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

[Granyala]

Yeah I get the strange moods too where I actually enjoy fishing because it is peaceful... well ... for Ifalna. The fish... not so much.

[Endeleon]

Eeeh... I wouldn't call "hitting a node to get mats into your inventory" as content.
I don't want to "experience" it myself so I usually put on a movie when mass gathering. Never outlasted an hours worth of farming though.

LOL what? of course it is content. Gathering is it's own system altogether, with sub systems even like collecting and aetherial reduction. What a ridiculous and nonsense statement.

[KageTokage]

I'm feeling 100% convinced that they are not actually investigating reports after seeing that even a bot that's repeatedly doing something that's blatantly impossible for normal players to do (Accessing its retainers without actually targeting the summoning bell) is getting away with its activity despite me reporting it. If I had to guess it's likely overriding the default retainer interface somehow so it can deposit items/change prices faster then is normally possible because not all bots exhibit this quirk.

I guess their lack of response to the rampant RMT bot activity on Hyperion, Twintania, and Spriggan kinda speaks for how concerned they are about the matter overall.

[RoyalBeef]

I'm feeling 100% convinced that they are not actually investigating reports after seeing that even a bot that's repeatedly doing something that's blatantly impossible for normal players to do (Accessing its retainers without actually targeting the summoning bell) is getting away with its activity despite me reporting it. If I had to guess it's likely overriding the default retainer interface somehow so it can deposit items/change prices faster then is normally possible because not all bots exhibit this quirk.

I would assume it's like a html form. You can fill in the firmfields press the button to submit it, but if you know the controller function it's sent to you can directly post the data to that php function, circumventing the "ui" that is the formfields and the submit button.

I'm not sure how you would know they are actually accessing their retainers tho, never seen any indicators when someone is doing that.

[KageTokage]

I would assume it's like a html form. You can fill in the firmfields press the button to submit it, but if you know the controller function it's sent to you can directly post the data to that php function, circumventing the "ui" that is the formfields and the submit button.

I'm not sure how you would know they are actually accessing their retainers tho, never seen any indicators when someone is doing that.

They're changing their prices whenever they're seemingly idling by the bell because I waged a brief undercut war with the bot in question that I eventually won after I found a price it wouldn't go below.

Once they notice this happening, though, they'll simply keep setting the undercut limit lower and lower until people back off, then they'll eventually start raising the prices again if they don't get any further competition.

[Zfz]

I just want to say, that the bot problem (specifically seeing those bots all precision-stacked and doing the exact same actions) is so annoying, that if I ever get to say something to Yoshida, it won't be a thank you but a "do you know your game is infested with bots and it's extremely annoying to see them as a legit player?"

I hope a community manager actually convey this to Yoshida. This game is a joke when it comes to botting. Everyone sees them. And over the past several years nothing seems to stop them, to the point that we as players are doubting if Square Enix are actually even trying to do anything about it.

[KageTokage]

I'm honestly not sure why the community managers even exist with how overly selective they seem to be in determining in what's an issue worth escalating to the devs.

The subject of botting comes up constantly but I've never once seen them post in any of these threads and it makes me feel like they've been specifically instructed to ignore it when seeing how quickly they've chosen to respond to other matters.

[Granyala]

LOL what? of course it is content. Gathering is it's own system altogether, with sub systems even like collecting and aetherial reduction. What a ridiculous and nonsense statement.

I don't consider gathering content, just as I don't consider facerolling trivial mobs in the overworld to get drops content (senseless achievement hunting also falls into this category).
Content either provides story progression or engages my brain. The above does neither.

[KageTokage]

Perhaps the adjustments in 5.1 will do some things to address the tedious aspects of both crafting/gathering...not that it's going to convince people who bot to stop or anything.

[Oxidized]

Perhaps the adjustments in 5.1 will do some things to address the tedious aspects of both crafting/gathering...not that it's going to convince people who bot to stop or anything.

A very simple change would probably fix the issue: giving GMs the power to investigate forms of cheating and take action upon their findings. Until then, it is an endless spiral of bureaucracy that leads to no action being taken.