Bot's on Market Board...? Really?

[Nixxe]

So here is the evidence:

- A public bot capable of automatic undercutting exists
- Tracking Aesthete's gear reveals that 24/7 undercutting exists by random sampling.
- Multiple eyewitness accounts (read the comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...games_economy/, https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ut_of_control/)

Short of actually linking to said bot I'm not sure what more evidence you want. If you're curious you can do it yourself, as many players before you have done. Instead of believing that dozens of crafters have done their homework and rigorously investigated this, you choose to be a contrarian for no good reason.

Finally, if you do track the market board 24/7 every 5 minutes (shared with a few friends), and see regular undercuts, unless you believe that humans do so on a regular basis, the only likely conclusion is that it's market botting. Of course it's possible for a human to do this but it's incredibly unlikely for it to be sustained over a long period of time. If you don't believe so, randomly check for 20 minutes every day at random times. The statistical likelihood that there's no botting vanishes to zero rapidly. I'm not going to waste my time explaining basic statistics and mathematics to you.

I would agree. That is a MB bot. Congratulations, you found one.

And yes, I don't believe randoms for precisely the reasons demonstrated in this thread: rather than do something sensible and just provide the evidence in the first place, you'd rather appeal to widespread belief that is something is true and demand I agree with you based on your conviction, which is not only an asinine waste of everyone's time, but also fallacious. It shows poor judgment, and is in and of itself grounds for being skeptical of your claims when you just demand I trust your judgment. Blindly trusting randoms on the internet is a great way to be wrong an unnecessary amount of the time.

[Liam_Harper]

From google searching on this, it seems MB bots are far less publicly available than gathering or combat bots. Probably the main reason is because releasing it to the public is impractical, for example 2 or more bots competing and the fact that for the average player it's just not worth camping a MB for tiny profit and grinding prices into the dust when your bot could be out gathering or gil farming. The usual ff14 bots won't add the feature. MB bots do seem to exist, but they're created and sold by commission, or used by, private developers.

I find that sort of thing rather interesting, but it's very disturbing how much of a botting community there is. I think the biggest issues for prices are gathering bots creating massive supply and the fact crafting is just far too easy now, with demand at an all time low since there are ten times more sellers, but far less buyers since more people can just make their own.

[Sqwall]

It shows poor judgment, and is in and of itself grounds for being skeptical of your claims when you just demand I trust your judgment. Blindly trusting randoms on the internet is a great way to be wrong an unnecessary amount of the time.

Your kind of new to the internet aren't you?

[Aramina]

Your kind of new to the internet aren't you?

I'd think the opposite were true. If people believe what others say with no evidence then *they* are likely new to the internet, not someone who is jaded.

[ElazulHP]

From google searching on this, it seems MB bots are far less publicly available than gathering or combat bots. Probably the main reason is because releasing it to the public is impractical, for example 2 or more bots competing and the fact that for the average player it's just not worth camping a MB for tiny profit and grinding prices into the dust when your bot could be out gathering or gil farming. The usual ff14 bots won't add the feature. MB bots do seem to exist, but they're created and sold by commission, or used by, private developers.

I find that sort of thing rather interesting, but it's very disturbing how much of a botting community there is. I think the biggest issues for prices are gathering bots creating massive supply and the fact crafting is just far too easy now, with demand at an all time low since there are ten times more sellers, but far less buyers since more people can just make their own.

The ones that I found with a quick google search also have full YT videos up on their own YT channels highlighting the cheats they can do and one of them includes MB bot. Don't want to link because I don't want to encourage it, but it's pretty easy to find if one searches for it. The software's own forums are full of cheaters discussing how to do it as well. It's pretty disgusting tbh. I wish Square would take a more active role by perma-banning accounts of people using this kind of software.

[Aramina]

I wish Square would take a more active role by perma-banning accounts of people using this kind of software.

They do, but the bots are like roaches.... they just come back with a new account (likely purchases with stolen cc info).

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa0e1254699e41

[Sqwall]

I'd think the opposite were true. If people believe what others say with no evidence then *they* are likely new to the internet, not someone who is jaded.

Jaded? HA....no...just tired of others blindly thinking they are without a doubt right and simply REFUSE to speculate on the matter.

Even though I and others have given evidence although not empirical, but still adds suspicion to the matter. I just find this absurd in this day and age that people need pics/video...or it never happened.

Pyramids were built, and nobody knows how....but there they are. Stonehenge was built, and nobody knows how...but there it sits. The moon is near us and nobody knows how it got there...but it's there AND we made it to the mooon despite the people that disagree much like the people on this thread.

500 years ago people that the earth was flat...until it wasn't. 400 Years ago people thought the earth was the center of our solar system...until it wasn't. 300 years ago people new nothing of other planets...until there were. 80 years ago space flight was impossible...until it wasn't. 60 years ago man has never set foot on another celestial body...until we landed on the moon.

And 70 years ago when someone invented a network to connect other cities and research development and scientific discoveries...ARPNET (developed by the US Defense Department) ...which gave future birth to what we call the world wide web....otherwise known as the internet....yeah and I bet people think it's just a network of just gobbledygook or conspiracy theory's with everything unfounded.

There is actual real, creditable information on the internet...try looking sometime.

But i'm sure all of this is just mumbo jumbo to the people that want to turn a blind eye since we have NO proof of these things since there were no videos (even though there is some for moon landing) to prove it...since I NEVER saw them implemented or created.

Then I suppose I will have to believe that 1 singl bot on my server, with everything that I have investigated and looked into just is completely invalid and should just go about my day spending hours and hours undercutting a single post until it magically sells at the lowest value imaginable. Because I suppose this is NORMAL human behavior to completely destroy a single market.

There are bots...there are cheaters...there ARE programs to facilitate ALLLL of this behavior. Stop being a nay-sayer...and look it up.


This whole post was sarcasm btw, or do you not believe me?

[ElazulHP]

They do, but the bots are like roaches.... they just come back with a new account (likely purchases with stolen cc info).

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa0e1254699e41

Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts terminated: 10
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 31

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

[Sqwall]

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

I think it boils down to "caught redhanded". With the average player in mind it can be difficult to "see" the bot's as they generally go under the radar...naturally. Now when you compare data for: Amount of posted items per day, amount of retainer access, amount of price adjustments, time spent in one position, time spent gathering, etc; These I would imagine are things SE doesn't track as it's a stupid amount of data to sift through and very time consuming.

If SE keeps track of the data and puts it up against the TOP legitimate earners...I'm sure you will see a HUGE gap in what the bots are bringing in and the actual hard nosed earners. I have some top earners in my FC and they are really active in crafting/gathering. But I can talk to them normally, and que a dungeon, and they aren't flying around without a mount, not clipping in the city zones, and offer advice on how to be a better crafter/gatherer.

The suspicious ones you have to catch "red handed" like, Clipping through the map and farming nodes underneath the zone so the go "under the radar". Nobody can see them so they can't report them for cheating. This allows them "look" legitimate, and hard to catch.

Honestly all SE would have to do is set limits on node gathering in X,Y, and more importantly Z. You basically have to be right ON the node, and not a meter below it. If you are....your cheating, and should be flagged for suspicion and your cords are being recorded from here on out.

[Shadygrove]

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 3,577
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 9
・Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts terminated: 10
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 31
*Botting activity by RMT vendors has been included under "Participation in RMT/prohibited activities."

They may be, but that 3,577 has got to include a lot of bots.