shard yeilding

[Kosmos992k]

We’ve mentioned this many times already, but if you notice any suspicious activity it helps us a lot if you could make a report by going to [System Menu] -> [Support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating]. [/list]

Yes, we know, and yet almost everyone can talk of having reported a bot that is still there a week or more later, gathering shards and destroying the economy one shard at a time. It often feels like nothing is being done when we report, leaving little incentive to actually take the time to report. It is also extremely difficult to target the bots that harvest underground, making is impossible to report them by name.

Can you tell us whether the Dev team/STF are doing anything proactively in the game itself to prevent the obvious and widely abused teleport/warp/position coordinate exploits being used by the bots?

[Syamic]

Best way to combat RMT for shards is make them untradable.

Then increase the number you get from gathering them and reduce the number needed to craft things.
That way you are not out mindlessly farming shards for hours on end.

[Radamanthe]

We’ve mentioned this many times already, but if you notice any suspicious activity it helps us a lot if you could make a report by going to [System Menu] -> [Support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating].

It would help us a lot if you made a bearable UI to do so in the first place. I gladly report every RMT/bots/scroungers in any MMO, but I won't do it in FF14 until this is implemented in a way that respect me. Still waiting...

[Irenae]

Well maybe they should change the mechanics of how ward works? for example a sustainable buff that you can have on all the time instead of 1 node. Just bear in mind it would turn your GP pool into a GP puddle.

[Kyana]

• RMT issue
  We understand that there are RMT issues surrounding shards and the STF is after them every day.
  
  We’ve mentioned this many times already, but if you notice any suspicious activity it helps us a lot if you could make a report by going to [System Menu] -> [Support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating].

I've reported every bot user I came across, but these players are still running around.
One of them, which I reported ~6-7 weeks ago for using a speed hack and bot to gather from the trees west of Dragonhead, got up every crafting class to 50 in the meantime and is running around like nothing happened.

Another ones bot was messed up at Nophica's Wells in Western Thanalan, running and spinning on a spot for over 30 minutes, not reacting to tell.

Oh, and the character which was porting around between mining spots in Central Thanalan while using the sneak skill is still in the game too.

And I still see retainers selling 5-10+ stacks of 1000+ shards every day.

[Kyana]

• Shard yield

The development team understands the shard yield amount to be an extremely delicate issue. They are very carefully looking into whether they increase the amount of shards yielded and how much they would increase it as they give consideration to the economic effects.

How about using the existing things like gathering stats?
We already have nodes providing a bonus depending on elemental resistance or main stat.
How about increasing the yield of shards depending on perception or gathering stats?
Let characters with ilvl45 gear gather 2-3 shards, players with ilvl55 gear 3-5 shards and players with melded HQ ilvl55 gear and buff food 4-6 shards.

The ammounts of shards required for synths are fine except for cooking and maybe alchemy.
It would be better if meals would use crystals for lvl40-45+ items instead of high ammounts of shards.
I'd rather use 2-3 crystals instead of 10-12 shards.

[Wobble]

It would be most helpful if we didn't have to use so many shards in recipes for sure.

[Ksenia]

Greetings,

There has been a lot of discussions and feedback regarding shards and I’d like to respond to what I can.

• Methods of obtaining shards
  Looking at the current shard yield and the amount of shards used in recipes, we are currently looking into new methods of obtaining shards; however, we will not be making it so they simply drop from monsters.
  
  
  

- Purchase through GC seals
- Optional rewards for Leve Quests with Shard in the list 100%
- Returning to breakdown, you don't need to regulate the prices. They will regulate themselves. If a crystal shatters to 6 shards, it will sell for 6 shards. It's the same with EVE Online. Most stuff sells for reproc value. If Tritanium sells at 5 ISK and a Shuttle takes 500 trit, the shuttle sells for 2500 minimum. Markets are competition based and nothing gets by the competition.

[whycantiusebetaforumname]

ok, am I the only one finding it extremely insane that shard yeilds is only 1/hit? i understand crystals and clusters at 1 a hit but why can't shards be at 5/hit or 10? it's harder to farm shards then the materials per craft, and I had 9999 shards in 1.0 now im struggling to get shards. Square Enix please fix it

This. It makes now damn sense to mine at same rate as a lvl 26 miner/bot as a lvl 50 on shards I pretty much stopped crafting all together because you make more money running wp and selling mats and sb gear lol.

[Hvinire]

Hello everyone,

Here's a slightly more in-depth follow-up regarding the shards and RMT activity.

We are not planning to address the RMT activity related to shards by making adjustments to game balance, instead we will be individually tracking RMT activity and handling them. Basically, removing profit gain from shards would not decrease the amount of RMT, they would move to some other item and some other way to generate gil.

However, we do understand that many of you are concerned and upset that reports of botting and other activity is not addressed immediately. Please understand that ridding the game of RMT is not something that can take place overnight, but we are working extremely hard to ensure that everyone can play comfortably and without concern for RMT. We will also continue to post news announcements about how RMT and cheaters are being handled, so please be sure to check periodically.