Coldharbour Bot Train

Osodvus · May 2014

Hollow City, Coldharbour has a major ant problem, in the form of a bot train. They spawn at the HC wayshrine, run to The Groundskeeper npc and then vanish after a bit. There's a constant stream of them and there are literally hundreds of them.

I don't know if this is related, but in the area they run through, all of the alchemy mats seem to disappear as soon as they appear. I've watched time and time again where a node spawns and then disappears after about 5 seconds or so with nobody around it. I've just witnessed it three times as I wrote this post.

I just read in chat where it's believed they run a quest for the gold, mail it off then reroll - rinse & repeat.

Crassius · May 2014

Yep, ZOS knows. Numerous reports. They don't care.

GossiTheDog · May 2014

It's been like this for many weeks. Search coldhabour bots.

DanteYoda · May 2014

Free to play here we come..

XanadoX · May 2014

I have arrived to Coldhabour and I have seen the same as OP.

If the economy happens to have any importance, it's already broken.

GossiTheDog · May 2014

In fairness, by using the Guild Store system it effectively means there isn't a global economy for vast majority of players, just localised guild ones - this makes the bots not matter so much.

Arwyn · May 2014

Just seen this for the first time, annoying thing was a GM was reported in game at the time, saw one batch of them die then that was it the train continued. I guess his 15 minutes were up

ZoS you could eliminate a ton of logins but watching this sort of train...

GossiTheDog · May 2014

The fix is to lock Coldhabour teleports to level 30. They're teleporting to each other to get there at level 3. Since most players haven't reached Coldhabour yet, they don't get reported nearly as much, so don't get banned. GM's go in and lock the characters periodically, but the problem is hundreds more teleport in the minute they leave.

Hozec · May 2014

OP: thanks for reporting it! All reports (without the crying and saying they aint doing anything) is helpful for them.

Crassius wrote: »

Yep, ZOS knows. Numerous reports. They don't care.

They are working on it. How many times do they need to say this?

michaelpatrickjonesnub18_ESO · May 2014

XanadoX wrote: »

If the economy happens to have any importance, it's already broken.

What economy.

I'm surprised Tamriel isn't full of beggars and slums.

Coldharbour was such a turn-off. If any new player got the chance to experience what's going on out there, they would be disgusted.

thilog · May 2014

Newplayers don't get to coldharbour for 40 odd levels. As for the "they then disappeared" likely they are phasing out if you've done a few quests, your version of coldharbour will be different. This is a good thing, since it means you will probably only see the bot train once.. then just use the shrine inside the city.

Might be nice to add some quick spawning aoe mobs to the route tho.

Harbingers · May 2014

thilog wrote: »

Newplayers don't get to coldharbour for 40 odd levels. As for the "they then disappeared" likely they are phasing out if you've done a few quests, your version of coldharbour will be different. This is a good thing, since it means you will probably only see the bot train once.. then just use the shrine inside the city.

Might be nice to add some quick spawning aoe mobs to the route tho.

I'd be love to be the GM that got to sit their and plink each one. Then again these people are buying accounts and subs like crazy....

alive741 · May 2014

I saw one of these trains in cold harbor yesterday...all level 3 one after another kept coming out of the way shrine, there had to be 100 and still coming..no idea what they were doing. I'd report them, but the last time I reported a huge bot train Zenimax CS told me not to spam reports...perhaps I got one of the same bots twice..? But since I got yelled at for reporting a large train they now get one ticket...

GreySix · May 2014

Harbingers wrote: »

I'd be love to be the GM that got to sit their and plink each one. Then again these people are stealing accounts and subs like crazy....

Fixed for accuracy.

Nitratas · May 2014

Zenimax needs to change something HUGE.

As you can see the RMT market is flowing no matter what. If there is such enourmous supply, it means the demand is there too.
No matter what they try to do. Their small efforts won't cut it, this is just too big for them to come here, ban some of the bots while 10 minutes later more of them come. Some dungeon loot drop changes won't help either. They will just find another way to abuse it the game and farm the money.

Unless they change some of the core mechanics or find a quick way to track botting this will see no end, i can tell you that.

Crassius · May 2014

Hozec wrote: »

OP: thanks for reporting it! All reports (without the crying and saying they aint doing anything) is helpful for them.

Crassius wrote: »

Yep, ZOS knows. Numerous reports. They don't care.

They are working on it. How many times do they need to say this?

Really? That's your argument? If they were serious about working on it then there would be zero - I MEAN ZERO - bots in this game. You would shout for a GM and BOOM! History.

Tell me, how hard would it be AFTER THREE WEEKS to acknowledge this train of bots in Coldharbour, to post a GM there for day and nuke thousands of characters and associated accounts?

Your argument is full of fluff and bluster.

Oh, I'm sure they are 'working on it' in the same way I'm working on being the leading man in the biggest grossing movie of all time while sitting on my fat ass in this chair... Point is, whatever they are working on - isn't.

Si_O_Si · May 2014

The Library of Dusk in Coldharbour is another spot, a continuous stream of bots just sliding up through the ground, clicking a quest object, then sliding away through the air. Remove pure non-combat quests or make them lvl limited. (All these bots were lvl 2-3, non-veteran.)

spinedoc · May 2014

What quest does a level 2 toon have in coldharbour? Are they just botted to collect the quest reward, how can you automate that?

born2beagator · May 2014

Its completely out of control. I don't even want to log into coldharbour right now because its just downright depressing watching a CONSTANT stream of level 3 bots go off to loot all the mats in coldharbour. Zenimax....simple fix. Lock coldharbour to level 40 characters. Boom. no more level 3 bots and the spammers would have to get their bots all the way through the game without getting banned instead of just porting to an on level character.