The red line is crossed now - Bots, cheaters, hackers, gil-seller

[Lastelli]

So basically, what SE is saying is, "get yourself a bot"?

Wasn't this obvious already with how boring, repetitive, mindless, time consuming and at the same time convoluted crafting and gathering are?

It is my belief that when players resort to bots, it's because there's a fundamental problem with content itself: it's not enjoyable.

[Warghoul570]

Considering how SE has been trying to make crafting and gathering relevant banning all these bots would help tremendously.. once prices on the MB jump, people will start crafting and gathering on their own to either save money or to make it while the prices are high. At some point it would reach a happy medium

[Jojoya]

Wasn't this obvious already with how boring, repetitive, mindless, time consuming and at the same time convoluted crafting and gathering are?

It is my belief that when players resort to bots, it's because there's a fundamental problem with content itself: it's not enjoyable.

Then all content has a fundamental problem. There will never be any content universally loved by all players so there will always be someone looking to bot their way through it if a reliable bot can be programmed for that content.

A more likely explanation is the fundamental problem lies with the player. An intelligent person will find something else to do if they're not enjoying the content, and forego getting the associated rewards. The lazy and/or entitled player will resort to bots because they believe they deserve the reward even if they don't want to put in the effort.

[Lastelli]

Then all content has a fundamental problem. There will never be any content universally loved by all players so there will always be someone looking to bot their way through it if a reliable bot can be programmed for that content.

A more likely explanation is the fundamental problem lies with the player. An intelligent person will find something else to do if they're not enjoying the content, and forego getting the associated rewards. The lazy and/or entitled player will resort to bots because they believe they deserve the reward even if they don't want to put in the effort.

The difference being, you need gil to enjoy other parts of the game. Raiders need gil if they want new gear, food and potions to tackle the new savage tier with and clear it reasonably fast. Casual players need gil for glamour, since the most requested and appreciated glamour options require mats that are sold for several millions of gil. Which is obvious, as gil is the game's currency. The problem is, earning gil is a chore. The actual process is not fun for most players. Hence why we have so many bots: the demand for gil is there because you need it to enjoy other parts of the game, but many players value their time more than the real money needed to buy it.

Because let's be honest, crafting and gathering are just huge times sinks. You're basically exchanging your time for gil. There's nothing hard to understand, nothing challenging or engaging about it.

That's why you don't see bots for things like savage and ultimate content: that's the end goal, raiders enjoy doing it, and if you don't, you can just avoid it and you're losing pretty much nothing, except for the chance to dye some underwhelming gear and a mount that can be easily obtained in the following expansion doing the content unsynced.

[KageTokage]

You don't need to gather or craft to make decent gil, honestly. Just doing treasure maps brings in a healthy amount of raw gil plus whatever stuff happens to drop.

I find, however, that most people who bot are not trying to make money and rather are just trying avoid having to buy stuff off the MB. That still hurts the economy by taking away potential customers though.

[Moonlite]

snip

Why not use the built in bot feature? Retainers they bring stuff back every 60 mins. I don't think I have ever had a week where I made less then 1 mill from retainers. I even stopped getting maps. They are also self sustaining, I can't actually venture them enough to make up for the GC turn ins. They also have the extra MB space built into them.


I also think your last point is a little off. You don't see bots for endgame content because the curve is to high for them. But you do see the same type of lazy/entitled players clearing that content. They just pay for it. The game wouldn't have clears for sale if people weren't buying them. If bots get better they would just move to bots instead.

[KageTokage]

Retainers can't get aethersands or items from the latest unspoiled/legendary nodes (Which incidentally are the main things bots target). Though even if they could, people would still bot regardless because some are just never satisfied.

I'm really just praying that the potential sabotage of the restoration rankings will be enough to make the devs start taking this whole matter more seriously.

[DynnDiablos]

I must be dealing with this tool now. He is blocking anyone from being able to sell Wall Planters and Planter Partitions because he auto-undercuts every 2-3 minutes by 5-10 gil. I kept wondering why someone would just sit there doing it, but it is the same four listings split between the same two retainers and like clockwork if I adjust my prices his lower. I also believe this to be a bot because I tanked the price from 20k to 4k on them and he still undercut, when most wouldn't really want to lose that much gil on them.

In the end they cost me nothing to make and I had a surplus left over from my house decorating, but I would love to unload them even for 4k a piece lol.

[Moonlite]

Retainers can't get aethersands or items from the latest unspoiled/legendary nodes (Which incidentally are the main things bots target). Though even if they could, people would still bot regardless because some are just never satisfied.

I'm really just praying that the potential sabotage of the restoration rankings will be enough to make the devs start taking this whole matter more seriously.

You are so right about the never satisfied. What I find amusing is if bots sabotage the game enough SE isn't going to crack down on bots. They will just use the magic fix all, lock it behind some sort of wall that limits it. That doesn't punish the cheaters it punishes everyone.

[DynnDiablos]

The difference being, you need gil to enjoy other parts of the game. Raiders need gil if they want new gear, food and potions to tackle the new savage tier with and clear it reasonably fast. Casual players need gil for glamour, since the most requested and appreciated glamour options require mats that are sold for several millions of gil. Which is obvious, as gil is the game's currency. The problem is, earning gil is a chore. The actual process is not fun for most players. Hence why we have so many bots: the demand for gil is there because you need it to enjoy other parts of the game, but many players value their time more than the real money needed to buy it.

Because let's be honest, crafting and gathering are just huge times sinks. You're basically exchanging your time for gil. There's nothing hard to understand, nothing challenging or engaging about it.

That's why you don't see bots for things like savage and ultimate content: that's the end goal, raiders enjoy doing it, and if you don't, you can just avoid it and you're losing pretty much nothing, except for the chance to dye some underwhelming gear and a mount that can be easily obtained in the following expansion doing the content unsynced.

I love gathering. It is MY end game and I find it very relaxing and enjoyable.