89816-continue-the-bot-wars-do

== Content ==
			
Quick update on the current state of the late-June botwar:
 
 
Some concrete info:  We've banned/suspended about 7300 accounts in the last 3 days or so between various detection methods and player reports.  Obviously 7300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base, but it's a noticeable chunk of the current bots.
 
Our strong goal is to get botters/RMTers knocked out of the game entirely.  The fight goes on, as alluded to in my first post on the subject 12 days ago here:  https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/79447-mass-bothack-bans-round-1/ .
 
The main upcoming fix for us is going to be reporting tools integrated with our back end processes letting you easily submit reports and our CS teams to easily field them.  Those should be coming online next week if they make it through the QA process - this basically mirrors what we were able to do for zone spam (which got cut down efficiently based on a similar system).  A few addon developers have worked on the ease-of-reporting part of this in the interim (thanks guys, it's appreciated).
 
We've also further tuned our automated bot detection processes; we've been careful to catch as few innocents in the web as possible.  We can't go into a ton of details (don't want to give the botters hints on avoiding detection) but you've probably seen some improvements in botters getting knocked out of the game.  It's also not perfect yet, but we've made some good strides.
 
Many (between 50%-70%, not all data is in yet) of those 7K+ accounts are compromised - regular players who have (usually) re-used account names and passwords from other stuff on the internet (games, email, etc.) and thus are vulnerable to hacking.  PLEASE do use 2-factor authentication if possible.
 
This implies that as we ban these accounts, they rapidly go into the CS queues for us to put back into the hands of the original owners.  We've been prioritizing these, but it does mean delays in other queues as we work through it.  We've made some tool improvements on the dev side for CS to help out, as well as helping out with a variety of other teams in various ways (from answering tickets to prioritizing automated fixes for things like the riding skill reimbursements).  It's a whole team effort to get things wrangled.
 
Also this implies that as we ban/suspend accounts, the farmers compromise new accounts to keep the bot army flowing.  Please protect your account - if not with 2FA then with a unique account and password combo (keylogging does occur though; we don't have confirmed reports of it now but it will happen at some point if not already).
 
On the CS fronts, we've freed up some CS to folks patrol to get reports from folks in zone chat in real time as well - if you see one online, please do feed them names for banning action.
 
We're attacking this with a full-spectrum approach as a placeholder until we get to the better tools that should help in the short-medium term.  We acknowledge it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, and we're working to eliminate it.  Hopefully you've noticed a difference already, but regardless we'll keep updating as we move forward as well.
 
Thanks guys -
 
-jg
			
				
	Edited July 2, 2014 by CRB_Gaffer	
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			Great news.  Keep up the good work.	
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			Excellent to hear! I'm sure that we'll continue to see progress! I've noticed a very visible drop in the chunk of teleporting bots over the last few days on Pago, so your efforts are definitely paying off. =)	
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Great news.  Keep up the good work.
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Looking forward to the improved report functions.
 
I have about 10 /tickets on teleport bots, and because the support queues are obviously being hammered, I get about 10 replies a couple of times per day telling me they are trying to get to my request.
 
I dont particularly care for a reply, just want you to get the report and ban them :)
 
I still dont understand why everyone doesnt just use 2form auth :(	
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			Is using the bot detection addons that people write helpful? Really hard to catch teleport botter names on my own.	
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			Really good to hear, keep up the good work, Carbine. ^_^	
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Please make 2-factor authentication  mandatory. For those few without a smartphone there are options like https://winauth.com/.
 
Besides that I haven't seen a single bot last evening during my three hours of playtime! So whatever you did, it at least improved the situation temporarily!	
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Just wanted to say that yesterday was a noticeable improvement in the farming bot situation. Where usually only about 15% of all resource nodes would be up since legions of bots were teleporting around gathering them, yesterday they all were there, and I did not see one single bot during my ~60 minute gathering round.
 
I don't know if it was the recent ban wave(s), the change to plant hitpoints (boy are those some tough plants now :D), the simple need for even the botters to patch or simply caution of many bot users after a massive patch and it's possibly security changes - might have been a combination of all of the above, but I have to say:
 
Well done - keep it up, more of this please!
 
 
 	
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			These are great news, keep up the great work guys!	
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Great news. As an honest player I was getting despondent - even at this early stages.
 
Last night was a welcome relief, didn't see one botter in the zones I was in - keep up the good work....
 
Also, as someone posted above, you're doing a great job in replying to our reports, which is obviously more work for you guys.....Maybe for the future on the reporting function, stick a tick box to ask if we want to be updated, or if we're just happy to report - we (well, I certainly), trust you will get around to the end result, and don't need to take up anymore of your time replying back to me (us) etc.....
 
May I ask a question, were a majority of these accounts logging in from certain geographical areas of the world *cough*sweatshop*cough* perchance?
 
Regards,	
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			Finnaly! 	
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Good work.
 
I sincerely hope that one cannot say: "My account was hacked" when the bot programmed was used from the same IP adress or the same area for that matter. If an account has been used to bot for days it's quite suspscious that the owner has not reborted it hacked, but only reports if after a ban occurs. As I see it, players willing to cheat is a big threat to the game, as the consequenses for getting caught are too low. 
 
As a comparison, there was ALOT of players who used the bank error/cheat in ESO, where they duplicated items. Many didn't give a f. as they were at the worst getting banned for a week. The damage was already done then, as people had wealth beyond what others could create in years.
 	
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First page?
Hi Carbine,
Great job so far in striking down the bot meance. The plant health change is probably the best thing so far and whatever avenue you're using for auto-detection seems to have smacked them HARD at the core hackerbase.
 
Looking forward to the new report function, keep up the good work.	
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			Awesome job so far. I've already seen a big drop in the number of teleporters around.	
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Yes, it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, I agree...
Currently my character is running around "cheating" in Southern Grimvault.
 
Let me give some background:
I formated my computer and made a fresh install once Wildstar prelaunch started.
Windows 8.1: Windows Defender, Windows security on High as well as Firewall with a load of restrictions.
Additionally: Malwarebytes Pro and Avast Antivirus Pro is running.
Password: The one chosen is unique for this game.
 
I have scanned and rescanned and there has been no trojans, malware, virus or anything of that sort.
 
Yet, for some reason, my character is currently teleporting around in Southern Grimvault at this very moment without my controll and when I try to log in I just get booted off again.
Geting on my account doesn't seem to work at this point either because it's under maintenance.
 
 
Maybe it's not the users but your own account server that has been hacked and that's how they are geting our account info and then you keep us in the dark and blame the users?
So say the least, I am pretty furious right now.
 
 
Edit: Account servers are finaly up again. Loged in and changed password to an even longer password. Will await customer support to my email to actions that will be taken.	
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			Sounds great Carbine. Doing a timely job on the Bot War. I and other hopefully will keep encouraging other non-forum goers to heavily report Botters. Especially in BG's. Having a botter all night long in your BG's when getting back from work, and losing every game because of it, is not fun. 	
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You've earned.......
 
A tip of the hat.
 
*tipped*	
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So glad you guys have given us the ability to use authenticators and that you are getting the bots hanled in good order.  I just have two requests.
 
1)  Please include a link for the official Microsoft Authenticator app for Windows Phone on the security page next to the other two operating systems.  It sits solidly in the number three spot for smartphone ecosystems and is steady growing at a nice clip.  Here's a link to the app and it works like a regular Google Authenticator:  http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/authenticator/e7994dbc-2336-4950-91ba-ca22d653759b
 
2)  Please make it as clear as possible that we should save/screenshot the QR code when adding Wildstar to the authenticator, otherwise we have to go through support to remove or re-add it and you guys are swamped as it is.
 
I think you are doing a wonderful job and look forward to seeing how you continue to support this fine game.	
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Ok, lets check your words. Right now we have a quantity lots. After two days the quantity has to be less. Around 20% less. 
 
 
 
 
 	
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PLEASE do use 2-factor authentication if possible.
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			Carbine, your efforts are much appreciated. Thank you. But... stay frosty!  :)	
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I seem to see a lot of people who "get hacked" and complain "didn't know" about authentication systems. Something that may be good to implement is when logging into the game, have a pop-up stating "You do not have an authenticator on this account. In order to increase your security, please consider using one of these free options" and have a link to a guide for phone apps / computer apps. That way NO ONE can have the excuse of "I didn't know about it" and becomes more widely known. I know you have advertised and give rewards and everything is in patch notes or in the top corner of character select, but please make it BLATANTLY OBVIOUS for everyone that it exists, gets bonuses, is simple, and prevents stolen accounts. 
 
We can shout until we are blue in the face, but until something goes wrong people won't care. Make it more obvious, more of a nuisance to not have one than it is to have one. 
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Great work! Culling the Herd of Weak Cupcakes is a necessary evil. Culling out these Weak Cupcakes will help ensure optimal gameplay. Botting = Weak Cupcakes
. ;)	
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Yes, it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, I agree...
Currently my character is running around "cheating" in Southern Grimvault.
 
Let me give some background:
I formated my computer and made a fresh install once Wildstar prelaunch started.
Windows 8.1: Windows Defender, Windows security on High as well as Firewall with a load of restrictions.
Additionally: Malwarebytes Pro and Avast Antivirus Pro is running.
Password: The one chosen is unique for this game.
 
I have scanned and rescanned and there has been no trojans, malware, virus or anything of that sort.
 
Yet, for some reason, my character is currently teleporting around in Southern Grimvault at this very moment without my controll and when I try to log in I just get booted off again.
Geting on my account doesn't seem to work at this point either because it's under maintenance.
 
 
Maybe it's not the users but your own account server that has been hacked and that's how they are geting our account info and then you keep us in the dark and blame the users?
So say the least, I am pretty furious right now.
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Using the authenticator? 
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Should that even matter?
If security is "working as intended", there really shouldn't be any need for some added security layer.
 
Additionally; I changed my password once the account servers got back online. It's now even longer and complex. Though about 10 minutes ago my account got suspended for 168 hours.
...So I just manage to get my account back, change the password, I wait for a reply from Carbine to the mail I sent (apart from the automated one) and then my account gets turned off.
 
Yeah... A loss for words atm....
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			I will say that I've never seen this level of account compromise in any other game, even WoW didn't seem to have this degree of hacked accounts.  Perhaps Carbine could do what Eve does regarding security - if you log in from an unknown IP address, the game asks for the name of one of your characters to verify your account.  This is done on both the website and in the game.  That would enhance account security, but I imagine NCSoft would also need to do their part as they manage the login portals.	
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>If security is "working as intended", there really shouldn't be any need for some added security layer.
 
There's Wildstar's security, and then there's yours.  A flaw in either can lead to a compromised account.  
 
Wildstar can't guarantee the security of your desktop, browser, postit-note with your password on it, etc.  
 
They go to the highest standard for MMOs and offer 2-factor authentication, so even with unknown security on the user's end, they can still offer a nigh-100% compromise-free experience for those who use 2FA.
 
I use 2FA on any service that offers it.  I have never been hacked on any of those services.  
 
Adapt.	
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Currently my character is running around "cheating" in Southern Grimvault.
 
Let me give some background:
I formated my computer and made a fresh install once Wildstar prelaunch started.
Windows 8.1: Windows Defender, Windows security on High as well as Firewall with a load of restrictions.
Additionally: Malwarebytes Pro and Avast Antivirus Pro is running.
Password: The one chosen is unique for this game.
 
I have scanned and rescanned and there has been no trojans, malware, virus or anything of that sort.
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To be fair, most of the reason the zones were clear of botters is because the patch changes many things around that makes the current programs the bad players use to cheat with useless until those have been patched.
 
While 7K accounts being banned is great, it's really not going to stop the botters in the long run. They'll update their programs once the figure out what all was changed and be right back at it. Until the next new popular MMO hits the stores and they flock to that. Which is basically why ESO saw a massive reduction in botters once Wildstar got going.
 
It's nice that Carbine is "trying" to do things to prevent the rampant cheating in this game, but in my opinion as a developer myself, the core problem is the inherent design of the game.
 
First off, make 2 step authentication mandatory. That right there will stop a lot of the gold farmers/botters. Limit where trial/free accounts can go in the game period. Force a hard detection by the server and purposefully send them back to areas they belong if they are in a spot they aren't suppose to be.
 
Be a bit more strict on server movement authentication. I'm not saying to let the server dictate movement detection and have people deal with rubberbanding, I am saying have the server be a bit better on detection for extreme movements without certain conditions being met.
 
And get rid of the aimbot code along with fixing the hit detection problem in this game.
 
Of course, the biggest fix is unfortunately not the be the newest/popular game on the shelf.	
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Wish I could have posted this on the front page a couple hours ago whilst I was at work.Two comics everyone needs to read.
 
Seriously:  These two comics are actually pretty huge deal (with abit of humor in them)  and they make a good point about the bad habits we've been taught for password strength and security.
 
These two comics convey what I try to tell/teach people for years since my days GM'ing for RO private servers.Keep your **** safe and private...  
 	
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			Excellent news!! :D	
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			I have most definitely seen a LOT more mining nodes around lately! And not just in my house like in the peak of all this botting madness.	
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Just wanted to say that yesterday was a noticeable improvement in the farming bot situation. Where usually only about 15% of all resource nodes would be up since legions of bots were teleporting around gathering them, yesterday they all were there, and I did not see one single bot during my ~60 minute gathering round.
 
I don't know if it was the recent ban wave(s), the change to plant hitpoints (boy are those some tough plants now :D), the simple need for even the botters to patch or simply caution of many bot users after a massive patch and it's possibly security changes - might have been a combination of all of the above, but I have to say:
 
Well done - keep it up, more of this please!
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Should that even matter?
If security is "working as intended", there really shouldn't be any need for some added security layer.
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			Thank you so much for taking this issue, and us as players, seriously.  A lot of us really appreciate what you are doing to keep this game free of bots and cheaters.  We do see all the hard work you are putting in and most of us will be your long time customers.	
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			Credit where credit is due. I've been VERY critical of how this was handled early, but it looks like Carbine is turning things around now. I'm impressed.	
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Physical Authenticators to purchase please!
 
We want our FOBS :D	
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I am getting those nodes pretty nicely now.
 
Carbine you never stop to amaze me	
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I don't really care about botting TBH what I do care about is ones that can teleport. I don't mind bots if I have a chance at beating and outsmarting them with farming nodes.
There's no real need to ban accounts (it does help with spammers though) just a way to stop the ability to hack the games mechanics.
 
PvP "bots" are cancer though...	
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			The Yoda is strong with this one.	
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Getting the compromised accounts back into their hands is all nice and dandy, but what about the items they lost?
 
My boyfriend is one of them. After I alerted him that his account was logged in, he immediately changed his password and installed 2-step verification, but he was banned for a week shortly after. All that you have to do his remove the ban, and his account is back in his hands. However, he was wearing his PvP gear at the time, so the hacker vendored all of his good PvE gear. He also lost all of his runes, all of his gold, and all of his crafting mats. He said that if his stuff is lost forever, he's not going to want to start over. 
 
Additional comment: We believe that he was keylogged. He told me that his password was unique (never used before), and not an easy one to guess. He's not the kind of person to stupidly click on random links though or to input his password on a random website. He's a chemical engineer -- not some idiot. 
 
P.S. What about people who don't have a smartphone? Any possibility that you will create a portable authenticator?	
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Just catch and ban bots is not an option.
Ban account that cost 60$  that earned for example 500$ on selling gold?
Boter just will bye another one. And again take a long time before he was caught.
For now at the start of the game they are do bans, after a while they will stop doing it as it was with WOW.
Ideally, the game mechanics should be to use a bot there was no point.
 
P.S. Did you see the kind of bots that not just run around, but can pew pew too?Their telegraph aiming perfectly, it always on you.What that mean?! There are must be already cheat for perfect aiming avaible too.	
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Hey carbina i have a suggestion for you. :rolleyes:Motivate players to fight with bots.For example - if i report 50 bots which eventually got banned - give me free month subscription.For 100 bots give title - Bot slayer.. or something.For 500 bots give special costume.
Then players really start hunt on bots, and their number is reduced seriously.	
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Getting the compromised accounts back into their hands is all nice and dandy, but what about the items they lost?
 
My boyfriend is one of them. After I alerted him that his account was logged in, he immediately changed his password and installed 2-step verification, but he was banned for a week shortly after. All that you have to do his remove the ban, and his account is back in his hands. However, he was wearing his PvP gear at the time, so the hacker vendored all of his good PvE gear. He also lost all of his runes, all of his gold, and all of his crafting mats. He said that if his stuff is lost forever, he's not going to want to start over. 
 
Additional comment: We believe that he was keylogged. He told me that his password was unique (never used before), and not an easy one to guess. He's not the kind of person to stupidly click on random links though or to input his password on a random website. He's a chemical engineer -- not some idiot. 
 
P.S. What about people who don't have a smartphone? Any possibility that you will create a portable authenticator?
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As much as I feel like this is just continuing on the process of adding basic functionality that definitely should have been in the game at launch, I'm very happy to hear this is happening.
 
Oh also, If it's possible I think it would be a good idea to have an option to take a screenshot when reporting someone. So like if their guild name is the name of a gold buying site or they're running into a wall it'll just make all the cases of people being reported as bots who may or may  not actually be that much clearer cut. I was banned for about 11 days because your algorithm thought I was trying to sell gold so I know what it's like to get wrongfully banned and I don't wish it on anyone.	
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Ok, lets check your words. Right now we have a quantity lots. After two days the quantity has to be less. Around 20% less. 
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@warchiefr: You need incentive?  I was getting a bot killed for fun.  It would just run up and swipe at me, so it was pretty simple to drag it to an elite, which it would tag.  A few runs on those, and it would die off pretty quick.
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			No being someone who cares about the game and keeping it alive and fun should report bots because that is best for the game.  The only people it would be good for is the cheaters who want a free months play time to run more bots on accounts they steal and then report. 	
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			I have some tickets in reporting accounts which seem to have been dealt with during this wave. Would it be helpful for me to cancel those tickets? Just a drop in the bucket, but if it'd lighten the load on customer service, a drop is worth saving.	
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Just played for three hours straight without running into a single (teleporting/obvious) bot. As an additional bonus I was able to get enough T4 seeds to fill my farm up with them for the first time (lvl 44).
 
Whatever you did worked, keep doing it. Thanks devs.	
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Yes, it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, I agree...
Currently my character is running around "cheating" in Southern Grimvault.
 
Let me give some background:
I formated my computer and made a fresh install once Wildstar prelaunch started.
Windows 8.1: Windows Defender, Windows security on High as well as Firewall with a load of restrictions.
Additionally: Malwarebytes Pro and Avast Antivirus Pro is running.
Password: The one chosen is unique for this game.
 
I have scanned and rescanned and there has been no trojans, malware, virus or anything of that sort.
 
Yet, for some reason, my character is currently teleporting around in Southern Grimvault at this very moment without my controll and when I try to log in I just get booted off again.
Geting on my account doesn't seem to work at this point either because it's under maintenance.
 
 
Maybe it's not the users but your own account server that has been hacked and that's how they are geting our account info and then you keep us in the dark and blame the users?
So say the least, I am pretty furious right now.
 
 
Edit: Account servers are finaly up again. Loged in and changed password to an even longer password. Will await customer support to my email to actions that will be taken.
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Using winauth myself.  That and the google authenticator for PC.
 
@warchiefr: You need incentive?  I was getting a bot killed for fun.  It would just run up and swipe at me, so it was pretty simple to drag it to an elite, which it would tag.  A few runs on those, and it would die off pretty quick.
 
Still, the bots can, and will, get more complex.  As long as Carbine go after results though- all bots need results.  Make some internal leaderboards for kills in each zone, time spent fighting in each zone, harvests in each zone, etc etc.... players can't compete, so bots will give themselves up easily.  A bot can easily slaughter in a zone, but players will get bored much more quickly.  Then a GM goes down the list, spectating the players one by one, so if one is an actual player, they just get ignored, while the bots get banned.
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Should that even matter?
If security is "working as intended", there really shouldn't be any need for some added security layer.
 
Additionally; I changed my password once the account servers got back online. It's now even longer and complex. Though about 10 minutes ago my account got suspended for 168 hours.
...So I just manage to get my account back, change the password, I wait for a reply from Carbine to the mail I sent (apart from the automated one) and then my account gets turned off.
 
Yeah... A loss for words atm....
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Thanks for the update. I am already seeing a decreased number of bots in the zones where I have been questing (really that only means that I am actually able to grab a node or two for myself once in a while without it being snaked by a teleporting, but that is a start as before I could not)
 
Thanks for the hard work to combat this issue.	
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Quantity may initially go down, but will pick up again as players realize there's money to be had in gathering again. You'll actually want to look for price increases, maybe 20%.
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As much as I feel like this is just continuing on the process of adding basic functionality that definitely should have been in the game at launch, I'm very happy to hear this is happening.
 
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Actually want to look quantity lots in the auction house . Around 40% less bots = lowest lots in auction. I chose for myself survivalist , and you know what auc never have lots more 2k. That means real players can put 500- 3k max. 
 
You can say anything like : we help people. And i must check your words. Maybe just maybe no one get a ban. I must be sure.
 
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			Yes, I see the difference. Yesterday I quested for several hours and I haven't seen even one bot! Huge game improvement. Excellent job Carabine. Keep up the fight with botters because it makes us enjoy the game better. Yes, the authenticator it's a must have. I suggest anyone getting it.	
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So the gathering bots are pretty much gone, at least in Malgrave on Evindra (and in Wilderrun all the ones I'd reported had poofed too). But the new thing, or the new-to-me thing since this is my first time to Malgrave, is level 50 bots farming mobs. Rattlebone Flats in the roan area has three strangely named level 50s who run around killing everything. This is kind of obnoxious because they're quest mobs. It's also somewhat amusing when they run into the questgiver who gives the roan/chompy/etc quests and stand there shooting at him for a minute or so before their AI realizes "they that's not a thing I can kill."
 
I have of course put in report tickets on the three of them, and I'll do so again if I run into another botnest. This is just a heads-up in case y'all were somehow unaware of this new(?) front in the war.
 
(Their names are Ffwa, usadnew, and usdenra if anyone wants to go play with them. They are flagged and Dominion so if any Evindra pvpers happen to see this somehow, go kill em a few dozen times for me, ok?)	
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It seems to be too easy to change the password - mine has been changed 3 times in the last week but I do use the authenticator app so my account is OK for the time being.
 
I've tried to change my e-mail address but it seems I can't do that until August as you're only allowed 1 change in 90 days.
 
So, why can't you implement a "secret question / answer" or request a valid authenticator code when someone requests a password change ?	
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			Can't confirm that at all. On Day one there where a noticeable reduction of bots….but no, some days after the cleaning, there mostly all back on track: The thing that disappoints me, that it would be so easy to programmatically detect Teleporters, but they are still there, flying in like a bird to the mines, and 1 sec after they are gone. Just reading their names for a ticket is pretty hard.	
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Can't confirm that at all. On Day one there where a noticeable reduction of bots….but no, some days after the cleaning, there mostly all back on track: The thing that disappoints me, that it would be so easy to programmatically detect Teleporters, but they are still there, flying in like a bird to the mines, and 1 sec after they are gone. Just reading their names for a ticket is pretty hard.
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Just wanted to throw some odd ideas out there,
 
Farming bots-  they always move to closest node and stay with it.   Make some nodes that cannot be harvested (they can try), most people would say "bugged node" and walk away....bot should stay with them.   basically "Flypaper".    could also for grins put them at bottom of ocean or in fire and have a respawn nearby....
 
pvp bots, make starting area/spawn in battlegrounds a no exp/afk flag area, then make the exit points a bit smaller and add something we see in pve - water with currents that move you in some direction,     make the respawn area somewhat random, make it harder to program a bot to head for exit....but something a player can do without thinking....unless really really laggy....
 
 
 	
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The level 11ish bots are back in force today, teleporting around in Grimvault. Hardly a node up.
 
Watched one instanly harvest a relic node in front of me. That's one the thing you don't hear much about in these threads: it's not just a teleport hack, it's an instant gathering hack too.
 
So while the increased health of resources seemed like a great way to shut the lowby hackers, it's over already.
 
I reported the 6 that I saw (well botter saw) in my first 5 minutes in the zone.
 
Very disappointing that they apparently rebounded from whatever was done so quick. And sure reporting tools might help, but why in the world can they teleport and insta-farm. That needs to be detected and stopped or it will always be a losing battle, a messed up economy, an unpleasant experience and ultimately a failed game.	
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I've been seeing some different bot behavior for a few days. A few (3 so far in Southern Grimvault) of them don't teleport, they just fade in next to the node, harvest it, then fade away.
Haven't managed to catch the names yet, so no reports.	
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yes they dont move now most of them while normally u would see the teleport streak as a fast moving character I saw a chua in wildrun today just stealth in and out to nodes. but this is how it always is in all games now with bots, they are down for a day while the program/scripts etc get redone to avoid what MIGHT of been put in place then its re roll and back to bizz for them!
 
bit of a joke on all us paying for a game we want to enjoy really.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Quick update on the current state of the late-June botwar:
 
 
Some concrete info:  We've banned/suspended about 7300 accounts in the last 3 days or so between various detection methods and player reports.  Obviously 7300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base, but it's a noticeable chunk of the current bots.
 
Our strong goal is to get botters/RMTers knocked out of the game entirely.  The fight goes on, as alluded to in my first post on the subject 12 days ago here:  https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/79447-mass-bothack-bans-round-1/ .
 
The main upcoming fix for us is going to be reporting tools integrated with our back end processes letting you easily submit reports and our CS teams to easily field them.  Those should be coming online next week if they make it through the QA process - this basically mirrors what we were able to do for zone spam (which got cut down efficiently based on a similar system).  A few addon developers have worked on the ease-of-reporting part of this in the interim (thanks guys, it's appreciated).
 
We've also further tuned our automated bot detection processes; we've been careful to catch as few innocents in the web as possible.  We can't go into a ton of details (don't want to give the botters hints on avoiding detection) but you've probably seen some improvements in botters getting knocked out of the game.  It's also not perfect yet, but we've made some good strides.
 
Many (between 50%-70%, not all data is in yet) of those 7K+ accounts are compromised - regular players who have (usually) re-used account names and passwords from other stuff on the internet (games, email, etc.) and thus are vulnerable to hacking.  PLEASE do use 2-factor authentication if possible.
 
This implies that as we ban these accounts, they rapidly go into the CS queues for us to put back into the hands of the original owners.  We've been prioritizing these, but it does mean delays in other queues as we work through it.  We've made some tool improvements on the dev side for CS to help out, as well as helping out with a variety of other teams in various ways (from answering tickets to prioritizing automated fixes for things like the riding skill reimbursements).  It's a whole team effort to get things wrangled.
 
Also this implies that as we ban/suspend accounts, the farmers compromise new accounts to keep the bot army flowing.  Please protect your account - if not with 2FA then with a unique account and password combo (keylogging does occur though; we don't have confirmed reports of it now but it will happen at some point if not already).
 
On the CS fronts, we've freed up some CS to folks patrol to get reports from folks in zone chat in real time as well - if you see one online, please do feed them names for banning action.
 
We're attacking this with a full-spectrum approach as a placeholder until we get to the better tools that should help in the short-medium term.  We acknowledge it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, and we're working to eliminate it.  Hopefully you've noticed a difference already, but regardless we'll keep updating as we move forward as well.
 
Thanks guys -
 
-jg
----
			Awesome job guys, keep up the good work! A few days back a friend of mine, Thanatal, got sick of the constant complaining in chat, and decided to do something about it. So he stealth camped several nodes in Wildrun, and just reported botters left and right for hours. He had tons of emails from Carbine support, and noticed an immediate difference the next few days, so you guys are clearly acting.This isn't a problem you can simply stop overnight, and good to see you aren't gonna rest on your laurels.	
----
			I don't know if it'll be a ton of work or not but since these bots move REALLY FAST i was wondering if there is any possible way to have it so there is a report character with right clicking?? 	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Awesome job guys, keep up the good work! 
 
A few days back a friend of mine, Thanatal, got sick of the constant complaining in chat, and decided to do something about it. So he stealth camped several nodes in Wildrun, and just reported botters left and right for hours. He had tons of emails from Carbine support, and noticed an immediate difference the next few days, so you guys are clearly acting.
 
This isn't a problem you can simply stop overnight, and good to see you aren't gonna rest on your laurels.
----
			What about aimbotters / aim exploiters?	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
I've been considering something like this in Wilderun on Myrcalus. The zone is constantly swept clean of mining nodes and thanks to the high enemy density I don't always have the chance to nab a screen shot. I managed to report one bot but I know there are others.
 
 
While not quite the same, there's an addon called One Click Bot Report that lets you file a report with a simple command line in the chat window. All you need is to spell the player's name right and you're done. 
 
----
			
It seems to me like one solution could be the following: Have you noticed that when you as a player try to climb over mountains or regions that have no accesible waypoints, you get a countdown and a message that states Forbidden Area? If you insist and let the countdown run its course, you immediately die and must respawn.
 
Methinks  that if Carbine implemented a sensible level requirement for these areas, say 20 levels below is a no no, the offending player would be tagged as entering a Forbidden Area and thus would just be dying on a constant loop.
 
Just my two cents, although there's a noticeable reduction in Stormtalon these days, at least one can farm decently.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I don't know if it'll be a ton of work or not but since these bots move REALLY FAST i was wondering if there is any possible way to have it so there is a report character with right clicking?? 
----
			
Tangentially related to bots is mail spam. I noticed that I got a spam mail today that hid the gold-selling stuff in curly braces, which gets stripped from the spam report. So mail that looks like:
Excuse me,{
HAY GOLD SELLING SPAM WITH PRICES AND WHATNOT HERE
} thanks
ends up in the spam report as
Excuse me, thanks
which makes me look like I'm reporting a random message, and maybe the person in CS reviewing the report won't ban the offender (who was pretty obviously a compromised account.)
 
Just something to throw out there- the bad guys keep getting smarter, so us good guys do too.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
I've been considering something like this in Wilderun on Myrcalus. The zone is constantly swept clean of mining nodes and thanks to the high enemy density I don't always have the chance to nab a screen shot. I managed to report one bot but I know there are others.
 
 
While not quite the same, there's an addon called One Click Bot Report that lets you file a report with a simple command line in the chat window. All you need is to spell the player's name right and you're done. 
 
----
			Bots are still prevalent. Was leveling an alt in wilderrun and previous zones and I saw 5 bots in a row teleport behind each other. I really don't understand why there isn't code in place that checks consecutive movement speed and why didn't Carbine plan for this? Banning bots in waves doesn't solve the root issue btw	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Bots are still prevalent. Was leveling an alt in wilderrun and previous zones and I saw 5 bots in a row teleport behind each other. I really don't understand why there isn't code in place that checks consecutive movement speed and why didn't Carbine plan for this? Banning bots in waves doesn't solve the root issue btw
----
			
They don't need to DO anything at all automatically.  The server should just compile a list of people who "lag" a lot and sort it by the ones who harvest a lot.  Then a GM goes down the list and suspends- heck, they'll probably be online still for the GM to just pop on over and take a look themselves!
 
Also, bot-detection addons are starting to pop up:
http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221967-botzapper
 
http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221961-botbuster
 
I have zapper already, buster is even newer.  Both should work.  There's a few addons that will remember people near you.  So if you're near the node and they flash in and out instantly and you can't even screenshot them?  Just set things like http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221807-botter to log mode, and report at your leisure.  Machines to fight machines, wahey!  :D	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
They don't need to DO anything at all automatically.  The server should just compile a list of people who "lag" a lot and sort it by the ones who harvest a lot.  Then a GM goes down the list and suspends- heck, they'll probably be online still for the GM to just pop on over and take a look themselves!
 
Also, bot-detection addons are starting to pop up:
http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221967-botzapper
 
http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221961-botbuster
 
I have zapper already, buster is even newer.  Both should work.  There's a few addons that will remember people near you.  So if you're near the node and they flash in and out instantly and you can't even screenshot them?  Just set things like http://www.curse.com/ws-addons/wildstar/221807-botter to log mode, and report at your leisure.  Machines to fight machines, wahey!   :D
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
It has to do with how their exploit works. My understanding is they exploit how the server handles players at high latency. It's not a simple thing to fix; they could just arbitrarily boot anyone who is above a certain latency threshold, but that would have the side effect of being terrible for ordinary players who have lagspikes.
 
Believe me, behind the scenes they are fighting a technical war against exploiters. We don't see or hear much about it, because the more they make public, the more they give away to the enemy.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
the bot wars 
----
			
Sitting in Southern Grimvault right now on Evindra watching all of the bots in the zone keep dying to this Prime mob that is right on a node. lol
 
Reporting away as the army of bots are destroyed lol.	
----
			
Those of you who have been diligently reporting bots, thank you!  I hate bots, and as of last week I ended up as one of those 50-70%'ers.  My account was suspened for 4 days while carbine sorted out the situation.  When I was finally able to log on this weekend my main's mining skill had increased and my map no longer had the fog of war.  If I had known what had happened, that I not only was account compormissed but I had become a filthy bot I probobly would have been a lot nicer to customer service. 
I've learned my lesson, 2 step verification from now on!	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Quick update on the current state of the late-June botwar:
 
 
Some concrete info:  We've banned/suspended about 7300 accounts in the last 3 days or so between various detection methods and player reports.  Obviously 7300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base, but it's a noticeable chunk of the current bots.
 
Our strong goal is to get botters/RMTers knocked out of the game entirely.  The fight goes on, as alluded to in my first post on the subject 12 days ago here:  https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/79447-mass-bothack-bans-round-1/ .
 
The main upcoming fix for us is going to be reporting tools integrated with our back end processes letting you easily submit reports and our CS teams to easily field them.  Those should be coming online next week if they make it through the QA process - this basically mirrors what we were able to do for zone spam (which got cut down efficiently based on a similar system).  A few addon developers have worked on the ease-of-reporting part of this in the interim (thanks guys, it's appreciated).
 
We've also further tuned our automated bot detection processes; we've been careful to catch as few innocents in the web as possible.  We can't go into a ton of details (don't want to give the botters hints on avoiding detection) but you've probably seen some improvements in botters getting knocked out of the game.  It's also not perfect yet, but we've made some good strides.
 
Many (between 50%-70%, not all data is in yet) of those 7K+ accounts are compromised - regular players who have (usually) re-used account names and passwords from other stuff on the internet (games, email, etc.) and thus are vulnerable to hacking.  PLEASE do use 2-factor authentication if possible.
 
This implies that as we ban these accounts, they rapidly go into the CS queues for us to put back into the hands of the original owners.  We've been prioritizing these, but it does mean delays in other queues as we work through it.  We've made some tool improvements on the dev side for CS to help out, as well as helping out with a variety of other teams in various ways (from answering tickets to prioritizing automated fixes for things like the riding skill reimbursements).  It's a whole team effort to get things wrangled.
 
Also this implies that as we ban/suspend accounts, the farmers compromise new accounts to keep the bot army flowing.  Please protect your account - if not with 2FA then with a unique account and password combo (keylogging does occur though; we don't have confirmed reports of it now but it will happen at some point if not already).
 
On the CS fronts, we've freed up some CS to folks patrol to get reports from folks in zone chat in real time as well - if you see one online, please do feed them names for banning action.
 
We're attacking this with a full-spectrum approach as a placeholder until we get to the better tools that should help in the short-medium term.  We acknowledge it sucks when you see obvious cheaters, and we're working to eliminate it.  Hopefully you've noticed a difference already, but regardless we'll keep updating as we move forward as well.
 
Thanks guys -
 
-jg
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Great work mate, us legitimate node-grubbers appreciate the efforts you guys are striving through!
 
One quick question though; I know the legitimacy of botting/hacking claims is something that must make the ban process a hell of a lot harder, so is there any function or soon-to-be-introduced function in which we may supplement our claims with screenshots and/or Fraps videos of these botters? I personally have hundreds of screenshots which show, for example, level 10 players named "gfggfgfgfg" mining Xenocite nodes in Malgrave.
 
Thanks mate, and all the best! :D
----
			Thank you, thank you, thanks you.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Sitting in Southern Grimvault right now on Evindra watching all of the bots in the zone keep dying to this Prime mob that is right on a node. lol
 
Reporting away as the army of bots are destroyed lol.
----
			The amount of bots showing up in pvp again is appalling, I've reported a whole lot today.  My last match was at least 40% bots.  This is going to KILL the pvp game faster than anything IMO.  Wtf is going on and why is this happening!?	
----
			
My account was one that had been compromised.  I got it back and enabled two factor authentication.  I think Wildstar could drastically reduce the number of accounts that get compromised by simply implementing the same IP based connection security that they use with their site.  It would be easier for users to allow IPs from which the game client can connect than to get users to use an authenticator.  In my case, if the game client was only able to connect from the IP that was listed in my account management page, my account would not have been compromised.  
 
Also, all of the bots I have seen running rampant in Wilderrun appear to be legitamate accounts that have simply been compromised.  So, legit paying customers are not able to play.  	
----
			Nice work Carbine!! Now fix the dungeons next please	
----
			Seen only one 11lvl bot last night in Western Grimvault, teleporting as usual. Seems them found new way.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
More like bot slaps. Too slow with all these "wars" with miserable results...
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
bait and a flyswatter :)   add a nearby respawn so that node is always the nearest one detected when the bot respawns.   Use bot behavior against them.   add durability to tools maybe.  put harmful environment effects around random nodes something player will see and learn to stay away from.   one behavior harvesting bots have is they go to resource nodes- use it against them.  maybe make nodes that teleport those trying to mine them into some horrible instanced place from which they can never escape.    
----
			I'm impressed with Carbine's responsiveness to these bots.  Using BotZapper I am definitely noticing a marked reduction in the number of bots I've come across, and the ones I do seem to differ from day to day which would imply Carbine is removing the bots that have already been reported.  I'm not too pleased with Carbine blowing up my email with dozens of copy-paste responses but at least they're not automatically generated by the system, Smiley seems to have at least dignified the reports with a copy-paste response :).	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Sitting in Southern Grimvault right now on Evindra watching all of the bots in the zone keep dying to this Prime mob that is right on a node. lol
 
Reporting away as the army of bots are destroyed lol.
----
			Another possible solution is to fix the novice tools i have yet to test this past tier 3 items but there more powerful then there level 15 upgrade. I can use a Novice tool and completely harvest a node in one shot but with the lvl 15 upgrade it takes 2 attempts. I also think that the first hit on a node idea was a bad idea because if a bot does not complete the harvest you get nothing from the node. I try to kill bots as often as i can. On a pvp server is all in good fun to make resources fair game for attacking to get the items.	
----
			
Gaffer..please 7300 is huge.
 
Yet I have a question. I know the answer yet would like to hear it. Do these or any of these 7300 get permanent banned?	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Gaffer..please 7300 is huge.
 
Yet I have a question. I know the answer yet would like to hear it. Do these or any of these 7300 get permanent banned?
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I will say that I've never seen this level of account compromise in any other game, even WoW didn't seem to have this degree of hacked accounts.  Perhaps Carbine could do what Eve does regarding security - if you log in from an unknown IP address, the game asks for the name of one of your characters to verify your account.  This is done on both the website and in the game.  That would enhance account security, but I imagine NCSoft would also need to do their part as they manage the login portals.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 
Will do. In many ways this is the price of being the new popular game on the block :/ That doesn't make it less of a pain in the butt for users though.
----
			
I'm also impressed with Carbine response.  Have seen a decrease in bots lately.  Maybe is temporary, but very happy I'm able to find nodes all the time.
 
And how fast things change.  No one has reported to be "unjustified" suspended by a mistake of Carbine side this time.
 
Also the lag decreased.  It went up slightly tonight, but it normalized again.	
----
			
I appreciate what you are doing against the bots... but I've stumbled across 2 bots (one Exile, one Domi) that I've reported multiple times now. First they were farming a boss (not mining nodes) in a low level area. Waiting for respawn, then killing it, repeatedly. Now they both are botting at the valley beneath Area 77, both lv50, both with names like "askljdafl" and since I passed by there with my OTHER lv50 char about two weeks ago they are still there doing the same thing.
 
On top of that, there is a Goldspammer in Thayd since at least two weeks. He's spamming every other second and I've spam-reported him each time I came to Thayd (because "ignore" somehow won't stick).
 
Could you please "adress these issues" as well? I'm on Toria.
 
Your help is appreciated.
 
Cheers,
Lionhurt.	
----
			
Here are some of suggestions you might find useful:
 
 
- Increase the HP of mineral and tree nodes. The higher level the harvesting tools, the more damage it does and the more efficient the process. Right now the majority of the harvest bots out there are sub-30 using low-level tools. Minerals and trees should take nigh-on forever to harvest with anything but tier-appropriate tools.
 
- If the above is implemented, it would force botters to either rely on hacked accounts (can mitigated by good security practises) or level characters themselves in order to use the appropriate tools, which would slow bot proliferation and allow Carbine to track potential bot accounts as they level.
 
- Ideally, nodes should also have a minimum level requirement.	
----
			
Any chance we could get an update on what kind of progress has been made to disable the bot scripts? I appreciate the bans going around but it only takes two or three bots to severely hamper my ability to gather mats in Grimvault and they keep popping up shortly after ban waves.
 
What's really frustrating is when a bot starts harvesting a node, is attacked by a mob, and teleports away leaving the node half-harvested. The node is still locked to them and doesn't appear to despawn on its own until a server reset. A good 15% to 20% of the nodes I run into are in this state and I feel like I'm picking up their trash because I know I won't have a shot at more nodes unless I clear out the ones they've tapped. Perhaps you could implement a small (30-60 second) timer on tapped nodes so they'll despawn if they're not harvested within that time?	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Any chance we could get an update on what kind of progress has been made to disable the bot scripts?
----
			
the buts are in wurm tunnels thats why u dont see them anymore :D trust me wurm tunnels r full with bots
later edit: i just found a wurm tunnel again and the same bots reported yesterday+early today are still there :lol:  CONFIRMED 24/7 bots are hacking the wurm tunnel	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
IEdit:  And please, don't visit their sites or buy their stuff, if nobody bought gold from these people, it would stop being profitable, and they would go away.  These all seem like really obvious statements, but...  *shrug*
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
the buts are in wurm tunnels thats why u dont see them anymore :D trust me wurm tunnels r full with bots
later edit: i just found a wurm tunnel again and the same bots reported yesterday+early today are still there :lol:  CONFIRMED 24/7 bots are hacking the wurm tunnel
----
			
I can testify that they do something about the bots. i have reported about 15+ bots in the last week and within 24 hours those bots are gone. All of them have been in western grimvault port farming and the next day after i report them they're gone. granted they have been replaced by a new bot but...yesterday was the first day i farmed in grimvault for over 3 hours and i never once saw a bot there. I did see a bot who is probably the richest bot in the game, somehow he managed to get into the timed mining area you get when the worm spawns from a mining node and he isn't getting kicked out after the timer ends. So you have a bot running around in mining heaven mining at speeds faster than a human and an endless supply of mining nodes. 
 
I reported it but we'll see what happens.	
----
			Erm banning bots is all well and good.... but why no word on fixing the teleport exploit. Its been a long time.... can you even fix it? Seems such a game breaking exploit would be hot fixed instantly if you were able. Or is this what we can expect to always exist in Wildstar.	
----
			
Someone recommended to post under this thread for my issue.
 
Ticket 988032
 
Sorry to post about this in here but there is no support forums other than community support.
 
My friend was banned falsely, as I stated in my previous post the guy doesn't even know how to cheat and there is NO WAY he had been cheating because whenever we are on together he has a screen share up.
 
He is a police officer and integrity is everything for him, he has a wife and 3 kids and whatever free time he has from his job and family him and I hang out together. He only gets a few hours a week to play and they said their cheat system caught him, but wont say what he did.
 
We only use addons from curse and they wont say anything other than "the account was terminated"
 
About 2 or 3 weeks ago I was hacked and when I put a ticket in Carbine suspended my account until I put a 2 step on, that very day he added a 2 step because he didn't want the same thing to happen to him.
 
The reply last night (Which was given at like 1 am) was basically "We caught you, our cheat software is so great and complex we can't give any details on it but rest assured we caught you cheating"
 
To be banned for something he didn't do even as a third party makes me feel helpless and that my friend is being victimized.
 
I know some of you will say "Oh he was totally cheating and is just lying" but I promise you I know everything about his computer since I have to fix it for him all the time and I have the ability to remote in....he does not cheat, he has no cheats on his computer I checked after he was banned...during screenshare (which is ever minute he is in wildstar) I have never seen anything other than addons that I use myself on his screen.
 
PLEASE have a dev reply to him or look at his ticket. I have a feeling ZenDesk is doing the same thing to him they did in WarZ where they don't even check the details and just say "Oh yeah we checked you were banned" and the admins on WarZ would go back and confirm no cheat happened.
 
IF THE DEVS ARE LISTENING please look into this you will see he has done nothing wrong and mods please don't close this thread. There is no support forum to put it in....Please help me play with my friend again.
 	
----
			
@Selgan. If you were hacked then chances are your friend was also hacked, due to you being able to "remote log in" to his PC.
 
There is your problem. They are clever, they will create a char level it to whatever and bot with for a night or a couple of minutes. Carbine caught it and bam. Banned.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Here are some of suggestions you might find useful:
 
 
- Increase the HP of mineral and tree nodes. The higher level the harvesting tools, the more damage it does and the more efficient the process. Right now the majority of the harvest bots out there are sub-30 using low-level tools. Minerals and trees should take nigh-on forever to harvest with anything but tier-appropriate tools.
 
- If the above is implemented, it would force botters to either rely on hacked accounts (can mitigated by good security practises) or level characters themselves in order to use the appropriate tools, which would slow bot proliferation and allow Carbine to track potential bot accounts as they level.
 
- Ideally, nodes should also have a minimum level requirement.
i vote +1 to this ..  this process slow those tele bot's if they caught they will take time to level if were luck we might caught them while leveling too and yes hacked account can be countered
 
----
			Not sure why the grinding bots are completely ignored. Been watching the same pack of them since launch on my server, moving from zone to zone. Now they are everyday in Blighthaven, grinding away. 9 of them there right now in one spot, prob other spots too. Reported many times by many people for months now yet never any action taken.	
----
			I don't think I've seen a bot in Wilderun, Malgrave or Grimvault in a week. Good job, Carbine!	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
Will do.  In many ways this is the price of being the new popular game on the block :/  That doesn't make it less of a pain in the butt for users though.
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
*stuff*
----
			He says they are rolling in a fix with drop 2 this week. This was not a hack, it was a macro exploit. However, this does not explain why these 2 are still in the game. Not sure if that's excusable. One time in a previous mmo, I did something bad and within the hour I had been booted and saw a 3 day suspension when I went to log back in. This game's live team needs to be a lot more proactive. Sorry Cougar, but it's true. I still <3 you though. Be better.	
----
			Yeah, agreed. Also I have a concern about the boosting / tanking pvp fix. Apparently how it will work (heard this from a friend so not confirmed) is that the game will crosscheck your gear score in bags and elo, and if GS is way higher the matchmaking will be based on this. Sounds like a good fix, unless people stand next to bank with their uber pvp loot in there, and then take it out once the queue pops. If this above is the actual fix I sincerely hope they disallow bank interaction once queue pops. PLEASE consider this. 	
----
			
First off, I have a hard time believing you're banning any bots at all since I see the same ones day in and day out running around Walatiki and reported surely hundreds of times by players.
 
Second, I propose that you merge some servers (it's inevitable anyway) and use the hardware for one of the old servers to host a fake server to move the bots to that tells them they're still on the same server they rolled on.  Keep them paying subscription fees but not affecting the economy in the game or being able to profit from selling their characters RMT (they'll find out when they try to transfer it to another server before sale and find that they're denied).  Obviously don't do that if you find a compromised account, but all the rest get that treatment.
 
A real player would notice that absolutely nobody ever talks on their "server", but a bot would not.
 
Finally, do a better job with these.  Really, your canned responses to the reports are infuriating to the playerbase.	
----
			
There's 2 new types of bots btw
 
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/105581-so-theres-this-bot-in-pvp/
 
 
1) Runs laps around walatiki (the circle around the bridges)
2) Runs to opponent flag room, steals flag, runs back to your flag room, captures flag. Rinse/repeat (if interrupted on flag stealing, will still run the rest of the circle then return)	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
 Obviously 7300 is a tiny fraction of the overall player base
----
			Just to point out how many bots there are.... last night after the maintenance no pvp happened in the 30-49 bracket for a whole 2 hours. Why? all the bot accounts got logged off for the patch. I don't know what's sadder atm the fact that you can't even get a queue without bots or the fact there is that many bots.	
----
			
{| class="blockquote"
I can't really comment on anything else in your post, but I wanted to comment on this.  The "bot scripts" as you call them aren't something we can disable, they aren't using our scripting system to do this kind of thing.  They are using external programs that we have no control over that inject things into our game.
 
----
			
Trying to understand why bots in PvP who have had multipul reports from many people are still able to be in the matches after over 4 days? And now we have a larger amount of them. 
Shouldn't be too hard to spot. They run to home base, then run a big circle around map until they get back to home base. They repeat until match has ended.
Its really frustrating, as its getting extremely hard to have a fair match. Having just one is bad enough, but have had up to 4 in one, and it was just such a horrid experience, that it makes wanting to play harder and harder.
Please step up the efforts on this issue!	
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			a record for us : in walatiki 4 bots running + 3 afk bot spamming skill to not get out....only 3 real players...just a shame, and it's always same bots , days by days....	
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U have no idea what rage is in BG's due to boting , till now i have made 30-40 thickets but i'v stoped, on each and every thicket i'v made i got same bot answer, sry, automatic answer, and sometimes, after Carabine done...nothing i recive some mails where i was asked "what i think about that customer service, good or bad" ofc i said is terible, and prolly they dont like my answer cuz in 5 min i'v recived same mail with same question, but apart of that problem, why cant devs make easyer reporting players, by input this option when r-clicking on his portrait...is quite hard to remember names like IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII or asfsdfgscvxcvfg
 
PS sry for my poor eng	
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			I find it funny that "team wildstar's" answer to this is to report a ticket.  That does absolutely nothing if you are seeing the same bots for weeks on end.  	
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I can't really comment on anything else in your post, but I wanted to comment on this.  The "bot scripts" as you call them aren't something we can disable, they aren't using our scripting system to do this kind of thing.  They are using external programs that we have no control over that inject things into our game.
 
We are making progress, as you've seen many posts say that the bots have gone down drastically.  I've stated before, this will be an ongoing thing, every time we make a change, they will too.  It takes us longer to make a change because we have to make sure we don't break other things whenever we do, they don't care if they break the game for others (clearly), so they're way less cautious.  And to be honest, there are probably more people working on hacking our game than total engineers we employ.  Heck, for all I know, there may be more people trying to hack our game than the entire headcount of the company.
 
We will continue to make progress, they will continue to fight against our progress.  We will not stop.  We really are making daily progress, and there really are less bots each and every day.  You are right though, it really doesn't take many to be really annoying.  And that's why we will continue to fight them.
 
Edit:
Because I'm already talking about it, many of the botters are hacked account, please make sure your accounts are secure with 2 factor auth, and virus scans and everything else to keep your accounts and computer safe.  Use a unique password for WildStar, don't use the same password as you do on web sites.  And please, don't visit their sites or buy their stuff, if nobody bought gold from these people, it would stop being profitable, and they would go away.  These all seem like really obvious statements, but...  *shrug*
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It just occurred to me today...if you guys want everyone to use two step authentication then release a cowboy hat costume piece and make the only way to attain it be through having two step.
 
Don't get me wrong the other stuff is nice but it's not a dealmaker. A lot of people seem to dislike the mount since it's a re-skin, and don't care about the eyepatch/2% bonus. A cowboy hat would be a dealmaker though.	
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I want to believe that rbgs are unbearable because of the amount of bots.
Tonight there was litterally no one responding in instance chat or playing for the objectives. I lost yet another chunk of bg rating, and yet another chunk of faith that I had in your game. 
Gear equalization patch is do or die for me.  	
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			How long does it take you to act Carbine? 8 ******** days I been reporting the same group of bots and you do *cupcake* all!!!. Does it make your game seem all the more populated???.	
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{| class="blockquote"
 
We are making progress, as you've seen many posts say that the bots have gone down drastically.  I've stated before, this will be an ongoing thing, every time we make a change, they will too.  It takes us longer to make a change because we have to make sure we don't break other things whenever we do, they don't care if they break the game for others (clearly), so they're way less cautious.  And to be honest, there are probably more people working on hacking our game than total engineers we employ.  Heck, for all I know, there may be more people trying to hack our game than the entire headcount of the company.
 
We will continue to make progress, they will continue to fight against our progress.  We will not stop.  We really are making daily progress, and there really are less bots each and every day.  You are right though, it really doesn't take many to be really annoying.  And that's why we will continue to fight them.
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Been free from bots in Farside and before that the last weeks, but two days ago I started Wilderrun and damn so many teleport bots.
So far the one I been lucky to even get a glimt of has been Dominion Bots, but wasn't able to take a screenshot or get their name.. goes as before way to fast.
I guess it's getting worse the higher level I get <_<	
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They're baaaaaaaack.....Also, they hide in the Wurm Tunnels a lot now, too, and won't come out. If you get a Wurm while mining, you probably won't get much ore because there will be 4+ bots down there sucking it all up. 
Also, PvP bots are a-plenty in battlegrounds, especially the 6-49. Had one game on an alt where it was 4 bots on our team. No bueno.	
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			I reported the same 10-15 PVP bots all weekend long and still saw them over and over so ... I would say your auto detector for PVP isn't working too well.	
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			U guys can all see how important is this issue for Carabine, none  give us a response...a promise or smth to make us keep hope alive....there is only one answer to this problem....let me see if anyone know the answer , and ill give u a hint...the word it started with U....	
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			oki...: 	
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I reported the same 10-15 PVP bots all weekend long and still saw them over and over so ... I would say your auto detector for PVP isn't working too well.
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			I see what you did there with the title	
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So true...Last night, I saw a known bot actually pull off a steal and returned the mask through the tunnel in a lvl29 practice Walatiki. I assume that's why it's so hard for Carbine/NCSoft to remove bots from pvp despite multiple ticket submittals on the same 4-5 bots every night.
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They're not getting banned either because the hurdles to ban them are too damned high, or customer support simply doesn't give a damn.  I'm going with the latter.  It should not take hundreds of bot reports to ban a bot.  If I were in their shoes I could just log in, watch some matches while invisible (don't know if CS can actually do this because I don't even think they have accounts or can log in to the game) and lazily ban twenty bots in half an hour and go to lunch and still get more done on the PvP bot front than CS is.
 
There have been the same bots running for a week now.  I get the same rotation of canned BS messages in my inbox, but what I never actually see is action.
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			I am starting to wonder i have had the same bots in my bgs all week. Its bloody annoying constantly losing through 4--5 bots and putting tickets in and asking for feedback rating their customer service lmfao i mean come on ban the buggers and i will rate it until then squat.	
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I am starting to wonder i have had the same bots in my bgs all week. Its bloody annoying constantly losing through 4--5 bots and putting tickets in and asking for feedback rating their customer service lmfao i mean come on ban the buggers and i will rate it until then squat.
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Yeah, the "please rate our CS" emails make me giggle when I know the exact same bots are still grinding away.
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			My latest amusement is chain tether mining Dom bots till the exile bots catch up to them (they all run clockwise) and watching them fight to the death. The fact they all run exactly the same path and do exactly the same thing means it's the same scripting program for most of them altho some seem to run when attacked and others will stop and use very basic attacks and keyboard turning.	
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All they need do is monitor walatiki because its all the bots queue for as its easy to navigate. Its tragic seeing the same 3 to 4 running round the map.
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			My issue right now isn't being able to report them thanks to addons like OneClickReport.  The main hurdle for me is that now I'm seeing Groups of 4 or more all teleport harvesting the same item so they are there then gone before I can click them all.	
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Report players trough the bug report menu is a valid option? ive been registering the names of players using exploits such as flash gordon speed and stalkers that dont loose invisibility even when atacking...
 
An ingame option for reporting this kind of stuff would be nice...
 
It has been very annoying playing pvp in the last week/month th eonly remaining option for lvling is pve which for some people gets kind of boring... 
A new wave of bans would be very much apreciatted walatiki temple is just a joke at the moment...	
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{| class="blockquote"
Report players trough the bug report menu is a valid option? ive been registering the names of players using exploits such as flash gordon speed and stalkers that dont loose invisibility even when atacking...
 
An ingame option for reporting this kind of stuff would be nice...
 
It has been very annoying playing pvp in the last week/month th eonly remaining option for lvling is pve which for some people gets kind of boring...
 
A new wave of bans would be very much apreciatted walatiki temple is just a joke at the moment...
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