Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Jojoya]

Bots certainly don't seem to get dealt with in any reasonable time frame. Market or Gathering. I've seen the same ones and report the same ones each day, that literally sit online 24/7 non-stop.

If they wanted to do anything about them they'd break the Gathering bots because then the market bots wouldn't have the supply to constantly undercut, strangle the weeds by destroying the roots.

It wouldn't even be that much work to nail any of the bots. Heck if they use SQL database you could do a query literally for how long their session for the character has been active. Heck, sit a person at gathering nodes like Sandalwood Sap and Ala Mhigan Rock Salt and you'd net at least 2-3 bots an hour. For the market bots just do a check on number of actions per minute and items on market and how long they've been in a given zone/not afk. Pretty easy you could automate that whole query set to identify and ban.

One week and you'd break the backs of most bots that are currently out there.

Banning bots as soon as they're detected does nothing to break the bots. It just forces the operators to set up a new account, which only takes a couple of minutes plus a small delay to level the character. The bot will continue to function just as it had before on the new character that is now unknown to SE as a bot.

Banning right away makes it harder for SE to find ways to actually break the bots because now they have no bot behavior to observe. That's why bot bans tend to get done in waves. Leave the bots operating so a way can be found to break them that won't also disrupt the game for legitimate players. Once they know how to break the bot, ban the accounts and implement the change. The bot programmers are now stuck trying to figure out new ways to get them to work again. Sometimes they're back within a few weeks, sometimes it takes a few months, but they will return and the "game" starts all over again.

It's safe to say the task force assigned to bots has much better ways to detect bots than players can imagine. They've been doing it for years, and likely they share information with the bot task forces at other MMOs about what gets discovered.

Is it frustrating as a player to watch characters you've reported for suspicion of botting still in action? Sure. But you don't know what's going on behind the scenes that has made SE decide not to take action against those specific characters and accounts. Maybe they allow them to stay active because it helps them identify newly added bots faster. Or there are other reasons.

[NamidaTekika]

Quote snip about SE handling bots.

With how long some of these bots have been running they could've literally coded their own bot detect and banning bots =p

The bots aren't even subtle about how they run, super easy to notice and determine it is a bot within 5 minutes. There isn't really a reason to let them run for weeks/months playing havoc with the player economy other than they just aren't taking actions. I don't think it is really possible to excuse the bots that literally sit online 24/7 for weeks or even longer and go "Well it is just needed for observation", yes and how much damage to the player economy was caused in that time by these bots?

The reason they get away with it for so long is because they can make their money in the time it takes for any action to be taken. I wouldn't mind so much if it was like a week maybe of reporting one that you see repeatedly online, but multiple weeks and the number of them (literally I've come upon a swarm of 12 bots in Raktika when I passed a mining node).

The only true way to break botting would be some pretty invasive code from the game client, other than that ACTIVE banning of them and trying to root out the bots as they level (don't tell me you've never seen the chain of weird name people all following eachother) and the like to stunt their growth. Swifter and more often would force it to become an economically losing prospect to keep getting more accounts, not to mention in the process of hunting them (passing through Limsa for example) catching the RMT spammer accounts in the act as they go.

It is more a war of attrition than a war of tech, because if you try to make the game mechanics too complex for bots, you'll make it too complex for Dragoon players!

[Waaltar]

Banning bots as soon as they're detected does nothing to break the bots. It just forces the operators to set up a new account, which only takes a couple of minutes plus a small delay to level the character. The bot will continue to function just as it had before on the new character that is now unknown to SE as a bot.

Actually, if they were only just a little more aggressive at banning, it would make botting uneconomical. Gil prices for gil buyers would go up and sales would go down and then those ~$12 accounts/month for bots wouldn't be worth it.

[NamidaTekika]

Actually, if they were only just a little more aggressive at banning, it would make botting uneconomical. Gil prices for gil buyers would go up and sales would go down and then those ~$12 accounts/month for bots wouldn't be worth it.

Kind of my thoughts, if they have to buy a new account each time + the delay to level a bot, if the banning got more aggressive it becomes uneconomical for the cost/benefit. Each account is an upfront cost+ at least 1 month, plus the leveling time is literally time lost not making money.

A more active bot hunting approach (because of how they level them it is extremely easy to catch them normally early) and then later once they start the bot farming, if they are downed within a day or two, that is a lot of lost cost. Once it becomes a bad ROI to even try, they will stop.

[Kes13a]

I have nothing against a more aggressive approach. Why is their sub worth more than mine? Especially since they are breaking the ToS. If they cant program a way to do it, do it the old fashioned way, hire some people to look into the reports.

[NamidaTekika]

I have nothing against a more aggressive approach. Why is their sub worth more than mine? Especially since they are breaking the ToS. If they cant program a way to do it, do it the old fashioned way, hire some people to look into the reports.

You could probably get people to bot hunt part time just for mog station credit =p Give me like 2 free retainers and a 10 dollar mogstation credit a month and I'd spend 2-3 hours a day hunting bots and checking RMT reports!

[Kes13a]

You could probably get people to bot hunt part time just for mog station credit =p Give me like 2 free retainers and a 10 dollar mogstation credit a month and I'd spend 2-3 hours a day hunting bots and checking RMT reports!

uinfortunately doesnt stop the MP bots

[Coopa]

its funny how fast you can receive tell from gm if you hurt someone's feelings
*NO HOLY SPAM IN LIMSA*
but there is no any real action about obvious bots who control all market for a months and of course they dont do any rmt /s
its aint funny,its very scary situation

[Coopa]

upd
if u send trade in right time bot will trade what are he is selling or he will be broken until you cancel trade
SE please don't ban me for harassment rmt bot

[Kes13a]

upd
if u send trade in right time bot will trade what are he is selling or he will be broken until you cancel trade
SE please don't ban me for harassment rmt bot

I wonder if they make a bot I can create an account for just to do that? Gave me a giggle if nothing else since botting on the mp is getting more common and according to SE and Jojoya, we must learn to live with it and enjoy...