Underground Bots

I love how people are just now discovering this. It's not some brand new thing. Square Enix is straight up unable to ban all of these accounts. I know it and they do, too. Pretty much every MMO has bots like this. Get used to it already.

And just so I'm not misunderstood, I'm not saying I approve. The STF does what they can, but you ban one bot and ten more pop up. It's a constant game of whack-a-mole. That's just how it works. You can thank people on all worlds who buy gil instead of actually playing the game. Inflation sure is nice.

I reported a few the other day but it’s a bit of a lost cause as they will just make more which is why I didn’t bother wasting time reporting more. If you read this forum and other social media places you will see threads about the eureka bots,the crafting bots, etc that have been around for a long time. Some it takes awhile to get taken care of. Some never do. I wish their team was bigger then perhaps we would see more vanquished.

Maybe when they start working on to ban the folks who buy gils we'll see their numbers culled... maybe... just maybe... who knows...

Those 80m gil Yak Milk or 50m Blue Hydrangea Corsage in sale history though...

It's funny that while they'll apparently monitor the gil being transferred through trade/mail spamming, they think nothing of all the worthless items being moved for ludicrous prices via the MB.

Simply tracing those transactions across characters would almost certainly lead to some manner of RMT operation.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

It's funny that while they'll apparently monitor the gil being transferred through trade/mail spamming, they think nothing of all the worthless items being moved for ludicrous prices via the MB.

Simply tracing those transactions across characters would almost certainly lead to some manner of RMT operation.

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I list things for ludricrous prices intermittently on the MB so I can move gil between my characters that aren't in the same FC or are cross world/data center. It may be suspicious but it's not proof of being involved in RMT.

I wouldn't fear it if SE were to start tracking those types of transactions because they would clearly be able to see that gil is staying on the same service account but I wouldn't want to encourage players to look for those transactions and witch hunt the listed buyer, either.

SE knows what accounts they're banning for RMT activity. All they need to do is trace where the gil that left those accounts went to. It's not a task that should be part of the STF's duties - they're too busy trying to monitor the bots and probably work with the technical team to develop countermeasures to the bot programming. It should be done by a small team of GMs affiliated with the STF. Even if it's 4000 accounts being banned weekly, those 4000 accounts are probably feeding into a couple of dozen accounts that then disperse the gil to the buyer so it shouldn't take a large number of employees to do the work.

Trace the gil to the destination. Have a supervisor confirm the trail was followed correctly before taking action on the account. Have the GM contact the receiving player in game and ask them to explain the unusual gil transaction(s). Listen to the funny stories like "I thought some generous soul might want to buy a pair of cotton gloves for 2 million gil to help a poor player out" then inform the player that the buyer of their item is known to be engaged in RMT sales and that their account is being temporarily banned for engaging in RMT.

Make certain to save the funnier excuses in a file to be compiled into a quarterly blog to be posted on Lodestone called "More dumb excuses from gil buyers" (but not listing the buyer names, of course). That advertises that SE is going after the buyers just as much as they're going after the sellers to help deter other potential buyers..

Considering the way the marketboard is set up for the game, there's not going to be any accidental purchases by RMT of an item listed by an innocent player (assuming it wasn't a direct character trade in the first place). RMT does not give away large amounts of gil on a whim.

Most players will buy gil because there's no penalty to them for doing it. Give them a penalty long enough to make them think twice after a first offense (30 days seems sufficient). Let them post in the forums or reddit or wherever to sob about the unfair persecution they've experienced for something that wasn't their fault. Permanently ban the account if caught buying a second time.

RMT will always exist in gaming as long as there are those willing to buy. If you want RMT gone, you've got to convince the potential buyers that it is not worth it.

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Originally Posted by Ronin_Symphony

I am boggled - - this seems "low hanging fruit".

I just started using Idle Cam - enjoying the show - - and always always (ALWAYS) end up with a view of a pod of identical bots underground.

You could sweep - manually or automatically and burn all players underground - that does not seem complicated given an absolute parameter.....underground.

In order to "report" I need to be able to see/target the offending payer character.

If the SE team is waiting for that to happen the Bots are forever safe.

Proactively burning everything underground........ that's like getting rid of termites or cockroaches. Rats.

Low hanging fruit. Burn the nest.

I retire in ten years and have been shaking my head in this economy faced with the inevitable jobs to seniors like "Wal-Mart Greeter" or "Costco Food Taste Demonstrator/SampleGiver". What a great job I would enjoy so much more in my sunset year - - - burning pirates 4-6 hours a day.

Low hanging fruit - cost effective - HUGE dividends.

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You will always see bots running rampant in successful mmo's. You see these bots because they make a lot of money. SE bans them in waves. They make a lot of money. They create more. The cycle will never end. If you start seeing no bots the game is dead.

I always wonder what they even need the gil for. There really isnt much to spend it on.

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Originally Posted by Nyxs

I always wonder what they even need the gil for. There really isnt much to spend it on.

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Someone new to the game could easily be overwhelmed by all the things there are to buy and the prices for them. It looks different for those of us who have been playing a long time and slowly acquired those things we wanted as they were released. We're also familiar with all the ways gil can be made. The new player isn't.

Then there's the occasional lazy player that just isn't interested in putting the slightest effort into making gil when they've got a credit card to get it for them.

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

Those 80m gil Yak Milk or 50m Blue Hydrangea Corsage in sale history though...

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Once in a while somebody gets lucky and manages to rip the gil sellers (and whatever buyers that gil was supposed to go to) off by throwing a random item up for an amount that's completely insane. Hitting on the right number and item is lot like winning the lottery I'd imagine, but heck, good for the few people that have managed to do this.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Once in a while somebody gets lucky and manages to rip the gil sellers (and whatever buyers that gil was supposed to go to) off by throwing a random item up for an amount that's completely insane. Hitting on the right number and item is lot like winning the lottery I'd imagine, but heck, good for the few people that have managed to do this.

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I doubt that has ever happened in this game because of the way the MB is designed. You would have to know what item(s) the buyer and seller have agreed to use for the transaction and the amount of the transaction(s).

Now in WoW it was fairly easy to do because you could do a search for all items with the list sorted in high to low order.