Many people cheating, automated bot to farm drops to synth spheres for Escutcheon

[Dzspdref]

And there are actual scripts that are available that cheaters use to lot out the sphere making materials when they land in treasure pool, then synth that item, then checks if needs more crystals, and rinse/wash/repeat. This is easily detectable by a GM when NO keystrokes are performed to do these actions, but actions occur anyway. I mean you cannot even make a macro for synthable items in your inventory unless you use /lastsynth, and THAT only works for one singular recipe of your "last synthesis" item, not any item that you can do. This should be an instant way to remove cheaters, using 3rd party programs to go around the game mechanics we legitimately legal players do.

[Kilantzer]

Greetings, Voicememo!

Thank you for expressing your concerns regarding players suspected of utilizing third-party programs to their advantage in-game. We understand how the use of such programs are unfair and we apologize for any frustration caused by this.

We strongly recommend submitting your own report directly to the Special Task Force. Due to the high volumes of calls that we receive regularly, immediate resolution may not be seen. However by doing so, the Special Task Force is able to conduct a thorough investigation that will ultimately result in appropriate action being taken where seen most necessary.

Just a reminder, you can submit your report by visiting http://support.na.square-enix.com and choosing FINAL FANTASY XI. Then, select Contact to access the reporting form.

Thank you for your patience, and best wishes to you.
FINAL FANTASY XI Game Master Team

[VoiceMemo]

I always do submit a GM call and a report to the STF whenever I encounter automated bot farmers.

And today I did not encounter 3 of the bots that I've reported before, so hopefully my efforts are paying off.

For those on asura or other servers that also see cheaters that may not know the link here is the exact link to the STF.

http://support.na.square-enix.com/co...php?id=20&la=1

[Nyarlko]

Greetings, Voicememo!

Thank you for expressing your concerns regarding players suspected of utilizing third-party programs to their advantage in-game. We understand how the use of such programs are unfair and we apologize for any frustration caused by this.

We strongly recommend submitting your own report directly to the Special Task Force. Due to the high volumes of calls that we receive regularly, immediate resolution may not be seen. However by doing so, the Special Task Force is able to conduct a thorough investigation that will ultimately result in appropriate action being taken where seen most necessary.

Just a reminder, you can submit your report by visiting http://support.na.square-enix.com and choosing FINAL FANTASY XI. Then, select Contact to access the reporting form.

Thank you for your patience, and best wishes to you.
FINAL FANTASY XI Game Master Team

Welcome to the EN Forums, Kilantzer! Hope to see you around here more often.

[Nyarlko]

In other news, during the Freshly Picked 38 broadcast earlier today, they announced that we'll be able to farm spheres from mobs in Adoulin areas. They will now drop a new EX, 99/stack, item called "Cards" which we can desynth into spheres. Wasn't able to pick out all the details, but sure sounds like there will be no more shortage or competition for mobs, regardless of whether or not said competition was botting.

[Halley]

In other news, during the Freshly Picked 38 broadcast earlier today, they announced that we'll be able to farm spheres from mobs in Adoulin areas. They will now drop a new EX, 99/stack, item called "Cards" which we can desynth into spheres. Wasn't able to pick out all the details, but sure sounds like there will be no more shortage or competition for mobs, regardless of whether or not said competition was botting.

Yo, straight up, this is a horrible idea. Those same bots will farm these "cards" 24/7

If you thought the reive bots were bad back in early 2012/13 just wait for this to happen.

But hey, I'm all for free Hq gear, cause that's what's going to happen. There will be zero economy left.

[Lunatone]

GMs don't have jurisdiction over botters, STF does. Both groups are employees of the same company and are just following company procedure. Even if the GM popped in and watched someone "botting", they don't have the data access to prove any wrongdoing and/or authority to do anything about it (is how it seems at least.) I'm not sure what GMs are actually for nowadays tbh. :/ I just wish they added "and be sure to use the template in the sticky" to their script when telling someone to file a bug report.

If the devs can't/won't prove wrongdoing for any of those farming spheres, then they'll do the next best thing and nerf the difficulty so that every farmer can be done faster and get out of the way for the next player! =_=;;
I have a feeling this is the basis for their current solution/adjustment, and they are open to further feedback later as well in case this is not enough.

I get your ire. I get your frustration. But is an adjustment really that bad a thing if the non-24/7 players who have to eat and sleep can still finish up an Escutcheon in a month of dedicated work?

Its not a bad thing if it makes it easier for the rest of us but the main issue imo is that theyre already dominating the market and adding more shields wont make anything better the damage has already been done. If it were at all possible I'd suggest do the adjustment yes but ban the people who botted their shields to completion.

Again eyebrows should have been raised when these shields were showing up completed the month after the update that added last stage.

Whats the point of you getting a shield now? To make your own stuff maybe, but you woud have have to compete with the people who are hopping servers to buy mats for 5-600 mass synths of HQs and then selling them all again.

If a new synth comes out they will just buy out all the mats before you get a chance to get any so really making shields more accessible is just saying "here you too can craft your own stuff HQ for the low price of blah blah"

[Nyarlko]

Yo, straight up, this is a horrible idea. Those same bots will farm these "cards" 24/7

If you thought the reive bots were bad back in early 2012/13 just wait for this to happen.

But hey, I'm all for free Hq gear, cause that's what's going to happen. There will be zero economy left.

Will it really matter tho if every single SoA non-NM can drop these new cards? There aren't enough players left on any server at this point to successfully crowd out the entire expac's worth of targets. The only immediate economic impact I'm seeing is that the price for spheres will plummet once it's simple enough for anyone/everyone to get them. It will still take a considerable time investment to complete the rest of the process, and there's no new time-saving shortcuts for reaching 100,000 spirit, or completing any of the earlier stages. I'd say this change is sort of comparable to what happened between old (lockout and group required) Dynamis relic farming vs new (spammable and soloable) Dynamis farming along with the reforge/upgrade process. They are shortening part of the grind, not the whole trip and all this really does is save player time.

Its not a bad thing if it makes it easier for the rest of us but the main issue imo is that theyre already dominating the market and adding more shields wont make anything better the damage has already been done. If it were at all possible I'd suggest do the adjustment yes but ban the people who botted their shields to completion.

Again eyebrows should have been raised when these shields were showing up completed the month after the update that added last stage.

Whats the point of you getting a shield now? To make your own stuff maybe, but you woud have have to compete with the people who are hopping servers to buy mats for 5-600 mass synths of HQs and then selling them all again.

If a new synth comes out they will just buy out all the mats before you get a chance to get any so really making shields more accessible is just saying "here you too can craft your own stuff HQ for the low price of blah blah"

As I've said earlier in this thread, I'm expecting a ban wave to hit at least some of those who have botted their way to their shields >AFTER< this adjustment goes live. Yes, damage has been done and even high-end HQs are down to ~40mil each. No, it's not at/past the point where having a completed Escutcheon is solely for making your own gear.

[Halley]

It's 100% past that point. The cost of a shield (not even counting spheres) is still in the billions. Since even the BEST HQ gear (non su3) is sub 40m it would take a year just to break even with the cost now.

And that is only going to get worse if these cards are anything higher than 1% drops.

Calculate the bare minimum; if you make lvl 1 for cheapest catalyst
2 Spheres + 2 crystals + 2(?) catalyst = 1 spirit?

200,000 spheres + 200,000 crystals + 300*200,000 gil(catalyst) = shield, not accounting for breaks.

60m? if spheres are free and crystals are free

(this would take.......... thousands of hours btw) but extremely cheap. using higher catalyst dramatically speeds it up, as well as the cost

[Lunatone]

Will it really matter tho if every single SoA non-NM can drop these new cards? There aren't enough players left on any server at this point to successfully crowd out the entire expac's worth of targets. The only immediate economic impact I'm seeing is that the price for spheres will plummet once it's simple enough for anyone/everyone to get them. It will still take a considerable time investment to complete the rest of the process, and there's no new time-saving shortcuts for reaching 100,000 spirit, or completing any of the earlier stages. I'd say this change is sort of comparable to what happened between old (lockout and group required) Dynamis relic farming vs new (spammable and soloable) Dynamis farming along with the reforge/upgrade process. They are shortening part of the grind, not the whole trip and all this really does is save player time.



As I've said earlier in this thread, I'm expecting a ban wave to hit at least some of those who have botted their way to their shields >AFTER< this adjustment goes live. Yes, damage has been done and even high-end HQs are down to ~40mil each. No, it's not at/past the point where having a completed Escutcheon is solely for making your own gear.

I get what youre thinking and I'd like to be hopeful but I highly doubt theyre going to ban the people who actually have shields, maybe their mules that farm, maybe their mules that are holding gil which would cripple them a little at most.

Unless SE has someway of connecting the dots with botting mules to the person who owns the shield I dont think much will come from it nor do I think they will actually ban the people who have botted them. I agree with halley and he's right still would take tons of time and with everything being borderline worthless now vs the cost it is to make them I dont see this really doing any good

SE really should have done something about this the moment shield popped so early but its no longer a problem its just part of the game now. Prices wont go back up to profitable levels and mats will still stay roughly the same because the people farming them will still want to make money