Guild Wars 2

I was unsure where to fit this topic the best, so I thought to go for discussion forum, my apologises if I should have sent this one somewhere else…

Anyhow, lately, as travelling around the world, I ended up noticing some phenomenon that “scared” me a little.
People, (Confirmed by what they said in map channel) use to report as bots, those people who “disappear” from some Ore node.
Now…if this game had not implemented Waypoints, I would find it normal to have some suspect towards someone that disappears after getting the material, but as it is not the case, it slightly bothers me in a way.
I found it normal in the past (Since as I got this news I stopped to chase after Orichalcum and such), as map-travelling to get the Ori I needed for my crafting, to just reach the last node, let’s say of Cursed Shore, and then teleport away to the next area, for I certainly wouldn’t run all the way to Frostgorge from there! x) And I honestly have never seen anything wrong in this, for Waypoints exist for a reason and not just to respawn after death! (I assume )

Another thing that worried me is that…while in the past I would read people reporting this behaviour just in level 80 areas, where I assume, one finds the most of the bots, today I happened to see people speaking of reporting someone for teleporting away from a Copper node..in Wayfarer…where again, I find it pretty normal to see a person teleporting away…I mean, given the case people go to do Shiverpeaks kills, as today was in daily, gather what is around and teleport away once done, to go on with gaming…is that really so suspicious?
And how do bots teleport? I mean, once I happened to see a group of bots…a few, naked, level 14 characters dead in water in Frostgorge that never moved from there for quite a long time…they can really be programmed to teleport to Waypoints after gathering a material? o.o

Now this is not a thread I decided to start to really complain about this, what I actually was seeking is some reassuring information about this: If I am reported as a bot, even more than once, just for teleporting away from a node, will I actually risk anything, given that it is totally false?
All the money I own (which is not much, compared to what better players than me got) and ever earned, came from dungeon runs with my friends and just normal playing, bought some bit of gold from Gem Store in Black Lion a couple of times, but no illegal way at all of course, for it’s totally against my beliefs first of all.
So…I can start again to quietly gather my materials, without having to fear “Oh no, did I remember to make a few steps away from the node before teleporting away? O.O” Thank you for reading.

I can’t speak for everyone, of course, but I don’t report people just for teleporting away from a node. Popping up out of nowhere at a node, immediately gathering, then teleporting away, however, I take as warp-hack behavior and I will report that. Even when I do see someone pop up at a node, I often hesitate to report right away, because there have been times I’ve logged a character off at a node and, obviously, you won’t know if they’re gonna just vanish afterwards, until they do. Usually, though, I will see the behavior repeated at 2 or more nodes within a zone, by the same character.

RetiredBard.5294:

I can’t speak for everyone, of course, but I don’t report people just for teleporting away from a node. Popping up out of nowhere at a node, immediately gathering, then teleporting away, however, I take as warp-hack behavior and I will report that. Even when I do see someone pop up at a node, I often hesitate to report right away, because there have been times I’ve logged a character off at a node and, obviously, you won’t know if they’re gonna just vanish afterwards, until they do. Usually, though, I will see the behavior repeated at 2 or more nodes within a zone, by the same character.

Thank you for your feed-back! Yours is certainly a rightful and correct behaviour! Though some people scare me sometimes, for I just know not all of them are as reasonable as you are.
On my side, I would truly hate to report someone who doesn’t deserve to be reported…but it’s not a common thought, at least not in my server, for whenever someone would try to be reasonable on this matter, either it would end up with bad words and insults or with silence from the other side.. ._.

nothing to fear there bud. The way these bots teleport is by using a feature in the game in an unnatural way in that they teleport just after they finish that last swing getting that last bit of ore. It’s very noticeable. There is literally no time for them to humanly open up the world map, click on the one they wish to teleport to next and then have a load screen. They just go poof instantly.

You’ll notice it right away if ever you see it.

tigirius.9014:

nothing to fear there bud. The way these bots teleport is by using a feature in the game in an unnatural way in that they teleport just after they finish that last swing getting that last bit of ore. It’s very noticeable. There is literally no time for them to humanly open up the world map, click on the one they wish to teleport to next and then have a load screen. They just go poof instantly.

You’ll notice it right away if ever you see it.

Many thanks for your feed-back, this reassures me a lot indeed!

Being reported as a bot means nothing without evidence gathered by the ArenaNet employee investigating the report. Just because someone reports a ‘bot’ doesnt mean that ‘bot’ will be automatically banned. ArenaNet checks the logs for suspicious activity, and if a ban is warranted, then that is when action is taken.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Being reported as a bot means nothing without evidence gathered by the ArenaNet employee investigating the report. Just because someone reports a ‘bot’ doesnt mean that ‘bot’ will be automatically banned. ArenaNet checks the logs for suspicious activity, and if a ban is warranted, then that is when action is taken.

I won’t lie, this is exactly what I wanted to hear! What alarmed me, was to see many people claiming to have had their accounts banned for botting with them being innocent. I know that most of people would deny their guilt even in front of evidence, though seeing many around, in Facebook page as well, got me a little worried, so it relieves me to know ANet take proper care of this matter!

tigirius.9014:

nothing to fear there bud. The way these bots teleport is by using a feature in the game in an unnatural way in that they teleport just after they finish that last swing getting that last bit of ore. It’s very noticeable. There is literally no time for them to humanly open up the world map, click on the one they wish to teleport to next and then have a load screen. They just go poof instantly.

This is a terrible way to watch for someone teleport hacking and I strongly recommend everyone use this as an example of what NOT to look for.

It is completely possible to open your map while the mining/chopping/gathering is going on. If you have been playing for 600+ hours, you know when that third “clang” of the mining pick it going to strike, so you have the waypoint up and ready to go. The second it goes off, you click “Yes”. Off you go.

I do this constantly. If people reported based on this alone, I can’t imagine how many man hours have been wasted on Anet having to review my account based on all of those erroneous reports >_>

I find that opening the map while I’m harvesting bugs the collection. I have to step away and step closer again to get at my uncollected items. This might have been fixed since I learnt months ago not to open the map.

As for the topic, I always wait and see if the potential abuser ports to a nearby node. I reported a guy recently who I had to agonise over because I’d seen him doing events in a lowbie zone jus like everyone else only a few hours earlier. But he was porting so he was cheating.

Bots just pop up right infront of you smack dab in the middle of the node and glitch
i take a picture and if they port straight away i look up the pic add them to friend report block move on

id rather just report and let xp sort um out

Yeah, I’ll be honest I often wonder if people overreact in these situations. I have eight characters, all level 80, but I generally only play one at a time while working on certain goals. I keep the other seven in Frostforge for easy Ori mining which I mine once a day. So if you stand and watch while I’m grabbing nodes, you’ll see all eight of my characters appear right on top of the node (because that’s where I logged them out) within a period of twenty minutes. I’ve never seen the porting/teleport bug that I’ve heard others say bots exploit, but I have played with my wife and seen her character appear and then disappear next to me for no reason whatsoever. Someone who’s feeling a bit overzealous might see these things as suspicious. But I’m not too worried because I assume if an Anet employee did look at my account, it would be easy to see the behavior is entirely legitimate.

funkylovemonkey.3097:

Yeah, I’ll be honest I often wonder if people overreact in these situations. I have eight characters, all level 80, but I generally only play one at a time while working on certain goals. I keep the other seven in Frostforge for easy Ori mining which I mine once a day. So if you stand and watch while I’m grabbing nodes, you’ll see all eight of my characters appear right on top of the node (because that’s where I logged them out) within a period of twenty minutes. I’ve never seen the porting/teleport bug that I’ve heard others say bots exploit, but I have played with my wife and seen her character appear and then disappear next to me for no reason whatsoever. Someone who’s feeling a bit overzealous might see these things as suspicious. But I’m not too worried because I assume if an Anet employee did look at my account, it would be easy to see the behavior is entirely legitimate.

This I used to be as well, leaving my two alts in Frostgorge, as long as I did not have any better purpose to dedicate them for!

I do gathering runs everyday, and I report instances of appear/gather/disappear. I’m pretty confident I’m only reporting the guilty, since I tend to see them multiple times, doing nothing but appear/disappear on different nodes. The ones farming Orr on my server are helpfully mostly wearing the same guild tag, too.

As an example I’ve attached screenies from yesterday. The guy appeared on one node ahead of me. Gathered, disappeared, then re-appeared again on the node next to me, gathered and disappeared again. No way that wasn’t a bot. And he was wearing the usual tag.

I hate them. I report them all and let ANet decide.

Maybe try playing the game and have fun instead of doing “work” and looking for bots and reporting them all the day which is not fun cause you can’t do other stuff while busy doing this?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but recently every time I see someone instantly disappear from a node like a bot would they always seem to be phased into the node itself, making it much harder to click them instead of the node in time. Whether this is a bug or a botter deliberately doing it to help prevent reports I don’t know, but it’s certainly suspicious.

The important thing to remember about any kind of reporting is that it is not a straight system of ‘report = ban’.

Anet don’t just work their way down a list of reported accounts banning them all. As some malicious or immature guilds have proven it’s not even that they wait for an account to be reported a certain number of times and then ban them. The report just flags this up as an account that needs their attention. Then they look at the activity logs and other relevant information and make a decision themselves.

Sometimes they do get it wrong, but that’s what the appeal process is for. I know a few people who have been mistakenly banned but even so I’m always sceptical when someone starts crying their innocence after a ban. I was at a gig last night where this stupid woman got in front of the barrier (very small venue so it was open on the end) and kept grabbing the bassists leg and guitar. Almost ripped the plug out at one point. When security showed up she was going on and on about “I did not touch him. I did not try to touch him. What kind of freak do you think I am? I’m not some crazy teenager, I don’t even give a kitten about this band, why would I try to touch him?” Right in front of a crowd of people who had all seen her do it repeatedly. Most people proclaiming their innocence across the internet after a ban are about as convincing. The legitimate ones are more likely to quietly file a support ticket and argue their case in private.

I despise bots and whenever I am truly sure to spot one I do not hesitate to report, as well as I do whenever I receive those annoying gold selling mails, but I do it only when I am totally sure to be in front of one. I can’t help but find it unfair to report someone who does not deserve…so far, I never happened to notice bots on nodes, or I wasn’t able to recognize any..