Lack of action against gathering bots, it needs to be changed, and soon

[ICountFrom0]

Right now I've been at Reserving Server for 15 minutes. Yha, we can do without bots leveling up, and then selling the gold... (that's why leveling bots level btw).

At least on Balmung it has to have some crafting bots for random low stuff that I notice. No one in their right mind makes almost 1500 of random mat sells in stacks of 99 when the only recipes that use it need one or two. They are also not really linked to any leve. The only way I can understand it is if they botted it. They weren't buying up and controlling a market either they had a signature on all the stacks.

about 1500? As in the number needed for that one achivement? By picking an item that isn't needed for a leve or any traded item, they've picked the least expensive possible way to get that achivement.... might be a person, might be a bot.

[Moonlite]

about 1500? As in the number needed for that one achivement? By picking an item that isn't needed for a leve or any traded item, they've picked the least expensive possible way to get that achivement.... might be a person, might be a bot.

If it was just one random item, I wouldn't have even thought much about it. We all play different and someone decided they would spend a day or two crafting X. I know I mined some garbage items to get a zone achievement when I was close enough. I am just seeing it in to many spots.



Probably seen to many cheaters go unpunished in this game to give the benefit of the doubt. You should have seen how bad it was in Shatter(pvp) when they added XP. Players that were botting were still on lodestone with stuff leveling unpunished moths later. The only good thing was it was easy to work on Hand of Mercy, since the bot won't react well to being killed.

[Oxidized]

I

F A L S E

You will be paying the EXACT SAME AMOUNT because you could have sold the product.
You merely pay with a different currency: time vs Gil.

So you believe the MB is overpriced when players charge gil that makes it worth their time to gather, yet it is "fair" when a bot is able to charge bargain basement prices because it saves everyone "time"?

Thank you for de-valuing your entire argument, since that is the crux of why this is a huge problem. It is SUPPOSED to take time to acquire these mats, they are SUPPOSED to have a degree of scarcity that prevents them from being readily available at a low price, and bots completely undermine this concept. It indirectly damages the prices of the crafted goods, and directly damages the value of gathering your own.

[Zarabeth]

We have some of this on Leviathan but not as much as most seem to have. What I find annoying is RMT bots from other servers couchBehemothcough "visiting" ours just to put their rmt spam in shouts. I realize Squeenix doesn't seem to much care about this but geez, put a little effort into stopping this!

[Oxidized]

We have some of this on Leviathan but not as much as most seem to have.

The problem is that all it takes is one of these player-run gathering bots to completely crash a server's base mat prices, since one that targets ephemeral nodes can target the most basic of building blocks of not only endgame crafts (aethersands), but crafts in general (crystals and clusters).

When you have 3-4 of these bots on a server PLUS one that targets unspoiled nodes, your economy becomes a joke.

[KageTokage]

We have some of this on Leviathan but not as much as most seem to have. What I find annoying is RMT bots from other servers couchBehemothcough "visiting" ours just to put their rmt spam in shouts. I realize Squeenix doesn't seem to much care about this but geez, put a little effort into stopping this!

I'm not sure why they even permit world travel on trial accounts, honestly.

Though that would still only be a temporary measure because as soon as a server comes off of congested status the RMT bots rush in ASAP.

[Zarabeth]

I'm not sure why they even permit world travel on trial accounts, honestly.

Though that would still only be a temporary measure because as soon as a server comes off of congested status the RMT bots rush in ASAP.

True but it would be a start. Right now ALL of the RMT bots on Leviathan are from Behemoth. It's ridiculous!

[Granyala]

Tbh I don't really care about the gathering bots. Those leveling bots on the other hand, that induce queue time congestion (server as well duty based), now THOSE are the real problem. Create an alt on Spriggan or Twintania, see for yourself.

Wouldn't a gathering bot also increase the server login queue?
Luckily Cerb only has queues of like ... 20-50 when logging in.

So you believe the MB is overpriced when players charge gil that makes it worth their time to gather, yet it is "fair" when a bot is able to charge bargain basement prices because it saves everyone "time"?

I never said it was fair. I said it was realistic. (And yes: most crafters tend to overprice stuff to a rather ridiculously degree. Why? Because they are greedy and market bears it and they do it for as long as it continues to bear it. Simple economy 101)
I said it was an advantage for the consumer.

Just like in real life, most people do not care where the cheap prices come from. They don't care about absurdly low wages, horrible working conditions and destruction of the environment in 3rd world countries. All they care about is paying less for more.

So why exactly do you expect people to care about some videogame economy? If the bot's goods are cheaper people will buy them because the bot offered them an advantage.

BTW: I repeatedly stated that I want SE to crack down harder on Bots. So you can stop trying to paint me as some villain now just because I don't share your dramatic view of the situation. I probably would if Gil was an actually useful currency but sitting on 100M+ for years now with no sensible way of ever spending that I just can't see the issue.

It is supposed to take time to acquire the materials.

Having done it myself often enough: nope. It doesn't. Past the leveling process of the gatherer, mat acquisition is pretty much instantaneous.
Port to node -> gather -> be done in under 2 minutes. Esp for crafters that do not need HQ mats and can kick the gathering RNG out of the equation.

Patterns would need A LOT more materials in order for gathering time per item to become an actual issue.

[KageTokage]

Wouldn't a gathering bot also increase the server login queue?
Luckily Cerb only has queues of like ... 20-50 when logging in.

The gil farmers are a burden on the queues as their connections tend to be unstable at best as a side effect of running several hundred accounts off of the same computer and using heavily modified clients to boot.

I regularly see them getting mass DC'd in the event they leave themselves out in the open for a prolonged period of time.

[Oxidized]

Having done it myself often enough: nope. It doesn't. Past the leveling process of the gatherer, mat acquisition is pretty much instantaneous.
Port to node -> gather -> be done in under 2 minutes.

Then why are you complaining so much about things being overpriced? People can price items at whatever levels they choose, it is up to the buyer to actually spend the gil. Complaining about items being too expensive makes sense if there was a barrier to obtain them, but given you are now making it sound so easy, I do not understand your motivations for posting here except to garner attention for yourself.

So you can stop trying to paint me as some villain now just because I don't share your dramatic view of the situation.

Only one of us is being dramatic, I have never painted you as anything; if I feel your arguments are off the mark, I will not hesitate to attempt to refute them.

BTW: I repeatedly stated that I want SE to crack down harder on Bots.

Yes, along with messages such as this:

Instead of pointlessly raging about bots, just use their cheap resources and save some IRL time on gathering.
I don't see the problem. Gil is pretty much useless in FF-XIV.

See why it is difficult to take your stance seriously?

You fail to recognize that many people who craft and gather do it because we enjoy it, gain a personal sense of satisfaction from doing so, and want this aspect of the game to be fair and meaningful. Gil is not something we really need, but many of us use it as a personal scorecard, how does one have fun knowing in the back of our minds that we will always lose to someone who is overtly cheating?