Attention devs: Game Surveillance Unit re: open world Bots.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

It's 8:14am EST and they are botting in Eastern Thanalan right now with busy status set (X27 Y24 & X25 Y24).

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Same Bots still there @ 5:11pm EST. That's 9 hours straight since last sighting.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

Same Bots still there @ 5:11pm EST. That's 9 hours straight since last sighting.

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Same Bots still there @ 10:01pm EST. Going on 14 hours since I saw them this morning.

Shameless bump. If you care about having an active surveillance unit watching over the game you pay a subscription for, please keep voicing your opinion about SE's lack of action when it comes to dealing with open world bots - which are allowed to stay active in the game ongoing. This thread needs activity or the CM's will ignore it.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

http://i.imgur.com/LSct1fI.png

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I know this character/botter...shame she named her character after one of my favourite French actresses...

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

http://i.imgur.com/7lI2Hsb.png

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You thought the crafter is creepy? I find the lalas and hyur staring at the walls like wind up dolls with invisible keys creepier TBH

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Originally Posted by willibra

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Now that I think about it, I was locked from logging in this morning until I got the password changed. And i got a message that said the reason was "suspicious activity"

Recently I decided to max all crafting classes (and level Mining) so that I can make gil (not to sell, in case you haven't noticed, some mats, minions, materia and especially houses are expensive!!) I think that someone may have mistook me for a bot and reported me.

If that's the case then I wonder if the reason there dosen't seem to be a dwindle in bots is because the GSU are targeting actual players by mistake. And if that will turn off players from any crafting or gathering class?

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

You thought the crafter is creepy? I find the lalas and hyur staring at the walls like wind up dolls with invisible keys creepier TBH



Now that I think about it, I was locked from logging in this morning until I got the password changed. And i got a message that said the reason was "suspicious activity"

Recently I decided to max all crafting classes (and level Mining) so that I can make gil (not to sell, in case you haven't noticed, some mats, minions, materia and especially houses are expensive!!) I think that someone may have mistook me for a bot and reported me.

If that's the case then I wonder if the reason there dosen't seem to be a dwindle in bots is because the GSU are targeting actual players by mistake. And if that will turn off players from any crafting or gathering class?

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LOL sometimes they creep me out when they target me.
Do you always log in from the same PC? If your ISP assigns you a new IP address after your modem gets powered off/on then that can force prompt you to change password. Using a one time password token would solve that issue but if it's a rare occurrence then maybe don't worry.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

LOL sometimes they creep me out when they target me.
Do you always log in from the same PC? If your ISP assigns you a new IP address after your modem gets powered off/on then that can force prompt you to change password. Using a one time password token would solve that issue but if it's a rare occurrence then maybe don't worry.

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Yes I do log in from the same PC and in the 3-4 months that I've played this is the first time this had happened so I'd say it's rare. And I;m considering getting a Security token soon (I just hope I can use Steam payments for more than just buying time)

Also someone shoule make a creepypasta of the lalabots that stare at walls.

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Originally Posted by Amenian

Target the mob and see who it's targeting.

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I don't know why I never thought that. *facepalm*

P.S. This game needs a face palm emote.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

Same Bots still there @ 10:01pm EST. Going on 14 hours since I saw them this morning.

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Same bots still there in Eastern La Noscea (X27 Y24 & X25 Y24) on Tonberry.
@Community Managers what is it going to take to get you to act on this issue and alert the devs, so they can give the GSU a swift kick in the pants for not banning bots?
Or is botting allowed in FFXIV? Please respond so we can all be on the same playing field here.

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Originally Posted by Noshpan

I don't know why I never thought that. *facepalm*

P.S. This game needs a face palm emote.

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The /stagger emote is basically what this is. Also, this thread is a prime example of why showing names on screen shots should be allowed. GMs obviously don't ban some botters (can you say "under the table?")

@CM's - more open world bot reports in this thread:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...in-Urth-s-Gift

When are you going to take action? Allowing cheating in this game is pretty poor service considering we all pay sub every month. I've played free to play games that have less tolerance for cheating than this one. I am astounded that I have reported a bunch of bots daily for 2 months straight, given all the information needed and GSU just ignores it all completely. Pathetic.

Have you tried reporting the bots / cheaters via Lodestone (as per my previous post in this thread)?

I reported some a while back.
I went through all venues except for calling them personally. Reported in-game, reported two places on the website, had friends, guildies, random passer-bys report, and they are still unbanned to this day (Though they moved around the world since this report, still saw the same bots spiritbonding in this manner)
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...are-about-bots

It is really ridiculous what some of the people post to defend these very obvious bots, such as just calling them anti-social or whatever. If someone marathons the same spot for literally months without moving, talking, or resurrecting when they die, not unlocking their job, and can take killing millions of karakuls, these people would need help and SE should intervene for their health at that point :L

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Originally Posted by HEC-

Have you tried reporting the bots / cheaters via Lodestone (as per my previous post in this thread)?

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This is exactly what I did daily for over 2 months and absolutely no effort on SE's part to take action.
GM's told me there are issues with bot reports not being actioned properly and to air my grievances here on the forums for the Community Manager's to pick up, alert the developers to the issue, and then action would hopefully be taken from there.

This is all on the proviso that my thread gets enough interest from the community itself to make it clear that we don't want cheating (use of 3rd party tools) allowed in FFXIV.
Very poor form that we have to motivate SE to keep the game clean and they don't actively take care of it themselves. I'd hate to think how rampant cheating is in this game, a friend of mine actually thinks a lot of players are doing it because you can easily get away with it.

Sorry to say but don't waste your time reporting them anymore, it's futile.

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

http://i.imgur.com/LSct1fI.png

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Totally off topic but anyone know what the name of the staff in that picture is????

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Originally Posted by JTribal

Totally off topic but anyone know what the name of the staff in that picture is????

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That'd be a Tane Mahuta. Alchemists make 'em. Rosewood branch, spoken blood, ochu vine, and growth formula gamma.

I used to report the bots farming wind crystals/shards at the gathering points in the Central Shroud near the zone to the South Shroud every day for weeks until I finally gave up. 1 year later and they're still there with a couple of new friends. I only see SE eventually banning the bots that teleport between node and hide underground.

Bots on Phoenix weren't that bad for a while, but recently their prevalence has shot up. I went to farm Snurble tufts the other day and they had botting parties at almost every single Golden Fleece spawn point.

All the locations with easy enemies to spiritbond/chocolevel are now constantly occupied by a bot. This is preventing actual real players from using these spots to farm/spiritbond.

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Originally Posted by Titor

It is really ridiculous what some of the people post to defend these very obvious bots, such as just calling them anti-social or whatever. If someone marathons the same spot for literally months without moving, talking, or resurrecting when they die, not unlocking their job, and can take killing millions of karakuls, these people would need help and SE should intervene for their health at that point :L

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Sure, that's obvious boting, but unlike you, some people don't know how to spot a bot.
For exemple, i multibox with 8 chars, from time to time when i need materia, i put all my chars in the same and spam a /tenemy /cast spell macro, while watching a windowed movie. I always watch my screens and reply to wisps but usually people usually rage before even try to interact.
So i'm sure in a lot of case, people rage about bots when it's actually legit.

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Originally Posted by Ravno

So i'm sure in a lot of case, people rage about bots when it's actually legit.

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A lot of the cases being discussed here are things like a character that is running around mining or taking other actions while the Away status is clearly displayed (this is impossible unless you are using an exploit or are a bot) or the now rather infamous "underground bots" where the bot has glitched themselves under the surface of the ground so they cannot be targeted by players but are still moving around and attacking mobs. Someone in my FC found one the other day. While I agree it's not always clear-cut (Urth mass spiritbonders can look pretty bot/zombie-like sometimes), we're talking about blatantly obvious bots that are being left unsanctioned despite months of daily reports.

The two bots that I mentioned farming nodes in the Central Shroud are ridiculously obvious to anyone that spends time observing them. No human player can run the exact same circuits every time. Sometimes they even become completely synched.

Hell, in the beginning they used to jump to try and disguise themselves and would jump at the exact same spot of their circuit every time. Nowadays they just don't bother with that since SE obviously refuses to ban them.

This thread has me wanting a clockpunk dungeon where the enemies are clockwork androids that resemble player charaters and adds some horror into the concept of bots

Suspicious FCs:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...5873504751253/

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...&house=&order=

:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...2510899950236/
:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...5873504750771/
:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...7761132842678/


But it's pretty obvious they aren't going to do anything to all these bots. They could just keep doing a copy/paste of the same "RMT/Bot Removal" post they always do on the Lodestone and just change it to some random numbers and nobody would really know they did anything anyway.

Anyone else see this type of suspicious activity ?

Basically you'll have a large # of characters that belong to 1-3 FCs with giberish names wearing the same exact things. They either hang out AFK by an aetherite or by the summoning bell by the market board.

http://i.imgur.com/swpZx9d.jpg
the RMT black mage convention is alive and well at Ragnarok..

Regretfully you report them so many times before you get tired of it and stop doing it.

I've reported bots gathering fire shards in E. Thalanan (near the bridge where the 4x chain FATE pops) for months, they are still doing it....one day I said "to hell with this", they are still there botting and just ignore them

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Originally Posted by Gilthas

The two bots that I mentioned farming nodes in the Central Shroud are ridiculously obvious to anyone that spends time observing them. No human player can run the exact same circuits every time. Sometimes they even become completely synched.

Hell, in the beginning they used to jump to try and disguise themselves and would jump at the exact same spot of their circuit every time. Nowadays they just don't bother with that since SE obviously refuses to ban them.

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This botting problem and the lack of attempting to fix it in FF14 has been around since 1.0. A lot of the players I and others reported back then are actually still around to this day, having gone unpunished and reaping the rewards for their cheating. I used to send detailed reports all the time to the task force but like others, just gave up hope when I saw nothing was ever going to be done about it.

I still remember 3 sheep bots in Coerthas(talking 1.0 here) who monopolized the best spot for a year+ and they botted away till the moment the calamity took place.
Fast forward to today and I too witnessed everything else others have mentioned in this thread. Whether I report them or not doesn't change the fact that i can head to that exact same spot 3+ months later and see the exact same people doing the exact same thing(Not implying i don't send in reports anymore, I still do for some reason).

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Originally Posted by Lexxuk

Put it another way, RMT is watched for 1 month, over that month they make 2m a day so say 60m gil. They sell half of it at... /checks chat log.... $5 per million, that is $150. Account gets shut down and they buy another game for $50 and still have $100 profit.

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And they have even less profit if they get IP Blocked as well as having their account suspended. This is because not only will they have to buy a new game (50 bucks) they will have to also obtain a new IP address. It gets even worse if they get a Regional IP Block, as then they would need to somehow obtain an IP Address from outside the region that they were logged in from.

Yes there are ways around IP Blockages, but the long term versions of these are not cheap, and simply resetting your IP Address does not stop a Regional IP Blockage.

I have a party member dedicated to holding a trade window open with this bot [Tonberry, Eastern Thanalan X28 Y24] just so I can spiritbond in my preferred location. SE your silence on this matter is worrying. Do you or do you not condone botting in FFXIV ARR? Are you content to just ignore the matter, in effect sweeping it under the carpet?
I won't stop bringing it up and I hope others who feel the same keep voicing their opinion. I'd appreciate some service from you Square Enix.

http://i.imgur.com/wszedd4.png

I share everyones pain when I say I too am really sick of seeing bots everywhere. Whether it's RMT or player bots, it really feels like SE doesn't do anything.

I've reported my fair share of bots in 1.0 & 2.0 and sadly I still see the bots I reported at launch of 2.0 only now they have decked out BLMs or a bot with all 50 crafts with HQ gear & fully melded and artisans glasses crafting them gear to SB & then turn around and sell us the materia we are needing for our Novus quests. I would like more to be done but honestly, since seeing the ones I reported were never dealt with, I just have stopped reporting all together. :/

Best of luck to you OP

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

I have a party member dedicated to holding a trade window open with this bot [Tonberry, Eastern Thanalan X28 Y24] just so I can spiritbond in my preferred location. SE your silence on this matter is worrying. Do you or do you not condone botting in FFXIV ARR? Are you content to just ignore the matter, in effect sweeping it under the carpet?
I won't stop bringing it up and I hope others who feel the same keep voicing their opinion.

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It would reassure the community if the devs or reps would at least respond to this issue. They have said in the past that they do deal with RMT but it looks like they do it in large amounts every so often. In which time the bot has already transfered all the goods and gil to a less suspicious account used for trading with outside sources to make it harder to spot.

I believe you have seen this thread and are ignoring it. I was told by the GMs to ask you, the Community Reps, to present this issue of rampant botting being allowed in ARR to the devs, and you haven't said a single word on the matter. I face disciplinary action from the GMs if I contact them again about this. The very least you can do is acknowledge the information and responses provided in this thread, which I believe has gained enough traction to have you take some interest in the matter and provide a response.
The lack of service in this game that we pay monthly subscription for (I remind you) is astonishing.

Here's a pic of another mining bot [Tonberry: Southern Thanalan X19 Y11] that has survived for months and months for good measure:

http://i.imgur.com/OK6Oz4o.png

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Originally Posted by joshsecret

wow....
why have a report function if this is the response.
'my hands are tied" ... i just cant.

can i please have a job on the Task Force SE? please!
you wont even need to pay me. just cover my sub from time to time.
ill catch tons.

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I'll join too, I hunt bots out everyday and report them to no avail, I'd love to be on a team to kick these bots asses

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2je7m2f.jpg
another bot army on Balmung , SE pls give me ability to punish them :P game will be clean in 1 day

Actually, I believe the only way to get the dev's attention is to make enough noise about the problem. So far, the complaints about RMT and bots are few and far between, so in SE's book it's not a real problem. Remember when 2.38 came out there was a huge outpouring of complaint about personal housing, and Yoshi had to make a personal response shortly after to explain it.

We need to be loud about it before they take it seriously.

Bumping. It would be really nice to see a community rep response to this thread. The current system pretty much discourages people from reporting.

http://i.imgur.com/A3WBNQU.png
http://i.imgur.com/gmhjK4g.png
http://i.imgur.com/xgaQDCQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xT24knI.png

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

http://i.imgur.com/A3WBNQU.png
http://i.imgur.com/gmhjK4g.png
http://i.imgur.com/xgaQDCQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xT24knI.png

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We have bots in those same exact locations on the Zalera server, they stop sometimes to craft in Limsa Lominsa, but for the most part they are always there and have been since I started playing 2 months ago

This thread is for tonberry's bots only or can I report Malboro's bots here too?

I think these bots are used by gil sellers.

I've reported so many as well on a bunch of different servers I've played on. My guess, SE wants the 'numbers' for advertising and the income from these accounts. We hate to see them and want them gone, but this reason is my best guess as to why they are not being removed as fast as we'd like and why there is no mod/dev response about this.

For those who use the (annoying but legitimate, I might add) reasoning of "SE can't be SURE these are bots and not 'real players'", look at the screenshot of the clones Vladislav posted, there is NO way to have the afk symbol up while actually playing (and not running a script). My logic says there is the proof they are botting and can be terminated completely from the game. Therefore we are back to 'SE wants the numbers and the money'... and that's just sad. :(

I think on some threads, a few players will say "The bots aren't bothering you, why be so upset about them?" It's because nothing (imo), even emote or ability spam or other annoying things, ruins the game like seeing a crowd of botted characters auto attacking everything nearby, mining underground, or jumping into walls repeatedly (when afk for a certain time made you auto log out).

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Originally Posted by ToffeeCoffee

I'd appreciate some service from you Square Enix.

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The only "service" you will get from Square Enix is disservice. Square Enix has the WORST customer "service" I have ever encountered and it has spanned across every game of theirs I've ever played on every platform.

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Originally Posted by Sadana

there is NO way to have the afk symbol up while actually playing (and not running a script)

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Actually you can. There's an option in the menus that it doesn't auto update when you move or do something.