Balmung needs some serious GM intervention

There's a huge huge army of thaumaturge bots in central thanalan (16,29). They are dressed exactly the same, practically the same level, all move in unison, and cast spells in unision. And by a huge army I counted anywhere between 25-30 of them. Their movements as they charge to nearby mob targets, throws the counts off, and thus also too many names to really report.

This is on every server and has been going on for at least a half year. I'm surprised you're just noticing them now. They also hang in Uldah.

While this is true, it could also be an indication that they are actually doing something.

There's a notice about the usual "actions against xyz"

And now....THERE'S A MILLION BOTS LEVELING UP!? Kind of hilarious...in a way.

RMT and other illicit activities upset the balance of the game and, as such, are prohibited under the Terms of Service.

Because we have confirmed the existence of players who are engaging in these illicit activities, we have taken the actions listed below.

Time Period: Dec. 11, 2014 to Jan. 7, 2015
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 2,512
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4,450
- Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

this means nearly 7000 chrs have been banned. its kinda easy to see that a mass of "new" chrs would be all in the same area lvling up after that many were lost.

The current RMT activity is not a result of lack of GM activity.

It's the free trial! There are tons of new players using the free trial to check out the game which is a good thing.

Unfortunately there are tons of new and now "free" RMT accounts.

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Originally Posted by Jonny_Tapas

The current RMT activity is not a result of lack of GM activity.

It's the free trial! There are tons of new players using the free trial to check out the game which is a good thing.

Unfortunately there are tons of new and now "free" RMT accounts.

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Exactly.. They need to add some verification onto these account like having a credit card.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonny_Tapas

The current RMT activity is not a result of lack of GM activity.

It's the free trial! There are tons of new players using the free trial to check out the game which is a good thing.

Unfortunately there are tons of new and now "free" RMT accounts.

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a free account is limited in all aspects. this include access to the market board, sending tells, how much gil they can have, and a lvl cap. pretty useless in terms of RMT.

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Originally Posted by Blackweaver

There's a huge huge army of thaumaturge bots in central thanalan (16,29).

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Sure the position is correct?
Central Thanalan 16,29 is out of map.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonny_Tapas

The current RMT activity is not a result of lack of GM activity.

It's the free trial! There are tons of new players using the free trial to check out the game which is a good thing.

Unfortunately there are tons of new and now "free" RMT accounts.

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[Level Cap]
- Class levels are capped at level 20 for Free Trial characters.

[Currency Cap]
- Gil (in-game currency) is capped at 20,000 for Free Trial characters.

[Chat Restrictions]
- The chat options /shout, /yell, and /tell cannot be used by Free Trial characters.

[Market Board Restrictions]
- The Market Board cannot be used by Free Trial characters.

[Trading Restrictions]
- Trades cannot be made with or by Free Trial characters.

[Moogle Delivery Service Restrictions]
- The Moogle Delivery Service cannot be used by Free Trial characters.

[Retainer Restrictions]
- Retainers cannot be used or hired by Free Trial characters.

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A free trial account is useless for RMT

I saw this going on a couple weeks ago at the Copperbell Mines entrance area. 2 groups of about 7 bots running and disappearing into a rock pile and reappearing from another rock pile. Over and over and over. Was creepy.

Up until today, I'd never seen these kinds of bots. And I traveled all over Eorzea on my server. The sheer volume I am seeing today in both western and central thanalan, is crazy.

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Originally Posted by Nashred

Exactly.. They need to add some verification onto these account like having a credit card.

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other games have tried that. It never works. Part of the reason people want free trials in the first place is because they're skittish about giving away their CC info.
And since RMTers use stolen credit cards for this kind of thing anyway, it doesn't make a difference on that front.

It's a known fact that far beneath the Ul'dah aetherite, lays a factory that mass produces BLM's.

Are you sure they're not just roleplaying as NPCs?

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Originally Posted by Hocchi

It's a known fact that far beneath the Ul'dah aetherite, lays a factory that mass produces BLM's.

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Thats funny.

I have also read about a program that lets players run up to 6 accounts on one machine or more at a time depending on system specs. I am of the mind set that some legit players resort to this type of mass leveling up to have alt characters to farm and craft on and make legit gil. I can't say this for sure but it just might be the case.

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Originally Posted by WHS

I have also read about a program that lets players run up to 6 accounts on one machine or more at a time depending on system specs. I am of the mind set that some legit players resort to this type of mass leveling up to have alt characters to farm and craft on and make legit gil. I can't say this for sure but it just might be the case.

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I'm sorry but this is not some legit player running 30 accounts using a program to make legit gil. If you seen what I seen...this is sweatshop factory set ups.. It's extremely funny watching them running around like chickens with their heads cut off...or the dead bot giving birth to bots..

I noticed these bots last night. I'd never seen any on Balmung before and I was a little surprised. Mostly I was just disappointed. If I'd had more time then I would've jumped in and helped those who were attempting to "break" them.

If a "legit" player resorts to botting, they are no longer "legit"- they are cheating as much as the people who engage in RMT.

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Originally Posted by Hocchi

It's a known fact that far beneath the Ul'dah aetherite, lays a factory that mass produces BLM's.

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Kuja must've sold the plans for his Black Mage Golem production line to Ul'Dah.

The sudden and shocking uptick with these bots is likely do to two factors:
1)Balmung has the largest population, and thus, has the most players to "advertise" to, which makes it appealing to RMT.
2)The server opened up for new characters a while before and after the recent maintenance.

So, you now have this flood of bots and RMT spammers on the potentially lucrative Balmung server base because it was finally available for RMT to do so. Since SE's crew likes to do mass bans in rounds, they will probably, mostly, vanish en mass next time they clean out.

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Originally Posted by Mandze

If a "legit" player resorts to botting, they are no longer "legit"- they are cheating as much as the people who engage in RMT.

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Running more than 1 account doesn't mean they are bottling. It's multi boxing, I may be wrong but I don't think that's against the TOS.

with Balmung's current bot problem has become a major pain in the ass, a single DC in frontline (which lets face it is common) if your quick you may be behind one person, but recently any DC within Frontlines now means i am getting kicked due to being back logged behind 100 to 300 people which i am doubting they are real players, if you go to horizon copper bell mine or even just off north thanalan there is HUNDREDS of bots, that it causes some lag and rendering issues, i couldn't see my friend who vanished on his draught chocobo while i was riding with him. but i could see ALL the bots spamming blizzard 2 Fire 2 and thunder.

Trust me, these aren't legit players who are "Multi-boxing" and also no multi-boxing isn't really allowed. If one reads the end user license agreement, it says a user agrees to have only 1 connection to the server and be logged onto only 1 character at any given time from a single IP address. But also, the names these bots are, look more like someone ran their face across a keyboard to get the names, with completely random letters.

If you own two copies of the game you are, by all means, allowed to run both at the same time.
Automating actions however, isn't allowed.