FFXIV Devs: Please STOP punishing normal players for others breaking the rules.

[RyuSaarva]

Who actually changes waymarks in combat? You don't have the time.

This seems like a 100% improvement to me.

lots of times, especially with new players showing them where to go or where the safe spots are, with experienced players I remove them because I don't wanna look at them, it was great in eureka too for placing markers on fairy locations.

[SaberMaxwell]

Who actually changes waymarks in combat? You don't have the time.

This seems like a 100% improvement to me.

In Ultimate, where the battlefield and mechanics change drastically between phases, the ability to switch waymark positioning on the fly was a pretty nice feature.

[linay]

See the problem? SE needs to take a stance on this. Not grey ... a straight up is it good or bad. That would stop the confusion we have right now.

They do have a stance on it: don't use third party tools. The problem is enforcement and whether certain tools like voice chat overlay is really something they should care about.

There is a quotation that might clarify their reasoning:

With that ambiguity in mind, the development and operations teams have taken the stance of “Please don’t use third party tools.” This is because using third-party tools puts that player’s account at risk.

So even if a third party tool doesn't change game data, but merely reads it, there could be things that it reads that the player might not want it to read, from a security or privacy standpoint.

That is why the gray area exists because you can't say that ACT is allowed because it "only reads data." Even a "harmless" overlay may have inappropriate usage.

That's why they'll have to go through the gray area on a case by case basis. That doesn't mean there is no stance taken, just a matter of enforcement, and if you get punished for using third party tool, you have no excuse because their stance is clear.

[DPZ2]

Basically it's not Base ACT.

They're specifically referring to a PLUG IN. Basically they're EXTRAS you add on to the tool.

So, you're saying that the base tool allows other programmers to plug into it in order to 'cheat'? Why did they bother providing that functionality in the first place if they didn't believe people would use it?

[QT_Melon]

So, you're saying that the base tool allows other programmers to plug into it in order to 'cheat'? Why did they bother providing that functionality in the first place if they didn't believe people would use it?

It's a OPEN SOURCE project. What others do with plugins isn't exactly their responsibility.

[Kenky]

It's a OPEN SOURCE project. What others do with plugins isn't exactly their responsibility.

yet they should be, since it was their choice to make it Open-Source. While true, they can't stop people from breaking the coding and injecting malicious intent, they could have covered their rear by locking the code down, instead of letting it be easily altered.

While the plugins to it may be the bigger issue and the punishable offence, it's still using another program to decipher the data, meaning ACT is just as liable to cause issues on a security front, since ACT is the "Master program" in that setup.

To that end, why not just flag the master program and catch anything that gets flagged? All the plugins need ACT to function, so getting rid of ACT stops their ability to function. At least until they make another program or a built-in workaround but that starts to tread dangerously close to federal court levels of punishment, instead of just a ban from the game servers.

[WhyAmIHere]

yet they should be, since it was their choice to make it Open-Source. While true, they can't stop people from breaking the coding and injecting malicious intent, they could have covered their rear by locking the code down, instead of letting it be easily altered.

While the plugins to it may be the bigger issue and the punishable offence, it's still using another program to decipher the data, meaning ACT is just as liable to cause issues on a security front, since ACT is the "Master program" in that setup.

To that end, why not just flag the master program and catch anything that gets flagged? All the plugins need ACT to function, so getting rid of ACT stops their ability to function. At least until they make another program or a built-in workaround but that starts to tread dangerously close to federal court levels of punishment, instead of just a ban from the game servers.

its that last thing that you said is why it's better to operate with a known quantity.

[QT_Melon]

yet they should be, since it was their choice to make it Open-Source. While true, they can't stop people from breaking the coding and injecting malicious intent, they could have covered their rear by locking the code down, instead of letting it be easily altered.

That's not how Open Source really works.

I mean it all depends under the GPL that it was released under. Otherwise Linux could have just controlled Apple or Android for making their own OSes based off it. :P

1) In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit. Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available.

[technole]

I've been saying in many channels that the static waymarkers are a terrible idea and it affects non-savage/ultimate players the most. All we need is someone in alliance raid to pull a remove markers right before a pull and we could be screwed.

Markers for phase changes cannot be accounted for. Heaven forbid SE gives us another A6S fight, we are in trouble since it just goes up the platform. You are in battle for that entire gauntlet fight.

[Chooty]

yet they should be, since it was their choice to make it Open-Source. While true, they can't stop people from breaking the coding and injecting malicious intent, they could have covered their rear by locking the code down, instead of letting it be easily altered.

While the plugins to it may be the bigger issue and the punishable offence, it's still using another program to decipher the data, meaning ACT is just as liable to cause issues on a security front, since ACT is the "Master program" in that setup.

To that end, why not just flag the master program and catch anything that gets flagged? All the plugins need ACT to function, so getting rid of ACT stops their ability to function. At least until they make another program or a built-in workaround but that starts to tread dangerously close to federal court levels of punishment, instead of just a ban from the game servers.

The tool that places waymarks does not rely on ACT. You can set it up to allow it to be remotely controlled by other applications, such as ACT. Also ACT does not decipher any data, that's done by a plugin too.

Your idea of getting rid of ACT also doesn't take into account that ACT can be used with other games where it's perfectly fine to use it. In general, I think they've taken the right approach as it would simply cost too much money to try to block it and I think they know it. They could've decided to catch the people using the waymark placing tool, but opted not to for some reason, and that would be infinitely cheaper than trying to block ACT.