Has anyone noticed a decrease in botting activity in light of recent events?

Haha no chaos server's are pretty bad still

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Originally Posted by XenoCranel

Giving more tools and power to GMs in-game wouldn't really do anything to negatively impact gameplay but help the FF14 Team actually do their job better.

Honestly, just have them sit in gathering zones for like 5-10 minute based on reported botters and ban them on the spot.

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Originally Posted by Paladinleeds

So things like bots, RMT, etc, get the GMs to start up a "Sting campaign" designed to try and catch them.

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I do agree that there should be some human input from GMs and authority regarding gathering bots. Those take time/money to level up all the way to 70. And when they do, they will have to cover the cost of leveling before they can start making profit. So their growth is significantly slower compared to RMT bots and so are their numbers. So GMs don't have to fully dedicate their time handling them until they become noticeable by the players' community (Just like now). If GMs were given authority and start taking actions against them now, it will only be a matter of time before it becomes impractical for botters to create new ones and would have to act much more discreetly; reducing the gathering bot party that you see now.

What I've personally noticed is not so much bots vanishing but shifting fields. Ever since the LL speaking out about it but ALSO announcing the app I've seen a HUGE upswing of market board retainers who undercut your listed goods by 1 gil pretty much as clockwork down to the second. Before I was making a decent amount of money from the marketboards but with the syndication AND the upswing in MB-bots I haven't sold an item for months

I've only noticed one undercutter bot on Cactaur, but they occupy basically the entire market for ilvl 350 DoW/M gear, so trying to sell any of that requires you either be equally diligent in undercutting or undercutting by so much that they won't go any lower.

So much for hoping.

It seems like the bots had vanished due to unpaid subs or some other petty reason, as some of them have returned after a week or two of absence and gone right back to their business, while the ones that are still gone have been replaced by new ones, whether they be transfers from another server or existing players who decided to turn to the dark side, so things haven't gotten any better overall.

I've pretty much given up on trying to gather or craft consumables/gear for profit because of them at this point.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

I've only noticed one undercutter bot on Cactaur, but they occupy basically the entire market for ilvl 350 DoW/M gear, so trying to sell any of that requires you either be equally diligent in undercutting or undercutting by so much that they won't go any lower.

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Speaking as an endgamer merchant myself... I am CONSTANLTY undercutting people by 1 gil. This is because im an active merchant. If the other people are active too, they can undercut me. When the price gets low enough, Ill just buy the others out and relist the items again. This results in always having stock to sell. :)

whats funny is that undercutting by 1 gil doesnt even make sense, when you consider port fees and the fact that the 5% tax on the purchaser is waived by buying from the same city-state the retainer is in.

then again theres also no reason to have a retainer located anywhere other than shiro, you lose money in the other locations due to higher taxes on the seller (aside from ishgard, but shiro is preferable due to it having a ward with market boards)

And yeah I know, it still works because most people cant be arsed to pay attention xD

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Originally Posted by Enlial

whats funny is that undercutting by 1 gil doesnt even make sense, when you consider port fees and the fact that the 5% tax on the purchaser is waived by buying from the same city-state the retainer is in.

then again theres also no reason to have a retainer located anywhere other than shiro, you lose money in the other locations due to higher taxes on the seller (aside from ishgard, but shiro is preferable due to it having a ward with market boards)

And yeah I know, it still works because most people cant be arsed to pay attention xD

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No whats funny is, how people ALWAYS go with the 1st lowest listing, even tho its 1 gil. Thats why I sell with my retainers at multiple cities. So this way people "cant" fully use the tax against me. Unless they wanna tele to each zone.

As for me, I buy local from the sellers listing and make sure they take the brunt of the tax lol.

Haven't had one rmt send me a tell...the report function must be working well. Outside of that, if i stay at the uldah aetheryte, you can see some every now and then popin and disappear. I also recently saw some doing the trap quest in horizon, kind of funny...he was placing a trap then teleporting to the npc...back to placing a trap then to the npc..

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Originally Posted by RubenSnizzle

Haven't had one rmt send me a tell...the report function must be working well. Outside of that, if i stay at the uldah aetheryte, you can see some every now and then popin and disappear. I also recently saw some doing the trap quest in horizon, kind of funny...he was placing a trap then teleporting to the npc...back to placing a trap then to the npc..

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The RMT bots seem to have dropped the more disruptive forms of advertising like tells and party invites because it was getting them banned a lot faster then spamming say/shout chat was.

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Originally Posted by Mysticales

Speaking as an endgamer merchant myself... I am CONSTANLTY undercutting people by 1 gil. This is because im an active merchant. If the other people are active too, they can undercut me. When the price gets low enough, Ill just buy the others out and relist the items again. This results in always having stock to sell. :)

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I know some people are obsessed with crafting and all, but this person is online and active virtually 24/7.

Even if I'm repricing my stuff at what would be the wee hours of the morning for all US timezones, they'll still be sitting in their house undercutting, and the same goes for EU timezones, as well.

Not to mention I've literally never seen them using a non-DoH class, either. I keep tabs on the level 70 DoH/L players on the server in player search to see if the STF will ever get their act together and ban the people I've been reporting for months, even though I half-expect that that's probably never going to happen.