Add a CAPTCHA to crafting and gathering for the PC version.

[alimdia]

Sorry but this

I know very well how crafting works.

is contradicted by this

I've been crafting since 2.4. Damn, I even tried the ridiculous favor thing back in the day. If you want to be efficient and not rely too much on RNG (which is almost mandatory if you want to make decent profits) you need to overmeld a lot. If you don't want to waste 4 minutes per crafted item using that monstrisity known as maker's mark, you need to overmeld a lot. If you want to be autonomous and mass produce pots and food with macros, you need to overmeld a lot (btw my static needed grade 3 infusion to clear o12s a few weeks ago because no optimal comp and no ast /sigh).

Your views on crafting are very outdated.

You can get hundreds of IVs and dozens of V with red scrips, overmelding has never been this easy before. Just with custom deliveries I end up selling a ton of materia IV per week. I went with rather cheap melds with no VI overmelds and 1 to no V overmeld (rest IVs) and the quality requirement is minimal.

This is on a spec



All I need is 1 HQ low level mat and I'm set. No Maker's Mark either, just a quick macro



Same with Rakshasa pieces



I can easily HQ that twinthread in seconds, the rest goes nq.

Note my tools aren't overmelded, if did those I can probably skip more of the single V overmeld from the rest of the pieces I have.

I don't know how bad it is on Gilgamesh, but the bots on my server play a very significant part in killing the prices on pretty much everything new whenever a patch comes out or maintain a stranglehold on things that are always relevant.

There's a collective that constantly floods the market with infusions (One crafter fueled by three gatherers), a pesky undercutter who provokes a constant price war on DoW/M/L/H gear by almost immediately changing their prices whenever something is listed lower then their's then instantly relists when things sell, and a scrip farmer who basically owns the grade V/VI DoL/H materia market.

They've pressured a lot of people into not even bothering to craft/sell things anymore, as the time spent to gil gained ratio just gets lower and lower to the point where it starts becoming impractical for anyone but the bots who have infinite amounts of time to spend.

I'd be more satisfied with the state of things if SE was actually trying to control the problem, but I've seen no evidence outside of those weekly illicit activity reports which feel like empty fluff when the bulk of their bans are for expendable gil farmers/RMT spammers that return almost instantly coupled with the fact that literally none of the bots on my server have been banned despite me and others reporting them for years. It is an unfortunate reality that bots will always exist in every MMO, since not even winning lawsuits against the bot makers was able to get them out of WoW, but the point is that SE could definitely do a heck of lot better then they are right now, especially when you have things like PvP bots throwing matches or gil farmers invading people's eight player instances, which are actively disruptive. The gather/craft bots are just the tip of the iceberg.

I meant the economy in general. Bots tend to focus on specific items, but this game has thousands of different items, in the grand scheme very few items are affected by bots. They tend to congregate around aethersand and popular food.

[Ilan]

CAPTCHA, you know, those "type what this says to prove you're a human" things. It's ridiculous that it's gotten to the point where this is a genuine request. Seriously. It's getting completely out of hand and everybody who crafts or gathers knows exactly what I'm talking about. If they're not going to start actually banning these people, just put up a CAPTCHA once per hour or so. The game is developing a reputation. It's not just the old familiar names, now I'm seeing an increasing number of actual regular players who have watched SE's inaction for years and decided that they might as well start doing it too.

Do. Something.

No don't do that shit! Had that in another game and its annoying as hell for the players and it doesn't keep the bots away.

[Niraye]

i dont want some random captcha pop up while im fishing for a fish that might take several in-game days no. same goes for going node to node for the timed ones, that would be a waste of time, wait for it to pop up after being frozen, wait for it to disappear while still frozen. thats just a no

[Bsrking5]

Honesty I don't see SE changing crafting to reduce bots but a gathering change that could actually help is randomized node spawns to make it less predictable and add in a random slot change to over gathered items. This is a much simpler and effective change then a captcha that will only stop them in the short term while making it much worse on real players in the long term.

[KageTokage]

Honesty I don't see SE changing crafting to reduce bots but a gathering change that could actually help is randomized node spawns to make it less predictable and add in a random slot change to over gathered items. This is a much simpler and effective change then a captcha that will only stop them in the short term while making it much worse on real players in the long term.

I don't think randomized node spawn points would work, because they're already able to account for the randomness of unspoiled nodes, and considering that they're also able to "see" FATEs from long distances, I get the impression they can probably detect anything that's visible on the minimap or regular map.

Chances are shuffling node slots around would only be a minor hindrance to them as well, as programming a variable that makes them try a different slot until they relocate the desired item would be very doable.

[DeaconMoore]

Wait, the ps4 is magically immune to botting?

Also this will work for about a month (at best maybe) then it'll just continue to make crafting and gathering a p.i.t.a. for all the players.

[DrWho2010]

you know there is one way to stop botting. if people stop buying gil. sadly that will never happen. so we have to put up with it. can't have it both ways.

[Mwynn]

you know there is one way to stop botting. if people stop buying gil. sadly that will never happen. so we have to put up with it. can't have it both ways.

That doesn't prevent Player Bots tho, those who farm 24/7 Ephermal Nodes and put up billions of Food / Pot Stacks on the Marketboard.
That kind of Player is real, just like me and you. They even do Savage Raids if not Ultimates and purchase Mog Station Items.

[Kirsten_Rev]

CAPTCHA, you know, those "type what this says to prove you're a human" things. It's ridiculous that it's gotten to the point where this is a genuine request. Seriously. It's getting completely out of hand and everybody who crafts or gathers knows exactly what I'm talking about. If they're not going to start actually banning these people, just put up a CAPTCHA once per hour or so. The game is developing a reputation. It's not just the old familiar names, now I'm seeing an increasing number of actual regular players who have watched SE's inaction for years and decided that they might as well start doing it too.

Do. Something.

I think the CAPTCHA approach may be flawed, but I agree with the sentiment. Botting is far, far too visible when it comes to these things. SE needs to start wielding the banhammer more openly. It won't fix the botting issue, but when legitimate players are tempted to join the crowd, we've got a problem (and I think it's long since passed that point for people who seriously craft and gather for profit).

Another useful countermeasure that wouldn't be easily circumvented would be to make the MB more opaque. Being able to see what everyone else is pricing items at makes it far too easy for bots to mass-unload items.

[Jojoya]

CAPTCHA won't do anything but get players to quit the game. It's an annoyance that's too disruptive.

If you suspect someone of botting, then report them with what you've observed. If you feel that SE isn't taking botting seriously enough, quit and find another game to play.

No "legitimate player" is ever going to be tempted to bot because the integrity of their personal game play is important to them. Someone who resorts to cheating is not legitimate in any way.