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Why there is so many bots ?!?!?!
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Merlin13KAGL✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭There are a few opportunities here...
First, add a button to tag someone as a potential bot (it's fairly apparent when you see one, and this would not be intended to burn real players without appropriate repercussions). Once 'tagged,' location and name could be registered on the server, a GM could be notified, so they don't have to 24/7 monitor, and act accordingly. Lock the bank, lock the character - heck, teleport them to an isolated area and require them to interact with an NPC to confirm they are real...
Other options include selective world PvP...give real players an option to prove they are real...a spell effect that requires a random location 'cure.' If not done correctly, open it up and we'll happily police it ourselves (no gold or XP required) - heck make an Achievement out of it...
Game codes are linked to ESO accounts and come at a cost of $60 or so each...Ban on the spot without some kind of response to ZoS within a very short period of time...If they're not earning more than $60 per bot, ZoS is making $60 and the bots are losing it...(Pay your ZoS patrol $5 per bot they find and correctly eliminate and I bet you'll have applications pour in.)
I realize there will be some incorrect tagging, but if addressed almost immediately, I think it would be readily apparent who's real and who's automated...
I know personally, if I get booted and am not back in within about 5 minutes (logged out, or whatever), I'm probably headed towards Customer Support to see what's up...a bot won't do this.
There is an expected Code of Conduct...doesn't mean you can't farm to a reasonable extent, but when it takes away from other players (realistically), whether automated or not, it needs to be dealt with.
How hard would it be to check and see if you've killed a certain creature X times in a certain timeframe? Problem solved...
I and my group would happily take out a few each instance for a Bot-Killer Achievement and to make the game better...it's one step beyond the simple 'report' option now.
A quick, down and dirty, 'Bot Spotted' button would increase reporting of this kind of thing without taking away too much from our personal gameplay.Just because you don't like the way something is doesn't necessarily make it wrong...
Earn it.
IRL'ing for a while for assorted reasons, in forum, and in game.I am neither warm, nor fuzzy...
Probably has checkbox on Customer Service profile that say High Aggro, 99% immunity to BS2 -
Eris✭✭✭✭@Merlin13KAGL Zenimax doesn't make anything off the gold sellers and bots. $0. They use stolen credit cards and hacked accounts to do that sort of thing. In fact they probably lose money with every bot account because of the accounting that has to take place when the credit card company files their daily give us our money back paperwork.Side effects of reading messages on forums can cause nausea, head aches, spontaneous fits of rage, urination due to intense laughter, and sometimes the death of your monitor or other object in throwing range. If you find that you are reading forums more than 24 hours a day, please consult your nearest temporal physicist.0 -
Marricus✭Right now they could have hundreds of GMs on-line at a time, but the GM time is being taken up reading through 500 petitions on the same subject because people think that it is valuable or helpful that they submit 10 petitions on the same subject. The GM has to spend time reading what has been written, figuring out the solution, only to find out that another GM has already handled it because this is just a 5th iteration of the same petition sent over and over again every minute.
Even if there are full-time GMs banning the bots, there is still a lot of work that goes into the banning. Yes, they can nuke a person for botting, but then they likely have to fill out an incident report as to why that person was banned. It's not like they ban you and move on to the next banning, they have to provide a reason why, they might have to provide what they did to verify it was a bot, and they likely have to do this for every single person they ban.
Why? Because when someone sends a reinstate petition, the CS reps have to be able to look up why the ban was handed out, who did it, what they did to determine the person was worthy of the ban, etc. Without that sort of record keeping, there would be little the CS rep could do.
Sorry but this is just plain wrong. No GM is going to read 500 submits regarding bots. They must know that the problem is now huge and irritating the player base. It is affecting how we can play the PVE content and progress. All they have to do is send around an agent to the known hangouts - all the solo dungeons would be a good start.
1. PM the Templar Bot in starting gear, "You are suspected of botting on this character - If you do not respond in 2 minutes your account will be terminated"
2. Screenshot
3. Ban Account
I bet you could ban 100 accounts in a morning just patrolling the solo dungeons.
You have the screenshot for CS if needed later. This is exactly what other MMO's did in the past - DAOC for one.
Trying to get soul crystals is becoming more difficult due to bots camping every solo dungeon. ZOS please do something about this quickly. I still see the same bots I reported weeks ago in starting zones now in Cold Harbour.
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Dolnor✭✭✭There are more videos of Bot Hive spawn points on YouTube. I am sure Zenimax appreciates all these videos and are trying to somehow program ways to make these disappear or harder to duplicate.
My new self-imposed quest: To visit all the areas and search out these Bot Hive spots. To take 30 second videos of each with the map location included and post them to YouTube. Then bug report each one with each YouTube link included in the report. Need proof other than just a screenshot of the Map location.
TQQdles™0 -
Chargul✭✭✭It will be interesting to see what happens to the bot armies in 5 days. Hacked accounts aside, the free play window for them will be done. Bots will still be around, it's too easy for them right now, but will it be as many if the majority were simply using the 30 day pass. An exodus in 5 days shall tell, whether it's bots or real gamers. Ride the wave.LLTS - In Friendship We Conquer0 -
Genomic✭✭✭✭✭I also have seen forums dedicated to making 'pathing cheats' for any player to use, whereby the toon will react to known node/mob activation sites with scripted actions like harvesting, spamming hits etc. so we are now seeing real players using these bots for personal gain.
Yeah, I've suspected for a while it's not just gold sellers who are running these bots. Not good.
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Qumulous✭✭✭These bot programs are being run in the dungeons in the VR2 rank. I haven't seen to many in VR3. But they are almost at the high end of the game. I've reported 3-4 players and took video of the group.
1. Unresponsive players to tells is the first indicator that they are bots.
2. Players who return to the same spot time after time is another indicator.
3. The spamming of the same rotation or even the same ability is another indicator.
4. If they attack the mob before you can even see it another indicator.
They need to ban these people. I understand that they are letting them exist for a time to do the tracking of all the gold and figure out who and when to ban. But i will not continue to subscribe to a game where i have to compete with hackers to finish quests, and gathering materials. Just the other day i was in a zone area where the mobs were 10-12 and here is a bot farming a node. A level 3 in an area he should have been, so i pulled a mob that cast AOE and killed him. And here comes the guy running back to the node. Then i decided to run around and check it out, there had to be 20-30 low level toons standing on nodes.
It's way out of control, protect the integrity of the game for your subscribers or soon you'll find us unsubscribed. I for one, will boycott a company for lack luster protection of games integrity, bad customer service, and massive people selling currency for real life money.
I like what I've seen over the last weekend. But at this point I am giving you another month, if there is not big amount of changes to spammers, Bots, hacks, you will lose a lot of subscribers. Some for life.0 -
phairdon✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Bots galore.
My contribution. One of three groups running a circle on the Stonefalls map farming Dreugh.
http://youtu.be/cEuXVPgZZ28
Your immersion is breaking my entitlement. Buff Sorc's. Darkshroud the cremator Death by furRubeus BlackFluffy knight BladesThe Fat PantherPsijic Fungal SausageFlesheater the VileCaspian Rafferty FernsbyArchfiend Warlock PiersThe Black BishopEvil Wizard Lizard (EU)Neberra Vestige Fajeon (EU)Salanis Deathstick (EU)Blood Mage Alchemist (EU)0 -
WitchAngel✭✭✭
Talking about gold buyers, only serves to distract, relieving pressure from Zenimax. They are the responsible party here, making all this possible. I don't give a flying **** how normal bots are in other games. If you think about it, it's completely irrelevant.tjockis1981 wrote: »... because there are so many GOLDBUYERS! Cause & Effect... Simple logic...0 -
Vhalkyrie✭✭✭The bots using the speed/teleport hacks are doing it out in the open because they are so emboldened that nothing will be done about it. It will only get worse.0 -
Chaice✭I pull AOE mobs to them and stand in the middle sipping potions. I especially love the resource bots... they go down quick.0
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GreySix✭✭✭✭✭
✭Kyotee0071 wrote: »One video example:
On AD side last night there was a train of about 10 bots doing the circle in the starting zone farming nodes and killing mobs. It's getting worse, not better.
So that's what those were. Noticed a bunch of players all clumped together like that, just killing anything that spawned, and had my suspicions.Crotchety Old Man Guild
"Hey you, get off my lawn!"0 -
Genomic✭✭✭✭✭I looked up "ESO bots" on YouTube and the highest viewed videos are by the guy selling the bot programs. Sheesh.
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Templar_ESO✭✭I will pay next month and if situation dont change two months after official launch then something is really fishy out there and I will be forced to cancel sub. It will be futile to waste money on overrated broken product.
Sadly, I must say the same thing. I'm a huge ESO/TES fan and really love the style of the game. However you look at how many of these bots there are. I ignore one and three more are there to take up the slack. I wonder what's going on and how these bots are getting through and how they are able to spend so much money. I mean seriously, the untold amount of money they must spend on a daily basis just to replace "banned" accounts if they are in fact being banned must be out of this world. Think, even if it was 10 accounts a day banned, that would be $600 in total a day. I wonder, honestly, if it's happening.
I love this game and I know the hard work ZOS has been going through, I ask though, are these accounts really being banned?
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skarvika✭✭✭✭They've made farming boss mobs more tedious than it needs to be. Players who are actually willing to put the time in to legitimately grind for gold / gear should be able to do so without having to worry about the 4-5 bots.
I've got no doubt they're all using the same program; maybe if the devs could find out what it is that makes the bots tick, they could block whatever program or code or whatever is being used.QQing is a full time job0 -
Savinder✭✭✭
Bots have been farming resource nodes since the game launched. Most of them teleport under the ground and as such are pretty hard to notice.When they start to gain minerals or other resources i will be forced to cancel subscription....
Thankfully the bots now running above-ground appear to be unable to deal with such obstacles as mobs attacking them with ranged attacks from outside their usual path:
the character pictured on the left getting hit in the face by a jet of flame from the Imp to the right is a bot that kept spamming its light attack and aedric spear in the direction of the threat.
It and many other bots died repeatedly to imps that they were unable to attack since they were not smart enough to actually close the gap before they started swinging and spamming their skills.Var var var0 -
phairdon✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Reenlister wrote: »Roaming everywhere indeed. I laugh at people who say they never see a bot. You have to be kidding or buying or running them. Yeah, that will upset some people for me to say, but you cant go anywhere without finding bots now. I have yet to enter a boss area that is not full of bots now. Its the worse I have ever seen in the online world of gaming.
On a positive note, I actually got a return call about the issue today. I had written a nice, actually nice letter about two unbelievable run ins with bots, and apparently it was good enough to justify a call back. Of course I didn't get any info on the fix, or plans, but it was nice to hear a human tell me they are aware of the overall displeasure and loss of the support of the community over the bot plague. Which it is, a true plague.
Hopefully, they will work on this, as stated, and though it wont go away completely, maybe we can see some let up in the situation.
Did not notice any with while on the Aldmeri maps. Was not until I created characters for Daggerfall & Ebonheart that i started encountering bots (25th April or thereabout). Numbers have grown exponentially over the last week or so.Your immersion is breaking my entitlement. Buff Sorc's. Darkshroud the cremator Death by furRubeus BlackFluffy knight BladesThe Fat PantherPsijic Fungal SausageFlesheater the VileCaspian Rafferty FernsbyArchfiend Warlock PiersThe Black BishopEvil Wizard Lizard (EU)Neberra Vestige Fajeon (EU)Salanis Deathstick (EU)Blood Mage Alchemist (EU)0 -
I have noticed a change, they are doing less Dungons and More of quest lines, get way more gold that way rinse and repeating quests, via character creation/deletion, heck just doing low level zone all the quest will get you 10k gold easy x that by god knows how many bots. is way more money than boss farming.0 -
doggie✭✭✭The way to get rid of this problem is not just ingame, ofcourse the speedhacks and such must be removed, but they need to find out how these guys get free accounts. I'm guessing CC fraud, and then they need to check the identity better.
I remember in Funcom games they used to call some players to check their ID, sometimes requiring to scan their id card and send to them before accepting the payment.
Here in Norway you need a extra keycode to get your payment accepted which is a extra layer of protection and simply having the card details is not enough.
In cases where they don't have a third verification method they need to check them better. Call the bank, call the owener etc.
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Daknar✭One fix they are implementing is this:
Adjusted the time after you loot a delve or overworld boss before you are eligible to receive loot from these types of bosses again.
This should remove some bots from boss area's, but this will also eliminate anyone else thinking "what a great way to get 2 or 3 soul gems since I'm right here..."0 -
Crassius✭✭✭This should remove some bots from boss area's, but this will also eliminate anyone else thinking "what a great way to get 2 or 3 FREE soul gems since I'm right here..."
Emphasis mine.
You can buy the soul gems from vendors. Not trying to be snarky, just accurate.Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll...
Everything I say is just my opinion. Like it or not - that's all it is.0 -
quilkhak✭I must admit that since I wrote this topic i see a lot less bots than before, has anything changed?
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