Attention devs: Game Surveillance Unit re: open world Bots.

[Morningstar1337]

This thread has me wanting a clockpunk dungeon where the enemies are clockwork androids that resemble player charaters and adds some horror into the concept of bots

[zeth07]

Suspicious FCs:
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...5873504751253/

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...&house=&order=

:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...2510899950236/
:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...5873504750771/
:http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...7761132842678/


But it's pretty obvious they aren't going to do anything to all these bots. They could just keep doing a copy/paste of the same "RMT/Bot Removal" post they always do on the Lodestone and just change it to some random numbers and nobody would really know they did anything anyway.

[Niota]

Anyone else see this type of suspicious activity ?

Basically you'll have a large # of characters that belong to 1-3 FCs with giberish names wearing the same exact things. They either hang out AFK by an aetherite or by the summoning bell by the market board.


the RMT black mage convention is alive and well at Ragnarok..

[Erudain]

Regretfully you report them so many times before you get tired of it and stop doing it.

I've reported bots gathering fire shards in E. Thalanan (near the bridge where the 4x chain FATE pops) for months, they are still doing it....one day I said "to hell with this", they are still there botting and just ignore them

[Cojika]

The two bots that I mentioned farming nodes in the Central Shroud are ridiculously obvious to anyone that spends time observing them. No human player can run the exact same circuits every time. Sometimes they even become completely synched.

Hell, in the beginning they used to jump to try and disguise themselves and would jump at the exact same spot of their circuit every time. Nowadays they just don't bother with that since SE obviously refuses to ban them.

This botting problem and the lack of attempting to fix it in FF14 has been around since 1.0. A lot of the players I and others reported back then are actually still around to this day, having gone unpunished and reaping the rewards for their cheating. I used to send detailed reports all the time to the task force but like others, just gave up hope when I saw nothing was ever going to be done about it.

I still remember 3 sheep bots in Coerthas(talking 1.0 here) who monopolized the best spot for a year+ and they botted away till the moment the calamity took place.
Fast forward to today and I too witnessed everything else others have mentioned in this thread. Whether I report them or not doesn't change the fact that i can head to that exact same spot 3+ months later and see the exact same people doing the exact same thing(Not implying i don't send in reports anymore, I still do for some reason).

[Tharian]

Put it another way, RMT is watched for 1 month, over that month they make 2m a day so say 60m gil. They sell half of it at... /checks chat log.... $5 per million, that is $150. Account gets shut down and they buy another game for $50 and still have $100 profit.

And they have even less profit if they get IP Blocked as well as having their account suspended. This is because not only will they have to buy a new game (50 bucks) they will have to also obtain a new IP address. It gets even worse if they get a Regional IP Block, as then they would need to somehow obtain an IP Address from outside the region that they were logged in from.

Yes there are ways around IP Blockages, but the long term versions of these are not cheap, and simply resetting your IP Address does not stop a Regional IP Blockage.

[ToffeeCoffee]

I have a party member dedicated to holding a trade window open with this bot [Tonberry, Eastern Thanalan X28 Y24] just so I can spiritbond in my preferred location. SE your silence on this matter is worrying. Do you or do you not condone botting in FFXIV ARR? Are you content to just ignore the matter, in effect sweeping it under the carpet?
I won't stop bringing it up and I hope others who feel the same keep voicing their opinion. I'd appreciate some service from you Square Enix.

[Gemma]

I share everyones pain when I say I too am really sick of seeing bots everywhere. Whether it's RMT or player bots, it really feels like SE doesn't do anything.

I've reported my fair share of bots in 1.0 & 2.0 and sadly I still see the bots I reported at launch of 2.0 only now they have decked out BLMs or a bot with all 50 crafts with HQ gear & fully melded and artisans glasses crafting them gear to SB & then turn around and sell us the materia we are needing for our Novus quests. I would like more to be done but honestly, since seeing the ones I reported were never dealt with, I just have stopped reporting all together. :/

Best of luck to you OP

[Kerwin]

I have a party member dedicated to holding a trade window open with this bot [Tonberry, Eastern Thanalan X28 Y24] just so I can spiritbond in my preferred location. SE your silence on this matter is worrying. Do you or do you not condone botting in FFXIV ARR? Are you content to just ignore the matter, in effect sweeping it under the carpet?
I won't stop bringing it up and I hope others who feel the same keep voicing their opinion.

It would reassure the community if the devs or reps would at least respond to this issue. They have said in the past that they do deal with RMT but it looks like they do it in large amounts every so often. In which time the bot has already transfered all the goods and gil to a less suspicious account used for trading with outside sources to make it harder to spot.

[ToffeeCoffee]

I believe you have seen this thread and are ignoring it. I was told by the GMs to ask you, the Community Reps, to present this issue of rampant botting being allowed in ARR to the devs, and you haven't said a single word on the matter. I face disciplinary action from the GMs if I contact them again about this. The very least you can do is acknowledge the information and responses provided in this thread, which I believe has gained enough traction to have you take some interest in the matter and provide a response.
The lack of service in this game that we pay monthly subscription for (I remind you) is astonishing.

Here's a pic of another mining bot [Tonberry: Southern Thanalan X19 Y11] that has survived for months and months for good measure: