Botting in WvW

[schokelmei.8271]

Due to the public holiday on this monday and me getting up early I joined into WvW on the AG/RoS server. After getting ganked by a group of two and three people from my side running by without interfering to "capture a sentry" I got suspicious.

What happened. They all mounted up the same time, ran the same path with the same "weird left to right movement" and ignored the two gankers completely. They went on the sentry even as the sentry guard was far away from them and tried to cap the point. As soon as the sentry came in range they turned 180° and started attacking.

After the sentry cap they went on their mounts and started the same mounted path behaviour to the next sentry (Garrison SW). They took the sentry, ignored both caravans even after they were attacked and ran into NW camp. Took it, ran back to the SW sentry they capped before and waited.

After one minute a group of green came and killed them. Met them back at the border wp and the same "Mounting up, running to sentry - action" started.

 

I did a lot of bot hunting and even tried botting myself in WoW and I know how this works, and I really hope Anet bans those guys before we are on the same level as WoW is on that.

 

Next question: Where to send video proof of that these days? And what can we as community do to end this before it gets totally out of hand?

[MedievalThings.5417]

You have to open a support ticket.  Include a link to the video and all the info you have.  That's the only avenue for that at the moment.

[Acemos.2856]

Unfortunately, this problem is pretty common in WVW. And I think part of the reason it's common is because nothing (or what feels like nothing) is being done about it. I kind of wish that there was some sort of public announcement about the botting that's going on, communication between the devs and players, sorta like warframe's frequent dev streams. If you do want to put in the effort to record and report them, this is what I did. Make a YouTube video clearly exposing botting behavior, then submit a ticket. You'll never really know if the person got banned because that sort of information isn't released, but at least you tried your best.

[Dawdler.8521]

12 minutes ago, Acemos.2856 said:

Unfortunately, this problem is pretty common in WVW.

I've seen it myself once in a blue moon, but its not common. 

[schokelmei.8271]

Í followed a nice little group (not grouped, but walking around as five) bots now through two borderlands. It's fun to see that the accounts are either really new as in 1600 achievement points or really high 28.000 achievement points or higher.

I guess Anet gets a nice little video and i really hope those accounts are gone soon. 

[Acemos.2856]

1 hour ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

I've seen it myself once in a blue moon, but its not common. 

It's pretty common. Especially if you check around like 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. or so. There's quite a few of then running around

[Sleepwalker.1398]

I recently saw a vid of a bot condi mirage being lured by a warrior.

He managed to get her to a high location but 2 other guys from his server came so he stood still and watched them fight.

It was funny to see the 2 guys die to the bot and this warrior dude was laughing....its so funny.

I'll post the clip if i find it.

 

**Found it. This one

Edited May 24, 2021 by Sleepwalker.1398
Added clip

[schokelmei.8271]

The worst part is the terrible contact form Anet has for this. Yes, I can report a player, but for reporting two or more I have to fill out several forms and load up several videos.

Can we get some good tools here? :(

[anduriell.6280]

I would be more annoyed on the slow reaction if any to all the cheaters (as hackers) in WvW than a group of bots not stopping to help you. 

If there is no queue in the map i don't think they suppose a big issue other than having to tp back to respawn. 

 

Cheaters on the other hand make you think a class can do what it actually can't  (an speed hack warrior would make you think warrior has better mobility than a thief) and it muddles the game experience the player can have. 

 

 

 

[Metzie.3012]

47 minutes ago, Sleepwalker.1398 said:

I recently saw a vid of a bot condi mirage being lured by a warrior.

He managed to get her to a high location but 2 other guys from his server came so he stood still and watched them fight.

It was funny to see the 2 guys die to the bot and this warrior dude was laughing....its so funny.

I'll post the clip if i find it.

 

**Found it. This one

 

When you see the guild name in the video, it doesn't surprise me that they also use bots. In any case, this is not an unknown name to many, ...

 

... accordingly, it should be even easier for ANet to do something about it (emphasis on easy, feel free to laugh at this point).

[schokelmei.8271]

Too bad I didn't make the video on the last bot I found. He attacked a player that seemed to have timed out. Sitting on his mount on a sentry, but not disappearing. The bot jumped around him and attacked without hitting.

 

This is another mystery btw. How do those time-outs work? It's happening to me quite often that I see players on mounts that I can target but not attack because they seem to be on another spot.

[Metzie.3012]

1 hour ago, gebrechen.5643 said:

Too bad I didn't make the video on the last bot I found. He attacked a player that seemed to have timed out. Sitting on his mount on a sentry, but not disappearing. The bot jumped around him and attacked without hitting.

 

This is another mystery btw. How do those time-outs work? It's happening to me quite often that I see players on mounts that I can target but not attack because they seem to be on another spot.

 

Or players appear out of nowhere, or flash briefly and are gone again. Happens quite often and is annoying.

[Zizou.2358]

Anet is running own bots too, I'm sure. Especially in PvP but possible that in WvW too. 

Also, if they started banning all those bots, there would be not many 'players' left in those game modes. Kekw

[Daredevil.2745]

Lol i didn't expect anything else from AG, they have a consistent 0.5 KDR week after week, looks like there are only bots there, becasue it is impossible to be that bad in game otherwise.

[displayname.8315]

This would be intriguing if WvW had anything going for it right now.  Still waiting for that day. 

 

Maybe they'll do something in Aug when New World is supposed to release/be pushed back a third time.

[Lavadiel.6231]

Bots from  movie linked by Sleepwalker are very primitive (although still quite deadly on brain dead  mesmers), just one step above  those bots  in 1st year after release (do you remeber 10-30 bots stacked into one spot  in PVE and auto attacking?) .

These days bots in mmo's are very sophisticated and you see them way more often than you might think. By play style/behavior they might be indistinguishable from real players (they can make mistakes or be sub optimal on purpose). The simplest way to reveal them is to try to talk to them, they will either 100% ignore or respond in some unpopular language you do not know (like hungarian for example) to discourage you from further communication.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Lavadiel.6231

[mindcircus.1506]

7 hours ago, gebrechen.5643 said:

I did a lot of bot hunting and even tried botting myself in WoW and I know how this works,

Imagine being a cheater and whining on the forums about cheaters.

[Dawdler.8521]

1 hour ago, Lavadiel.6231 said:

Bots from  movie linked by Sleepwalker are very primitive (although still quite deadly on brain dead  mesmers), just one step above  those bots  in 1st year after release (do you remeber 10-30 bots stacked into one spot  in PVE and auto attacking?) .

These days bots in mmo's are very sophisticated and you see them way more often than you might think. By play style/behavior they might be indistinguishable from real players (they can make mistakes or be sub optimal on purpose). The simplest way to reveal them is to try to talk to them, they will either 100% ignore or respond in some unpopular language you do not know (like hungarian for example) to discourage you from further communication.

Pretty certain that bots can even be clever enough to post this on the forum. Are you a bot?

 

... am I a bot???

[MrForz.1953]

30 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Pretty certain that bots can even be clever enough to post this on the forum. Are you a bot?

 

... am I a bot???

Always have been. 👥

 

On a side note, this makes me question whether the company I had during roaming were bots these last 3 weeks given that I'm JQ. 🤢

Edited May 24, 2021 by MrForz.1953

[Lavadiel.6231]

1 hour ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Pretty certain that bots can even be clever enough to post this on the forum. Are you a bot?

 

... am I a bot???

meaningful conversation with AI indeed is possible now days but this still requires a lot of computing power therefore it is easier to make bot respond semi meaningful phrases in hungarian just to make an impression it is a human.

Also  typical mmo player pve  activities are primitive at best, often just a simple checklist repeated every day with some minor variations. For wvw zerging is even more primitive (and even easier to implement than single roaming/capturing like we can see in linked movie).

In practice this means that  if booting can make profit for some company (either by selling bot software to individuals or just game accounts/gold/goods)  there will be bots in mmo.

[somedude.7519]

This has been going on for years. My favorite bots (IE) run their program to tap garri and then try to gank people running from spawn. If you get their life down to a certain percentage they will utilize hacks and have an escape path that they never deviate from. They will tap the garri even if there is no waypoint and attack you through the door for as long as you stand there. Our whole guild made multiple videos daily for a few weeks in an attempt to get them banned. Last day of the matchup they were still there. Since these bots are not related to gold farming it's clear anet gives zero fawks.

 

[Vavume.8065]

12 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

I've seen it myself once in a blue moon, but its not common. 

On Aurora Glade it is VERY common.

[schokelmei.8271]

On 5/24/2021 at 2:35 PM, mindcircus.1506 said:

Imagine being a cheater and whining on the forums about cheaters.

 

 

Imagine doing something and not thinking it's cool from a later perspective? 

[Biermeister.4678]

On 5/24/2021 at 9:26 AM, MrForz.1953 said:

Always have been. 👥

 

On a side note, this makes me question whether the company I had during roaming were bots these last 3 weeks given that I'm JQ. 🤢

I doubt it because your server would be able to keep a camp if they were bots

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

On 5/24/2021 at 2:06 AM, anduriell.6280 said:

I would be more annoyed on the slow reaction if any to all the cheaters (as hackers) in WvW than a group of bots not stopping to help you. 

If there is no queue in the map i don't think they suppose a big issue other than having to tp back to respawn. 

 

Cheaters on the other hand make you think a class can do what it actually can't  (an speed hack warrior would make you think warrior has better mobility than a thief) and it muddles the game experience the player can have. 

 

 

 

Something of note here:  Permaswift Warriors using Rune of Speed and leaps do have more mobility than Thief, in fact the most mobility possible in the game. its called "Nike Warrior", though its not as common after the (modest) nerf to the runes.

 

Be careful, actual hacking is rare. Most of the time its just very specialised builds.

 

@ Thread:

As for detecting bots, usually the most tell-tale sign of an actual player is backing up and trying to get reoriented. Bots never become disoriented, but it happens to even the best players fairly often because battlefields constantly change.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Hannelore.8153