Mods and cheat engine

This community acts like they are the game dcitators

Didn't even know FF14 had a mechanic callout helper till this thread lol. But y'all do realize most if not all other MMO's have community sanctioned and widely used raid addons that popup warnings on screen for upcoming mechanics, right? Fighting with yourselves on a forum over how terrible and evil such a thing is, is truly a FF14-only concept.

Also it's not exactly some nefarious James Bond badguy supercomputer conspiracy to figure out that an upcoming mechanic is gonna proc 2.5 secs after a boss hits 35% HP or whatever. Whether a popup on a screen tells you that or you are REALLY good with a stopwatch and mouse in your hand, you look ridiculous fighting over it.

Imagine all those reports for harmless things that make some people so angry.....congesting reports of actual reports of harmful things. O.o

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Originally Posted by DerpyWhiskers

Didn't even know FF14 had a mechanic callout helper till this thread lol. But y'all do realize most if not all other MMO's have community sanctioned and widely used raid addons that popup warnings on screen for upcoming mechanics, right? Fighting with yourselves on a forum over how terrible and evil such a thing is, is truly a FF14-only concept.

Also it's not exactly some nefarious James Bond badguy supercomputer conspiracy to figure out that an upcoming mechanic is gonna proc 2.5 secs after a boss hits 35% HP or whatever. Whether a popup on a screen tells you that or you are REALLY good with a stopwatch and mouse in your hand, you look ridiculous fighting over it.

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The other big MMO also just lets you give them real money for in-game gold. Just because they design a bad game and rely on players to put it back together for them doesn't mean that's a norm to be embraced.

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Originally Posted by DerpyWhiskers

Didn't even know FF14 had a mechanic callout helper till this thread lol. But y'all do realize most if not all other MMO's have community sanctioned and widely used raid addons that popup warnings on screen for upcoming mechanics, right? Fighting with yourselves on a forum over how terrible and evil such a thing is, is truly a FF14-only concept.

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Yoshida put in place measures so that FFXIV wouldn't be like other MMOs that have these raid add-ons. It's why Yoshida adamantly refuses to put in an official damage meter, because he believes that damage meters themselves are destructive. He wants the game to be approachable by casual players. That was a mission that was built in to the game from the onset almost ten years ago.

If that was a mistake, then there are other MMOs that aren't run by Yoshida and his team. But many of us chose to play FFXIV over WoW, etc. intentionally. The majority of us players shouldn't have our game stolen from us because a handful of raiders transformed the endgame community into a mirror image of more toxic MMOs.

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Originally Posted by caffe_macchiato

because he believes that damage meters themselves are destructive.

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Just a quick correction: he doesn't believe damage meters are destructive/bad, which is evidenced in that he also utilizes them in an abstract way in-game (e.g.: Stone, Sky, Sea/The Lawns).
He believes that certain players could misbehave and harass others if numbers are provided, meaning that he thinks it's the playerbase that's destructive.
And, I mean... *waves arms at everyone*

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Originally Posted by caffe_macchiato

Yoshida put in place measures so that FFXIV wouldn't be like other MMOs that have these raid add-ons. It's why Yoshida adamantly refuses to put in an official damage meter, because he believes that damage meters themselves are destructive. He wants the game to be approachable by casual players. That was a mission that was built in to the game from the onset almost ten years ago.

If that was a mistake, then there are other MMOs that aren't run by Yoshida and his team. But many of us chose to play FFXIV over WoW, etc. intentionally. The majority of us players shouldn't have our game stolen from us because a handful of raiders transformed the endgame community into a mirror image of more toxic MMOs.

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I mean, he says this, but then makes a game where the raids have strict damage checks via enrages, thinks about damage for things like phys range "mobility tax", doesn't actively take any action against the existing damage meters, and so on.......

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Originally Posted by MintnHoney

Just a quick correction: he doesn't believe damage meters are destructive/bad, which is evidenced in that he also utilizes them in an abstract way in-game (e.g.: Stone, Sky, Sea/The Lawns).
He believes that certain players could misbehave and harass others if numbers are provided, meaning that he thinks it's the playerbase that's destructive.
And, I mean... *waves arms at everyone*

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Yep that was what I got from Yoshida as well.

He doesn't *want* to crack down on mods, but the GMs will handle it case by case if other players are being clearly harassed using those mods

And nope, someone using Parsers for themselves or optimisation tools that don't actually change gameplay in any way does not count as harassment.

Although that Cactpot line finder, yea that thing needs to go.

Everyone here on this forum that keep defending the use of mods that it's only for personal enjoyment. Thats not true at all. This pictures will be posted on Free Companies discords. So when a player without using mods are taking some pictures and posting them only a few players find those pictures nice. They wont say anything of course.
Using Mods and hacks does have a negative impact for others that just wanna play by the Rules & Policies and enjoy the game with others.

Fair points all. But back to the Cactpot minigame and sitting on ledges, nobody yet has been able to explain how my gaming experience is damaged or diminished if someone else sits on a ledge or earns more MGP than me. Not like that Cactpot is rocket science, it's Sudoku with a twist, anyone gifted at math or patterns can guess probably as good as some corny plugin.

It's not like you can sell the junk anyway and get some unfair advantage, its some old glams that are played out, a big ugly cactus mount and hairstyles that don't work on two races. I've got millions of MGP on my main just from showing up there once a week and nothing interesting to spend it on lol. If someone's earning more, good for them I say.

And if someone is sitting on a ledge or using a Bard music thing, why am I supposed to give two shits? It affects me precisely zero.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

Everyone here on this forum that keep defending the use of mods that it's only for personal enjoyment. Thats not true at all. This pictures will be posted on Free Companies discords. So when a player without using mods are taking some pictures and posting them only a few players find those pictures nice. They wont say anything of course.
Using Mods and hacks does have a negative impact for others that just wanna play by the Rules & Policies and enjoy the game with others.

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Yoshida has straight said he will not Witch hunt players unless there is proof of harassment

What you're actually doing is opening yourself up to be reported FOR harassment by pursuing this agenda and Witch hunting players.

So while you're think you're doing something clever, you're actually breaking TOS yourself by trying to rally a Witch Hunt.

Think about your actions, think about your behaviours

Who is the GM going to side with? The person using some picture modding tool who is not hurting anyone and typically doing it in privacy, or you, the person trying to rally a mob against them and hunting them out?

They might get a telling off, you'd get GM jail and account termination.

I like how people are bringing up the mini-cactpot plugin without realizing that before the plugin there was a website you could go to and just put in the numbers manually, achieving the same result.

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Originally Posted by Rolder50

I like how people are bringing up the mini-cactpot plugin without realizing that before the plugin there was a website you could go to and just put in the numbers manually, achieving the same result.

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Wouldn't know in all honesty because I do math. From what it seems and correct me if I'm wrong here, but the minicactpot thing is revealing the lines so you will always get the highest win on the card available?

If it's just to add up the numbers uncovered and give possible best % outcome payout...that's not really a big issue.

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

Wouldn't know in all honesty because I do math. From what it seems and correct me if I'm wrong here, but the minicactpot thing is revealing the lines so you will always get the highest win on the card available?

If it's just to add up the numbers uncovered and give possible best % outcome payout...that's not really a big issue.

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It does not reveal the lines, it simply uses math to say "Click this spot for the best possible odds"

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Originally Posted by Rolder50

It does not reveal the lines, it simply uses math to say "Click this spot for the best possible odds"

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Then that's a non-issue.

Way people were talking about it was like it uncovered all the lines which would have been straight up cheating and indefensible...

Same thing we can do by using math anyway

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

Yoshida has straight said he will not Witch hunt players unless there is proof of harassment

What you're actually doing is opening yourself up to be reported FOR harassment by pursuing this agenda and Witch hunting players.

So while you're think you're doing something clever, you're actually breaking TOS yourself by trying to rally a Witch Hunt.

Think about your actions, think about your behaviours

Who is the GM going to side with? The person using some picture modding tool who is not hurting anyone and typically doing it in privacy, or you, the person trying to rally a mob against them and hunting them out?

They might get a telling off, you'd get GM jail and account termination.

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Cant just continue having blinders on. Rules are rules, they have it written down in the Rules & Policies. Im not calling anyone out here on the forums by their names.

Please report players doing illegal activities through this link
"Report a case to the Special Task Force" just fill in the required information and done. That was the tip I got from a Game Master to do.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

Cant just continue having blinders on. Rules are rules, they have it written down in the Rules & Policies. Im not calling anyone out here on the forums by their names.

Please report players doing illegal activities through this link
"Report a case to the Special Task Force" just fill in the required information and done. That was the tip I got from a Game Master to do.

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Enjoy your ban because that's exactly where this little Witch hunt of yours is going.

Rules are Rules.

Maybe if they fixed their code some programs wouldn't be necessary for those of us with high ping to get the most out of the jobs we play.

Also to put up the actual rules so people better understand.

2.1 Cheating and Botting. You may not create or use any unauthorized cheats, bots, automation software, hacks, mods or any other unauthorized software or hardware designed to modify the Game and gameplay. In addition, you may not take advantage of game system bugs and exploits during gameplay.

Cactbot and ACT do not modify the game or gameplay therefore are exempt, nor are they using any exploit or bug. ACT and its plug ins (such as Cactbot and Hyabasleep) has worded exemption from Yoshida himself but it should be used sensibly and not as a tool to harass or bully.
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This next rule is important.

2.2 Real Money Trading, Farming and Power-Leveling. You may not sell, purchase or exchange for real-world money or value any in-game currency, accounts, characters, in-game services, or in-game virtual items. You may not play the Game for the purpose of acquiring virtual items or advancement in game play on behalf of a third-party or for the purpose of selling any virtual assets to a third party for real-world money, specifically including "gold-farming" and power-leveling services.


This is an ongoing and very real problem. Selling Ultimate clears by piloting someone's account for example is RMT and strictly against TOS, there's no special exemptions given here, nor will there ever be.
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This is the rule where people's argument even without exemption falls apart.

2.6 Hacking and Circumvention. You may not hack, disassemble, decompile, or otherwise modify the Game or server computer code, whether the Game code is located on a DVD, Blu-rayTM disc, your computer/console or on Square Enix's servers, except as expressly permitted by Square Enix or applicable law.

ACT reads client side network data, it does not inject packets into the server and does not interfere with the server code. There would be very noticable lag when using ACT and its plug ins if this were the case and it simply doesn't it reads the network file Client side, your own data. Anyone claiming otherwise is spreading lies or does not understand how ACT actually works.
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Now this one is the one people misread a lot.

3.2 Disruption. You may not in any way disrupt or interfere with the Game experience of other players, including the disruption of Square Enix's computers and servers

This includes harassment in all its forms, Witch hunting, bullying, stalking and making nuisance requests to GMs to ban people for doing nothing that affects your actual gameplay experience.

Thems the actual rules.

What is worded exemption?

When the Games Director acting as company ambassador speaks about a certain subject and gives a statement on its existence and usage. This is an exemption.

ACT and its various plug ins were granted that exemption when Yoshida sat and spoke about the tool and its plug ins specifically and made a very clear statement on it.

Funnily enough some other mods were also addressed in this same other QA session, pertaining to screenshots and while it wasn't 100% clarity it was clear that as long as it's done not in a public server space (I.E Limsa) then it's not bothering anyone and not an Avenue the dev team will be pursuing.

This was all said by the Director, you can go watch the video yourselves and note the two spoken exemptions and their provisos.

So unfortunately Karen brigade, this is one fight you won't be winning any time soon.

ACT, it's plug ins and some photo modifications will be here to stay, the dev team will just not officially support them

But they do want you to stop trying to report people for it because it's just getting in the way of actually important reports that need handling.

Kind of said in the other thread but my position on mods in a short summary is if they're not going to allow them like a few other MMOs do then they should take mods as an active, important, and playful challenge. The players throw down the gauntlet of what the UI should do and the devs, imo, should take that gauntlet as seriously as reasonably possible. For example the addon that basically plays triple triad for you.. maybe not, but there are A LOT of huge QoL, and feature to be honest, mods as well.

If someone at SE isn't actively with responsibility to watch the addons, at least from popular sources (not reasonable to see everything all the time, and maybe a waste of time at that point) then I think that should change. Just.. be careful in case one of the mods is capable of being a security threat. What a terrible story "SE hacked by addon creator" lol. If it needs to be so, just watch youtube videos XD.

IMO to me the shame is whole swathes of people not being able to enjoy it, while the game potentially also being influenced by them (like DBM did to WoW, which FFXIV does have a vaguely similar variant), while also losing a lot of potential QoL and honestly community creativity (although addons also have an annoying side, where they break- anyone in WoW remember an update destroying your addons? lol.......... /tableflip).

The two systems that currently support this have made huge strides over time, and it seems recently, at least one in particular, is getting even more attention. So this issue / concept is only going to become stronger. It honestly took longer than I thought it would (not the devs on these tools, just their existence in the first place- minus the parse specific aspect that's been around AGEs).. but now that it's here it seems to be growing quite quickly.

"How do you know all this!?!?!" Just actually read reddit sometimes... It's posted there semi-frequently, and from there the websites that run it are usually well documented - learning about this is like a lazy 10 second google.

As for safety, none of those tools are safe to say you use within the game or likely here (except reshade like tool), yet FFXIV doesn't want to malware our computers so that's really where the harm is going to come when you're not actively cheating (teleport hax or what have).

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2.5 Data Mining. You may not intercept, mine or otherwise collect information from the Game using unauthorized third party software.

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ACT is unauthorized third party software and it collects data from the game. And players can send collected data into services like fflogs.

Very nice you took up the rules

And about the Witch hunt part. Im sure heavy users of mods might feel this. But again no naming here on the public forum.

It's simply not allowed to modify files.

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2.7 Modifying or Creating Derivative Software. You may not modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game or Service in any way not expressly authorized by Square Enix, and may not make any derivative works of the Game.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

ACT is unauthorized third party software and it collects data from the game. And players can send collected data into services like fflogs.

Very nice you took up the rules

And about the Witch hunt part. Im sure heavy users of mods might feel this. But again no naming here on the public forum.

It's simply not allowed to modify files.

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Worded exemption from the Gamed Director.

Look it up, you're fighting a battle you already lost.

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

Worded exemption from the Gamed Director.

Look it up, you're fighting a battle you already lost.

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Yoshida has said "Cactbot is okay to use" ?

I saw something recently where he mentioned some of the tools are just "don't be harassing people and we're not going to bother", but I never saw him say "Cactbot is okay!". Which honestly would make me feel bad he said that.

He says a tool that gives you better combat comprehension is okay, which to me reads as perhaps he should have made the game itself do that instead... :p....

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Originally Posted by Shougun

Yoshida has said "Cactbot is oaky to use" ?

I saw something recently where he mentioned some of the tools are just "don't be harassing people and we're not going to bother", but I never saw him say "Cactbot is okay!". Which honestly would make me feel bad he said that.

He says a tool that gives you better combat comprehension is okay, which to me reads as perhaps he should have made the game itself do that instead... :p....

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ACT and it's plugins were all exempted unless a plug in literally allows you to bot/autopilot of actually begins to mess with server code then there's no issue

None of ACTs plug ins do.

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

Worded exemption from the Gamed Director.

Look it up, you're fighting a battle you already lost.

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I don't think I lost any battles here. I simply ask for a system to detect unauthorized third party software. And a way protecting the game files so they cant me modified. And this is really important for the future of the game. If everyone just say "its okay to run unauthorized third party software" what will then happen with the game? Sure World of Warcraft have add-ons, but they are allowed to. Thats the big difference here.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

Everyone here on this forum that keep defending the use of mods that it's only for personal enjoyment. Thats not true at all. This pictures will be posted on Free Companies discords. So when a player without using mods are taking some pictures and posting them only a few players find those pictures nice. They wont say anything of course.
Using Mods and hacks does have a negative impact for others that just wanna play by the Rules & Policies and enjoy the game with others.

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Just play the way you want to play, and please dont harass people minding their own bussiness by DMing them nonsense.

Also your attitude and actions will get you banned before any ledge-sitter, as other fellow players told you in this thread.

Also installing detection software is illegal in Japan afaik[could be wrong on this], on top of Yoshi P himself not wanting to invade the privacy of their players.
All he asks for is for ppl not to use the tools to harass others.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

I don't think I lost any battles here. I simply ask for a system to detect unauthorized third party software. And a way protecting the game files so they cant me modified. And this is really important for the future of the game. If everyone just say "its okay to run unauthorized third party software" what will then happen with the game? Sure World of Warcraft have add-ons, but they are allowed to. Thats the big difference here.

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Already ruled out in that same QA.

"We do not want to put intrusive software on your machines"

Because of a little thing called GDPR, SE would end up in court and their product pulled from Europe and Stream for breaching GDPR.

Sorry California man, time to look beyond your box and see that Japanese game company follows international laws and policies, not US "do whatever we like" policy.

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

Already ruled out in that same QA.

"We do not want to put intrusive software on your machines"

Because of a little thing called GDPR, SE would end up in court and their product pulled from Europe and Stream for breaching GDPR.

Sorry California man, time to look beyond your box and see that Japanese game company follows international laws and policies, not US "do whatever we like" policy.

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Not from California btw. Anyways. They ruled that out at that QA session sure. But the unauthorized third party software mess and modding is just growing and growing. At some point players can just do whatever they want with the game. What then? At some point we have a broken game with no control whats going on. Players can just defeat any bosses because "just install this unauthorized third party software and the game will show you what to do". Oh you don't need to buy this dress from the Final Fantasy Online Store "just install this unauthorized third party software mod" and you have that dress and more. And we have the group that play on the playstation. They start too see whats going with the PC users. They defeat bosses like they are nothing, they show screenshots with all kind of outfits and dresses. What then? Should we split the PC players into one server and PS players into another server? It should be the same experience for both groups.

Oh and about protecting the game and the game files. Im sure it's a way doing so legal and all that. Blizzard done it for many years. And other game companies.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

Not from California btw. Anyways. They ruled that out at that QA session sure. But the unauthorized third party software mess and modding is just growing and growing. At some point players can just do whatever they want with the game. What then? At some point we have a broken game with no control whats going on. Players can just defeat any bosses because "just install this unauthorized third party software and the game will show you what to do". Oh you don't need to buy this dress from the Final Fantasy Online Store "just install this unauthorized third party software mod" and you have that dress and more. And we have the group that play on the playstation. They start too see whats going with the PC users. They defeat bosses like they are nothing, they show screenshots with all kind of outfits and dresses. What then? Should we split the PC players into one server and PS players into another server? It should be the same experience for both groups.

Oh and about protecting the game and the game files. Im sure it's a way doing so legal and all that. Blizzard done it for many years. And other game companies.

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You're not interested in protecting the game nor preserving it's integrity, don't even try that attempt at self Martyrdom.

Do people in SFV complain that people run mods when it's also a cross platform and by the way, highly lucrative and competitive scene? Not at all

Why? Because the mods don't affect YOUR gameplay

If you ran to Capcom screaming they'd ignore you as well just like SE is and that's a game played competitively with real money prizes at stake.

And that game has frame data recording in live matches, hitbox detection mods, model retextures and so on.

Capcom doesn't care because it does not affect YOUR gameplay.

So you can take your authoritarian desires, turn them sidewise and stick them somewhere.....else.

As for the Blizzard protects its game files thing.

They also have to abide by GDPR and cannot scan your machine with any intrusive software either as they're an Internationally trading company, Blizzard chooses to support mods namely because they knew it would be a fruitless endeavour years ago.

Namely around CoD MW2 when Activision removed dedicated servers from PC in order to control map packs and mod making themselves to generate revenue via DLC for them.

Guess what the modders did? They hacked into the P2P host and modded via making themselves host, extremely illegal, yes, but it was a shot across the bow of Activision for trying to force profit from something the modding community had been offering for free in the earlier CoDs.

ActiBlizz at that point quickly realized they needed to play ball with modders if they wanted to make money off map packs and DLC

Ever since that first crazy week, they supported the modding community.

Now that said.

If any mod (and there are some) is made to profit from SEs property

That, that is an infringement of intellectual property and those people should be delt with 1000%

But that's why things need to be handled case by case, not trying to blanket ban because a lot of the modding community do damn fine work for a product they love, they don't do it for profit, it's entirely out of passion

And just because you don't like that, they should take it away?

If SE ever paid a blind bit of attention to that kind of thinking, this game would not have grown

It would be sat somewhere around the bottom of Steam chart activity because believe it or not

Modders are whales, they dump ungodly sums into subscriptions, mogstation and so on constantly.

They keep the lights on when you're not here.

Food for thought.

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Originally Posted by JanVanding

You're not interested in protecting the game nor preserving it's integrity, don't even try that attempt at self Martyrdom.

Do people in SFV complain that people run mods when it's also a cross platform and by the way, highly lucrative and competitive scene? Not at all

Why? Because the mods don't affect YOUR gameplay

If you ran to Capcom screaming they'd ignore you as well just like SE is and that's a game played competitively with real money prizes at stake.

And that game has frame data recording in live matches, hitbox detection mods, model retextures and so on.

Capcom doesn't care because it does not affect YOUR gameplay.

So you can take your authoritarian desires, turn them sidewise and stick them somewhere.....else.

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I'm very interesting that this game should be protected in a better way than it is today so you are very wrong there. I have been playing this game since 1.0 minus the down time for 2.0 launch. And I love this game. It's a beautiful game with a great story and many nice memories. In the beginning it wasn't much talk about using unauthorized third party software. This is something that have been come more and more of later. And this game on the PC version does not come with any protection mechanism against this. So the use of unauthorized third party software will grow and they will become more and more advance. Now In the later years the mods are on Free Companies discord servers and being talked about using without mention that is not allowed and consequence. I dont belive Square Enix doesnt care, GM told me to report the player through their Support page using "Report a case to the Special Task Force". And my authoritarian desires sure heavy mod users might feel that. But someone should not feel bad posting screenshots that are "vanilla" and getting comments that pictures didn't have certain features because of mods.

Honestly, I like that SE has taken a stance against mods and third-party apps, but also is not going to be monitoring your game for any software changes. Many times, running software that basically protects the game mod from being tampered with often results in false positives where it can mistake one software for another. The intrusive software also has the potential to cause the game to be laggy and overall make player experience worse for everyone just to take care of a problem a majority of people don't care about.

Mods and add ons for final fantasy are largely clientside. It doesn't impact the game or my ability to play whatsoever if someone uses mods. I don't care if random player #49594 uses nude mods and can see my character or NPCS without clothes on as long as they are not stalking or being weird towards me. I don't care if #484 is using ACT or a callout add-on for raids and dungeons as long as they are not flaming or being toxic towards me in-game for not meeting their specified numbers or reacting as quickly.

If someone is not actively doing anything to me or disrupting how I can play the game or enjoy it, I don't care if they are using mods. Most mods people lend towards, while nude and NSFW are most infamous, are largely just cosmetic hair and clothing mods. I imagine a majority of people don't even use nsfw mods and instead just use hair or face sculps. Who am I to tell them that they're not allowed to enjoy a custom face for their own character? Who cares if a group of friends in an FC uses mods to take some glamour photos?

If you sincerely feel like other people modding and sharing screenshots of it in an FC discord somehow significantly lessens player experience... I think you should probably re-evaluate your relationship to the game. Just because other people are modding doesn't mean you have to and if you feel like seeing a screenshot means that your gameplay experience is lessened and therefor everyone needs to have intrusive software on their computers just so you specifically do not feel left out is a form of entitlement I can't quite describe.

So many words spoken & spun around just to convey:"Let's start a witch hunt."

You got some talent. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

So many words spoken & spun around just to convey:"Let's start a witch hunt."

You got some talent. :rolleyes:

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Same can be said for the opposition with all the “they won’t install anything on your computer to detect them so they are not against their use”

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

I'm very interesting that this game should be protected in a better way than it is today so you are very wrong there. I have been playing this game since 1.0 minus the down time for 2.0 launch. And I love this game. It's a beautiful game with a great story and many nice memories. In the beginning it wasn't much talk about using unauthorized third party software. This is something that have been come more and more of later. And this game on the PC version does not come with any protection mechanism against this. So the use of unauthorized third party software will grow and they will become more and more advance. Now In the later years the mods are on Free Companies discord servers and being talked about using without mention that is not allowed and consequence. I dont belive Square Enix doesnt care, GM told me to report the player through their Support page using "Report a case to the Special Task Force". And my authoritarian desires sure heavy mod users might feel that. But someone should not feel bad posting screenshots that are "vanilla" and getting comments that pictures didn't have certain features because of mods.

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You lost me with whole vanilla thing. Do you have a proof that that is actually a thing? From both sides of the coin there are both have positive comments.

Once again, you do not have a proof and you are really just hiding around a tos for your argument. If you have any proof provide it.

Like come on i can be on the playstation and walk up to someone and tell them they look good naked. They do not know that im really using them nor do they know im the playstation.

Still yet to this day, none of these "Witch Hunt please" people have been able to explain how their gaming experience has been so harmed and ruined by someone else using a calculator to better their own performance or sit on a ledge.

I really don't care if people use GSHADE or ACT or whatever other mod that makes the game look more pretty to them or allows them to play more efficiently or even use mods to add accessibility features the game doesn't have.
It only affects them. Like if people didn't stream or there would be posts floating around of those tools people who are against those tools wouldn't even notice that they exist.

I get that people think people using parsers will ruin the game experience for everyone else because a certain group of people will have certain expectations when raiding. But parsers have been a thing since realm reborn and the sky hasn't fallen down almost a decade later.

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Originally Posted by Apeachs

I'm very interesting that this game should be protected in a better way than it is today so you are very wrong there. I have been playing this game since 1.0 minus the down time for 2.0 launch. And I love this game. It's a beautiful game with a great story and many nice memories. In the beginning it wasn't much talk about using unauthorized third party software. This is something that have been come more and more of later. And this game on the PC version does not come with any protection mechanism against this. So the use of unauthorized third party software will grow and they will become more and more advance. Now In the later years the mods are on Free Companies discord servers and being talked about using without mention that is not allowed and consequence. I dont belive Square Enix doesnt care, GM told me to report the player through their Support page using "Report a case to the Special Task Force". And my authoritarian desires sure heavy mod users might feel that. But someone should not feel bad posting screenshots that are "vanilla" and getting comments that pictures didn't have certain features because of mods.

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And unless you have absolute proof that they are using third party tools, nothing will happen. Most of these mods would require the player to outright declare in game that they are using them. Streamers can show parsers and other mods without worry of a ban, and that GM response is a pretty standard GM response. The game doesn't need any additional protection than it already does; it increases the chances of additional issues from the large variety of hardware setups or the variety of other software people have on their computer (like which Anti-Virus they use). For example, Capcom tried adding all sorts of protection to Monster Hunter World throughout its lifetime and none of them really worked and all they did was cause issues for people who did not use mods. Those protections added so much extra overhead that the game ran worse and could often trigger people's Anti-Viruses.

If anything, you are more likely to get banned if you go up to someone ledge sitting and begin yelling at them for "possibly" using third party tools. The point of the no third party tools rule is not to witch hunt people using them, it is to stop people from using them as an excuse to harass other people. That's why if someone is harassing another person for their parses, they would get charged with harassment first and foremost, rather than third party tools usage. So even if they are able to say something like, I was joking about using third party tools, they can still be banned for harassment, which would be the primary charge, because that is the most important one.

Fact is, things like ACT and GShade are here to stay. They have been a part of the game's culture since ARR, always have been and always will be. Any attempts to try to curb their usage further than what has been done will do far more harm than good. You dramatically increase the chance of technical issues all for the sake of what is essentially witch hunts. The game would see no benefits from these witch hunts.

If you use non Bot 3rd party mods I really don't care as long as 2 conditions are met. You are not hacking/botting or You are not using the mod to harass others.