Bots (3rd party tool automation users) flood @ Ragnarok, effective way to report them

Dear all,

I am looking for an effective way to report these accounts as the game does not provide with a user-oriented way to do it.

Next posts will have more details as there is this weird 1000 character limitation...

These are the patterns:

- The bot account characters come in anon(blue) name groups almost all the time.
- The names are very random and long, difficult to write and report.
- The equipment is very poor and always the same, reward from leves and quests.
- Usually they share the same job / class.
- Not very chatty or talkative, as per their automation nature.
- Movement feels weird, rigid either they are in /follow or following some coordinate pattern behind?

So, above is pretty crystal clear for everyone.

My question comes now, WHY do we have to fill a sluggish 90's looking pattern ticket in order to report them as suspicious accounts?

The system should be able to catch the following details easily:

- Location where I am ( I will be reporting them when I see them 90% of the time, why I have to specify which location they are, always?)
- Abundant amount of other information pretty much not needed.

So, after this long text, it's not all about ranting and not providing solutions.

Let me propose the following, simple, yet effective 3rd party automation tool / GIL Seller reporting method.

- Blacklist like option by right-clicking but aimed to report both Bots and GILSELLERS.
- This option can be used through a sort of /reportbot /reportgilseller command so we can report accounts we don't actually see, like gilseller spam messages.
- Karma system, when the reporter is found to be misusing this function, it gets disabled, so we don't lose time with trolls.

This solution will need relatively low amount of development work and relatively high amount of support staff work, but the benefit is enormous for both the game and the community.

After this proposal I don't see any reason why it or a better approach is not in place, so I am left to think that SE does not see 3rd party automation tools / gilsellers as an issue, which is surprisingly sad.

Finally, If this is of any use for SE I am happy to help develop / expand the next steps.

PD: @ Moderators or SE employees, if there is a better forum to move this thread, please feel free to move it there.

PD2: If you feel this thread useful or you feel yourself under a similar situation, support this thread by rating it up and sharing.

All the best,

You can just edit your post after, and there is no more limitation

I personally prefer WoW's method of reporting bots and spammers. Right click name > Report > Temporary mute of reported player for the duration that you are logged on. That way your report is made AND it doesn't clog up your blacklist. It kills two birds with one stone!

I saw them and reported around 30-40 of them last night, I do not know if SE will do anything about it though.

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Originally Posted by Noshpan

I personally prefer WoW's method of reporting bots and spammers. Right click name > Report > Temporary mute of reported player for the duration that you are logged on. That way your report is made AND it doesn't clog up your blacklist. It kills two birds with one stone!

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That would be amazing if that could be implemented

Just to give some sort of scale to the current problem on Ragnarok since last night. There is literally over 200+ new lvl 1-20 RMT bots in player search right now that appear to have been made last night on the Ragnarok server. Compare the ratio of black lines which scrub out the legit players to the non-scrubbed which are RMT bot armies. That is not all of them either, that's just some of them.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../Untitled2.png

I'm all for a right click report for bots. I'd also like it if the system stopped adding bots back into the mentor network after they have been reported and kicked, it's agrivating for mentors constantly going through it every day. Then again I remember when the game released they didn't have a right click blacklist option because they thought we would accidentally blacklist our friends...

I would say FFXIV's lack of dealing with bots could be on one of, if not their greatest failure so far.

That list is baffling to me.

I would be perfectly okay if they took a 3 month break from content to tackle the problem of RMT. That many bots means it's putting a huge strain on server resources, in addition to the strain that comes from automated player searches for /tell spam.

It's worse in FFXIV than any other game I've played. Part of me wonders if they have to deal with it on JP servers like we do in the US. We know the developers play, so either they don't care about the problem, or they are blind to it.

I wouldn't get my hopes up about SE taking any more action than what they are already doing in regards to RMT and bots. The STF bans accounts on a regular basis, but outside of that there won't be any additional actions taken. This is the 45874395874390574903574308574039785th thread pertaining to the issue of RMT and bots and of the 45874395874390574903574308574039785 threads about the issue, we have received no response from any Community Mods and there has been no additional actions taken by SE.

Nowadays it feels like any additional threads we create requesting that SE take more action, and any more requests that we make for SE to implement QoL features to help us deal with and report RMT and bots is just.....

https://media3.giphy.com/media/RL0xU1daTlMoE/200.gif

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the feefback so far, there have been great contributions.

@ Snugglebut, great addition, indeed a list of 200 RMT / bot active accounts active at a particular moment is something extremely concerning.

@Snoshpan This is the most basic and easy approach, it's been there for years and it's solid. Concerning that this game does not have it. It makes it look primitive.

@ Mugenmugetsu, JP are hardworking but not open to acknowledge errors or flaws unless these are obvious. Let's continue to raise concern and highlight this issue.
I am sure they are watching and reading, and willing to Help. We just have to highlight how extreme the situation is. Current workaround does not work and a reactive approach like the periodic bans is inneficient.

A proactive (from SE) approach and further assistance from players would help. Mentors that are helping new players could expand their activities by identifying these accounts for swift action.

Thank you again for your feedback and keep the contributions coming so this game can be moved from the , as previously highlighted by imperfect and jpec07, bot populated MMO ranking.

Best regards,

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

That list is baffling to me.

I would be perfectly okay if they took a 3 month break from content to tackle the problem of RMT. That many bots means it's putting a huge strain on server resources, in addition to the strain that comes from automated player searches for /tell spam.

It's worse in FFXIV than any other game I've played. Part of me wonders if they have to deal with it on JP servers like we do in the US. We know the developers play, so either they don't care about the problem, or they are blind to it.

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RMT does exist on Japanese servers, but they're a drop in the ocean compared to other servers with the same problem.

I was trying to do THM/BLM stuff the other day and couldn't kill my quest targets because all the RMT was beating me to it. I wasn't able to progress until after a maintenance cleaned them out.

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Originally Posted by Stoneheart

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the feefback so far, there have been great contributions.

@ Snugglebut, great addition, indeed a list of 200 RMT / bot active accounts active at a particular moment is something extremely concerning.

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In SE's defense to me it seems all these new bots might have been created because SE banned enough of their old ones. It is just an assumption on my part and maybe wishful thinking but even so all these new ones need banning too. I made a support ticket reporting around 150+ of them but my eyes and fingers got tired after squinting to read the vast amount of gibberish random characters on that many names all in one go. Hopefully SE will act upon the ones I reported and ban all the ones I missed that were/are around those ones at the locations themselves. I continue to report because I hope they are doing something about it even if I do not know for sure.

Snugglebutt: Remove your image with the names first off... Naming and shaming of qny kind can instead get YOU banned. Secondly, SE does actually work on those reports. They may not vanish right off though - The Special Task Force (STF) actually monitors all those bots reported and traces them back to tbe "origin" bot - and then bans them all in one massive wave. That is why you see waves like that with so many new ones, and you can see these by watching the Lodestone page and checking the "actions taken against RMT".

@Stoneheart, I think your willingness to believe that SE are going to do more than what they are currently, and have been, doing in regards to banning RMT, and bots, is awesome. I really do. I used to feel the same way. I would post in threads about the issue. I even made one or two threads about the issue myself. I made a thread requesting that someone, anyone, PLEASE go over to the Japanese General Discussion forum and plead with the Japanese players to make SE aware of the situation with RMT on NA servers. Heck, I even went so far as to ask people to go to the French, and German General Discussion forums and ask that those players please raise awareness about the issue. I sincerely felt that through the players voicing their concerns and raising awareness that SE may actually take more action against the RMT and bots. I felt that with enough effort, and enough awareness raised and concern shown about the issue that we would get a response from one of the Community Mods regarding the issue. Even if all we got was a response from a Community Mod along the lines of, "We've read your concerns and your voices have been heard. We'll pass the message along to the dev. team so that they can implement systems to help stop the RMT spam, and to help you guys more easily report, block, and blacklist RMT." or something similar, at the very least. Many, many, many threads about the issue later and we have yet to receive a response from a Community Mod, member of the Dev. Team, or anyone with SE.

I'm not trying to be a downer. I'm just stating the facts because I don't want your hopes that there will be anymore action against RMT and bots to be crushed. I guess this post might kind of be doing that, but I guess it's better now than 100 pages later in the thread (if this thread got that popular). You'd be building yourself up seeing more and more support for your cause only to find that in the end nothing ever came of it. That would not be a good feeling. It wasn't a good feeling when I came to the realization that no matter how many threads we make, SE are going to stay the course in regards to how they handle the banning of bots and RMT. SE aren't going to implement a right click report feature. They aren't going to add more functionality that would help us, as players, to help them combat RMT. I sincerely hope I am wrong. I truly, truly, do. I'd love to have to put my foot in my mouth because this post made me look like a fool. However, I'm just another person who really felt that if we put forth enough effort to make our concerns known to SE, SE would do the right thing and provide us with a response as well as action that we could see in game that would reduce the RMT spam and the number of bots in addition to the regular waves of account banning that SE perform on a regular basis.

Just take this one thread for example: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...RMT-situation.

That thread alone has 150 pages, and that's just one of the many, many, threads requesting that action be taken against RMT and bots.

With all of this said, from what I have learned, our efforts are futile. Not to say that they are falling on deaf ears. It just appears that SE are going to do things their way and they have no intentions of doing things any differently.

Edit: I actually created this thread: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nd-Yoshi-P.... over a year and two months ago. That's a screenshot from my game, and the RMT spam is still just as bad, if not worse, than it was then, and we still haven't had any features added, such as right click report, and the report function through the support desk is still just as cumbersome and time consuming as it was then.

Here's the thread where I asked that someone please go to the Japanese forums and plead our case: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Suggestion...

Here's where I posted in the Japanese General Discussion forums asking for help: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-community%21

Here's another which is related to the last thread I posted: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...o-RMT-issue...

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Originally Posted by MugenMugetsu

Wall of text edited down for size.

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I think I posted in that thread, too. Even with the same suggestion (which I make every single time I deign to post in RMT/bot threads). I don't know if they simply don't have enough of the budget to give players more efficient tools to deal with it. I understand wanting to be very thorough to ensure that the number of innocent accounts banned are at a minimum. I just wish that there was a method that didn't take me at least two minutes to stop what I'm doing to make a report. And I'll admit that I've long since stopped bothering doing just that. (Except for bots. Oddly, I don't spot the bots as much. Not saying they're not there, I just don't encounter them frequently.)

Only game I've seen with more bots/rmt per actual player is Blade and Soul.

Too bad we couldn't use a text command / macro to report people, bots specifically.
For all the macro proficient people;
/reportbot <t> <pos>

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Originally Posted by LarienTiwele

Snugglebutt: Remove your image with the names first off... Naming and shaming of qny kind can instead get YOU banned.

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I made sure was large enough to notice the names are just a jumble of random characters on them, all the same classes which are mostly archers and mages (RMT's favorite bot types) and they all around same level in same spots but I made sure cannot read the individual names so it is fine. :)

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Originally Posted by nexas506

Too bad we couldn't use a text command / macro to report people, bots specifically.
For all the macro proficient people;
/reportbot <t> <pos>

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That's assuming that you can even target them. Most of them time when I see bots I am unable to target them. I can target the mobs they're attacking, but I can't target them. And since they tend to kill mobs insanely fast, I have to target their mob several times to get the full name.

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Originally Posted by Snugglebutt

You cannot read the individual names so it is fine. :)

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The list has the RMT names visible and only "actual player" names blacked out... It is still considered name and shame and is bannable. People have been in the past for the same thing. You would have to black out ALL your listed names for it to potentially slide.

TYpically when I see bots, they're standing in one place killing anything around them.

Sometimes I'll see them teleport around or speedhack.


What I've taken to doing, regarding the gibberish names, is set my filters to friendlies only and cycle through the piles of bots and emote at them, afterwards i copy my chatlog into the report ticket.

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Originally Posted by LarienTiwele

The list has the RMT names visible and only "actual player" names blacked out... It is still considered name and shame and is bannable. People have been in the past for the same thing. You would have to black out ALL your listed names for it to potentially slide.

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Your concern is commendable, and appreciated. We all need to lookout for our fellow forum posters (forumites?), however, I've seen numerous posts of chat logs, and screenshots where names have been in clear view with no ill effect to the posters. I dunno. Maybe they got lucky or maybe in some cases the case of "name and shame" is overlooked. Either way, in this particular instance I feel that leaving the names, if for no other reason than so a Community Mod can see just how bad the problem is. The lists that were posted are sooooooo long that it really gives a clear picture that this situation needs to be addressed and resolved.

I'm of the firm belief that even with the evidence posted in the screenshots you requested have the names marked out, that regardless of who with SE sees it, there won't be any immediate action taken. If those RMT/bots are going to be banned it won't happen until the next wave of bans. Personally, I don't think Snugglebutt has anything to worry about, but in the off chance that he does, and he doesn't mark out the names, or at least partially mark them out, then he/she will have to deal with the repercussions. So, Snugglebutt, if you get a message indicating that you're going to be banned, please, by all means, let us know so we'll have a definitive answer as to whether or not we can, or can not, post images without the names of players marked out even in the event that those players are obviously not legitimate players who intend to play the game like we do, but rather play the game because it's their job.

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Originally Posted by TaranTatsuuchi

TYpically when I see bots, they're standing in one place killing anything around them.

Sometimes I'll see them teleport around or speedhack.


What I've taken to doing, regarding the gibberish names, is set my filters to friendlies only and cycle through the piles of bots and emote at them, afterwards i copy my chatlog into the report ticket.

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The ones I see are attacking mobs from underground or inside mountains where mobs can't attack back.

Thought this was funny, I covered up enough of the names to not get myself in trouble but made me laugh that this RMT bot army all dead in a pile like a bloody mass of bodies as a warning to others. Now if only GM's would ban the accounts of such bots instead of just leaving their rotting corpses over Eorzea. I was having quite a crappy day till I saw that which cheered me up, figured would post it so others might enjoy it. It's just a shame a quick search and look around and I found another 100+ (alive) RMT bots which are not banned yet even though they all level 50 ones. There are no RMT bot armies past level 50 though thanks to the HW gating they still remain stuck in ARR zones only, which isn't to say there are no level 51+ bots but those are only player ones not RMT bot armies.

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2...Untitled_6.png