Is there any better way of reporting Bots?

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Well, that's what I was asking about earlier (and didn't actually get a direct answer for, because the discussion shifted off into whether it was possible to access their names in the chat log in the first place).

So:

Are the stack-of-identical-bots-playing-MSQ doing so to earn money to be used in RMT? If not, what is their purpose?

And even if they are not doing that, would reporting all of them at once be enough to draw the management team's attention to the fact they are clearly bots? How closely do they look at the recorded actions of the reported player - would they notice that all four are moving in sync?

It's frustrating that there is a quick report option only for RMT and not for anything else - and for that matter, there is never any in-game explanation as to what "RMT" means, or what "abuse of the system" would be. (Using it to hassle genuine players of course would be abusing it, but is reporting bots acceptable or not?) When I was first starting out I was trying to report one of the gil-selling-advertisement bots but with no idea what the only report option meant, and the warning that there would be consequences for its misuse, I had to ask elsewhere.

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Basically what the XYZSHDJ AKHASDJK Characters do, in short RMT Bots, they're starting in one of the Main Cities, teleport from NPC to NPC for MSQ, then kill some Enemies rapidly while underground (You probably seen this).

Once they reach Lv.15, 4 of those RMT Bots will group up and go into a Dungeon, the Reason for that is that not a single normal Player might encounter them doing their "Duty".

There were Hard Cases back in ARR when it comes to Praetorium, some People suddenly got queued up with them, if not the Video about them floating and teleporting in Praetorium (2nd Dungeon) should be still on Youtube.

As far as I know they basically do the Objectives of the Dungeons in a matter of a few seconds, so each Dungeon probably takes only 2-3 Minutes.
You can observe this in Central Thanalan in one of the Houses in the North, it's a known Spot for them to hide and Queue up.

Repeating this until Lv.50 (... or beforehand) they start to create Free Companies, you may ask why?
To load all of their Gil into the FC Chest and the Main "Leader" takes it all, less of a pain compared to using Trades with the Gil Limit.

Usually at this Point Square Enix goes Nope and Bans the Leader associated with all the others, resulting in the known Mass Bans.

If Square Enix did Ban them all from the moment they just started at Lv.1, it be really hell Ingame and even more of Mess as they simply reappear in a matter of a few Hours...

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Originally Posted by Mwynn

If Square Enix did Ban them all from the moment they just started at Lv.1, it be really hell Ingame and even more of Mess.

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How so? Why would banning them earlier have a negative effect on the game? Or do you mean in terms of hypothetical measures they'd need to catch them earlier? Or I guess we'd be swarmed with lots of "new players" doing the same first few stages of the game before they were banned.

As well as coming across random groups from time to time, while I was doing one of my white mage quests there was a bot that just kept warping in and out of there literally on top of Raya-O the whole time I was interacting with her - which just seems rude on top of clearly cheating.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

How so? Why would banning them earlier have a negative effect on the game? Or do you mean in terms of hypothetical measures they'd need to catch them earlier? Or I guess we'd be swarmed with lots of "new players" doing the same first few stages of the game before they were banned.

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It's Pointless if you Ban a Lv.1 Bot Player only if they're being created automatically by Software and basically "Pollute" the Main Cities that Way.
Not only is that sight kinda annoying in the Main Cities, it'll also give New Players the thought of leaving directly if they know the Issue beforehand.

They're pretty fast at creating new Characters, when the RMT Button was first included for the Spammers, the Banned Spammer was replaced immediately in a matter of 10-15 Minutes.

The best is, if you strike them where it hurts and that is the Moment when they farmed all the Gil and abruptly loose it.
If nobody sees something, nobody is hurt. In 90% of the time you won't see them while they're doing their Dungeon Business.
So from a Business Standing (Fighting Bot Companies is extremely brutal for a MMORPG Company) this is a half.. baked Solution kinda.
(Only when they're in the outside jumping around and around)

These guys have to be making a killing by selling gil if they can afford subs for all those accounts, so whatever SE is doing to combat them doesn't seem to be working that well.

In this situation, banning them quickly would be better in the long run as they'll eventually go into a deficit if the accounts are getting banned faster then they can earn/sell enough gil to cover the expenses used in creating each bot.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

These guys have to be making a killing by selling gil if they can afford subs for all those accounts, so whatever SE is doing to combat them doesn't seem to be working that well.

In this situation, banning them quickly would be better in the long run as they'll eventually go into a deficit if the accounts are getting banned faster then they can earn/sell enough gil to cover the expenses used in creating each bot.

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Credit Card Frauded Keycodes, hence it is assumed they get banned that fast.
I mean even Square Enix at a Point warned us Players not to buy "Steam" Keycodes from any other Source then Steam itself.

See I think most people are realistic and don't expect a game to have no bots. What is annoying and pretty pathetic is seeing no action at all on reported bots. You don't need a bunch of software, just people to actually follow through with the reports so players feel like action is taking place.

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Originally Posted by Mith_Von_Voodoo

See I think most people are realistic and don't expect a game to have no bots. What is annoying and pretty pathetic is seeing no action at all on reported bots. You don't need a bunch of software, just people to actually follow through with the reports so players feel like action is taking place.

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I think the thing that bothers me most is that they aren't obligated to give you a reply to any reports so you can't even know if they're trying to do something about a problematic player.

This leaves me with a lingering thought of "Maybe it'll work eventually", especially because I've seen multiple people making claims about their friends getting banned for botting. However, it gets annoying to have to keep typing a detailed report again and again when I can't be sure anyone is even reading it in the first place.

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Originally Posted by LastFireAce

Ok, this seem really wired I'm guessing he quit PvP in ARR then? Becouse PvP bots been a thing forever ain't like they started going to PvP yesterday xD

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No, he did stormblood and his rank was getting messed up said he seen teleporting bots and just tons of bots not helping out his team in the New pvp for stormblood.

He went till he got his mounts from achievements then quit and they released that new pvp said he doesn't really care that the bots will probably kill that also with the cheating.

I asked him about mount he doesn't care said something about when the bots are 100% gone which will be never he ain't touching anymore pvp.

Though in all honesty bots ruin all games.

perfect example would be Titanfall nobody cared about the game cause the AI was mostly bots.

Same for Css nobody would play in private servers with just bots.

hackers in csgo use bots game dropped in popularity

bots simple ruin everything unless its like on 007 n64 or perfect dark

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Originally Posted by Iscah

How so? Why would banning them earlier have a negative effect on the game? Or do you mean in terms of hypothetical measures they'd need to catch them earlier? Or I guess we'd be swarmed with lots of "new players" doing the same first few stages of the game before they were banned.

As well as coming across random groups from time to time, while I was doing one of my white mage quests there was a bot that just kept warping in and out of there literally on top of Raya-O the whole time I was interacting with her - which just seems rude on top of clearly cheating.

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The idea is...

The farming bots, and the spam bots, are not important at all in the grand scheme.
They're disposable to the RMT companies, and easily replaced.


What you really want to do is catch their higher up accounts.
The ones holding all the farmed money.

Wipe out their stock and that really sets them back, kill off their farming bots, or the spam bots and it does nothing to them.