Excessive false positives on STF's automatic ban program

[Hoshi]

Huh, I thought that windower was a 3rd party program...

Talks about windower but gives two examples of flee hacking software.

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1. Another person was banned and they're not sure why but at their best guess it was from being in the same skirmish run as someone who was flee hacking. If you're going to get STF banned for playing the game for too long or being in a party with a cheater that is concerning. I'm all in favor of banning people blatantly abusing game mechanics but these examples are not those kinds of players.

[Olor]

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1.

If it's the same story I read, that guy said he was also using a third party program... not a cheaterly one, but one nonetheless

Like I said, I don't agree with banning for (non cheating) 3rd party programs, but if SE found a way to detect them, and decides to ban people for using them, it's not for nothing, it's for breaking a rule.

Like the rule, dislike the rule, the rule is there. If you break the rule, you are taking a chance.

People will be surprised when this company didn't ban for windower for over a decade and now all of a sudden they are.

Maybe they couldn't detect windower before, and now they can? We don't know. It's been against TOS all along, so again, people should expect that if they get caught they might get banned.

[Bluestar2kx]

Talks about windower but gives two examples of flee hacking software.

Lets talk about the more recent examples that have cropped up on other forums. One person was banned for fishing for too long while finishing an ebisu +1. Another person was banned and they're not sure why but at their best guess it was from being in the same skirmish run as someone who was flee hacking. If you're going to get STF banned for playing the game for too long or being in a party with a cheater that is concerning. I'm all in favor of banning people blatantly abusing game mechanics but these examples are not those kinds of players.

And those examples you gave were common RMt activity methods. It's logical to assume the "automated bot" detected that and determined as such activity and banned the player. Though we don't have wide spread RMT issues anymore, I imagine they're not completely gone, so the script is still in place. Not saying someone should have to stop fishing to avoid being flagged, but if it is indeed flagging people that way, it would be wise to adjust your play patterns to avoid it, until, or if SE does something about it.

And to a serious question, how can someone sit and fish for hours like that anyway? I've done a couple of dyna runs in a row and that just puts me to sleep as it is before I even finish the first one... I couldn't imagine doing fishing for the same length of time and not go crazy. (are we sure they weren't using a fishing bot?)

And whether or not windower was detectable before or not, is irrelevant, 3rd party software is against the rules, so banning for using it is a logical step unless they amend the ToS to allow windower functions, but that's unlikely because it would be abused easily, so long story short, stop using it if you are and are worried about your account.

With that said, if they are indeed banning legitimately playing accounts for the actions of others, or for flagged falsely for RMT activity, then they need to adjust the bot or have someone review the cases. They definitely need better communication and ways to contact STF staff to flag a review and redetermination. This is important for any company.

[Hoshi]

And those examples you gave were common RMt activity methods. It's logical to assume the "automated bot" detected that and determined as such activity and banned the player. Though we don't have wide spread RMT issues anymore, I imagine they're not completely gone, so the script is still in place. Not saying someone should have to stop fishing to avoid being flagged, but if it is indeed flagging people that way, it would be wise to adjust your play patterns to avoid it, until, or if SE does something about it.

The thing about the ebisu quest though is that you're not fishing in the same zone for many hours. This player was moving from zone to zone fishing for many different fish - it really shouldn't have flagged the RMT filter because what kind of fishbot changes zones all the time? I will admit that more than about 5 hours of fishing puts me to sleep and I often tab away from ffxi until the music changes but I find fishing in medium doses to be relaxing. With that being said I can totally understand how someone would play for nearly 3 days straight in the quest for an afterglow. It's very easy to lose track of days when you're very close to a big goal.