Does SE really not care about bots?

There have been botters on my server in Coerthas for, literally, months. They are hogging the places where the ornery karakuls have the best spawn rates, which drop the mats needed for woolen cloth, making it very difficult/inefficient/hard to farm yourself.

They are very clearly bots, both /Archers/ in full spiritbinding gear, with their chocos out all the time, instantly tagging mobs, never moving from one spot however rotating around, on DnD, gibberish status messages, never responds to anyone talking to them in /say or anything like that, blowing cooldowns even when they are not hitting anything (they use raging strikes whenever it is off CD it seems), not only this but they do this for hours to days at a time. I have not watched how long they do it, but they are there every single time I go to coerthas for the last few months.

I have reported them a few times, I have gotten my FC to send in reports to them, and have even gotten some random passer-bys to file reports about them and their very obvious botting behaviour. I am sure others have also reported them on their own if they went to try to farm a few karakuls.

Due to these bots, both fleece and anything made from fleece are at unreasonably high prices. I would like to farm the mats myself, but I do not want to try to tag the mobs before the bots since it would then seem like I am somehow with the bots (Not that SE seems to care about that anyway) and want to avoid anything having to do with them. The only other alternative is running around the entire area looking for spare karakuls, which I can maybe kill one every few minutes, which is super inefficient at gathering these materials when they bots have two of their character conveniently placed in the two best areas for farming these mats.

Is there anything that can be done about this? I waited months now, and nothing has happened. I was hoping and hoping they would be caught in a wave of RMT/Illicit Activities bans, but so far it has been numerous waves and they are still there.

And do not say they are not bots, for they are the literal definition of what a bot does. If you want to try to see for yourself, hop on balmung and run to coerthas 21X 16Y or 22X 16Y and see for yourself.

Think what I did is I used a different ticket/report function to actually have the GM go to you. Usually by then, you can show the GM to those BOTs, and usually banned on site.

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Originally Posted by UltimateAoe2

Think what I did is I used a different ticket/report function to actually have the GM go to you. Usually by then, you can show the GM to those BOTs, and usually banned on site.

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Thanks, I will try this.

Bots are relentless. You can remove them and they WILL come back.

I know who you are talking about. These bots have been live since about 8 months ago, getting reported by me and friends constantly since then, but still to no avail.

2500gil per one undyed woolen cloth, pure BS.

Well, I'm gonna go with no on this one. They added more sheeps to the zone but didn't do anything noticeable about botters...so...no SE doesn't care about bots, they pay a monthly sub fee too ya know! :)

During beta, early access, and on.. I saw the same botter teleporting around to mining nodes on my server, with their name barely sticking up from the ground trying to conceal themselves. I must have reported it a dozen times on a daily basis.

That "player" is still running around our server with only miner leveled up constantly running back and forth between the most expensive nodes. I do not even bother with reporting it now because I know nothing ever comes of it. It is extremely discouraging as a legitimate player trying to make some money in game to have this going on right along beside you and thinking they're probably the ones undercutting the prices on your market items.

Edit: The last time I posted a thread on this topic (and about this person) was at 09-27-2013 at 06:49 PM
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...99#post1340999

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Originally Posted by Titor

Due to these bots, both fleece and anything made from fleece are at unreasonably high prices. I would like to farm the mats myself, but I do not want to try to tag the mobs before the bots since it would then seem like I am somehow with the bots (Not that SE seems to care about that anyway) and want to avoid anything having to do with them. The only other alternative is running around the entire area looking for spare karakuls, which I can maybe kill one every few minutes, which is super inefficient at gathering these materials when they bots have two of their character conveniently placed in the two best areas for farming these mats.

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Try it with retainer ventures.

When 2.0 first started there were tons of bots doing just as you describe for Snurble Tufts at the Burning Wall. I would report them every day for weeks. Nothing ever happened.

While the bots are undoubtedly annoying, especially in their competition for SB spots, the main damage they cause is to the economy. I think the majority of SE's effort is in deterring goldsellers from destroying the marketboards.

It is no coincidence that SE limits trades to retainers and players on their friend list. It lets them track gold farmers and gil exchanges, especially if they know which characters are generating the gil for the goldsellers. This in turn lets them identify which players may be buying gil or which characters are acting as 'banks' and stop them before they do too much damage to the market. In that way, they are doing the most damage to botters and the most good to the game economy. Proof enough can be seen on the marketboards. Despite the number of bots and some ridiculous prices on the marketboards, prices are still fair.

In short, SE doesn't like bots but they let them go to be able to catch the bigger fish. At least, that is how I see them working. That said, I do wish there was something more we could do about SB bots.

I guess it depends on the servers.

I haven't seen bots farming fleece or snurble tufts for months now on Phoenix. Even bots beneath the ground teleporting between nodes are rare now (or they're botting nodes that don't have anything useful so I rarely see them).

On the other hand, the bots farming wind crystals/shards in the Central Shroud have been there for almost since the game went live and I've reported them several times before simply giving up.

What I do see more of now is bots that are likely farming instanced content. They're usually hiding at zone lines like the one from Mor Dhona to Northern Thanalan and contantly, I assume, popping in and out of instances.

The only real hope is getting a GMs attention, reporting them "normally" usually never does anything, or they might get banned a month and a half later. i used to report them every day, but then after about 10+ times of seeing the same bots still there 4+ weeks later i just gave up, sometimes i think SE just ignores reports entirely. or they simply do not care enough to act on them, and of course, the longer you leave bots alone the more damage they do.

Even just recently i reported 2 harvest bots and a week later, they are still in the same spots. It's safe to say they really do not do anything. If they do they work very slow and by then the bots would have done enough of there job for it not to matter.

I will never understand how they can quickly jump on in game exploits quick Tanking titans, other random, minor advantages players find in small fights, in days of finding out, but a bot takes weeks/months to "maybe" get banned.

There are no consequences in this game for botting and buying gil.

Know several players that do both and they have been playing that way for close to a year now.

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Originally Posted by cryptic_angel

There are no consequences in this game for botting and buying gil.

Know several players that do both and they have been playing that way for close to a year now.

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That's what people who exploited stuff in XI said before they all got banned.

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

That's what people who exploited stuff in XI said before they all got banned.

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That was years ago when game companies actually punished cheating players. Now, sub numbers, even subs of players that break the rules, are the influential wind that sways the developers one way or another.

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Originally Posted by cryptic_angel

That was years ago when game companies actually punished players. Now, sub numbers, even subs of players that break the rules, are the influential wind the sway the developers one way or another.

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And yet people are still getting banned on a regular basis according to the Lodestone posts. People do still get banned, or at the very least suspended - like a certain someone on Behemoth related to hunts (anyone on my server should know who I'm talking about).

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Originally Posted by Quesse

When 2.0 first started there were tons of bots doing just as you describe for Snurble Tufts at the Burning Wall. I would report them every day for weeks. Nothing ever happened.

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Dang that's exactly what i just did tonight >.< that's reassuring.

For any botter worth it's 2 Gils, I'm sure they read Forums and then remove them before SE will do anything so..

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

And yet people are still getting banned on a regular basis according to the Lodestone posts. People do still get banned, or at the very least suspended - like a certain someone on Behemoth related to hunts (anyone on my server should know who I'm talking about).

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yet, we can still see the same toons botting... Lets face it, the special task force bans a few hundred accounts every now and then while most of the cheaters go unpunished.

Just take time to notice some bots the next time you're out in the open world. Write those names down and go check back in a few months to see if they are still there. It might surprise you.

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Originally Posted by KingOfAbyss

Dang that's exactly what i just did tonight >.< that's reassuring.

For any botter worth it's 2 Gils, I'm sure they read Forums and then remove them before SE will do anything so..

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Here is the real interesting part about some bots. A novice programmer can write a script that will bot, chat, teleport, and even log off after being whispered. The game client is unable to tell if you are running a script or not. Thus, you can freely bot and SE has no way to really catch you. It's very unfortunate that is is so easy to cheat and so many players get away with it.

There are a bunch of karakuls near the ogres north and around to the west of dragonhead as well as another cluster to the west and a little north near the gate to ishgard. If i had that situation of farm the crap out of fleece myself, and throw up fleece for a better price and watch it fly off the boards.

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Originally Posted by cryptic_angel

A novice programmer can write a script that will bot, chat, teleport, and even log off after being whispered. The game client is unable to tell if you are running a script or not. Thus, you can freely bot and SE has no way to really catch you. It's very unfortunate that is is so easy to cheat and so many players get away with it.

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That is sad. But I'm a junior programmer and I have no idea how to do that, nor I want to know ;)

I play the game to have fun; If I need to cheat to get fun or simply ahead, it kills the point of 'playing'.

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Originally Posted by cryptic_angel

Here is the real interesting part about some bots. A novice programmer can write a script that will bot, chat, teleport, and even log off after being whispered. The game client is unable to tell if you are running a script or not. Thus, you can freely bot and SE has no way to really catch you. It's very unfortunate that is is so easy to cheat and so many players get away with it.

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While it may be more difficult to spot someone who is botting within the parameters of the game, (there is no way that a bot can keep up a convincing conversation with a GM, and if your PC logs out in response, then they'll probably flag the account to either be watched or ban you outright), I've seen cheaters who literally teleport instantaneously between Karakuls in Coerthas. A GM can see that, and all you would have to do is call one over in person in order to ban the person outright. I've also noticed what seem to be botters in Coerthas who are spiritbonding, but since they're stationary, it's impossible to tell whether or not they have a script.

I would guess that SE knows the bots. Being on playstation and new to mmos I don't know much in the area but as it relates to crafting, I think they let a certain amount of botting to happen. I know of several spots on behemoth were you can find bots, report them all day and they don't go away. I think a lot of players are not going to bang out the 100s of thousands of shards and crystal needed on the boards. The board prevent the prices from going through the roof. The shards and crystal market was very expensive on Behemoth until recently and that was when the bots appeared again. They had been mostly gone since early 2.2 patch but there are more of them every day. My only guess is that they are some type of an annoying check on the game that prevent prices from going through the roof. It is only a guess. maybe I am missing something as I am new to mmos.

These bots got reported forever ago. I know exactly which ones you're talking about. We had the whole zone report them and attempt to steal their kills. And yay....they are still on. I saw one of them farming a different location but still bot. I can't get any fleece unless I shadow flare the mobs spawn point. Then the bot kills it and I get the drop

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

And yet people are still getting banned on a regular basis according to the Lodestone posts. People do still get banned, or at the very least suspended - like a certain someone on Behemoth related to hunts (anyone on my server should know who I'm talking about).

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Not hard to make a post stating numbers that dont actually exist though its as simple as checking the reports inbox then say taking 5% of that number and saying they were banned but in reality they just clicked delete all.

For SE though, even a BOT account is a paying account... aka money in the bank....

So while they may say they dont want them there, I cant see why they'd rush to cancel a source of income either.

I reported a Diremite farming BOT for weeks and weeks. They were there up until the day the drops were changed and getting web and such was made 100x easier, then they vanished. Surprise surprise.

Just saw (for a brief second) a couple of overlapping underground bots killing mobs, so yes, the underground hack is still in full force, and apparently so good we almost never even see them doing it anymore. I see and report botters, both RMT and players, all the live long day now, and it seems like it's getting even worse recently. The situation is completely out of control, and SE doesn't care one bit, that's all there is to it.

And the Lodestone posts about illicit activity are a joke. If you take those numbers and split them up between all the servers that's, like, single digit bannings per server. Meaningless when there are hundreds, most likely thousands of bots per server.

There's a few bots in the southern part of Central shroud that have been gathering wind crystals and shards, I assume, for several months now. Also on Balmung. I've taken screenshots of them whenever I come across them, and my oldest one was from April or so. They're level 50 and wearing a few pieces of lowbie gear, including the starting hyur boots I believe.

I've sent in reports but it doesn't seem to do much. -shrug-

There are Tons of Bots in Diabolos Server that no one seems to be taking care of and A TON of gil buyers =/ i just wanted to know why is there no actions taking against these ppl makes us master crafter work even harder to make living off selling things when other ppl just get their gil for free =/

Loads of very obvious Gil Buyers on Odin, SE does not seem to care.

Holy Necro batman, there are plenty of threads about this without this particular being brought back from the dead.

Despite the necro, the bots from my first post are, in fact, still active daily and not banned.