Have the bots won?

Garetth · May 2014

Yes

david271749 wrote: »

Feel free to explain why you voted yes or no below.

Level 45 Soc and there has not been a quest I have been on where I don't see a stream of bots doing something, whether it's farming nodes or mobs. It's really pretty pathetic how they own this game.

wyrdob16_ESO · May 2014

Yes

I keep seeing more and more bots, not less. So yes, for the time being they have won.

Chingis · May 2014

Yes

Bots are everywhere. They fly through the air, move under ground, and one even stole a Chest from me yesterday.

Now they are not only in dungeons killing Boss Mobs, but stealing raw mats and chests. Beyond a joke. I will give the game another couple of weeks, then I'm letting my subs (2 accounts) lapse until this probelm is solved.

However... if, as I fear, the problem is due to much info (such as location) being held on the client end rather than on the server, CAN these bots be brought under control?

Anyone got any info on that?

jpp · May 2014

There is no chance you can win bots. The only way for ESO to stop bots is to establish special "unofficial" company producing gold / items / powellevel and selling it to all gold sellers. In that way there will be no sense to hire people and make any effort by gold sellers - instead they can just go directly to ESO any buy gold or any other services.

DragonMother · May 2014

No

Even warcraft had their battles to such degree that players were upset with limitations and restrictions placed on accounts for a while. Anyone else remember the timers on sending gold ingame mail to anyone, including yourself?

SilvyrNixe · May 2014

Yes

There may be GMs now (from what I've heard, not what I've seen), but it just feels like the bot that likes to fly through the actual map itself is just yelling 'trololol' as it flies by and then into the ground just to take the node that you were about to harvest. I've seen so many in Knaerthi's Roost (probably spelled wrong) and the most I can do is just report it over and over. I hope it get's fixed soon.

Granted that Zeni is trying, at least from what I've seen, but I feel like they're not trying hard enough...

david271749 · May 2014

Yes

I'm still seeing them in game. I'm even seeing the level 4 zone spammers in high level zones now.

panemetcircenses · May 2014

Yes

skarvika wrote: »

They nerfed boss spawn farming. This hurt the players. They nerfed motif drops. Again, this hurt the players.
I still see bots running around and I still get spam mail daily. Nothing has changed much.

Pretty much, a decent example of supply/demand economics at work. This limited supply to both players and bots, by slowing everybody's ability to gain loot. Players get frustrated by such things while bots simply continue running their scripts... not really a win for anyone, but the bots simply don't care.

I do have a couple of suggestions for the devs to make things interesting:

1. Give every ZOS employee a free game account. These official accounts should have special access to the ability to ban a target automatically, or place a target in a penalty box (the instanced starting cell at Cold Harbor would fit the setting, obviously without the door unlocked) pending GM review. The banned or imprisoned individual may appeal, with one automatic reinstatement and GM review if they are banned by a second (or further) ZOS account. The ban count would be based on account, not character. A financial bonus should be provided to the employee that bans the most actual bots (1 pt. per bot), with banning a player that a GM review shows in an actual player being a negative adjustment (maybe -10 pts. to the count?).
2. Add airborne/underground mobs, with permanent Invisibility, that randomly patrol above a certain altitude and below the current terrain and attack any player that somehow violates the in-game physics as intended. Their attack should cause massive Magicka/Stamina drain and apply a hold/root/stun effect to the target. The attack would be a sustained one reminiscent of a Resto Staff, and since it would place the target in combat without doing damage would prevent Fast Travel.

Maybe these would help, maybe not, but they seem worth a shot.

Sadae · May 2014

Just last night I saw one of those teleporting gather bots in Bal Foyen. I watched as he circled a large glade, gathering at once spot, then insta-port to the next thing to gather. He did the whole circle and then teleported right off my screen somewhere.

I had assumed this hack was addressed a long time ago. Why are these hacks still possible Zeni?!

DireKit · May 2014

Yes

As for the moment? It certainly seems like it. It's early in the game, it could change.. but right now? Yeah, they've won. It's kind of bad when you're running around open areas and see a train of what are clearly bots, running around, and stealing all the kills, bosses, and gathering nodes.

Never mind the DAILY gold spam emails We get or the spam over Zone.

zeuseason · May 2014

No

I unsubbed today after running into 3 or 4 trains of bots in Auridon beach area. This is pathetic. I can handle virtually every other game issue/bug without a problem, but the botting to me, as a player, is the straw that broke the camel.

If I as a player can run into these bots so easily in the world during my normal playing, then a GM can squash these bots just as easy.

13 days left on my subscription.

KitLightning · May 2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CP9dg38cAI

jbfroik · May 2014

No

My answer is no. Indeed the bots are more blatant here. Perhaps due to carelessness on the part of the people doing it. I feel the fact that this game uses megaservers causes the situation to seem more dire. In a game like WoW, throwing it out there because all the flamers like to compare this game to WoW, there are many many servers. IF you were to consolidate said servers in any other mmo I think the complainers would poop their pants. The bot situation would be terrible. We are only a couple months into launch also, come on guys.

eobethb14_ESO · May 2014

Yes

Yes, when they slashed the loot distance to make looting any container twice (and sometimes impossible) as hard to target and open.

Yes the bots have won.

They keep making changes that do not affect the bots, but make regular play for normal players irritating.

kimboh · May 2014

ShADoW0s wrote: »

Phantax wrote: »

Iseke wrote: »

There are no bots at all in the veteran content, so nope they don't win.

Really? I think you need to rethink that comment. There are bots in VR zones and I'm not the only one whose seen/reported them !

Where have you seen this? There is no way a bot made it that far, it will require that bot to finish all the single instance quests, which it cant.

I have seen and reported Vr1 bots in coldharbour but not in vet zones...yet.

temjiu · May 2014

No

jpp wrote: »

There is no chance you can win bots. The only way for ESO to stop bots is to establish special "unofficial" company producing gold / items / powellevel and selling it to all gold sellers. In that way there will be no sense to hire people and make any effort by gold sellers - instead they can just go directly to ESO any buy gold or any other services.

Not necessarily. They just need to create gold sinks outside of the economy that doesn't revolve around gold. then they need to make everything Blue and higher BoP. crafted items being the exception until they change hands. then they need to set up a "Crafting option" in the trade window so people can upgrade other peoples items.

Make horses a level based requirement (20 for basic, 40-50 for upgraded models), and introduce CD's on respecs (first one is 24 hours, next one is 3 days, next one is a week, etc). There you go. you've eliminated 90% of the reasons people buy money from bots. Oh right...and fix armor so it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to fix, and actually has value beyond it's passives.

then you close down the UI. no Add-ons. no add-ons = much harder for bots to work.

But instead they make life more difficult for players. They reduce interaction radius for objects (making it almost impossible for some races to reach high things, like cabinets). they introduce delays on melee weapons (and some class skills). they change environmental aspects (notice how many enclosed areas are now open?). I'm sure there's tons more, but you get the point.

They could create they're own internal selling economy (SWtOR did this), but i doubt they'll do that until they go f2p.

Notice how I indicated when in that last paragraph...not if....

Arsvita · May 2014

Yes

fiachsidhe wrote:

"Won" implies finality. Combating botters is an ongoing thing

True expression of the ages: Won the battle, but lost the war.
That is what we hope for rather than a win / win for the bots, but they are winning.

claudius_Dark wrote:

Why couldn't we have to solve a word jumble every time we log into our account?

Nice idea, but then ... how would you get in? Just curious. And it would not stop a bot unless the person logging them in was that stupid.

JoyEnergiser wrote:

NEITHER of that has occured, the bot's are not game breaking, they are an irritation.

Denial or spammer, that is the question. The Bots are there, you state that, but claim it is only our (the Yes voters that admit the issue) problem.

DragonMother wrote:

Even warcraft had their battles to such degree that players were upset with limitations and restrictions placed on accounts for a while.

Sorry DM, but the bots are still an issue with that game. They also have guilds of sellers and are happy to help you, for a price.

I check up on forums of games I have played, even if I have not played them for many years, just to keep track of them.

temjiu wrote:

then you close down the UI. no Add-ons. no add-ons = much harder for bots to work.

But instead they make life more difficult for players. They reduce interaction radius for objects (making it almost impossible for some races to reach high things, like cabinets). they introduce delays on melee weapons (and some class skills). they change environmental aspects (notice how many enclosed areas are now open?). I'm sure there's tons more, but you get the point.

So you say that the add-ons being closed down are good for getting rid of bots, but would make the game much harder due to lack of ease? Is this correct? And that the add-ons speed up your abilities? Or is that because you just hit a button it's program tells you to, so you do not waste any possible time having to actually think? I'll take the no bots option please.

They could create they're own internal selling economy (SWtOR did this), but i doubt they'll do that until they go f2p.

Bad idea, and very badly done. They focus on the cash cow market and the game suffers. ea put the dev teams on the market and left one dev on the game. Corporate greed rules, and the market, and they spend their time and resources for the most profit, not the player base.

They too are inundated by bots, gold farmers, and gold spammers as per their forums.

Moderator edit: Edited quoted material and content refering to it due to previous moderation.

F7sus4 · May 2014

Yes

It's not bots who won. It's Zenimax who failed.

Plenamir · May 2014

Yes

I voted yes because I've seen hardly any ore deposits for days!!!! I farmed for over two hours and got a lousy 23 pieces of lowly iron ore. And I didn't see very people online running around farming it either.

Chirru · May 2014

Yes

Bots are as busy as always...just got smarter about doing it.

cf398ub17_ESO · May 2014

No

i have not seen many bots idk might be just me

andreas.rudroffb16_ESO · May 2014

Yes

jep they won .... even after 1 month of reporting the glitches (noclip/fly) still exist (saw 2 bots today mining by clipping under the terrain).... seems a engine limitation or just ... ok i dont type that.

same glitches, same bots

edit: the bots i reported by ingame "report" are still farming (4 days later)

phairdon · May 2014

No

Phantorang wrote: »

onibubu wrote: »

Iseke wrote: »

There are no bots at all in the veteran content, so nope they don't win.

On the downside there are almost no players in the Veteran Content....

There are players everywhere! Unless you look behind rocks, im not sure how you can come up with such a statement.

Can depend on which time zone you're playing from. During my prime time veteran maps can be a lonely place. Although the level1-50 seem to have better numbers.

Korah_Eaglecry · May 2014

Yes

malikwalker_ESO wrote: »

Not at all.

As people seem obsessed with 'wiping the bots out now!!!', all they are seeing is bot here, there, and everywhere. That's how obsession works.

Don't get me wrong, bots are a nuisance at best-abhorrence at worse, and they need to be contained as much as possible. But i have no doubt that this stepped up activity on the farmer's part is the equivalent of a hail-mary as they are trying to boost their reserves as much and as fast as possible before ZOS's inevitable counter stroke.

The whole RMT infestation is not going to be resolved overnight. Its going to take time. Are players going to be impacted in the meantime? Of course, crafters in particular. But i have no doubts that ZOS getting their ducks in a row before rolling out sweeping measures.

In the present though, i'm not going to stress and obsess over RMT. This isn't my first MMO rodeo and i know things will get better in time. I rolled a new alt about a week back and as i've been bringing it up i see bots or course and report them as appropriate. Then i go about my business and enjoy myself. Just hit 25, not rushing it up, and honestly for as many bots are out there my leveling thus far has been minimally impacted.

I've seen it worse than this in other games and seen it set back to rights.

TLDR: Its bad, but its not the end of Tamriel. Play the game and do what you can, then let it go and continue your adventures.

Yes we're all imagining the constant mails offering us gold for RL Money. We're also imagining the chat spam and the cluster of bots in dungeons and running about the higher level areas. Or those Gold Spammer Guilds that they've created looking to ninja an invite to you while youre looting.

Loco_Mofo · May 2014

No

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

Yes we're all imagining the constant mails offering us gold for RL Money. We're also imagining the chat spam and the cluster of bots in dungeons and running about the higher level areas. Or those Gold Spammer Guilds that they've created looking to ninja an invite to you while youre looting.

Not seeing this anymore myself.

Been running around doing VR content for over a week now and haven't seen a single bot in the high level areas once I passed Coldharbor.

No more gold spam in chat, no clusters of bots in dungeons or anywhere for that matter and I haven't been invited to one of those gold spammer guilds in over 3 weeks. The only thing I do still get are the occasional gold spammer mail in my inbox, but even that is limited to once or twice a day. Hardly anything to rage over.

Not saying the game doesn't have a bot problem, they were everywhere in the starter area and Coldharbor, but once I passed these areas, they haven't been an issue.

Fruity_Ninja · May 2014

No

Not seeing them as much as I used to, that's for sure.

Salmonleap · May 2014

Yes

Fruity_Ninja wrote: »

Not seeing them as much as I used to, that's for sure.

Um, I'm seeing fewer bots, but I'm also seeing fewer nodes and the few bots I am seeing appear to be moving faster and harvesting faster than ever. It seems like somehow the botmeisters have figured out how to harvest in <1/4 the time it takes me to harvest a node.

SirAndy · May 2014

Yes

The reason you see fewer of them now is that they have moved underground. If you watch closely, you can see their heads sticking up through the ground for a second while they harvest a node. Then they teleport to the next node.

They are still there, just as many (if not more) than before. They're just not as obvious anymore. My guess is they are trying to evade the GMs that ZOS employed for a while.

At this point (two months into LIVE) i think it's pretty clear that ZOS has no idea how to deal with them ...

Chirru · May 2014

Yes

My own experience confirms strongly that bots are instance dependent.
Been in places where I did not see a bot for hours... and in others where I hit ten within ten minutes.

As for not seeing any bots at all... Come on...whom are you kidding. Only Bot Runners and Trolls would write such.

Loco_Mofo · May 2014

No

I'm serious, I no longer see them.

If they're all underground now though, that would explain it.