Measures to counter botting

[Goji1639]

It's unfortunate, but there's not much that can be done about it. Reporting is pointless because it's difficult to verify that someone is playing a bot to the point that they would be comfortable perma-banning; and the person REALLY REALLY looking like a bot doesn't count.

The amount of time it would take to confirm, coupled with the fact that people would be reporting basically everyone who doesn't respond to a /whisper, makes the entire proposition futile.

The only solution with a reasonable shot at success would be to allow SE to install spyware on all of our clients, and monitor everything we have running while in the game.

[Kleeya]

The only solution with a reasonable shot at success would be to allow SE to install spyware on all of our clients, and monitor everything we have running while in the game.

Except that the RMT dont use legit clients with anticheats knowing they will get banned, they use modified ones to go around this kind of things. The only annoyed ones will be legit players dealing with your spyware bugs, false positives and more taxing hardware requirement to make it run in the game's background.

And i dont even talk of all the legal and privacy issues there would be with spying all that your customers are doing, and the huge backslash it could lead to on the internet with a community used to make a big fuss of everyting.

[LalaRu]

...the person REALLY REALLY looking like a bot doesn't count...

GM can question you, and ignoring GM is one legit reason for getting banned. Even if you aren't a bot.

[SamSmoot]

I find it very difficult to identify bots in this game. I thought I had one a few days ago, given that it seemed to be stopping in the exact same spot to mine every time, and was taking six seconds between mining hits every time.
On closer inspection, it had slight variations in it;s landing position, and the time delay could have been player with some disability, playing with a pointing stick or something. I eventually gave up after 10 minutes of watching.

Gil sellers: After 100 different accounts report a gil spammer, inspect that they all point to the same site, and block that URL from appearing ever again, forcing the spammer to get a new domain name and scrap the old one. This could be automated.. Just take 5 random segments of text from their message, and if any further chat message appears with 3 of the 5, block it. This way, the spammers will have to completely change their add each time it gets blocked, eventually running out of ways to get the message across.

Or, just make it impossible to transfer more than 1000 gil per week between characters that aren't on the same account.

[TnTaLuS]

I find it very difficult to identify bots in this game. I thought I had one a few days ago, given that it seemed to be stopping in the exact same spot to mine every time, and was taking six seconds between mining hits every time.
On closer inspection, it had slight variations in it;s landing position, and the time delay could have been player with some disability, playing with a pointing stick or something. I eventually gave up after 10 minutes of watching.

Gil sellers: After 100 different accounts report a gil spammer, inspect that they all point to the same site, and block that URL from appearing ever again, forcing the spammer to get a new domain name and scrap the old one. This could be automated.. Just take 5 random segments of text from their message, and if any further chat message appears with 3 of the 5, block it. This way, the spammers will have to completely change their add each time it gets blocked, eventually running out of ways to get the message across.

Or, just make it impossible to transfer more than 1000 gil per week between characters that aren't on the same account.

When I encounter some again I will record them and upload the footage on a hidden video and post it here. I see them almost every day.. especially when I with 2 accounts at the same time and level in low level areas.. thats the weirdes thing.. they are very often in low level areas.. tho it is hard to catch them doing a specific thing since they literally teleport from mob to mob and place to place (without the aetheryte system, they abuse that the server doesnt check that your clients character position (coordinates) is the same as the characters position on the server.. in other games like wow that causes an automaatic disconnect)soo it looks kinda weird but its very visibly bot.. a lot of people.. all looking the same.. same gear.. all weird naming scheme (not a real name but also not against any naming schemes like KKKK1 kkk1 kkk3, they have names like AAhhZuuF Keeddoosisuf)
So they are not damaging your gameplay directly since they are stealthy.. but their impact on economy and their level of annoyance is.. at least for me.. infuriating