Could add a daily cap on how many non survey mats a character can harvest each day, set it high enough that a normal player would not reach the cap but low enough that someone running bots would not be able to benefit as much running them all day long.

Once you hit the cap on that character your no longer able to interact with nodes and enemies no longer drop leather mats, till the following day.

You can tell by following them around and watching the way they act. There are multiple indicators.:
The have an obscure name made of random letters. (hakfbrisndb)
They seem to know where nodes spawn before they actually appear.
They can mine the resource before it appears.
If you’re lucky and mine before them. They act all weird and have a looking at map animation that flickers on and off repeatedly before going to the next node. Which hasn’t even spawned yet.
Sometimes there are even clones of the character when they are spamming spells to kill wolves for mats and all their spells go off at exactly the same time.

Definitely still see these bots on console (PS4 NA). Usually pet sorc farming bot. Easy to spot because weird name, and they move like a synchronized swimming squad. Even a very well coordinated group of players could not move with that precision, at the same speed, and activating abilities at precisely the same time. The biggest tell is that the bot mob is typically naked(no gear). I see it more in Summerset, and Western Skyrim. I’ve seen them in Auridon as well. I don’t spend enough time in the other start zones to know how frequently they are there.

Kessra wrote: »

How do you know that these are bots and not other players farming mats?

So, how do you actually determine that these "players" are bots?

Account names are typically random number or letter strings. They wear Soul Shriven. They run in packs. They have a limited area that they farm in. Also, they tend to set up in pre quest instanced areas that most players who have done content no longer see.

_Zathras_ wrote: »

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

The starting zones a literally plagued with farm bots, ruining the farming experience of people actually playing.

Hmm, I have two thoughts on this.

Yes, there is a problem with automated bots in the zones that used to be starter zones.

Is this console - it's something I just never see on PC on that scale.

It's the top level player farmers that are the scourge, that ninja nodes, and make life difficult for new players.

I think you'll find the top level player farmers are in other better spots, and even in the starter zones are more likely to be places like the Bleakrock dolmen (because the newbies and any bots haven't done the quest), Craglorn or down various of the group dungeons where you can drop more value in furniture plans and the like than mats.

That said it wouldn't be a bad thing if the starter zones spawned 50% low level materials always or similar.

_Zathras_ wrote: »

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

The starting zones a literally plagued with farm bots, ruining the farming experience of people actually playing.

Hmm, I have two thoughts on this.

Yes, there is a problem with automated bots in the zones that used to be starter zones. I say "used to be" because those starter zones are quite slippery, and change with every new Chapter. I digress. The OLD starter zones have become a problem, but this has also been ongoing since One Tamriel launched, and you can get high density nodes with top tier harvests in a relatively small space.

There is also a problem with player farmers in those same spaces. 1000+ CP, speed maxxed mounts, and specced for speed as well as max harvests/harvest speed. They coat the landscape.

Both of those farmers compete with players who take their starting toons to the old starter zones, to begin their faction questlines. I know this because I roll new characters all the time, and always start from the beginning. So, I see genuinely new people to the game, who only have the base level of game and not the Chapters, trying to harvest and they are competing against both those groups. It isn't a fair playing ground when you simply cannot compete with a swarm of max specced player farmers who speed ahead of you at a pace you will never match, to grab yet another node you were trying to reach.

Bots are predictable. Player farmers in starter zones are actively malicious, not caring one bit for the newbie trying to harvest.

Take Khenarthi's Roost for example. Go there in Prime Time and take a wander. Level a toon there and watch. The automated bots aren't the problem. Yes, they are there, but in limited areas. It's the top level player farmers that are the scourge, that ninja nodes, and make life difficult for new players.

Uh, for one, most brand new players aren't going to be farming for mats. For another, calling players who farm in any given spot malicious is pretty rude and, to be quite frank, sounds entitled. The game is open to everyone, regardless of their level or intent. If someone wants to farm on a starter island that isn't malicious, it's just where the person prefers to farm. But again, most new players aren't going to be farming mats, and even the ones who do, it won't take them long before they'll leave the island and go to other areas where they can farm.

Besides that, I'm willing to bet most people who farm mats go to other places; why would a bunch of people go to the same small area and have to compete with each other when there are a whole bunch of places in the game you can go? I personally haven't farmed on a starter island in years, I have a route in Craglorn that's a lot more productive. This whole thing about mat farmers being malicious and not caring honestly just kind of sounds like you have a personal issue or grudge with farmers.

bmnoble wrote: »

Could add a daily cap on how many non survey mats a character can harvest each day, set it high enough that a normal player would not reach the cap but low enough that someone running bots would not be able to benefit as much running them all day long.

Once you hit the cap on that character your no longer able to interact with nodes and enemies no longer drop leather mats, till the following day.

Eh, that could still punish players who have an efficient route, Plentiful Harvest/the CP for reducing harvest time I can never remember the name of, good speed on the character, and the time to play for hours every day, unless the cap was set to thousands and thousands. The people running the bots would quickly find out what that limit is and stop just below it, and limiting it to character per day doesn't really help too much when every account can have eight characters and three can be deleted at a time, giving 11 characters to farm up to that cap on.

Also, the base game is so cheap that it's nothing for these bot runners to make account after account after account to keep farming mats to any cap. And if you lower it too much to try and make it not worth the hassle, then it really does start running the risk of punishing actual players (and running bots is almost always going to be less hassle than legit farming mats anyway, I would assume).

They are very active on PlayStation and likely Xbox. There’s usually one master and a bunch of slave accounts that move in unison along a preset pathway doing what they need to. It’s usually a bunch of Sorcs abusing lighting form or familiars though lately they’ve been rolling with Twilights too. They get around too from starter islands to The Rift, Auridon to the Alik'r and many others.

They can impede questing at certain locations quite a bit (bears in Auridon come to mind)
https://youtu.be/1CbbxBFxrr0
5 month old clip but just as relevant today

Banning the farm bot itself isn't going to solve the problem because farm bot accounts are relatively easy to make. They need to ban the main account that is receiving all of the ill-gotten farmed goods, and THOSE accounts need to be banned. Permanently.

Elsonso wrote: »

Hmm. My assumption is that it is more complicated to ban bots on PS and XBox

Microsoft own both XBox and Zenimax. That is no longer an issue therefore.

_Zathras_ wrote: »

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

The starting zones a literally plagued with farm bots, ruining the farming experience of people actually playing.

Hmm, I have two thoughts on this.

Yes, there is a problem with automated bots in the zones that used to be starter zones. I say "used to be" because those starter zones are quite slippery, and change with every new Chapter. I digress. The OLD starter zones have become a problem, but this has also been ongoing since One Tamriel launched, and you can get high density nodes with top tier harvests in a relatively small space.

There is also a problem with player farmers in those same spaces. 1000+ CP, speed maxxed mounts, and specced for speed as well as max harvests/harvest speed. They coat the landscape.

Both of those farmers compete with players who take their starting toons to the old starter zones, to begin their faction questlines. I know this because I roll new characters all the time, and always start from the beginning. So, I see genuinely new people to the game, who only have the base level of game and not the Chapters, trying to harvest and they are competing against both those groups. It isn't a fair playing ground when you simply cannot compete with a swarm of max specced player farmers who speed ahead of you at a pace you will never match, to grab yet another node you were trying to reach.

Bots are predictable. Player farmers in starter zones are actively malicious, not caring one bit for the newbie trying to harvest.

Take Khenarthi's Roost for example. Go there in Prime Time and take a wander. Level a toon there and watch. The automated bots aren't the problem. Yes, they are there, but in limited areas. It's the top level player farmers that are the scourge, that ninja nodes, and make life difficult for new players.

I agree, and as a player currently at lvl 1995 I confess I go there on occasion to farm a few dozen mudcrabs for the alchemy chiten because the yield is higher, and your assessment is pretty good.

otoh, I try to show the newbs where the more obscure chests are and make sure they have encouragement and keys to make up for it.

On the subject of the bot farmers, I'm totally at odds with the players who like bot farmers because of lower prices.
The game is for players, not bots, and if the bots weren't vacuuming up a lot of the nodes more actual players would find encouragement to farm the nodes themselves for profit. That would benefit newbs and contribute to a robust player base more fairly than cheap goods for the high level players who don't think in terms of supporting new generations of players.

Just my humble opinion, I spent my share of time as a newb trying to work my way up just like everyone else, and I remember how frustrating it was to watch players with huge advantage harvesting nodes while I was getting my low level butt kicked fighting the mobs who were protecting the nodes or chests I had gone there to harvest.

redspecter23 wrote: »

I always liked the idea of a player sourced way to somehow drive bots off their course. Something along the lines of the questionable meat sack. Drop it near a node and perhaps the bots pick that up instead. Implement a short stutter or speed increase/decrease to mess up the pathing. I have no experience on the inner workings of the code used for botting, but for those that do, would something like this be possible? If bots could be sent off course easily by players, it could at least force botters to come back and look at their bots to make sure everything is in order.

If I am farming in the same area as bots, I will learn their path and reverse it. Snatching the nodes before they do. They end up staying true to their code and remain where the node is for the time it would take to harvest it before moving on. By then I’ve already gotten the next node, and their fruitless cycle continues. It is my solution to the scourge. Of course they are able to grab one or two that may not have adds near, but it still slows them down.