RMT bots are now cloning player characters and names!

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02-25-2016, 01:54 AM
Naraku_Diabolos

RMT bots are now cloning player characters and names!

As the title states, I have seen reports now on Facebook with screenshots of the RMT bots cloning character models AND player names! The screenshot in question was posted on a FFXIV group and it was from the Adamantoise server showing an RMT bot as a Lv0 (yes, level ZERO) Adventurer class (the true base class a character can be without any weapon or tool equipped before becoming a class). The picture that was posted show a male Miqo'te player and his doppelganger the RMT bot as a copy of him in Limsa WITH the player's character name and FC shown!

Devs! If this is turning out to be true, what will us players be able to do? If the RMT are now cloning our characters and are used for RMT spam messages, you may ban that character (that the RMT are using) who has the name of our character, therefore banning an innocent player who is linked to that clone! If this is going to be the case now, I'm a bit nervous to even log on and play...
02-25-2016, 02:00 AM
AlphaFox

I'd hope in this case they can just see the Level 0 versus the ilv 200+ person as the one who is spamming gil sites and not the actual player.
02-25-2016, 02:01 AM
Shiki_Lockhart

Don't go there then. To be honest when I need to go to market I just teleport to house and check market board there and aside that I am usually on idylshire so no rmts. Or Maybe is different from server to server but here there isn't many.

The RMT in HW areas is zero.

Aside that the GMs are aware of that since was reported weeks ago on reddit and are working on it as we speak I believe.
02-25-2016, 02:03 AM
Bixillarla

They already did a emergency maiantance when this was brought to their attention to supposedly fix the issue. Should not be a problem anymore.
02-25-2016, 02:03 AM
ExKage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiki_Lockhart

Don't go there then. To be honest when I need to go to market I just teleport to house and check market board there and aside that I am usually on idylshire so no rmts. Or Maybe is different from server to server but here there isn't many.

Aside that the GMs are aware of that since was reported weeks ago on reddit and are working on it as we speak I believe.

Some of us like to go to certain city-states to avoid some of the taxes you have to pay if you are buying outside of their city-state. It can add up.

The devs know about the issue. How old are those screenshots? Max, two weeks ago on reddit and such there were maintenances taking down the main city-states (presumably) for this issue.
02-25-2016, 02:42 AM
Shiki_Lockhart

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExKage

Some of us like to go to certain city-states to avoid some of the taxes you have to pay if you are buying outside of their city-state. It can add up.

Then you found out your solution, put all retainers in the Pillars and problem solved. That was what I did since 3.0 came. If everyone do that no need to go to old cities anymore aside class quests and seasonal events.
02-25-2016, 02:50 AM
Ashkendor

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiki_Lockhart

Then you found out your solution, put all retainers in the Pillars and problem solved. That was what I did since 3.0 came. If everyone do that no need to go to old cities anymore aside class quests and seasonal events.

Except for that whole 'not everyone is level 60' thing. Many of the things I sell are aimed at specific level ranges.
02-25-2016, 02:53 AM
SuperZay

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiki_Lockhart

Then you found out your solution, put all retainers in the Pillars and problem solved. That was what I did since 3.0 came. If everyone do that no need to go to old cities anymore aside class quests and seasonal events.

No thanks. I prefer to buy things near my house in Lavender from Gridania-based sellers assuming all have nearly equal price. To teleport forth and back to Foundation (which then requires another teleport to MB) to avoid 5% tax is inconvenient to me.
02-25-2016, 02:55 AM
Ashkendor

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperZay

No thanks. I prefer to buy things near my house in Lavender from Gridania-based sellers assuming all have nearly equal price. To teleport forth and back to Foundation (which then requires another teleport to MB) to avoid 5% tax is inconvenient to me.

That too. I spend a lot of time at my FC house in Lavender beds and my personal house in Goblet.
02-25-2016, 03:02 AM
AskaRay

I'll only teleport when the item tax is extremely high (mostly high-priced items), since I'm so lazy

but since I do most of my shopping at my house, it'd be pretty :( if everything was in Ishgard.
02-25-2016, 03:24 AM
Malzian

Hmm... just for clarity's sake, could you check the date on those posts to make sure they're current? This was an issue that was happening a few weeks back and they supposedly fixed the issue. If those are recent posts with recent instances of it happen then that's a bit disturbing, but I can't help but wonder if they're just older posts resurfacing again?
02-25-2016, 05:32 AM
Tayib

The RMT bot clones are still happening there was one this morning in Limsa on Adamantoise.
02-25-2016, 05:37 AM
Naraku_Diabolos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tayib

The RMT bot clones are still happening there was one this morning in Limsa on Adamantoise.

Yes! Which is why I made this thread as I saw it happened again. It was stated via a screenshot on Facebook of a picture taken on Adamantoise this morning in Limsa. I also saw it just this afternoon when I played in Limsa (Excalibur). A guy named Dusty something got cloned there in the Aetheryte Plaza in Limsa, and the doppelganger of him was advertising, while the player Dusty was telling his clone to shut up. I was there at the plaza in Limsa as I was doing a CUL leve for the NPC and saw it.
02-25-2016, 05:40 AM
ExKage

Could you share this info on Reddit as well? It seems that sometimes the more info and imagery on Reddit there is, the easier or faster the SE people seem to find out or look into it.
02-25-2016, 05:44 AM
Naraku_Diabolos

I don't have a Reddit account... Hah. I should've recorded it via my iPhone but I didn't want to name shame the player :(
02-25-2016, 05:48 AM
Defias

This is scary as hell. How are they even doing that!
That's some hardcore hacking. No one can say SE isn't fighting RMT now. Cause this imo means they have grown desperate.
I'm glad the patch/update corrupted my FF14 install now...
(Gotta reinstall/redownload and update all of 14...)
Going to be a few days before I log on, hopefully SE would have taken care of this by then.

Until then...I'm going to appreciate the Diablo 3 high my buddies are on.
Off to Sanctuary for me.
02-25-2016, 06:00 AM
MaikoRaines

Haven't seen the issue on Hyperion as of last night. That being said, I'll log in tonight and stare my doppleganger in the face.

People on my friends list know me well enough not to spam nonsense. Hopefully the devs can get on top of this issue. As for hardcore hacking, I'm not sure about that. I think they could possibly be taking an advantage of an exploit. I doubt privacy is being compromised or our accounts will be flagged - my security token on my account keeps it safe for the most part.
02-25-2016, 06:04 AM
Leowilde

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shiki_Lockhart

Then you found out your solution, put all retainers in the Pillars and problem solved. That was what I did since 3.0 came. If everyone do that no need to go to old cities anymore aside class quests and seasonal events.

That's pretty sad - can't / deliberately won't access the game's main city areas because of RMT. Some solution, even if temporary.
02-25-2016, 06:08 AM
myahele

I remember this happened years ago, too.

I am surprised this happened a few weeks ago and is currently happening now
02-25-2016, 06:33 AM
Welsper59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Defias

This is scary as hell. How are they even doing that!
That's some hardcore hacking. No one can say SE isn't fighting RMT now. Cause this imo means they have grown desperate.
I'm glad the patch/update corrupted my FF14 install now...
(Gotta reinstall/redownload and update all of 14...)
Going to be a few days before I log on, hopefully SE would have taken care of this by then.

Until then...I'm going to appreciate the Diablo 3 high my buddies are on.
Off to Sanctuary for me.

If they are desperate, it likely has little to do with SE to combat it. Sales probably aren't great due to how RMT handle themselves in this game and players being more aware of the dangers or destructive nature of RMT practice. Annoying your target consumer does not promote good advertising. Whether or not it's a real thing is still subject for debate, but the same could have been said with the Friend Request practice from not long ago. It started only on a select few servers, then moved on to many more. SE tends to prefer ignoring their presence for as long as they can though, so I honestly don't have much faith in prevention and/or a timely solution. It's always too little, too late when it comes to QoL and RMT with the devs and their (often) half assed solutions.

It honestly doesn't seem to be that difficult to mess with the servers. I mean, back during 2.0, it wasn't unheard of to see someone hack their crafting to 50 in minutes. Instant level ups. Hacks in general are common even now. Not all that surprising.
02-25-2016, 07:11 AM
Mimilu

Here's a link to the Reddit Thread Link
02-25-2016, 07:19 AM
Kosmos992k

Quote:

Originally Posted by Welsper59

It honestly doesn't seem to be that difficult to mess with the servers. I mean, back during 2.0, it wasn't unheard of to see someone hack their crafting to 50 in minutes. Instant level ups. Hacks in general are common even now. Not all that surprising.

I think you're wrong there. I mean, yes, people manage to do various things, but they were not hacking the server, it was more of a man in the middle attack injecting new database commands or modifying legitimate ones 'in-flight'.
02-25-2016, 08:14 AM
ExKage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mimilu

Here's a link to the Reddit Thread Link

The small 'issue' is that the reddit thread is almost 2 weeks old and Square Enix has had at least 2 emergency maintenances in the city-states, supposedly having fixed the problem. The new doppelgang'd person should try to post on Reddit again.
02-25-2016, 08:34 AM
Kosmos992k

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExKage

The small 'issue' is that the reddit thread is almost 2 weeks old and Square Enix has had at least 2 emergency maintenances in the city-states, supposedly having fixed the problem. The new doppelgang'd person should try to post on Reddit again.

One would hope that anyone who is a victim of this behavior would report the abuser to the GMs in-game, and get their friends to do likewise.
02-25-2016, 09:07 AM
Torunya

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I mean, yes, people manage to do various things, but they were not hacking the server

I still get freaked out everytime I see a player running from mob to mob in Central Thanalan three times as fast as I can Sprint. Even worse when I see 6+ players doing it in unison. I'm no hacking expert, but my tummy is telling me that SE might want to try a little harder on the whole RMT/botting issue.
02-25-2016, 09:23 AM
Welsper59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I think you're wrong there. I mean, yes, people manage to do various things, but they were not hacking the server, it was more of a man in the middle attack injecting new database commands or modifying legitimate ones 'in-flight'.

Other than a lengthy explanation, what would you classify that as? I mean, I also wouldn't consider it hacking the server or anything, which is why I used "mess with" in reference to the servers, but I would consider an altering of normally inaccessible commands to be a hack in this case. I've tested position hacks in games like XI, and while that wasn't hacking the server, I would still consider it a "hack" lol. That market board issue that happened early into ARR would definitely be a server side hit though, the one that was making players near a market board buy items without their actual interaction with it.
02-25-2016, 11:10 AM
Valkyrie-Amber

so basicly if an rmt bot clones you and say sends rmt spam to all on server then suddenly people wont like you.... scary thoughts this is far worse than the old styled rmt crap and needs to be fixed like seriously...
02-25-2016, 04:22 PM
Derceto

Wow. RMT freely abusing the game? This would have been news..... 3 years ago or so.
02-25-2016, 04:42 PM
Decoy_Wolff

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derceto

Wow. RMT freely abusing the game? This would have been news..... 3 years ago or so.

yeah but...this is just taking it to a whole new level
02-25-2016, 05:05 PM
Unaki

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torunya

I still get freaked out everytime I see a player running from mob to mob in Central Thanalan three times as fast as I can Sprint. Even worse when I see 6+ players doing it in unison. I'm no hacking expert, but my tummy is telling me that SE might want to try a little harder on the whole RMT/botting issue.

You can fix an issue or apply a new fix that prevents a bot from working but if someone really wants to bot then they're going to find a work-around or apply their own fixes to the bots themselves and start the whole process over again. You will never be able to completely stop this, only stifle it.
02-25-2016, 05:25 PM
Nestama

Quote:

Originally Posted by myahele

I remember this happened years ago, too.

I am surprised this happened a few weeks ago and is currently happening now

I don't recall this type of situation happening back in 2.0, but I do recall a time when walking by a market board would have your character spend over 3 million gil on a bone chip.
02-25-2016, 07:08 PM
Kosmos992k

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torunya

I still get freaked out everytime I see a player running from mob to mob in Central Thanalan three times as fast as I can Sprint. Even worse when I see 6+ players doing it in unison. I'm no hacking expert, but my tummy is telling me that SE might want to try a little harder on the whole RMT/botting issue.

They need to do better securing the client, or portions of it, at least, and securing the comunications between client and server. Validation on the server side would work, but it creates a large load that the server has to cope with in addition to everything else.