Bot punishment suggestion for legit payers @ ZOS

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

Ok so thinking about a way to deal with bots has been getting to me. There are WAY to many at this point and it seems like Zen doesnt even have 1 clue how to deal with this annoyance.

I dont see why this couldnt be a valid solution considering that a possible law/penalty system is in the works for upcoming content.

Anyways, bots are getting to the point that myself and others are not even wanting to renew their subscription because of this reason and I think that people need some re-assurance that ZOS is really trying to deal with it.

So, what I thought was a sort of report system that when a certain number of reports is reached on that player A.K.A "sentenced to death". Their account is then "flagged" as enemy and other players can legitimately kill that bot/hacker.

That player would then have to send a request to a GM as to why they should have their "sentence" removed and explained why they were flagged in the first place and how to avoid it in the future.

Now, of course they're people who will want to abuse this. So, what ZOS can do is obviously have a certain number/threshold required before that "bot" is flagged for death. And also keep track obviously of people flagging. And if people are falsely abusing/flagging other players then they may be either suspended or banned or maybe just have their flagging privileges removed.

I can see this being a interesting way to keep the servers clean from bad players and there's even more possibilities to this that could be implemented in the future if it does work well.

Please any good ideas are welcome and if you dont think it would maybe say why.

Really hope someone does read this from ZOS and think about it.
I think players would be delighted to be able to kill their bot enemies once and for all and get rid of those scums!!!

EDIT:
IDEA #2: Another idea is maybe have it so any player can be flagged say, once a day.
So obviosuly if its a bot then they will not want to talk to a GM to remove the account wide flag.
If its a legit player then they caint be flagged anymore for that day.

IDEA #3: Players can only report the bots/cheaters only IF they are in range of player and in view. They cannot report from another zone etc....

This is also really cool idea from another user suggested.

Affrayer wrote: »

This is a repost from another thread but this thread is where it belongs:

We should make banning botters and gold farmers more interesting!
Runescape had a go- let me finish now. Hey hey, Runescape was awesome, I don't care what you say. :l
On the 26th of September 2012, Runescape released an update which included a little place called Botany Bay. http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Botany_Bay
Basically they implemented a system designed to detect accounts that were cheating/botting. Said accounts were teleported Botany Bay to 'stand trial'. Overseeing the trial was an npc named Botfinder General whom then made a speech about the accused. The fate of dirty bot was handed over to the players to decide. There were 3 options to choose from and no mercy to be had; only slaughter. Crushing, Swallowing, or Deity followed by a Permanent Ban.
Players who participated even got an emote and cosmetic rewards.

So I propose this: Every time a GM bans a bot, It's sent to a similar place where we the players get to decide one of MANY fates for the accused. This way we not only get rid of bots, but we get entertainment when quest grinding and pvp gets boring.

SafeForSure · May 2014

Kudos for thinking about a solution but this only encourages griefing.

reggielee · May 2014

yes, easy to abuse.. get your guilds to spam reports on some player you hate from pvp

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

reggielee wrote: »

yes, easy to abuse.. get your guilds to spam reports on some player you hate from pvp

If people are going to abuse then they can get banned permanently.
Or remove access to flag/report bots for death.

Braumeisterlein · May 2014

or have to pay a certain amount of gold

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

Braumeisterlein wrote: »

or have to pay a certain amount of gold

This could also be good for the bots now they have to pay to remove their death sentence

Affrayer · May 2014

This is a repost from another thread but this thread is where it belongs:

We should make banning botters and gold farmers more interesting!
Runescape had a go- let me finish now. Hey hey, Runescape was awesome, I don't care what you say. :l
On the 26th of September 2012, Runescape released an update which included a little place called Botany Bay. http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Botany_Bay
Basically they implemented a system designed to detect accounts that were cheating/botting. Said accounts were teleported Botany Bay to 'stand trial'. Overseeing the trial was an npc named Botfinder General whom then made a speech about the accused. The fate of the dirty bot was handed over to the players to decide. There were 3 options to choose from and no mercy to be had; only slaughter. Crushing, Swallowing, or Deity followed by a Permanent Ban.
Players who participated even got an emote and cosmetic rewards.

So I propose this: Every time a GM bans a bot, It's sent to a similar place where we the players get to decide one of MANY fates for the accused. This way we not only get rid of bots, but we get entertainment when quest grinding and pvp gets boring.

crislevin · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

reggielee wrote: »

yes, easy to abuse.. get your guilds to spam reports on some player you hate from pvp

If people are going to abuse then they can get banned permanently.
Or remove access to flag/report bots for death.

not until innocent players have their account deleted.

no no no, it cannot work this way. Keep thinking, however.

oxygen_boarderb16_ESO · May 2014

You'd have to visit the ruler of the faction you were reported in to make a contribution to the realm to pay off your insolence.

The more times you have to visit the higher your penance.

crislevin · May 2014

oxygen_boarderb16_ESO wrote: »

You'd have to visit the ruler of the faction you were reported in to make a contribution to the realm to pay off your insolence.

The more times you have to visit the higher your penance.

That may work, free for first 30 minutes, then 1,000 for every 30 minutes. Still a hassle though, imaging you are innocent, doing some important thing and get accused.

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

crislevin wrote: »

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

reggielee wrote: »

yes, easy to abuse.. get your guilds to spam reports on some player you hate from pvp

If people are going to abuse then they can get banned permanently.
Or remove access to flag/report bots for death.

not until innocent players have their account deleted.

no no no, it cannot work this way. Keep thinking, however.

I dont think you understand what I mean. If a player is going to abuse the system of flagging then THEY may be banned or simply just removed the feature to flagged bots. No innocent players will have their accounts deleted.

smosti · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

Ok so thinking about a way to deal with bots has been getting to me. There are WAY to many at this point and it seems like Zen doesnt even have 1 clue how to deal with this annoyance.

I dont see why this couldnt be a valid solution considering that a possible law/penalty system is in the works for upcoming content.

Anyways, bots are getting to the point that myself and others are not even wanting to renew their subscription because of this reason and I think that people need some re-assurance that ZOS is really trying to deal with it.

So, what I thought was a sort of report system that when a certain number of reports is reached on that player A.K.A "sentenced to death". Their account is then "flagged" as enemy and other players can legitimately kill that bot/hacker.

That player would then have to send a request to a GM as to why they should have their "sentence" removed and explained why they were flagged in the first place and how to avoid it in the future.

Now, of course they're people who will want to abuse this. So, what ZOS can do is obviously have a certain number/threshold required before that "bot" is flagged for death. And also keep track obviously of people flagging. And if people are falsely abusing/flagging other players then they may be either suspended or banned or maybe just have their flagging privileges removed.

I can see this being a interesting way to keep the servers clean from bad players and there's even more possibilities to this that could be implemented in the future if it does work well.

Please any good ideas are welcome and if you dont think it would maybe say why.

Really hope someone does read this from ZOS and think about it.
I think players would be delighted to be able to kill their bot enemies once and for all and get rid of those scums!!!

EDIT:
Another idea is maybe have it so any player can be flagged say, once a day.
So obviosuly if its a bot then they will not want to talk to a GM to remove the account wide flag.
If its a legit player then they caint be flagged anymore for that day.

You know what, this idea could be tweaked and turned into something epic!
Awards for hunting bots! Like the dolmen! Incooperate in game npc's and quests that encourage you to hunt and kill bots lol. Awesome! More bots please! rofl

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

I like everyone ideas so far!!!! Please keep them coming! Updated my first post with more ideas.

knaveofengland · May 2014

the way forward is report them show evidence videos screen shots , that's about all the players can do period ,so if you really want to do something them report them that is the only way, also read eso dev posts you will find they are doing something just go and look, then hopefully we get less of these posts.

I will even go a bit further on the original guild wars a good friend of mine who also worked for arena net was banned that many times 1 on 1 pvp he was that good 24 straight wins , so what happened he reported banned then they looked found no evidence then game on again.

so while ideas and suggestions are welcome some will take this to far and players might be banned , so I ask you if you see some thing wrong show the evidence report them and let eso do their job , they are they only ones who can

dennissomb16_ESO · May 2014

Fun Ideas, but a lot of work to the coding, and lets face it just to open to abuse. Nothing to the game system should be changed for botters/hacker/spammers as it usually punishes the players and not the targets (boss changes in public dungeons as an example). The only thing that should be done is tools/live GMs that target the cheaters quickly, ban the account and everything related (credit card, IP, etc) and keep doing it until the cost is greater then the reward for these parasites

Ryan_ScouseUK · May 2014

there not going to remove to many botters until were close to another sub date, they will lose to much money

crislevin · May 2014

let me just say, as a guy who chose a random name, I don't want to get caught up, let me give you guys my toons name: wmfclbd, wmfclrd, wmfclha, wmfclie.

Whatever you are suggesting, it needs to 100% safe for my name, unless you allows changing of names.

smosti · May 2014

Okay here's a method to combat falsely accused!
When bot logs in, they are faced with a captcha! simple.... bot is given 30seconds to type captch. Captcha not typed in...account banned. Boom lol.
If it is an actual player. They type in captcha and play

lol

What if there is issues on players end with IP deciding to cut out at the wrong time? Simple. 30sedonds in game time. Same as when you eat food or drink. 1hr. you play 15mins...log in 24hours later and you still have 45mins

lol

crislevin · May 2014

smosti wrote: »

Okay here's a method to combat falsely accused!
When bot logs in, they are faced with a captcha! simple.... bot is given 30seconds to type captch. Captcha not typed in...account banned. Boom lol.
If it is an actual player. They type in captcha and play lol

What if there is issues on players end with IP deciding to cut out at the wrong time? Simple. 30sedonds in game time. Same as when you eat food or drink. 1hr. you play 15mins...log in 24hours later and you still have 45mins lol

thats an idea I can get behind.

KerinKor · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

I think that people need some re-assurance that ZOS is really trying to deal with it.

I asked ZOS point blank are they banning buyers . they refused to answer, their silence is all the answer we need .. they're not serious about eradicating botting as they refuse to take action against the root cause of RMT, the gold BUYERS.

GreySix · May 2014

Affrayer wrote: »

This is a repost from another thread but this thread is where it belongs:

We should make banning botters and gold farmers more interesting!
Runescape had a go- let me finish now. Hey hey, Runescape was awesome, I don't care what you say. :l

Found a video depicting the trial and condemnation.

Squishy · May 2014

I already created a poll on a similar idea here: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/94249/would-a-pvp-invite-work-against-bots-launch-an-invite-no-reply-in-15-mins-flag-is-on

Feel free to add your vote

Lord_Onyx · May 2014

crislevin wrote: »

let me just say, as a guy who chose a random name, I don't want to get caught up, let me give you guys my toons name: wmfclbd, wmfclrd, wmfclha, wmfclie.

Whatever you are suggesting, it needs to 100% safe for my name, unless you allows changing of names.

Heres how you WOULDNT get caught up because if you would of read you would only be "flagged" once a day and if players are flagging/reporting flasely then they may face being banned themselves or maybe just not able to flag bots anymore.
Also, dont act like a bot and it wouldnt get you caught up.
Also, people would only be able to flag you if they are near you, so its not just "hey lets get the whole guild to report" unless they all decided to travel to you. Innocent players would never be harmed because they would "request" to be unflagged and the GM would see they are innocent.

Heres the scenario I see.
Players is questing minding his own buisness, see a possible or guaranteed knows its a bot. Ok so legit player reports/flags for bot/cheating. The bot still isnt flagged for death because 1 report wont be enough. Say 10 more players run past this bot and do the same thing. Finally the bot gets flagged for death and can be killed by other players. Say its an innocent player, innocent player requests a GM to unflag him and the GM TELLS him why he was flagged, now it is determined to the GM what the consequence is whether he is innocent or not it is ALWAYS up to the GM was actions will be taken.

Affrayer · May 2014

GreySix wrote: »

Affrayer wrote: »

This is a repost from another thread but this thread is where it belongs:

We should make banning botters and gold farmers more interesting!
Runescape had a go- let me finish now. Hey hey, Runescape was awesome, I don't care what you say. :l

Found a video depicting the trial and condemnation.

It's a bit meh, but you get the idea.

Maotti · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

Ok so thinking about a way to deal with bots has been getting to me. There are WAY to many at this point and it seems like Zen doesnt even have 1 clue how to deal with this annoyance.

I dont see why this couldnt be a valid solution considering that a possible law/penalty system is in the works for upcoming content.

Anyways, bots are getting to the point that myself and others are not even wanting to renew their subscription because of this reason and I think that people need some re-assurance that ZOS is really trying to deal with it.

So, what I thought was a sort of report system that when a certain number of reports is reached on that player A.K.A "sentenced to death". Their account is then "flagged" as enemy and other players can legitimately kill that bot/hacker.

That player would then have to send a request to a GM as to why they should have their "sentence" removed and explained why they were flagged in the first place and how to avoid it in the future.

Now, of course they're people who will want to abuse this. So, what ZOS can do is obviously have a certain number/threshold required before that "bot" is flagged for death. And also keep track obviously of people flagging. And if people are falsely abusing/flagging other players then they may be either suspended or banned or maybe just have their flagging privileges removed.

I can see this being a interesting way to keep the servers clean from bad players and there's even more possibilities to this that could be implemented in the future if it does work well.

Please any good ideas are welcome and if you dont think it would maybe say why.

Really hope someone does read this from ZOS and think about it.
I think players would be delighted to be able to kill their bot enemies once and for all and get rid of those scums!!!

EDIT:
IDEA #2: Another idea is maybe have it so any player can be flagged say, once a day.
So obviosuly if its a bot then they will not want to talk to a GM to remove the account wide flag.
If its a legit player then they caint be flagged anymore for that day.

IDEA #3: Players can only report the bots/cheaters only IF they are in range of player and in view. They cannot report from another zone etc....

This is also really cool idea from another user suggested.

Affrayer wrote: »

This is a repost from another thread but this thread is where it belongs:

We should make banning botters and gold farmers more interesting!
Runescape had a go- let me finish now. Hey hey, Runescape was awesome, I don't care what you say. :l
On the 26th of September 2012, Runescape released an update which included a little place called Botany Bay. http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Botany_Bay
Basically they implemented a system designed to detect accounts that were cheating/botting. Said accounts were teleported Botany Bay to 'stand trial'. Overseeing the trial was an npc named Botfinder General whom then made a speech about the accused. The fate of dirty bot was handed over to the players to decide. There were 3 options to choose from and no mercy to be had; only slaughter. Crushing, Swallowing, or Deity followed by a Permanent Ban.
Players who participated even got an emote and cosmetic rewards.

So I propose this: Every time a GM bans a bot, It's sent to a similar place where we the players get to decide one of MANY fates for the accused. This way we not only get rid of bots, but we get entertainment when quest grinding and pvp gets boring.

I know who the perfect sentencer would be! The female Khajiit from Rawl'ka!

AlexDougherty · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

reggielee wrote: »

yes, easy to abuse.. get your guilds to spam reports on some player you hate from pvp

If people are going to abuse then they can get banned permanently.
Or remove access to flag/report bots for death.

Except you have to prove they deliberately abused the function, and all they will say is "We honestly though he was a bot".

It's been suggested before, and the problem is it's too easy for it to turn into abuse, and near impossible to prevent it. (we all know people who would abuse it, and would probably rope others into abusing it)

Soloeus · May 2014

All the botters would mass report all non botters, u want that?

crislevin · May 2014

Lord_Onyx wrote: »

Also, dont act like a bot and it wouldnt get you caught up.

Heres the scenario I see.
Players is questing minding his own buisness, see a possible or guaranteed knows its a bot. Ok so legit player reports/flags for bot/cheating. The bot still isnt flagged for death because 1 report wont be enough. Say 10 more players run past this bot and do the same thing.

mmm, not sure if its sufficient, you know there are people going around collecting crafting materials, right? I run around Betnik and Storm Haven collecting jute, iron, high iron, etc. There is one time I run around the same place to get 400 iron ores to up my crafting skill, it took ~2 hrs.

Legit ore farming should not be a crime. and "bot acting" is such a vaguely defined term, I am afraid it will simply be misused.

GreySix · May 2014

crislevin wrote: »

mmm, not sure if its sufficient, you know there are people going around collecting crafting materials, right? I run around Betnik and Storm Haven collecting jute, iron, high iron, etc. There is one time I run around the same place to get 400 iron ores to up my crafting skill, it took ~2 hrs.

Legit ore farming should not be a crime. and "bot acting" is such a vaguely defined term, I am afraid it will simply be misused.

If you're doing so in prison garb, at Level 3, with a bunch of other d;lkfjdskoafjoiewa named characters ... I'll probably think you're a bot.

ViciousMink · May 2014

Affrayer wrote: »

So I propose this: Every time a GM bans a bot, It's sent to a similar place where we the players get to decide one of MANY fates for the accused. This way we not only get rid of bots, but we get entertainment when quest grinding and pvp gets boring.

This could be cool. Make them go to one of the other, less interesting planes of Oblivion and let them petition a GM to be let out -- first come first served for who submits a ticket, since most of the bots will just sit there wondering where their boss is and won't submit tickets. I propose the Deadlands of Mehrunes Dagon, or the Quagmire of Vaermina

GreySix · May 2014

Santa says, every time a bot is banned, somewhere a toilet flushes.