Cheating and RMT exploitation has hit a new level of ridiculous.

Dev time is spent dealing with lewd adventurer plates and making sure beast tribes are renamed to not be offensive, please understand.

There are players which I have encountered with humanly impossible reflex. The moment I used gap-closer even if they are engaged with some of my teammates, I was being hit the moment I landed on my target and subsequently, continuously disabled to the point I die.

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Originally Posted by KuroLalafell

There are players which I have encountered with humanly impossible reflex. The moment I used gap-closer even if they are engaged with some of my teammates, I was being hit the moment I landed on my target and subsequently, continuously disabled to the point I die.

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There's apparently some "all-in-one" PvP add-on/hack/bot that can automatically focus fire low HP players, auto-interrupt "problematic" abilities like LBs, and a whole bunch of other nonsense that makes me question why people even bother playing the game at all.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they made a fully functional PvP bot that can actually put up a better fight then some actual players. They do exist in Frontlines already but their lack of situational/spatial awareness tends to just send them running to their deaths.

I'm more annoyed about people using assisting add-on in pvp and hope they'll get a 2 weeks ban + rank roll back during the maintenance that will validate the first series.

Well, it's now been two weeks since I reported these guys, and they're still there, hacking away and farming scrips for some unknown purpose.

I can only assume that whatever hack they are using is somehow not detectable by the "tools" the STF is using because the teleport hackers in ARR zones seldom last more then a week.

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Originally Posted by Deceptus

Literally all it takes is for a GM to take 5 min, zone in, notice extreme botlike behavior and act appropriately. Send em to Gaol and then sort them out.

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There's gm's in this game?

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Originally Posted by Darthgummibear

There's gm's in this game?

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They spend 80% of the time doing back end-tech support and 20% of their time doing what their job title actually entails. IMO.

After I read this I looked on my server. And I found 3 wanderers. They were in two different FCs with plenty of other 90 fishers and even more "players" around lvl 26-28 and culinary at 30.

I wish their computers would explode while they are away from it. D:

I encountered 5 bots farming Fate in Elpis on Moogle (Chaos DC).

All movement they've done was "too perfect", not even a single variation, following the same "Pathfinding" each time they go for the next Fate.

Strange behavior that lead me to report those five :

- One direction avoiding AoE, always by going backwards.
- Stop completely to move until a Fate other than Gathering anything is up
- Don't attack monster that aren't in the Zone of the Fate even if monster of the Fate are spawned. Can be proven by doing the FATE with serpent in the north of Elpis, they pop outside of the Fate and if you tank them all out, Bot won't even notice them (Even at a distance where they can cast spell to attack)
- Don't answer any message. I even ask to prove them that they weren't bot (Of course you don't get answer by doing that...)
- Don't react to Fate that need to be activated (Quest like button). BUT they go on the road once the Fate is launched.

I reported them for all of this.

Strangely enough, they disappeared 10-15 minutes after my reports (I suppose for once, GM Banned them, or putted them in prison)

I'm always puzzled by how these bot farms involving several characters manage to escape notice of the STF because the scripting is painfully easy to see when there are multiple gathering or FATE bots all following the exact route in near perfect unison.

That assumes they're actually going to observe these players first-hand instead of monitoring them strictly through their server/client side activity/data, though.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

I'm always puzzled by how these bot farms involving several characters manage to escape notice of the STF because the scripting is painfully easy to see when there are multiple gathering or FATE bots all following the exact route in near perfect unison.

That assumes they're actually going to observe these players first-hand instead of monitoring them strictly through their server/client side activity/data, though.

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Who knows what is really going on but I wouldn't be surprised if the STF has all but disbanded.

Time Period: Apr. 21, 2022 to Apr. 27, 2022

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 1519
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 1

・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 213

Time Period: Apr. 14, 2022 to Apr. 20, 2022

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 1,062
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 1
・Botting activity (excluding RMT vendors)
　・Accounts terminated: 3
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 8
*Botting activity by RMT vendors has been included under "Participation in RMT/prohibited activities."
・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 339

Time Period: Apr. 7, 2022 to Apr. 13, 2022

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 1333
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 4

・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 148

Time Period: Mar. 31, 2022 to Apr. 6, 2022

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 1608
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 5

・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 153

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Compare this to last year:

Time Period: Apr. 15, 2021 to Apr. 21, 2021

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 2,102
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 13
・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 702

Time Period: Apr. 8, 2021 to Apr. 14, 2021

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 3,346
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 16
・Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 6
*Botting activity by RMT vendors has been included under "Participation in RMT/prohibited activities."
・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 1,789

Time Period: Apr. 1, 2021 to Apr. 7, 2021

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 3,258
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 30

・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 2,209


Time Period: Mar. 25, 2021 to Mar. 31, 2021

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 3,793
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 3
・Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts terminated: 3
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 2
*Botting activity by RMT vendors has been included under "Participation in RMT/prohibited activities."
・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 1,991

Difference is clear to anyone who can do simple arithmetic. They aren't even trying to ban the endgame crafting RMT bots anymore over the last half year.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

There's apparently some "all-in-one" PvP add-on/hack/bot that can automatically focus fire low HP players, auto-interrupt "problematic" abilities like LBs, and a whole bunch of other nonsense that makes me question why people even bother playing the game at all.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they made a fully functional PvP bot that can actually put up a better fight then some actual players. They do exist in Frontlines already but their lack of situational/spatial awareness tends to just send them running to their deaths.

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Last season in Feast there were a dozen or so people in the t100 who were boosted and/or use speedhacks/triggers on Aether. I've only literally ever heard of one person, ever, being banned for boosting/wintrading/hacking in Feast. Though there's probably more I doubt even 10% of these people are ever banned.

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Originally Posted by Moonlite

I watched a random youtube video about some addon that makes the game so much better. It did have an addon that removes animation lock to speed up gameplay. At the time I thought what an advantage that would be for pvp. Just checked my history to find video again looks like youtube has deleted it for some reason.

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If you're talking about XIVAlexander, a lot of raiders use it to eliminate the animation delay due to ping. This sort of addon wouldn't exist if they just implemented this basic feature into the game itself.

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Originally Posted by Jojoya

They've got no problem starting over because it's how they make money and the new account is just an operating expense.

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The moment they get banned faster than they can get value out of their bots, operating expenses will make them stop.

The problem in MMOs is mainly that those botters are actualy still bringing in money. And it costs money to make them stop (both in personel costs and losing those subscriptions). This generaly means that you dont want them to stop entirely, you only want to disrupt them in such way you can maximize their expenses while having them disrupt less. Sure, depending on the dev they might go for the more extreme method, but note that this then always will cost money.

You can ofcourse have some AI systems for detection, which for some bot things can be effective and often is a good way to push their expenses up (which they then cannot as effectively counter, because of quicker bot detection). But in the end, you cant realy win this fight anyway. Botters will just make their bots more effective at dodging detection, often with just reduced productivity, but as long as they still make profit at low effort, they wont care.

In light of the recent bans issued for offenses of questionable weight, I can't help but find the continued presence of a veritable army of blatant cheaters on the moon all the more aggravating.

I suppose that's likely a product of the former being an offense that could be addressed by the GMs as opposed to being handed off to the questionable efficiency of the STF...though that just makes me wish all the more that the GMs had the authority to just go over there, see that all of the involved players are clearly hacking and purge them on the spot.

Seems like it has gotten worse since I last commented on this. Back then I would find 4-6 wanderers (I did a few player searches every now and then), but when I did this again today I found 6-10 on every world. Might be related to the time of the search this time, idk. Will try this again later on. Once their inventory is full, they hop to Mor Dhona to trade in the fishes, so yeah they're most likely farming Lunar Deathworms. I also found 2 bots that I've reported before posting here and they're still fishin :')

Interestingly enough, one of the bots I've reported this time was in an 1 year old, 58 members fc with a small house. When I checked the house to see who was the FC owner, I found out that the leader has almost the exact same characteristics from the bots, other than having a glam. So I guess all the 58 members from this FC are bots? The only member online had one level 70 warrior, so maybe the bot owner buys a lvl 70 skip and levels up everything else to 90?

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Originally Posted by SiSenor

Seems like it has gotten worse since I last commented on this. Back then I would find 4-6 wanderers (I did a few player searches every now and then), but when I did this again today I found 6-10 on every world. Might be related to the time of the search this time, idk. Will try this again later on. Once their inventory is full, they hop to Mor Dhona to trade in the fishes, so yeah they're most likely farming Lunar Deathworms. I also found 2 bots that I've reported before posting here and they're still fishin :')

Interestingly enough, one of the bots I've reported this time was in an 1 year old, 58 members fc with a small house. When I checked the house to see who was the FC owner, I found out that the leader has almost the exact same characteristics from the bots, other than having a glam. So I guess all the 58 members from this FC are bots? The only member online had one level 70 warrior, so maybe the bot owner buys a lvl 70 skip and levels up everything else to 90?

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if they have one 90 combat class, usually a caster type, but all the other members are 90 harvesters/crafters, I would say thats a good bot candidate.

We need to report rmt activity more frequently. Many people dont even know that there is a fast report option for that by right clicking the real money promoter's name and then click report rmt and just do the thing.

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Originally Posted by Shuuli

We need to report rmt activity more frequently. Many people dont even know that there is a fast report option for that by right clicking the real money promoter's name and then click report rmt and just do the thing.

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the problem thats low hanging fruit. a blind person or a trained monkey could deal with them.

SE needs to actually action on the people buying gil. if people are afraid of buying, less market, less incentive for the people running the bots. banning throw away accounts does nothing, as has been proven time and again. the botters just make more.

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

if they have one 90 combat class, usually a caster type, but all the other members are 90 harvesters/crafters, I would say thats a good bot candidate.

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A friend's alt is a level 90 NIN only but has all of his Gatherer and Crafting Classes at 90 and I'm pretty sure he is NOT a bot.

A game with a free trial and a level boost has bot problems? How can that be?

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Originally Posted by rance-sama

A friend's alt is a level 90 NIN only but has all of his Gatherer and Crafting Classes at 90 and I'm pretty sure he is NOT a bot.

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not saying they all are. but I bet your friend also doesnt spend all day, seven days a week in their apartment/house crafting and selling things either

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Originally Posted by Kes13a

the problem thats low hanging fruit. a blind person or a trained monkey could deal with them.

SE needs to actually action on the people buying gil. if people are afraid of buying, less market, less incentive for the people running the bots. banning throw away accounts does nothing, as has been proven time and again. the botters just make more.

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And how exactly would they know who buys gil? The transaction usually happens ingame, and there are legit ways to trade gil by getting gil from someone else - e.g.: I can give my friend gil as a loan to buy a house. Or I want to give gil to a newly married couple. Etc...

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Originally Posted by Shuuli

And how exactly would they know who buys gil? The transaction usually happens ingame, and there are legit ways to trade gil by getting gil from someone else - e.g.: I can give my friend gil as a loan to buy a house. Or I want to give gil to a newly married couple. Etc...

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well, if you believe that they have no way to track gil, then more power to you. companies do it now, they have done it in the past. there is no reason SE cannot do it through their database, even ingame, so no need for spy software in the program. sure, you can lend gil, or give gil to newlyweds, which is an easily justifiable way to do it as well as easily proven. since it is just as easily provable how you earned it. there is a record.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

I've gotten into a mentality where I just try to tune out bots after months/years of fruitless reports, but this latest little incident was way too egregious to ignore

https://i.imgur.com/Wjomm4A.png?1

If you're wondering what you're looking at, this is a full party of level 90 FSH bots farming Lunar Deathworms (Presumably for purple scrips) in a cave at Mare Lamentorum; most easily discernable whenever they have to move awkwardly around to prevent the "fish sense something amiss" gimmick from kicking in or when they're flying back after doing scrip turn-ins.

They are mostly in the same FC (Though I hid that and their names for obvious reasons), and they are additionally using some kind of hack that is basically removing the animation from the Hook abilities to speed up their fishing significantly.

There are also some wanderers behaving in the exact same manner that lead me to believe this was an Aether DC wide operation, and sure enough, they were present in varying numbers in this same spot on every single server on the DC. In total I counted around 30 them of; all level 90 FSH who by all appearances were level-skipped and only progressed the MSQ far enough to gain flight in Mare Lamentorum. A lot of them also are using the Zu or gorilla mount, which suggests they leveled FSH using the Diadem then opted to dump their skybuilder scrips on those for reasons unknown.

Their FCs have several additional level 20ish members that are just holed up in the Limsa Lominsa inn doing...something, though judging from them having CUL at level 30, I'm assuming they're desynthing the garbage fish from the bots to squeeze as much gil out of the process as possible.

If you're on Aether DC, I think it would be prudent to check this out and mass report the bots in question because I haven't seen an operation on this scale since the ARR gil farmers were a thing and it would set a rather worrying precedent if they're able to get away with brazenly hacking on top of automating gameplay.

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The only way to deal with it, is for the hitting the customers hard, no temporare suspension... 1 warning and reset all to level 1 to start over, second time, account termination.

Bots and the likes only thrieve because people buy their clears/gil and whatever... so hit the players hard, that use these features.

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Originally Posted by rance-sama

A friend's alt is a level 90 NIN only but has all of his Gatherer and Crafting Classes at 90 and I'm pretty sure he is NOT a bot.

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There are generally other signs too when it comes to bots.

Like they only have the basic MSQ mounts or minions, no side content done at all, no instances besides MSQ. They're often in FC's that consist of just the bot and a few low level bank alts. That 8-10 person FC often has very high activity compared to other FC's on their server, meaning the bot is going 24/7. The bot is online for days at a time ingame at the same locations and often only crafts in a house or room away from public.

Once you add everything up together it's almost certain in many cases.

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Originally Posted by Themarvin

Bots and the likes only thrieve because people buy their clears/gil and whatever... so hit the players hard, that use these features.

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How do you hit those who bot for gathering for their own use?

They're still there nearly three months later.

The only thing that's changed is that they aren't in a FC anymore, presumably because they decided it wasn't worth running those low level alts to desynth fish.

Nice Special Task Force.. They did same again I reported someone more than 15 days and they do nothing to them. They claim the evidences is invalid and don't accept any screenshot from discord's server.

I ask them to investigate about RMT in their accounts too but yeah... they don't give any care at all. I got many evidences and TRANSLATED TO ENG AND JP to give them.
BUT THEY DON'T CARE. WHY I NEED TO PAY A SUBS TO SOMEONE doesn't WORK at all..... IF YOU CAN'T ACCEPT THE LINK AND EVIDENCES, CAN YOU TRY TO CHECK THEIR DATA LOGS?

They use 3rd party client that can install plugin can modify many features in game such as 'casting bot / latency reduction / act call / DoT timer / hit box range etc. There's someone who teach them to use 3rd party tool in those party too.
I CAN EVEN TELL THEY SAID YEAH YEAH I DON'T CARE, HOW MUCH YOU REPORTS BUT THEY DON'T WANNA INVESTIGATE US.
Staffs want to clear 3rd party program's users I give you link and pictures but you don't care yeah I'll keep report until they got banished.


About RMT they use Facebook's community to contact with merchandise so no one can grasp any in-game evidence how can i report them if as you told me that you wont accepted any evidence that occurred on external sites.

They always make fun about ffxiv's staff teams that cant do anything and still cheating / supporting RMT till nowadays because you don't exist they bullied other people in JP data center ,who don't live same as their party, with their mod's tool.

Did staff teams cant do anything like they said?

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Originally Posted by Shoyaya

Nice Special Task Force.. They did same again I reported someone more than 15 days and they do nothing to them. They claim the evidences is invalid and don't accept any screenshot from discord's server.

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The reason for this is because outside evidence can be manipulated by the submitter. For example, Person A and Person B have a fight and Person A decides to try to ruin Person B's time in the game. They take the time to photoshop a screenshot to show Person B engaging in RMT when they never were and submit it to support to try to get them in trouble. Person B is promptly banned from the game when they never did anything wrong.

This is obviously a situation to avoid. ^

They're only going to accept in game evidence that they can also see on their end as it can't be faked. So if you want to get someone for RMT, they'd have to directly admit in game that they're participating in RMT.

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Originally Posted by Shoyaya

Nice Special Task Force...They claim the evidences is invalid and don't accept any screenshot from discord's server. ...

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OMG, How did you get an answer from the STF?

I mean we all think these are three Japanese people sitting in some swanky office in Tokyo drinking tea all day as they scrunch and throw all our unread reports into the bin, like a basketball.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

OMG, How did you get an answer from the STF?

I mean we all think these are three Japanese people sitting in some swanky office in Tokyo drinking tea all day as they scrunch and throw all our unread reports into the bin, like a basketball.

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I got that guy as my friend I can check everyday if he got ban or not