Have the bots won?

RedTalon · May 2014

Who are bots?

magickats242cub18_ESO · May 2014

No

No, the bots have not won, nor have the gold spammers, because I have no desire to utilize their services.

People who use these sites to purchase gold or in game items are the ones who are keeping the bots running.

Bhakura · May 2014

Yes

magickats242cub18_ESO wrote: »

No, the bots have not won, nor have the gold spammers, because I have no desire to utilize their services.

People who use these sites to purchase gold or in game items are the ones who are keeping the bots running.

Ok you dont use them ...logical conclusion, they havent won ... please log in now. And come say that again.

ArRashid · May 2014

Yes

For now, yes.
When a new player starts his character, he can see a lot of chatter.... only to find out it's mostly just bots spamming their scam sites.
They run to the ship and get the the starting island, which again, is seeping with life... only to realize 99% people running around are bots farming basic crafting resources..
When they finally get to some delve, they find it full of "helpful" strangers, who are in fact bots farming green loot, soul gems and XP..

Zenimax has made some REALLY QUESTIONABLE COUNTERMEASURES to counter bots, only that they hurt the actual players instead of bots..
- delve bosses respawn only when someone new enters the room... no biggie for a bot, they have time, and they kill the boss before the new guy has a chance to even spot a boss
- delve bosses only give loot and XP ONCE. Then you have to wait XX minutes for another chance... do bots care? They have all the time in the world.. you just slowed down the farm. Do players care? They leave pissed off because they didn't get their blue, and they REFUSE to wait 10+ minutes to repeat that chance again..
- farmed mobs TAKE XP instead of adding them. Nice.... except that players now can't farm for leathers because of negative XP they'll be getting. Not to mention it randomly bugs out and mobs in a zone you've never been in take your XP from you..
- Decreased drops of all good items (books, recipes) - do bots care? never did. Too hard to code. Do farmers care? Yes they do, because now they can sell their hoarded piles of them for 10x the price. They are really happy about that! Do normal players care? They are really pissed off since it's been weeks since they saw a motif, and they don't even remember the last time a recipe of higher quality than green dropped for them..

zaria · May 2014

Yes its stupid and they do all the wrong things.

Far better to do like they do in the spam filer who works pretty well. at least most of the spam filter kill most of it. Not all: and yes it pretty obvious that one new player sending the masses of exact same mail as someone has been banned for they are bots, removing hidden code to make it look different is trivial.

You make 10-20 new characters and send to coldharbor to do a quest and then delete them, suspend because of exploit. If they find you gave the gold to another player who also get gold from other players, jackpot you found a bot network, now ban all.
Goldfarming bots don't interact with players only with other bots in the network, so most can be done with the transaction log between players who is way simpler to mine than behavior in the open.
Bot behavior in the open is next step, for player run bots.

Neferath · May 2014

Yes

Well let's face it. Once an API is opened, it's vulnerable. TESO's API is "opened" in order to allow add-ons and therefore is and will stay vulnerable.

While i of course can understand why they choosed to open their API for add-ons - especially hence the tremendous success of all the great mods out there for the other elder scrolls games - i think this was a huge mistake.

Not only because it leaves the API vulnarable, but also because it forces players to use add-ons in order to stay competitive or have the same in game options that others have who choose to use add-ons.

zhevon · May 2014

Yes

I suspect the somewhat opened API has little to do with the current bot invasion.

Neferath · May 2014

Yes

zhevon wrote: »

I suspect the somewhat opened API has little to do with the current bot invasion.

Just one example, i won't go into the deeper mechanics here but stick to one obvious thing only. The "somewhat opened" API allows macros. Allowing macros in most cases is = allowing bots.

darius359au · May 2014

Yes

I'm conflicted ,I'm thinking yes and no - higher lvl area's I haven't seen much in the way of bot but in starter area's it's insane!,trying to level a mage and a templer alts and it's impossible to find any materials to craft their gear ,even maple seems to be being farmed now and I've given up on runes,(had no problems finding it not so long ago).
Something needs to be done ,not just because the bots are running rampant and stripping everything ,but think how it looks to a new player when the first thing they see is some flying bot buzz them at hyperspeed and then have to face the rest of it ,they'd probably no bother to re sub ,that happens enough times and the game dies.

Tawn · May 2014

Yes

They won as people like me have cancelled their sub. After the 5 days free time is up in a few minutes that's it for me for a few years. (No you can't have my stuff as I hope one year to return)

This recieved in my EMAIL a few moments ago

dfhqeqwfhg sent you a message

REDATED SCAMMER is the most secure place to buy Elder Scrolls Gold.
Very low price

Instant Delivery.

This company has very good reputation, selling in-game currencies since 2005.

100% Handwork Guaranteed!

7/24 Customer Service!

Warm Regards, the SCAMMER Team

Ganther · May 2014

Yes

Went back to Stonefalls to mine iron ore and other mats to up my crafting skills which I neglected, It is almost impossible due to the bots, I go to harvest something and there is a lvl 3 with a name like adfgtefe (not a real name) but no body just part of a bald head sticking out of the ground.. I sat outside the bank watching and there was a river of bots coming in then leaving and they all disappeared at the same spot.

This needs to be stopped I could care a less about add-ons if turning that off would stop the bots DO IT... other wise the crafting part of the game is almost useless for me and if I can't enjoy all the game then my $$ is better in my pocket..

notepad · May 2014

Yes

I voted Yes (for now) but hope that can change. I've been loving this game but the increasing amount of bots getting in the way of my play even though I try to ignore them is pushing me to cancel until I hear the amount of bots is greatly reduced. I don't expect bot-free, but there have been times where the area I've been playing in have a 4-1 ratio of bots to real players.

Carnage2K4 · May 2014

Yes

If like me, you are someone playing in eastmarch during american offpeak time... there is no battle... the bots rule the city...

Scowler · May 2014

No

Bots haven't won - but they're winning. If subs plummet after may, then they've won.

Salyyn · May 2014

No

I voted No.

In Windhelm, there's a route of two quests that bots are constantly taking, and then mailing the reward gold off, deleting the toon, and making a new one; wash, rinse, repeat.

Some fellow players, along with myself have been dedicating a portion of our time to killing that form of revenue off for them. All it takes is the Ebonheart Pact item, [Questionable Meat Sack] which can be found in Deshaan.

When used, this item drops a pile of meat that can be interacted with. We've found the book on the second floor of the Cold-Moon Inn is the best place to prevent them from progressing on that quest. The bots, being bots, aren't able to distinguish the difference between the meat, and the quest objective they actually need. A human player can easily tell when their cross hairs aren't the right object, so, they just move to the correct item, but a bot on the other hand.....

So, TL;DR, Use the [Questionable Meat Sack] whenever you see bot trains running quests repeatedly, and hopefully, they'll start breaking. Together, we can quite possibly make them give up.

Glory for Tamriel!

Night_Watch · May 2014

Yes

I voted 'Yes' but would really like to have voted no.

So why vote 'Yes'?

I was truly surprised today to get no gald spam in game mail as I usually get a handful of them each time I log in / play. So! No in game gold spam mail today is good. The in game mail spam comes from gold sellers though and they are likely to be using autoing bots. I can only hope that the devs are truly cracking down on these messages. Unfortunately, this is strike one!

I logged into these forums and got a message from another gold spammer. See previous strike for reasoning this as strike two.

In game today, I did not look at chat as I only had a very short play time but almost everytime I log in there is gold spam chat. St .. ri .. ke three.

So far, I can understand how I may be accused of linking spam with bots and being wrong to do so. Thing is, the gold spammers gotta make gold to sell! Gold spammer = liar that has no gold to sell but wants to 'take you for a ride' or cheat that gathers gold through unfair means such as account theft or AUTO BOTS. (No jokes please!)

Lets move on to the actual in game bot sightings. Please keep in mind I have yet to level any character past 16 (ish) so I'm in low level areas.

It is not often that, when playing, I do not see a 'train' of characters at some point in play time. I know these could well be multi box players and this is, to some degree, a legitimate play style. When I see such a 'train' going round what appears to be a set route harvesting nodes or stood in one spot killing time after time and in neither case responding to chat, I cannot help but think 'bot'. Strike 4

When, as today, I see a character apparently fall out of nowhere, disappear beneath the world map then emerge and harvest a node before disappearing again I think 'bot'. Five strikes.

Then there are the 'flyers' such as I have seen (saw one today). These guys move at super speed (jittering sometimes) while at least a few 'feet' off the game map. Sometimes a 'flyer' will hover a very short time. I cannot help but think 'cheat' or 'bot' when I see this. This is strike six.

Undoubtedly, I could be wrong! However, in all six cases or 'strikes' I list, I cannot help but link them to 'bots'. It pains me that I sometimes feel like reporting such a bot - it irks me that some of them move so fast or appear then disappear so fast as I simlpy cannot mouse over and report.

I'm into my first paid month now and I love the game - warts and all. But I'm seriously thinking of ending my subscription because of the bot / gold spam issues. Sure! The ESO game is young and having teething problems but I really am getting sick of the bots and gold sellers. I'm not making a threat here about dropping my subscription - just stating a fact.

Many players are on tight budgets (me included) and will vote with thier wallets on this issue.

The one saving grace in all this is that I know that action is being taken against gold sellers and, in turn I would think, bots. I followed the linked sender name in the forum mail I got today and saw that the player is banned! Now wether this is just a forum ban or a game ban too I do not know. I do know it is a step in the right direction though.

Keep up the good work devs / mods! Kick the gold sellers (and buyers) out of the game. Close down the bots. This will help players actually want to continue playing and paying a subscription. As things stand now, it seems, many players are really unhappy that the bots do seem to be winning.

EDIT: Slight update, some spelling corrected and a bit of a tidy up.

Daethz · May 2014

No

Bots only win if you buy from them.
If you have ever bought anything from a advertisement in your entire life, I blame you for chat spammers.

felixgamingx1 · May 2014

Yes

The bot army is indeed marching towards VR

Misty · May 2014

No

As I understand it, it's not the bots that are the problem, it's the player that buys the gold, but I imagine it would be impossible to prove a player bought gold so as to ban them.

Phantax · May 2014

Yes

JJDrakken wrote: »

I also love how they limited Motif drops, to penalize the honest folks.

Sad... but oh so true !

wrlifeboil · May 2014

No

I just finished a couple of hours of questing in VR Greenshade.

I didn't see a single bot train.

david271749 · May 2014

Yes

Misty wrote: »

As I understand it, it's not the bots that are the problem, it's the player that buys the gold.

I tried to make an anonymous poll on whether people had purchased eso gold or not. There was even an "I'm tempted" option. It was immediately removed. They didn't even notify me.

I guess this is as honest as we're going to be able to get.

Oh. Sorry. They just messaged me. It was removed, because it could encourage peeople to seek out that sort of thing.

rusila22 · May 2014

Yes

Well i have a char V10 and so i decided to make an alt on USA server ! my mage is lv 40 and let me tell you there are still many bots on TESO i'm so disappointed

Misty · May 2014

No

Referring to the question "Have bot's won?" I don't think they have ever WON. They are a inevitable hic-up, that comes part-and-package with any mmo these days.
Like a common cold it always clears up with time.

BenjaminKacher_ESO · May 2014

Yes

kewl wrote: »

Why are those glasses full of urine?

wrlifeboil · May 2014

No

BenjaminKacher_ESO wrote: »

kewl wrote: »

Why are those glasses full of urine?

david271749 · May 2014

Yes

It's a yes for me. When item drops are nerfed, item prices are drastically risen/lowered, zone chat is basicaly a bot infested ah, people can't even harvest nodes without them disappearing right in front of them, and general flow of the game's economy is affected by bots, it's safe to say who has won here. They're turning this game into an unofficial pay to win.

Loco_Mofo · May 2014

No

RedTalon wrote: »

Who are bots?

I believe he is referring to Skynet.

Streega · May 2014

Yes

magickats242cub18_ESO wrote: »

No, the bots have not won, nor have the gold spammers, because I have no desire to utilize their services.

People who use these sites to purchase gold or in game items are the ones who are keeping the bots running.

I don't deal with the bots and I think most of ESO fans won't do it, but behind every bot is a player and sadly there always will be some lame player on the other side, ready to spill the green. That's why the bots won.

OFC_it · May 2014

Yes

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

abuniffpreub18_ESO wrote: »

Anybody else getting mail on their personal email accounts. I don't mean ingame email I mean the email you use everyday. If so how did they get my address, are they hacking the game for personal info ?.

No, they are not pulling your personal info from the game. ZO (like every other company) is required by law to report any compromise on their end that could even potentially lead to your data being seen.

Spam email goes to a lot of email addresses. I've gotten spam email from WoW gold-sellers on an address I never even associated with the game.

B.S. I got an offer in my email. ZOS is the only way they got it. Spam email! LOL