Unusual botting activity across Aether DC: FATE botting archer lalafells.

I want to clarify that these guys are not the usual gil farming bots everyone is familiar with (Gibberish names, identical gear, tend to show up around aetherytes or near quest NPCs then suddenly vanish) and while significantly more subtle, are still obvious in many ways and significantly more intrusive,

I noticed while doing my usual rounds for S ranks there was a bunch of Lalafells using normal names from the game's generator, but were very obviously botting judging from their ridiculously jerky movement while pathing between FATEs and tendency to get hung up on walls (Which would make them start jumping endlessly until they dislodged themselves...though the jumping wasn't actually helping with that). More unusually, they were all archers still despite being level 30+.

They were all in Coerthas Central Highlands and seemingly only targeting non-boss FATEs. They're also evidently progressing the MSQ as I saw one of them queue up for the Stone Vigil the instant it hit level 41 (And woe to whatever group got it).

Out of curiosity, I decided to check the other servers on my DC, and sure enough, there were other bots exhibiting all of the same traits, though not always in the same zone since they're progressing the entire MSQ, albeit extremely slowly because they seem to rely heavily on FATE EXP and neglect doing any sidequests. There appeared to be exactly four bots per server, though they aren't sync'd up as their levels usually differed, presumably due to random deaths from their general stupidity.

I'm really hoping the STF will be diligent about curbing these guys because unlike the gil farming bots, they're interacting with the play environment a lot more by queueing up with randoms for dungeons and can be a legitimate nuisance outside of their likely gil farming activity. It also stresses the need for a quick "Report botting" function.

If you do happen to get matched with one of these guys in a dungeon, they're readily identifiable by their tendency to hug the tank and stand directly on top of them while they're not in combat, coupled with the usual unresponsiveness and obvious lack of a soul stone. I actually tried to get matched with one on purpose just to see how it behaved, and my group members thankfully agreed to kick it immediately when I pointed out its weird behavior.

So...botting activity is picking up again? Damn. I'm gonna need more anti-botting emotes.

https://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k...psja4qefsr.jpg

Too bad I didn't get to use my third one in this picture. They teleported away before I could use it. Nothing is better than hitting a bunch of bots with a shovel.

It's never died down, honestly.

The gil farmers have always been around, but they don't intrude on your gameplay by joining your instances and just keep to themselves in their own groups.

These guys seem to have suddenly turned up within the past week or so and resort to strictly "normal" methods of botting, unlike the gil farmers who use hacks to speed themselves along at the expense of being immediately noticed and added to SE's weekly ban list. To the oblivious these new bots outwardly appear to just be newbies who are really slow and awkward at navigating the map due to their normal names.

See more bots than none bots or my server now. Other day saw 15 of them just standing in quests location where monsters spawn for it and all them died. Be nice if they add option can click on there names and report them as a bot.

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Originally Posted by DumdogsWorld

So...botting activity is picking up again? Damn. I'm gonna need more anti-botting emotes.

https://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k...psja4qefsr.jpg

Too bad I didn't get to use my third one in this picture. They teleported away before I could use it. Nothing is better than hitting a bunch of bots with a shovel.

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I want to steal these emotes. They are gold.

I feel like bringing this up again because after vanishing for a time, these weird bots suddenly resurfaced, though now they're joining FCs (Owned by level 1 characters who've done basically nothing) and including more then archers in their ranks (Who are still job-less like their predecessors).

The strangest thing of all though is that most of these bots in are level 20 gear despite being level 50, and I'm seriously confused as to how it was even possible for them to reach that level in such manner unless they've been spamming roulettes and getting carried by players who don't mind their lack of a job and terrible gear.

I have a very bad feeling about what they're scheming after noticing that there's one bot in every FC that's leveling DoL/H classes.

And yes, I already tried reporting some of them around a week ago, but being "legit" bots that aren't overly obvious like the gil farmers, it's unlikely any action will ever be taken against them.


On a related note, the routes these bots take for MSQ progression are comically inefficient and overcomplicated. I saw one warp to Western Thanalan, take the ferry to Limsa Lominsa, take the ferry to Aleport in Western Na Noscea, run to Upper La Noscea, then take the ferry to the other side of the lake...just to talk the NPC near the Wanderer's Palace entrance. Whoever is running this operation doesn't seem very bright, so maybe my fears of them ever amounting to anything are unwarranted.

As of today, these guys have finally settled into a routine of some sort.

They have three DPS and a healer that sit in the Ul'dah inn and are constantly spamming some instance that they seem to be completing extremely quickly as they're popping in and out every 30-60 seconds or so. They're so poorly geared that I can't imagine what it is they're able to both queue up for instantly then complete with the matter of about a minute (Guildhests are the only thing that springs to mind, but I'm not sure what they'd be gaining from it unless they're fishing for the Adventurer in Need bonus).

They also have one individual with a crafting class leveled who just sits in front of the FC chest in Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks, who I assume is managing the gil they're farming.

I can only pray the STF isn't so dense as to glance over these guys just because they aren't hacking.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

They're also evidently progressing the MSQ as I saw one of them queue up for the Stone Vigil the instant it hit level 41 (And woe to whatever group got it).

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I'm curious how they were playing in that group now. Were they programmed to run like the Squadrons or did they reverse engineer the API?

I queued for 50/60 roulette as tank a few weeks ago, got grouped with 2 BLM and a WHM in Amdapor Keep. They Teleported out of the CS holding pen, pulled everything before the first boss, and after the second, into the courtyard, then teleported underground, and AoE'd them all to death, and dropped group. I just watched dumbfounded, backfilled my instance, and we enjoyed killing only bosses and 1 small hallway of trash, and made record time.

I reported the HECK out of them after.

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Originally Posted by Taramin

Amdapor Keep

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This seems to be the growing meta, I guess. This particular duty seems to be catching a lot of weirdness lately.

It turns out the bots are solo queueing for the Wanderer's Palace in undersized parties (Which explains why they took that weird roundabout path through Western Thanalan then rode a chain of ferries to get to Upper La Noscea),

The question is WHY, because they're in such horrible gear that the only thing they'd be able to do is grab the first chest with the potions in it, but I can't think of anything productive you could do with them to warrant large-scale farming of them in this manner.

More strangely, the crafters who spend most of their time in front of the FC chest abruptly decided to warp to Western Thanalan and run into the Waking Sands...which again begs the question of "why".

They're also starting to send in new waves of bots, so they seem to be trying to turn this into a large scale operation...

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Originally Posted by Alucard135

I'm curious how they were playing in that group now. Were they programmed to run like the Squadrons or did they reverse engineer the API?

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They don't group with each other. They just queue up with random players. I actually got into a Stone Vigil run with one by queueing as a tank the instant I saw it queue as DPS.

They''re programmed to follow the tank extremely closely and will generally try to stand directly on top of them while not in combat. They're also really dumb and don't avoid AoEs, but aside from that, they can easily pass as really stupid actual players.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

This seems to be the growing meta, I guess. This particular duty seems to be catching a lot of weirdness lately.

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They've actually been doing this since 2.0.

It could be fixed by making it so dungeon mobs reset if their targets are at an invalid location since mobs in HW/SB areas will already instantly reset if they can't find a valid path to you as a result of attacking from up on a cliff and such.

This would also prevent them from progressing the MSQ or completing story duties because they rely on making themselves unhittable by going out of bounds to clear content with need of a tank.

Hm. Strange. Seems like there have been more stories about Amdapor than usual lately. Maybe the bots just gotta ramp up their activity to prep for the expansion dropping. Have enough supply for all the rubes that think they need to buy piles of gil for all the new stuff.