I heard the Special Task Force is going to hitt the bots hard now, that the patch has

[Kes13a]

I think the GM's and the STF are failing miserably

I had a turn in at waking sands and noticed some bot activity, I waited there for 20 minutes, taking screen shots, watching them run off through the ground and made a report for 105 unique bot characters...
thats on ONE NA server in ONE area

by whatever metric they use to gauge success, it seems to be rather inadequate.

the number of bots they list as "account banned" isnt even the teeniest tip of the smallest iceberg...

ps. and this is abotu the lowest of teh low hanging fruit they could get. a GM just has to sit there and hit ban... not many brain cells required for that. a two year old could do that job.. or a trained turnip...

[ForteNightshade]

I think the GM's and the STF are failing miserably

I had a turn in at waking sands and noticed some bot activity, I waited there for 20 minutes, taking screen shots, watching them run off through the ground and made a report for 105 unique bot characters...
thats on ONE NA server in ONE area

by whatever metric they use to gauge success, it seems to be rather inadequate.

the number of bots they list as "account banned" isnt even the teeniest tip of the smallest iceberg...

ps. and this is abotu the lowest of teh low hanging fruit they could get. a GM just has to sit there and hit ban... not many brain cells required for that. a two year old could do that job.. or a trained turnip...

It's largely due to them focusing on the gibberishly named bots, which is a pointless endeavour as they'll be remade within a minute or two. They need an automated process that is reviewed and constantly updated to handle those types. What the STF should focus on are legit players botting aka your speed hacks, market board botting and etc. Sadly, they almost never bother. That's a big reason botting has become so rampant. No one has even the slightest fear they'll get caught. The only thing SE did crack down on (supposedly) is third party website purchases. I can't imagine why they'd prioritize that. It couldn't have to do with losing money and thus actually hurting them. Nah...

Like Kage said. The whole process is a token effort at this point. It'll keep getting worse until they're finally forced to do something to save face.

[ICountFrom0]

I think the GM's and the STF are failing miserably
....

ps. and this is abotu the lowest of teh low hanging fruit they could get. a GM just has to sit there and hit ban... not many brain cells required for that. a two year old could do that job.. or a trained turnip...

GM's arn't allowed. If they do that, they get fired. They arn't even allowed to be in the same ROOM as a place where a bot has been reported to them. It's litterally against the rules. Not figurative. Actual rules against it.

[Kes13a]

GM's arn't allowed. If they do that, they get fired. They arn't even allowed to be in the same ROOM as a place where a bot has been reported to them. It's litterally against the rules. Not figurative. Actual rules against it.

thats hilarious... sad.. but hilarious

[Prrringles]

I think the GM's and the STF are failing miserably

I had a turn in at waking sands and noticed some bot activity, I waited there for 20 minutes, taking screen shots, watching them run off through the ground and made a report for 105 unique bot characters...
thats on ONE NA server in ONE area...

I tried this today. Same deal on EU Moogle server. Bots teleporting in and out in the Vesper Bay area all day long. I've noticed that all the bots I see teleporting are from another world so they are harder to report. To be honest I think SE does not care one bit about NA/EU. They keep their JP servers clean and that's it. Job done for them.

[Kes13a]

I tried this today. Same deal on EU Moogle server. Bots teleporting in and out in the Vesper Bay area all day long. I've noticed that all the bots I see teleporting are from another world so they are harder to report. To be honest I think SE does not care one bit about NA/EU. They keep their JP servers clean and that's it. Job done for them.

I would have to agree.

yes, bots will always be a problem, yes, they are everywhere because cheating is easier than doing it yourself.

however other games actually TRY to do something about it. despite some protestations to the contrary, on the NA/EU servers SE appears to have given up even that pretense. we are expected to cheer because they banned some hacked accounts and botting so obvious it staggers the imagination. I apologize to the enablers for having expectations a little higher than banning of a couple hundred bots even a 5 year old could spot.

[Prrringles]

I would have to agree.

yes, bots will always be a problem, yes, they are everywhere because cheating is easier than doing it yourself.

however other games actually TRY to do something about it. despite some protestations to the contrary, on the NA/EU servers SE appears to have given up even that pretense. we are expected to cheer because they banned some hacked accounts and botting so obvious it staggers the imagination. I apologize to the enablers for having expectations a little higher than banning of a couple hundred bots even a 5 year old could spot.

Right. And those bans achieve exactly nothing. It's just propaganda to legitimize the STF. The shout bots they so vigorously ban are no factor. The real baddies are the craft bots and market board bots. Exactly the bots SE does nothing about. I'm sure those bots mentioned in the doc have been reported multiple times so you can't tell me SE does not know about them. They are allowing it, turning the blind eye, period. But calling someone a doodoo will get you suspended instantly though because "this is a game for all ages". Rofl.

I'm selling Neo gear at 40k now, netting me maybe 10k profit if the price for materials is right. The bots on Moogle won't undercut those below 40k it seems so yeah..great..right? Man, this game (the market part of it) is in a sad, sad state.

[Kleeya]

I'm selling Neo gear at 40k now, netting me maybe 10k profit if the price for materials is right. The bots on Moogle won't undercut those below 40k it seems so yeah..great..right? Man, this game (the market part of it) is in a sad, sad state.

Crafted stuff has always been profitable the first days when it is new, and a few days later the prices are going way down. We are so late in the patch with on top of that a several months delay due to covid, that you can not expect the prices to stay high. Especially when many people, instead of continuing to buy things at the market board, did begin to craft them by themselves thanks to the Ishgard reconstruction and the crafting rework. And also when everyone is waiting for the next sets of 5.4 crafted gear, keeping their gils for that instead of wanting to buy old overpriced outdated stuff.

I am not saying that there isn't a bots problem, but even without them Neo gear wouldn't look like the best thing to sell at the moment.

[Prrringles]

Crafted stuff has always been profitable the first days when it is new, and a few days later the prices are going way down. We are so late in the patch with on top of that a several months delay due to covid, that you can not expect the prices to stay high. Especially when many people, instead of continuing to buy things at the market board, did begin to craft them by themselves thanks to the Ishgard reconstruction and the crafting rework. And also when everyone is waiting for the next sets of 5.4 crafted gear, keeping their gils for that instead of wanting to buy old overpriced outdated stuff.

I am not saying that there isn't a bots problem, but even without them Neo gear wouldn't look like the best thing to sell at the moment.

Neo gear was just an example and it still sells well. Even Facet gear still sells. Anyway, my point was that it has come down to me (us) selling out at bargain prices to "compete" with bots unless you camp the bell. And I am pretty sure most people have better things to do. Also, eventhough many people have all their crafts on 80 due to ishgard (thx SE) not many of them actually sell enough stuff to form any threat or move the market in a significant way. It's just bots man. Glamour items (which always stay relevant and move fast) have the same problem. Bots undercut you so frequent that your items will never sell. The only solution is to go so low that they stop undercutting. That's my point.

[Jojoya]

Right. And those bans achieve exactly nothing. It's just propaganda to legitimize the STF. The shout bots they so vigorously ban are no factor. The real baddies are the craft bots and market board bots. Exactly the bots SE does nothing about. I'm sure those bots mentioned in the doc have been reported multiple times so you can't tell me SE does not know about them. They are allowing it, turning the blind eye, period. But calling someone a doodoo will get you suspended instantly though because "this is a game for all ages". Rofl.

I'm selling Neo gear at 40k now, netting me maybe 10k profit if the price for materials is right. The bots on Moogle won't undercut those below 40k it seems so yeah..great..right? Man, this game (the market part of it) is in a sad, sad state.

Let's keep it honest. The real baddies are the players who engage in RMT or otherwise like to cheat to get what they want. They're the reason why the bots exist.

Ban the bots and more bots appear because there are still players looking to buy to satisfy their cheating ways. Ban the players willing to buy and the bots disappear because there is no customer to sell to.

You're never going to convince the average player that market bots are the worst when that player only sees the immediate benefit they provide by lowering market prices. The average player, after all, doesn't make the majority of their gil by selling crafted goods on the marketboard. They make it from selling creature/dungeon drops or doing other content.

Are market bots bad? Yes. Are the worst? No, not by a long shot. They're not the ones engaging in account compromises, stealing player account and payment information. The real life impact of RMT on people and business is far worse than having to sell virtual goods at a lower virtual currency price in a game.

As for Neo-Ishgardian: it's been available for 9 months now, Normal Eden's Verse gear is the same ilvl but free just for running the raids over and over, Allegory and Savage Eden's Verse gear have been better the entire time and new crafted gear that's 30 ilvls higher is coming out in a couple of weeks. Of course prices have bottomed out, demand for it is close to non-existent especially with new crafted gear being added in a few weeks.

If you want to profit, you need to sell what the player wants today or tomorrow instead of what they wanted 6 months ago.