How bad is the botting?

Gremlis · May 2014

Late last week I decided to start a new toon. As I already have a vet it gave me a chance to see auridon from a new perspective. What I found is a little disturbing to any one planning on playing this game any longer than the first 30 days.

Anywhere there is a fast reliable spawn there were bots.
I spotted a bot with the typical asdffwhateverdafuk name in full clipping mode with a speed hack!
I found a bot force spawning a wood node and harvesting it endlessly. Whats to keep them from doing it to chests, or rune nodes?

I am interested in hearing from some of you about your bot encounters. I want to know if this game is going to turn out like far cry 3. I didn't start this thread to complain about it. Every one does that. I want to see how bad it is and offer help.
I offer 2 hours of my time per day to help combat the bots and hackers. Put me in front of a screen and I will ban every single hacker, botter and spammer I come across. It's OK if you give them their account back, just make it take a month or longer to "arrange the paperwork". All bans should be accompanied by a screen shot to prove the infractions. Maybe change the ULA to include temporary ban agreements on proven infractions. If there are to many bots for them to handle then maybe they can use us as force multipliers. Beware botters, if they do use me in that capacity I will have utterly no mercy on you guys what so ever!

Good hunting all,
Renny

Loxy37 · May 2014

Well I've seen them in chain gangs, under the world with just their heads stuck out. Seen them in coldharbour at level 3 and many more.

They couldn't do it with chests as human interaction is needed. Best thing ZOS could do regards the node spawn is what another user suggested and I've added some whistles. Have you ever played STO where you have to mine dilithium? Well its a mini game that need human interaction. You have to move what's meant to be a drill bit and line up witj some things. This would be tedious on every node in ESO but if they made it random and just simple move cursor to point A type thing or even it said press the Yellow circles, there's a circle, square, triangle showing on screen, this would make it neigh on impossible for a simple hack program to solve even though very simple for the end user. Bot node farms would be a thing of the past!

Khandi · May 2014

I would volunteer 2-3 hours a night 3-4 days a week to bot banning for free.

TheBull · May 2014

I play in Cyrodiil most of my time. I have never seen a bot in ESO.

Loxy37 · May 2014

TheBull wrote: »

I play in Cyrodiil most of my time. I have never seen a bot in ESO.

Now that would be fun if they were in PvP

delphwind_ESO · May 2014

I have several characters in their 20s to 30s as I make a new toon to play with friends and family as they trickle in. I have only seen one bot, which may have just been a multi-boxer. It was 2 people with very similar names (i.e. Gana and Ganna) they looked to be on follow and would both use the same skill rapidly to kill mobs in a quest area. They were there for quite a while, but the spawn rates were so high I hardly noticed them.

This game is extremely tame when it comes to bots. I understand people have seen some very weird hacks going on, but ZOS seems to be actively banning these accounts in waves. You can not expect immediate action as what you are seeing on your screen is a small fraction of the total server. Just report them, and know that they will be banned in time.

One more thing, I have seen several people offer their time to help ban these bots. Please understand that there is no way in hell that a developer in their right minds would give the ability to ban to a single player, not matter how trustworthy they might seem. This would be a recipe for disaster.

rawne1980b16_ESO · May 2014

Yeah, give players the power to ban ..... what could possibly go wrong.

axiod · May 2014

Botting in starter zones is pretty ridiculous and in coldharbour.

Giving players the power to ban is probably the most idiotic idea I've read on the forums, sorry.

Audigy · May 2014

On the EU server I see them not that often. In the first week there were many, especially in dungeons but since then?

I really notice that they fight them, its just the occasional gold seller mail once in a while.

If I compare the Bots at ESO to WoW then this is a huge difference. At wow every BG is full of them, every harvesting zone is. But Blizzard tends to not care much, its the same story as with D2

One more thing, I have seen several people offer their time to help ban these bots. Please understand that there is no way in hell that a developer in their right minds would give the ability to ban to a single player, not matter how trustworthy they might seem. This would be a recipe for disaster.

It is very difficult for a player to ban someone, I am sure we all had the desire once in a while to just ban some other person at the forum

its about being fair and without pre justice.

However, they could open up a player help center where carefully selected players can become a helping hand. Those would be able to select players at the game world if they find them suspicious. A GM however would be the only one then who could ban.

LOL works like that with the Tribunal, I assisted there for a few years but it didn't really improve the game sadly. But LOL is F2P so its a different environment anyways. At ESO you need a key and a sub to play, which might help in the long run if people are removed for botting or cheating.

Gremlis · May 2014

I wont mention names or games but I have seen the games we play hire quite a few of my friends in the past for just such purposes. Once they realized they were overwhelmed they came to the people they knew they could trust to get the job done.

denicolad16_ESO · May 2014

The amount of bots in the starter areas are far worse than the higher level zones. We just have to put up with it and quit complaining. It is never going to change. Exact words from a GM were, "GM's can not ban they can only log those characters out. Only admins can ban and currently Zenimax only has 2 Admin's". So for banning the bots its a rough battle for them. Also, if they are botting don't people think they have fake accounts? We have to live with it.

axiod · May 2014

Gremlis wrote: »

I wont mention names or games but I have seen the games we play hire quite a few of my friends in the past for just such purposes. Once they realized they were overwhelmed they came to the people they knew they could trust to get the job done.

Once they are hired, they are more than a mere player.. keep that in mind.

yenkin2001b14_ESO · May 2014

Don't see bot's in dungeons any more, it seems you only get loot from big boss once, and then afterwards just money. Which kinda sucks as it was nice to do a little farming to get the blue drop. But, I can live with that, as blues drop pretty frequently off random mobs.

Gremlis · May 2014

Once they are hired, they are more than a mere player.. keep that in mind.[/quote]

One went on to become a game designer, again, I wont say which.

rawne1980b16_ESO · May 2014

Gremlis wrote: »

One went on to become a game designer, again, I wont say which.

Day One: Garry's Incident.