Need help reporting bots

[Chay.7852]

I know exactly what you mean, OP, saw them too a while back as i was doing map completition. I too had problems reporting them because they are visible for a very short time (maybe less than 1 sec) and their names are something like "aéìeó" - where you can't really remeber which letter had what type of accent - at least i couldn't remember. Someone said once they would travel/port under the map somehow but... no idea. The only thing is i havent seen them for a long time now - since HoT release as i was doing MC on my rev. Not even once as i have done map completition on my last char (mesmer). Obviously they are back.

[Faaris.8013]

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:I'm just not a fan of players reporting other players of suspected botting because as I said if it's a false or vindictive report then it could ruin someone's enjoyment of the game. Reporting players should be limited to rude, lewd, crude and generally bad behavior to other players.

I'm in a way pro reporting and moving on, because maybe, just maybe, reports about the same account accumulate over time and give a good picture for Anet. Sure, what I noticed in one occasion might be a false positive. If the same account is being reported at different days over and over by many different players, then there is enough evidence to take a closer look. And honestly, if you behave like a bot, don't be surprised to be treated like one. When I leave the computer, I never stand with a necro or ranger where mobs spawn. It sometimes happens with my thief, and I find her dead when I return. I don't think I have ever been mistaken for a bot.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:

@jediwolf.8724 said:Parking on nodes is not the problem. Its the people using some program to teleport a character instantly to harvesting nodes one after the other.There like Genies. Poof their here. Poof the are over there and so on

With all the lag going on these days in the game how can you tell if they are a bot or just lag is causing you to see them poof around. lol

Before my area got 4G I played with 3G or sometimes 2G and I had a lot of lag. When there’s that much lag other people might see you porting from spot to spot. However they’ll also see you running in place while stopped by terrain and they’ll see you standing by a node because lag won’t let you harvest. You don’t see the person fluidly harvesting and porting from node to node.

Could running in place while hung on an object be a bot? Yes but it could just as easily be a player who's attention wandered or that fell asleep at the controls. That latter part does happen. I know I've left a character in auto run and gotten distracted then looked back to see them hung. I've had those moments of micro-sleep too when I'm sleep deprived but pushing myself to stay awake for various reasons IRL.

We were talking about teleporting bots versus lag making people look like they are porting around. If you notice I didn’t say it was a bot that gets hung up on terrain in this scenario but a person lagging so you just agreed with the point I was making. Thanks.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:

@Faaris.8013 said:

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:I hate to blow your supposition that people who leave characters at nodes are bots but this is not true in most cases. There are plenty of us who leave little used characters at valuable nodes to farm them once a day. I leave some characters at them and they are not bots. I manually go to characters and farm them then leave the character.

Do you log in, take a swing, log out, log back in, take another swing, log out, log back in to take a last swing? Or at rich veins, do you take three swing, log out, log back in, take another three swings etc.?

That is what OP was writing, and if you really do that, don't be surprised to be reported because that clearly is bot-behaviour.

I have several rarely used characters at valuable nodes that take some time to get to. I pop into the character, kill the creature that spawns there if needed, farm the node then switch to my next character. This is common for players who are not bots to do in the game. From someone else's perspective if you see a player pop in, farm the node then exit the character then it's probably a human player who left the character parked there.(snip)

I'm just not a fan of players reporting other players of suspected botting because as I said if it's a false or vindictive report then it could ruin someone's enjoyment of the game. Reporting players should be limited to rude, lewd, crude and generally bad behavior to other players.

ok. Here’s the difference between what we’re talking about and what you’re talking about

We are not talking about a char parked at a rich node that appears, harvests and disappears. That’s well know to be a parked regular character. What we’re taking about is a char that appears at a regular (not rich) node, harvests, disappears, reappears by nearby regular node, harvests, disappears, reappears by another nearby regular node, harvests, disappears, etc etc. This appearing/disappearing/reappearing porting from node to node char is the bot that’s getting reported.

As to reports, ANet checks them out and looks for bot behavior such as porting from node to node. If it’s not happening then there’s no sanctions given.

[mauried.5608]

Whats the name of the program that allows bots to teleport?Im just curious as to what the mechanism is that allows this to happen.

[Seera.5916]

@mauried.5608 said:Whats the name of the program that allows bots to teleport?Im just curious as to what the mechanism is that allows this to happen.

If anyone knew it would likely be against the rules to post it. Because it would be promoting it.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@mauried.5608 said:Whats the name of the program that allows bots to teleport?Im just curious as to what the mechanism is that allows this to happen.

What a silly question...as if anyone with an ounce of sense is going to provide that info to you especially on this forum.Hacking tools are bad but so is promoting them.

Why would you even want to know is what concerns me more

[Drecien.4508]

If it looks like a minion mancer and spams like a minion mancer, then its probably a bot. :) Sorry to have to say, but you've seen it too.

[mauried.5608]

Im not promoting anything.I just want someone to explain to me how players are instantaenously teleporting in the game.People keep making the claim that bots are using programs to teleport around the game, but not a shred of evidence to prove this.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@mauried.5608 said:Im not promoting anything.I just want someone to explain to me how players are instantaenously teleporting in the game.People keep making the claim that bots are using programs to teleport around the game, but not a shred of evidence to prove this.

It could be something like a rewrite of the thief teleport skills or the Mesmer blink skills. There are different sites on the internet where botters share and buy bot programs.

Edit: I remember one group of bots that showed as dead and traveled under the maps from node to node. Those were hard to report as you couldn’t get the name (because all you could see was the dead player icon) and you could only see the dead player icon when they came up under a node.

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

@mauried.5608 said:Im not promoting anything.I just want someone to explain to me how players are instantaenously teleporting in the game.People keep making the claim that bots are using programs to teleport around the game, but not a shred of evidence to prove this.

The evidence gets sent to Anet. Just be glad you're not coming across it.

[PaxTheGreatOne.9472]

Botters.. I'm against botting, but I have characters on ends of JP's and some rich nodes or farm spots as well. the JP{'s is log in, click chest and log to next character. You might find it botting, but it's just using normal clicks no automatism no nothing. So how can you discern between botters and ppl just loading in for the daily box? I have no porting scripts or macro's whatsoever. I just do not move my character. at 24 charatcers I find I only use ~ 7-12 characters with any frequency for gameplay. the rest are nice chcracters, build up, unlcokced but I no longer have the time to play 6 hours a day.

[Nikal.4921]

The number of poofing bots I've seen lately in Bloodtide Coast has gotten absolutely out of hand, and I've been watching the market tank for the wood tiers found there. They are not visible long enough for me to catch their names- esp considering many of them have nonsense names or strings of random letters that are not easy to grasp at a glance. I used to see them Dredgehaunt Cliffs, but BC seems their favored place now.

I would love to report these bots, but how when you can't get their names? They poof in and out almost instantly and all wear the Royal Guard outfit. Can't Anet track this sort of thing on their end?

[Endless Soul.5178]

@Nikal.4921 said:The number of poofing bots I've seen lately in Bloodtide Coast has gotten absolutely out of hand, and I've been watching the market tank for the wood tiers found there. They are not visible long enough for me to catch their names- esp considering many of them have nonsense names or strings of random letters that are not easy to grasp at a glance. I used to see them Dredgehaunt Cliffs, but BC seems their favored place now.

I would love to report these bots, but how when you can't get their names? They poof in and out almost instantly and all wear the Royal Guard outfit. Can't Anet track this sort of thing on their end?

I've noticed that too (bolded). Doesn't that imply that their account has been around a while?

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

The ones I’ve seen have normal names. I figured they were hacked accounts or old accounts bought cheap for botting/goldselling uses.

Edit: it appears from the descriptions that there are at least two groups of teleporting bots. Some are moving faster than others, have fake names and are blinking in and out while harvesting, possibly to stop people from reporting them. The ones I have seen have regular names, port from node to node on a map but don’t appear/disappear while harvesting.

[artemis.6781]

I sent in 23 screen shots of bots this morning. All on one map at the same waypoint. Pop in, pop out, one after the other.

[DarkForcE.9210]

@Blockhead Magee.3092 said:The situation: we all know that botters have characters spring up on resource nodes, farm it and poof away.

I think this is common for everyone where they park their alt at rich nodes...

[notebene.3190]

Got one just 5 min ago in Timberline Falls. Haven't seen this since the first year or two of release, guess they are back using that hack again. Happened to be in a concentrated area with 3-4 nodes. Saw them south of me at a node, they gathered and insta blinked up to my node, gathered, and blinked north of me to gather and blink out. No, it's not lag, I can tell the difference, as anyone that has seen this can see the difference. Surprised there are some risking this again. I remember when it first started, there were so many of them, I was literally making spreadsheets of names while I played, and submitting them in bulk of 10-20 names at a time to support before it finally died down.

Well, reported this person, and moved on. To those risking the world teleport gathering hack again, good luck to you! o7

[Endless Soul.5178]

@DarkForcE.9210 said:

@Blockhead Magee.3092 said:The situation: we all know that botters have characters spring up on resource nodes, farm it and poof away.

I think this is common for everyone where they park their alt at rich nodes...

The ones I'm seeing aren't at rich nodes. They're are at common nodes. They blink in, take one swing at the node, and blink out, often too fast to even get a screenshot unless you're ready for it.

[Klipso.8653]

Well we know movement speed and collision is all client side, so it wouldn't surprise me if porting like that would be editable as well. Client side data also makes it impossible to see from Anet servers unless they have a GM physically watching the player.

Id say a video clip may be more usefull to them than a screenshot to get these accounts banned.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

You definitely CAN and should report bots through the in-game report system. I just confirmed with the head of the CS Department that in-game reports are read and reacted to, including pulling data, researching game files, etc.

If you have screenshots, you can offer to send them if an agent requests them. It's not necessary or even of value to send them with your first contact, but you can make your report, say you have saved screenshots, and if the agent wants or needs to see them, you then can submit with your response to the ticket.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@mauried.5608 said:Im not promoting anything.I just want someone to explain to me how players are instantaenously teleporting in the game.People keep making the claim that bots are using programs to teleport around the game, but not a shred of evidence to prove this.

There has been plenty of videos showing bots in action since day 1... all kinds of bot activities.ANET have so say banned accounts in waves which sure makes sense on the surface though whether this has actually happened we will never know. .. A few maybe but nothing that would serve as a serious deterrent.There are a range of nefarious tools available out there for players hell bent on trying to cheat their way through digital content and likely life itself.... and every MMO has them that's why such tools are continually developed.But my own personal belief is that 99% of bots and/or AFK macro farmers are just ignored and allowed to coexist because it's easier to ignore the issues than it is to actually put words into action.As I have said previously .. having a full bodied set of Tos is about as useful as a chocolate firegrate if they are ignored as much as they are in GW2. If all those masses of macro mm's and turret engies that have plagued maps for 6 months plus are anything to go by then their methods of deterents aren't working well so taking actions against more sophisticated bots is likely not going to happen anytime soon.

[windbliss.3158]

I've seen enough to refute the logic of people saying "the devs aren't doing anything", the reason cheaters are banned in waves is to not only allow for evidence to be gathered, but also to create a level of panic by breaking the illusion that "oh hey, this cheat's safe" on the programmer's end of the hack.

If bans are instant, it'll be a constant game of cat and mouse, and it would actually empower hack programmers. So that's why instant bans are not the case.

That being said, do report botters and cheaters regardless if you're thinking that nothing is being done. Because something IS being done, albeit behind the scenes.

[BloomEngery.1592]

Yesterday, as I tried to log on to my account, I was shown a message stating that my account was suspended for 2 months due to using a 3rd party program. Needless to say, I was shocked. I have never used a 3rd party program of any sort. I spend 90% of my time in WvW (Mithril Rank), and rarely pve. Even though I have PoF, I have barely gotten out of the starting area. Same for the current Story season. None of my 11 characters have over 40% map completion. In fact, most are far below that in map completion.

I did, however recently purchase the Garden Plot for my home instance and realize that I did not have seeds. Therefore, I finally got around to spending the better part of the other day in pve land harvesting in many of the areas mentioned previously in this thread. I did this mostly by walking and mounting up. There was no teleporting (other than WPs), illegal movement speeds, use of bots, etc. I did not cheat in any way. All I did was play wvw (again, no hacking or cheating), and some very tedious harvesting for my Garden Plot. That is all.

I contacted Support with the above information and was able to clear up the confusion and was able to get my account back as a "one time" exception for doing nothing wrong. Whoever it was that was trigger happy and decided to report me, thank you for messing up my game and leaving a bad taste in my mouth. For those of you who are certain that there are bots "everywhere," please think twice before reporting everyone you see harvesting. Believe it or not, there are actually people out there who are harvesting like a normal person, without any xtra help.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

@"BloomEngery.1592" said:Yesterday, as I tried to log on to my account, I was shown a message stating that my account was suspended for 2 months due to using a 3rd party program. Needless to say, I was shocked. I have never used a 3rd party program of any sort. I spend 90% of my time in WvW (Mithril Rank), and rarely pve. Even though I have PoF, I have barely gotten out of the starting area. Same for the current Story season. None of my 11 characters have over 40% map completion. In fact, most are far below that in map completion.

I did, however recently purchase the Garden Plot for my home instance and realize that I did not have seeds. Therefore, I finally got around to spending the better part of the other day in pve land harvesting in many of the areas mentioned previously in this thread. I did this mostly by walking and mounting up. There was no teleporting (other than WPs), illegal movement speeds, use of bots, etc. I did not cheat in any way. All I did was play wvw (again, no hacking or cheating), and some very tedious harvesting for my Garden Plot. That is all.

I contacted Support with the above information and was able to clear up the confusion and was able to get my account back as a "one time" exception for doing nothing wrong. Whoever it was that was trigger happy and decided to report me, thank you for messing up my game and leaving a bad taste in my mouth. For those of you who are certain that there are bots "everywhere," please think twice before reporting everyone you see harvesting. Believe it or not, there are actually people out there who are harvesting like a normal person, without any xtra help.

Maybe Gaile could shed some light on this cos I can't see how they could make the error in the first place unless there is more to this than is being said.Such posts have often been cleared up by Gaile with more a more factual account of the issue. If however this is truly an inexcusable error on the part of ANET then that tbh is even more concerning.