Have the bots won?

crislevin · May 2014

Yes

in the regard that ZOM have given up solving the problem from the basic level, which is to remove some low level access of the game mechanism to the third party apps, or require a evaluation process of those apps.

Putting GM in the game is just for show, it doesn't even dent the problem slightly. When they ban 10, hacks generates 100.

Manamane · May 2014

Yes

The bots are starting to Win. Here is why. First off, you have the Gold Seller and Power Leveling Websites that are being funded by the lazy people that want it all and have cash to burn. Second, you have the cheaters and hackers that want it all, but don't want to pay for it all. Finally, there are not enough GM's to combat the increasing number of bots.

It started with Dungeon Bosses. Once they fixed the Loot drop system on the bosses, the bots vanished because they couldn't be farmed any more. (Yay win!) But in retaliation for this, the gold sellers started making bots to run around and farm the resource nodes. (Boo loss) Then hackers took it a step farther. They programed their bots to Teleport from node to node and harvest them. Some of these bots are even invisible. (Boo loss)

*** F.Y.I. To catch the invisible ones, all you have to do is find the node type you know the Bot is farm, say iron ore, and hover over an active node. These bot's move very fast, but it still takes 3-4 seconds for them to harvest the node. So when the bot shows up to harvest the node, yes you wont see them, but your cursor will. You should have the [E] prompt to use the node, but the second the Invisible bot shows up, you should also have the [F] prompt to interact with anther player. At that point, hold [F], and report. ***

And to make matters worse, some of these hackers have even taken it a step farther than this, and their bots are not only teleporting from node to node, but they are doing it under the ground so that you can't highlight them to get a report in. (Boo loss)

Not counting Cyridil, there are 15 main areas (21 if you count the two side boat trip quests). To properly combat the bots, you would need a GM in each area, at all times. And you aren't going to have someone work 24/7 so to balance the shifts, you need three 8 hour shifts, that 45, or 63 GM's. The GM's are few and far between, and right now, the Dev's are more concerned about the game development and repair rather then the plague of bots that are infested and braking the game.

Anther step that can be taken to shut bots down quickly. Don't just Ban the account, but trace and ban the IP Address attached to said account as well.

I know for a fact that there is an Asian Company that has been active for the last 7 years, providing Gold sales and Power Leveling for just about any MMO out there, and they run off at least 5 different sights. "GoldAH" and "GoldIL" are just two of them.

The second half of the solution... The players them selves. We have to flag and report each of these bots, so we need help with this. Please add a Report Option labled "Botting". This will make reporting much easier and faster. Also, please make it to where an account that has been ban and shut down is removed from our ignore lists, but lets face it, yes ignoring the entire account is a brilliant idea, but there is still a limit on how many people you can ignore.

These are just my thoughts, and I am sure someone somewhere will criticize me for it, but I am beyond the point of caring what people have to say about me.

ShedsHisTail · May 2014

No

Yes, the bots have won.
Skynet has become self-aware.
The end is nigh.

Jarrax68 · May 2014

Yes

Would like to say no, but the fact is, they're getting worse

KrisFahring · May 2014

No

The recent changes to the loot drops has discouraged the botters from just camping the generals. I see them a lot less but I have yet to make it to 50 on my main character.

Maybe I'll see an ocean of them in the top level zone farming out gear but that is nothing different than having a small group of people doing the same thing. If they want to play with themselves I'd suggesting turning off the computer and remove the electrocution risk.

Moonclaw · May 2014

Yes

They are surviving way too long. I hope to be here after they are gone but now they are a persistent disease. Anyone who buys from them needs to be consigned to oblivion for encouraging them . I am glad that they are no longer prevalent in public dungeons (yay - a win for the good guys !) Now we need a way to easily tag em and bag em in the open world . Having to individually report a train of 5 Bots is a challenge and I already spend more time reporting folks in this game than any other MMO. Between reporting spammers in mail, reporting spammers in chat and reporting obvious bots they really intrude

srfrogg23 · May 2014

No

I voted "No" for a variety of reasons. The chief reason being because they are not trying to "win", and they are not actively trying to destroy the game, but are engaging in a far more serious act. What the botters/gold spammers are doing is a modified form of what is called "phishing" (an attempt at stealing the credit card and identity information of individuals who purchase products/services from them). Because it is illegal for spammers to sell someone else's intellectual property (in game items/leveling services) the best bet is to assume that they are not a legitimate business, because you cannot create a legitimate business based on an unlawful act, players should assume for their own safety that spammers are in all likelihood attempting to steal your credit card/identity. My advice would be to avoid their websites altogether due to the risk of downloading a variety of computer viruses geared towards achieving that goal, key logging programs, worms, and trojans being the most common.

Based on that, they can't "win" a fight that they're not actually fighting, they don't care about the games that they are infecting- YOU are their target.

I still see bots in the game, but their effect on the gameplay itself has been for the most part inert. They are a nuisance, but they haven't caused any permanent form of damage to either the economy or the overall gameplay experience- they just kind of get in the way as long as you don't go to their websites or give them your credit card numbers.

isengrimb16_ESO · May 2014

I'm not voting, but I would like to make a suggestion.

It's too bad botters can't be flagged somehow, to lure a real-player lynch mob .. so we can hang that toon from a tree and leave it there to rot (no rez for you!)

Cerveny · May 2014

Yes

Bots have won and it's the players that are loosing! imo.

KrisFahring · May 2014

No

Wait until you get into PVP with a bunch of botters. That will destroy the pvp in this game.

Thrawniel · May 2014

No

I'd say no. Bots will win when devs say they give up.

It's an ongoing battle. And you do not see issues persist for long. Therer has not been boss farming for quite some time. Insta-jute got fixed. Teleports got blocked. Now botters found new way to move fast and under terrain.

So, the holes get fixed, but botters just come up with new ways to exploit. And by that they actually do devs a favor - they find all the system weaknesses for free and with high efficiency!

Also, it would be easier to deal with bots if they didn't have to worry about addon community. Blocking exploiters without hurting legitimate players is not an easy task.

Inco · May 2014

Yes

I voted YES, but would love to change my vote in the future. Right now ZOS can't seem to get a handle on these BOTS.

Almost EVERY ZONE now has at least 2-3 BOTS and/or Teleporting underground NODE farming. In fact I've started seeing some scripted BOTS with "Okay" looking names and random paths/actions that make them look like real people. Quick LAP around the area with them or dungeon and you will see identical moves and way points are used.

I get at least 2-3 GOLD SPAMMER mail in game mail DAILY.
Today I got at least 2 Forum Emails (Noticed that system is offline now)
This week I got TWO external Email to my personal Email account.
With a "Spam filter" add-on I'm still seeing 1-2 spams in ZONE.

Played this weekend and called out for GM and reported about 10 bots. No action seen, found them again running around last night (Same names even).

Sorry.. ZOS needs to get a little more SERIOUS about this. I'm sure all kinds of filters are being implemented in the system, but player experience is being ruined inside the game. GM's should be a LOT MORE active in game. Seeing or hearing about them 15 min block of time last THURSDAY is just not enough to keep me wanting to stick around and compete for materials or loot.

srfrogg23 · May 2014

No

I think it is also important to note that not every group you see is actually bots. A phenomenon has cropped up, especially in the higher levels, called "grinding groups" where groups of actual players run around the higher level delves like the vile manse and the forgotten village (whatever it's called) just smashing everything with a red bar over its head over and over again as they grind out levels and loot.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, those particular delves are designed for ad hoc groups of players to come together and conquer.

What I'm saying with this post is be careful about who you're reporting for botting. Some of them may be legitimate players and spamming Zenimax with reports that turn out to be unfounded increases their workload and prevents them from dealing with the real botters.

If you're not sure, please report, but try to double check first so we don't inadvertently slow down the process of removing the actual bots.

Lodestar · May 2014

Yes

Knovah wrote: »

...but it is a mega server so bots that are generally spread out on many servers in most other games are more in your face on this one.

That is a very good point and could be contributing to this feel of being so dense with them. Although, I still assert, I never had a single in game mail from bots, nor blind invites to guilds set up by bots etc.

Lodestar · May 2014

Yes

srfrogg23 wrote: »

I think it is also important to note that not every group you see is actually bots. A phenomenon has cropped up, especially in the higher levels, called "grinding groups" where groups of actual players run around the higher level delves like the vile manse and the forgotten village (whatever it's called) just smashing everything with a red bar over its head over and over again as they grind out levels and loot.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, those particular delves are designed for ad hoc groups of players to come together and conquer.

What I'm saying with this post is be careful about who you're reporting for botting. Some of them may be legitimate players and spamming Zenimax with reports that turn out to be unfounded increases their workload and prevents them from dealing with the real botters.

If you're not sure, please report, but try to double check first so we don't inadvertently slow down the process of removing the actual bots.

Not able to speak about higher levels, my highest is level 33. But, again I should point out when they have names like "afglksjfoiewarf" you kind of get a feel it is likely not a legitimate player.

srfrogg23 · May 2014

No

Lodestar wrote: »

srfrogg23 wrote: »

I think it is also important to note that not every group you see is actually bots. A phenomenon has cropped up, especially in the higher levels, called "grinding groups" where groups of actual players run around the higher level delves like the vile manse and the forgotten village (whatever it's called) just smashing everything with a red bar over its head over and over again as they grind out levels and loot.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, those particular delves are designed for ad hoc groups of players to come together and conquer.

What I'm saying with this post is be careful about who you're reporting for botting. Some of them may be legitimate players and spamming Zenimax with reports that turn out to be unfounded increases their workload and prevents them from dealing with the real botters.

If you're not sure, please report, but try to double check first so we don't inadvertently slow down the process of removing the actual bots.

Not able to speak about higher levels, my highest is level 33. But, again I should point out when they have names like "afglksjfoiewarf" you kind of get a feel it is likely not a legitimate player.

Agreed 100%. It's pretty rare that botters will use actual "names". In fact, it's probably the surest sign that it is a bot. In the unlikely event that someone just got lazy naming their character and decided to just type a bunch of random letters... Well, I hope you can get the issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time through Zos customer support, and make a note to be a little more inventive in the future.

Arsvita · May 2014

Yes

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

No, they haven't won. But the sky is falling chicken little posts are amusing though.

Sure they have.

I have 6 characters fro crafting and made a 7th to start the Pact.
I travel a few of the zones, depending on which character I am using, and see it all over the place.

It was so bad that when either the GM that was "zapping" bots left, or dragged himself off after being run over by boxed trains of bots, the area was flooded with them. All manner of bots. Superman flying through all obstacles, submariner bots, teleporting bots, invisibots, speedbots, running bots, walking bots, and trains of bots. The bots outnumbered the players 100 to 1.

Now. ZOS has said they are asking for our patience as they work on the situation. We will give them patience and we will see.

Until then, with GMs covered in bot tracks, we are not currently winning. I have reported too many bots to count, lost many hours of game play, and have even made a new game in breaking the disgust and monotony of reporting them.

"Bot, Bot, Goose". So far only one person has won the, now, coveted prize of "Goose". He was very pleased to have won and to have learned a new game.

Keep reporting, reporting, and report some more. We can survive this and pull a win, with the help of ZOS.

babylon · May 2014

Yes

Yes they've won and they've been rewarded for playing, while we got punished. GG.

Yngvar · May 2014

Yes

When I got a spam email on my personal account from these bots, I was disturbed. This is the first time I received a spam mail from any game, and I've been playing since Everquest.

I can live with spam mail in game, a little ticked by forum inbox spam, but my external mail is personal.

Aeradon · May 2014

Yes

It's getting from bad to worse, so much that it hurts the eyes. Maybe ZOS needs to take into good look in their account creation system or login system. Perhaps quest giver that asks you a captcha when you're turning in quests 10 levels above you? Or harvesting nodes that does a simple version of lock pick random generated system?

starkerealm · May 2014

Yes

OFC_it wrote: »

So I ask this, Why are bots hitting the alchemy mats so hard when they have no value? I don't see them for sale either so where are they going? These are not gold sellers taking these mats. This is someone else.

They could be using them to craft crap potions and then vendoring those.

Leesha · May 2014

Yes

I believe they are winning. Bosses have diminishing returns on loot because of the bots. PMs on the forums have been disabled TWICE because of the gold sellers who run most of the in game bots. Heavily populated areas with enemy npcs are overrun with packs of bots farming everything that spawns which hinders quest completion. Public dungeons are empty now because the bots are killing everything inside (this completely ruins immersion). People are getting tired of reporting bots because it is an every day occurrence that never seems to end.

Bots have won and will continue to win until Zenimax finds a way to reduce their numbers. I enjoy the game but the bots will drive me away if the game continues to feel like a free to play title every time I log in and try to quest.

starkerealm · May 2014

Yes

Leesha wrote: »

I believe they are winning. Bosses have diminishing returns on loot because of the bots. PMs on the forums have been disabled TWICE because of the gold sellers who run most of the in game bots. Heavily populated areas with enemy npcs are overrun with packs of bots farming everything that spawns which hinders quest completion. Public dungeons are empty now because the bots are killing everything inside (this completely ruins immersion). People are getting tired of reporting bots because it is an every day occurrence that never seems to end.

Bots have won and will continue to win until Zenimax finds a way to reduce their numbers. I enjoy the game but the bots will drive me away if the game continues to feel like a free to play title every time I log in and try to quest.

There's also the part where ZoS basically broke provisioning, "to stop the bots from farming," and it's looking more and more like the rapid armor deterioration bug is related to being too close to bots for any length of time.

ZoS keeps giving the bots more tools to screw with us, and the bots keep obliging.

Alphashado · May 2014

Yes

I understand Beth and ZOS are new to the MMO scene. There is a very sharp learning curve. But somewhere along the way, wouldn't you think that they would pick up the phone and call some established MMO companies for advice? I hope they are. But right now, the bots are winning. Coldharbor is completely overrun with them. The only thing keeping them out of the vet zones is the fact that you must complete the storyline before you can port to any VR zone. They would have to do the quest with every single bot.

And that is simply not worth their time. They aren't in Cyrodiil because everything worth farming there is too spread out.

Otherwise, they have free reign. Right now the bots run the show.

Lodestar · May 2014

Yes

srfrogg23 wrote: »

Agreed 100%. It's pretty rare that botters will use actual "names". In fact, it's probably the surest sign that it is a bot. In the unlikely event that someone just got lazy naming their character and decided to just type a bunch of random letters... Well, I hope you can get the issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time through Zos customer support, and make a note to be a little more inventive in the future.

Either that or, if your house pet walked on your keyboard as you were choosing a name, don't keep it.

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand Beth and ZOS are new to the MMO scene. There is a very sharp learning curve. But somewhere along the way, wouldn't you think that they would pick up the phone and call some established MMO companies for advice? I hope they are. But right now, the bots are winning. Coldharbor is completely overrun with them. The only thing keeping them out of the vet zones is the fact that you must complete the storyline before you can port to any VR zone. They would have to do the quest with every single bot.

And that is simply not worth their time. They aren't in Cyrodiil because everything worth farming there is too spread out.

Otherwise, they have free reign. Right now the bots run the show.

Yet, we are being told that people from previous MMOs have worked on this. Which would make sense. So, what input did they give?

starkerealm · May 2014

Yes

Lodestar wrote: »

srfrogg23 wrote: »

Agreed 100%. It's pretty rare that botters will use actual "names". In fact, it's probably the surest sign that it is a bot. In the unlikely event that someone just got lazy naming their character and decided to just type a bunch of random letters... Well, I hope you can get the issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time through Zos customer support, and make a note to be a little more inventive in the future.

Either that or, if your house pet walked on your keyboard as you were choosing a name, don't keep it.

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand Beth and ZOS are new to the MMO scene. There is a very sharp learning curve. But somewhere along the way, wouldn't you think that they would pick up the phone and call some established MMO companies for advice? I hope they are. But right now, the bots are winning. Coldharbor is completely overrun with them. The only thing keeping them out of the vet zones is the fact that you must complete the storyline before you can port to any VR zone. They would have to do the quest with every single bot.

And that is simply not worth their time. They aren't in Cyrodiil because everything worth farming there is too spread out.

Otherwise, they have free reign. Right now the bots run the show.

Yet, we are being told that people from previous MMOs have worked on this. Which would make sense. So, what input did they give?

"Ah trust Mr. Snuffles to pick mah loterrie numbahs! Wah wuddent ah trust heym too pick mah charichtah's nayme?"

Worst part is... I know, somewhere out there... that's the real answer.

isengrimb16_ESO · May 2014

starkerealm wrote: »

Lodestar wrote: »

srfrogg23 wrote: »

Agreed 100%. It's pretty rare that botters will use actual "names". In fact, it's probably the surest sign that it is a bot. In the unlikely event that someone just got lazy naming their character and decided to just type a bunch of random letters... Well, I hope you can get the issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time through Zos customer support, and make a note to be a little more inventive in the future.

Either that or, if your house pet walked on your keyboard as you were choosing a name, don't keep it.

Alphashado wrote: »

I understand Beth and ZOS are new to the MMO scene. There is a very sharp learning curve. But somewhere along the way, wouldn't you think that they would pick up the phone and call some established MMO companies for advice? I hope they are. But right now, the bots are winning. Coldharbor is completely overrun with them. The only thing keeping them out of the vet zones is the fact that you must complete the storyline before you can port to any VR zone. They would have to do the quest with every single bot.

And that is simply not worth their time. They aren't in Cyrodiil because everything worth farming there is too spread out.

Otherwise, they have free reign. Right now the bots run the show.

Yet, we are being told that people from previous MMOs have worked on this. Which would make sense. So, what input did they give?

"Ah trust Mr. Snuffles to pick mah loterrie numbahs! Wah wuddent ah trust heym too pick mah charichtah's nayme?"

Worst part is... I know, somewhere out there... that's the real answer.

Alternatively:

"But C, M and V are lucky letters! So I name my characters Ccccvvmmmmmm! Very lucky!"

steveb16_ESO46 · May 2014

Yes

Draaconis wrote: »

Nope. I think the forum whining about bots is at a record high for no reason though. To be honest, I don't know where to look in the dungeons for some of the bosses. Then I see 10 unmoving people in one area and I know I've got it.

As you amble through past the trail of corpses unchallenged to the main boss the bots are the 2 or 3 templars running a loop killing anything that respawns.

steveb16_ESO46 · May 2014

Yes

Farham wrote: »

You have to be seriously delusional not to see that ESO has some of the worst and most blatant hacking BOTs I have ever seen in over 10 years of playing MMOs.

Yes, every game had it share but no main stream MMO, as I would categorize ESO, has ever been just so unable to stop such obvious and massively scaled hacking/botting.

Honestly, I really get the feeling they can't stop it without major changes to their "instanced/phased" server model. You almost get a sense of panic from Zen with their silence and complete inability to stop what is now comically bad.

Games have bugs, games need time to fill in some gaps that were not included with release and games need time to steady themselves....we all understand these things come with new MMOs. This is nothing like other releases...nothing.

This ship might not be sunk but it has taken on a rather sizable hole and the water is starting to gush in. The captain and crew? No where to be found or heard from.

Unfortunately I think you are correct. I really want this game to be a huge success but at this point I fear it will require a major relaunch after massive changes have been made.

starkerealm · May 2014

Yes

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

Draaconis wrote: »

Nope. I think the forum whining about bots is at a record high for no reason though. To be honest, I don't know where to look in the dungeons for some of the bosses. Then I see 10 unmoving people in one area and I know I've got it.

As you amble through past the trail of corpses unchallenged to the main boss the bots are the 2 or 3 templars running a loop killing anything that respawns.

I hate "fixed" posts... but, give me a second.

steveb16_ESO46 wrote: »

As you amble through past the trail of corpses unchallenged to the main boss's dead body the bots are the 20 or 30 templars running a loop killing anything that respawns and everything in their path.

Better, no?