Bots active for several months, no ban why not?

Have been reporting the same 4 bots and their crafter on Tonberry for going on 2 months almost every day (sometimes twice a day) and I'm spent. Game Surveillance Unit doesn't action my reports and GM's in game are done dealing with me chasing them up on the matter. Last communication from them was to take it to the forums, not sure why to be honest as there are other threads reporting similar experiences of bots that have been allowed to remain in game. Even managed to get the person who runs the bots to reply to me once when he was moving them into position, he told me "hold the your breath" when I suggested that the banhammer was coming for him. I feel rather silly now that he appears to be right. Aion went free to play and bots I reported were banned the next day. Is it because they pay sub fees that they are allowed to stay?

Well, he did respond to you. So he could have responded to the GM also. And if he where present there, it's hard to prove he was a bot.

Secondly, SE are known for being slow to ban bots/RMT. In FFXI you had RMT botting 24/7 in sky for a year before they got banned. It's like they don't care that much on the current effect on players, only making big ban waves that they then can post news about.

I've been reporting the same both in north shroud for a while now and they are still there, yes I get it takes time, but surely the same person farming the same mob near 24/7 is not normal

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Originally Posted by Amberion

Well, he did respond to you. So he could have responded to the GM also. And if he where present there, it's hard to prove he was a bot.

Secondly, SE are known for being slow to ban bots/RMT. In FFXI you had RMT botting 24/7 in sky for a year before they got banned. It's like they don't care that much on the current effect on players, only making big ban waves that they then can post news about.

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I remember those days on Bismarck those botters called the redapples and jerrys other ones also. its been a long time but I remember those idiots.

The problem is that the evil minds at Square Enix investigate botting allegations, if there is no server side evidence to say someone is botting they will not get banned. I see this all the time on the forums "Every time I see this person they are gathering/crafting, therefore they may be botting." The only way for you to say 100% they are bots is to stand around them 24hrs a day watching them, otherwise your evidence for botting is that they enjoy crafting/gathering and simply play at the same time as you.

I have known legitimate players get reported for botting before simply for playing the game their way. Now I aren't saying the player wasn't botting simply that there will have been no evidence to say they were on the server. And no SE will not pay GMs to stay watching reported bots 24hrs every day.

Whenever I craft or gather i always do it in bulk and usually watching TV or listening to music, so chances are if you try to /tell me the log will either spam it out or I was just too enthralled in other things

I myself have been accused of botting on a day I was trying to SB gather gear on grade 3 matter node.
So isn't always just bots, however the same person for months in a row, killing the same mob' still in lower level gear that freezes when you trade it then dies, is not a player, but I now give up reporting it, the bots become a running joke in north shroud

So they ban that Bot account, then they make a new one and the problem is never solved. They need to get to the root of how they are botting and find a way to patch it in the game systems or it will just keep coming back like a plague. They also need to balance that with a legit player that is farming so they arent completely screwed over or looked at as a bot. They would also need to try to track where the IP is coming from to try and shut down the sources IF they are able.

"Ban the botting Character" is a 5 second inconvenience for the people who make a real life living off botting.

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Originally Posted by Amberion

Well, he did respond to you. So he could have responded to the GM also. And if he where present there, it's hard to prove he was a bot.

Secondly, SE are known for being slow to ban bots/RMT. In FFXI you had RMT botting 24/7 in sky for a year before they got banned. It's like they don't care that much on the current effect on players, only making big ban waves that they then can post news about.

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SE is also known for laying the smackdown when it's needed, read: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/68831-LM-17

Yoshida is taking a more forgiving stance when it comes to XIV though, obvious RMT (those who spam you) will get chars and whatnot deleted but people who are planning and accused of botting, even when obvious (and it IS obvious) won't as they likely cycle when the bot is used.

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

SE is also known for laying the smackdown when it's needed, read: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/68831-LM-17

Yoshida is taking a more forgiving stance when it comes to XIV though, obvious RMT (those who spam you) will get chars and whatnot deleted but people who are planning and accused of botting, even when obvious (and it IS obvious) won't as they likely cycle when the bot is used.

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Wasn't that bug up and running for a long time though?

I have also read that they wait so they can get the entire chain of characters. And that takes a long time for them. So until that time, the bots are up and running. As was the case with sky bots, fishing bots and all those.

It's why you see them releasing news saying that they did a ban wave of 10k users or some such.

Anyway, I wasn't saying they don't act, just that it can take them ages.

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Originally Posted by Amberion

Anyway, I wasn't saying they don't act, just that it can take them ages.

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It was up for awhile and they made an announcement at one of the fan fests that they know there's a major bug with Salvage and ask players to not abuse it as they're working on a fix and instead of removing the system from the game for a month or two, they're analyzing chat logs and watching what people do. Basically: "You've been warned."

People thought SE was lying..

That's why I say he's taken a more forgiving stance for XIV because people would say SE is wrong for banning someone who bots because; "soandso should be easier to get!"

I've reported in game bots numerous times and two incidents in particular have still been there for months.
However, they have responded to me on other situations regarding harassment and quite quickly as well.
Sorry, but handling bots is a more time consuming sensitive matter.

In Diabolos, North Shroud south of the ixal beast tribe there's always a group of characters sbing around 12-1 am EST, it takes less than 5 mins to notice how their script works, they always attack in a certain order with a small delay between each character, if you trade the first character that attacks the whole script stops, you can often see the bot owner crafting gear next to the bots and trading it.

I tried reporting this both in game and to the special task force but nothing happens, they are still there.

For people reporting bots, I recommend you to use "harassment" instead of "cheating", when you use the first GMs are forced to send you any sort of acknowledge of your report, or even pm you for further details.