waste of time; it's just putting out fires. There needs to be a way of preventing them automatically. I really don't think coming up with ways to make it not worth their while are feasible. It inevitably causes more problems with the genuine player than the bots.

pignouf · April 2014

I've made a list with alla the bots i've reported previsously.
Problem: there's some bots (same name/location) wich are still here after a week (just one or two level above).
Sadly i've come to think (it's legitimate) that all my reports are gone to trash or ignored. A friend looked over my shoulder the game (i was in a public dungeon at the boss) and said: "is this a corean game ?"...

Nox_Aeterna · April 2014

Slash8915 wrote: »

Calaban wrote: »

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO wrote: »

THEY ARE CAMPING EVERY BOSS IN EVERY DUNGEON this game has. You cannot find ONE dungeon in this game right now without 10 templar bots in tutorial gear spear spamming the boss. NOT ONE.

This just isn't true.

In fact, I just went through a dungeon in Stormhaven - the name escapes me at the moment - and there were NO bots and barely any players camping the boss. I killed the boss 3x, got a blue, and got out of there.

You're being slightly dramatic, imo.

Gotta agree with you. I've been through many dungeons leveling up to VR2, and I haven't seen a single bot in a dungeon. NOT ONE. Lol. I've only seen them standing at wayshrines, personally.

Nah , being a person with many alts , let me clarify this for you , bots dont go up to high lvl areas farming, neither do them appear in every dungeon.

Each time a new char of mine go to the low lvl dungeons in the AD faction i see so many bots , so many ...

But they only focus on dungeons where the boss spawns really fast , which is not all of them.

just stop and think how much effort would be required to lvl a bot to veteran just to have it banned , it is not worthy it. They use tons of low lvl bots , much better profit overall.

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

Thank you Nox. You understood my meaning. Seriously, like the bot farmers are going to level to max, then level VR.. just to farm what they can EASILY get with level 15 and below mass bots?

Its 415 am on the EST.. No bots eh? Lemme test this "magical" theory.

BRB.

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

Inner Sea Armature - 5 Templar Bots in tutorial gear. (Cant Screenshot due to ridiculous forum rules which prevents people showing how full of fail this bot problem is.)

Cry_Wolfe · April 2014

The only problem is that people expect bots to utterly disappear. It doesn't work that way I am afraid.

Zos will need to build a database of email accounts and email providers. They will need to be in communication with other MMO production houses, to help each other with account denial of active botter email accounts, hacked accounts that need flagging and if the botter is stupid enough, static IP's used for botting.

Stolen credit card details make account creation costs relatively trivial, Zos will need to develop relations with the major credit providers, a mutually beneficial loop no doubt.

In game you are treating the symptoms of a greater sickness, you clear the pus from the wound and destroy the accounts. The major fight is developing systems of communication with various industry bodies and players, effectively bolstering the games immune system by giving the automated account creation systems data bases from which to deny access to known fraudulent identities.

Player reports are like white blood cells, we might get overwhelmed at the start of the fight, but as the immune system evolves to combat the disease the incidence of outbreaks lowers till at some tipping point the botters have to lower their profile in order to maintain business.

Security is reactive to breaches in its firewall, and no firewall is impregnable.

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

Emberflint Mine - at LEAST 5 Templar Bots. Kinda hard to get an exact count.. they are practically standing on each other.

Now I know the reply alreay "Oh your in the first zone blah blah blah." ... so lets check the next zone over shall we?

nazgull2k1ub17_ESO · April 2014

Lady llarel's Shelter - looks like I hit the jackpot again. another group of templar bots..

I think my point is made. You found ONE dungeon without any bots in it.. congratulations.. you hit the ESO Lottery.. Enjoy.

Everyone else is in bot hell.

Dunhilda · April 2014

And more Racism.

Lenthas · April 2014

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

What's funny, every time I see a group of bots, there's someone complaining in zone and when you ask if they reported them you get "I don't know how" or "It's not worth it" or "It takes too long" and they wonder why there's nothing being done.

You do know you're paying for this do you not?

To actually get rid of the bots for A SINGLE DAY ONLY, EVERY ONE would have to report them as if they would be working 24/7 to ban bots, and not actually play the game.

Why doesn't zos simply hire 5 Gm's or so and let them move daily between these dungeons and just ban the crap out of bots, no money or what? Even f2p have gm's for god's sake...

Rantog · April 2014

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

What's funny, every time I see a group of bots, there's someone complaining in zone and when you ask if they reported them you get "I don't know how" or "It's not worth it" or "It takes too long" and they wonder why there's nothing being done.

Absolutely Nothing to do with it.
As evidenced by...

Greyhaven wrote: »

First and foremost, please know that we are doing everything we can to combat the gold spammers and bots – especially ones that “camp” dungeon bosses –
......
but we will do whatever we can to reduce their impact on the game.
,,,,,,
accounts for up to 85% of Customer Service emails/calls. Because of this huge influx of contact relating to this one issue, our CS team has been slower to react to other problems than planned – our sincere apologies if you have been held up for a long period of time waiting for CS to respond to you.

Thete · April 2014

Nox_Aeterna wrote: »

Nah , being a person with many alts , let me clarify this for you , bots dont go up to high lvl areas farming, neither do them appear in every dungeon.

Each time a new char of mine go to the low lvl dungeons in the AD faction i see so many bots , so many ...

But they only focus on dungeons where the boss spawns really fast , which is not all of them.

just stop and think how much effort would be required to lvl a bot to veteran just to have it banned , it is not worthy it. They use tons of low lvl bots , much better profit overall.

They won't level up quickly, but I assure you they are getting there. I went to the Rift public dungeons yesterday to try and farm a few glyphs (as I can't do anything else atm) and the first I went to was infested with bots (half a dozen I counted). This is for players around level 42.

edit: As an afterthought, I'm not entirely sure how characters with the name asddfg could get to level 40 without being investigated, but there you are.

Sinoby · April 2014

I agree with another poster above - until ZoS implement a proper programmatic solution to battle bots, having active GM is good. If GM's will be truly active with banning bots - it will hinder gold sellers quite zone bit. Don't forget that every banned not is another banned account. To continue bottling new accounts should be purchased.
And as to "bots are everywhere" part - just outlived starter zones and you will see next to no bots. To be fair - while you are low level - you don't need all those blues from boss, which will be replaced in 1-2 levels.