The bot problem is rising and real.

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Originally Posted by warcanoe

I am fairly new to ffxiv so what are SE's method of combating bots? Do they track and ban ect?

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There are no effective methods. Most players can run bots for years without issue and reports are generally ignored. On the rare occasion that they get disciplined, it is usually lightweight and laughable. There is some "mass ban" thing they come out with every so often which appears to do absolutely nothing at all. It is really a blight on the game. My only hope is that it gets to a breaking point where they take action. But years have passed, so I don't see that happening. I can't even imagine the scale of fraud that must go into these accounts. You'd think they would take action from a legal perspective alone.

Real "named" players using more sophisticated bots are also rampant though less noticeable unless you're familiar with the patterns. They tend to do what they do without impunity as well and reporting has no effect.

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Originally Posted by warcanoe

I am fairly new to ffxiv so what are SE's method of combating bots? Do they track and ban ect?

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they have an ingame report feature for RTM, which you can't clearly use on every bot, just the ones that spam in chat. other than that you either report them one by one by filling a form or wait for a banwave, if it even works.

Been leveling up a new character and literally every map I have been to, people were talking about the insane amount bots that flood all of ARR in the shout chat. I have never seen it this bad. Some folks in Eastern Thanalan was stopping a train of them by placing their chocobos in their path. The bots eventually got force log out by that afk timer but of course, about 100 more appeared after that. It's like we are already experiencing an apocalypse.

I, by just literally standing for ONE minute in the main entrance to ul'dah, see about 30 bots and 5 actual players

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Originally Posted by AngeliouxRein

Some folks in Eastern Thanalan was stopping a train of them by placing their chocobos in their path..

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I need to know how to do this for science and amusement.

I don't think simply having a chocobo would stop them, but I know in some other MMOs naming a pet after a mob the bots want to kill will confuse them and make them attempt to attack it.

could we make so we can right click on characters and report them for being a bot. Also maybe make a program that doesn't allow keyboard smash names.

Y'know, I'll be the first to admit that I hate most of the views that other posters have on these forums. More often that not I find myself in disagreement with their ideas and in disappointment that they would even think of something like that. And I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this way. However, this botting issue is the one problem all of us can truly rally behind. No matter who you are or what your stances are on this game, I'm sure that we can agree that we need to eradicate these f***ing robots.

Decided to finally level one of my gatherers and in doing so I was hoping from zones and city-states and I saw some obviously bots. In Ul'dah I saw several running from the aetheryte to the adventurer's guild going through walls. In Gridania I saw at least 7 BLM just standing around for several seconds by the aetheryte and then all of then headed toward Old Gridania and then another set of BLM teleported by the Aetheryte. I would of liked a way easy way to report them but there is no report option when right-clicking another player.

I've seen them on my server, just not to this extent; the fact it happens at all though is simply embarrassing. I am embarrassed for you, SE.

Mostly, I've seen some when I'm out gathering, or occasionally when I return to Gridania for GC turn-ins. They'll talk to the NPC at the guild, then make a 45 degree turn and float away. Clearly, the "wait and ban in waves, don't allow our GMs to actually do anything, etc." methods aren't working. I get that you can't completely eradicate them, but this is worse then some ftp games... Come on, SE. :(

Edit: Anyone seen people camping the MB for longer than is reasonable? As in, possibly using a bot to purchase items? I know this occurs in other MMOs, but i don't recall seeing it here before this. I've seen the same character standing at the MB outside Shirogane apartments for hours on end. I'll port there, go to my apartment, port out to do something else, port back, they're still there... haven't moved an inch. For hours and hours, days on end, though granted there are times they aren't there. I dunno, either they're a very careful bot, or a player who doesn't mind camping the board... for, uh, hours... Maybe I should just send them a tell.

Reminds me why I quit playing Blade and Soul. I use to see trains of 60 summoners together and they kill every quest monster you needed. After not being able to complete simple quest I uninstalled the game. bots really suck in open world pvp. they just swam you and kick you.