I give up, the bots win AKA: My flight is scheduled for departure

[Nepentha]

The RMT bots aren't trial accounts. The trial has far too many restrictions on it for them to actually accomplish anything. They use sophisticated fraudulent credit card schemes along with stolen credit card #'s & chargebacks to make accounts on the game, hence why it's basically impossible to keep them under control. Anytime you ban them, they load up the next credit card number on their endless database and are back in 0.5 nanoseconds generating gil.

Due to the volatility of their accounts since they get banned on the next wave after their chargebacks show up, they can't mess with the MB outside of extremely easy to farm stuff like Shards. The actual accounts that control MBs are 99.9% actual players using automated systems, which is where jijifli's point is extremely true. Any legit player they ban is less $$$ each month since many might not choose to return, and Square might simply value profit since its quantifiable that they'd lose $15/month losing them (especially if they've paid their sub every single month for years), but its un-quantifiable what they'd lose by not banning them.

The marketboard bot rings I've run into do seem to be two accounts per botting FC. But it's hard to say much they generate in money on SE's side of things. Would they return if banned? I think so. I've seen the same person create the same scheme on every server on the Crystal DC (and I suspect they've branched out to other DCs). That's quite a few accounts, so yes it would hit their 'so many subscribed' number by like... 14 accounts? And they'd lose each account's $15 a month. But those accounts do nothing else. They don't buy anything on the cash shop (other than maybe a boost and story skip for the main crafting bot, that's $50 once, or less if the boosts/skips are on sale at that time.). Their second account *might* have bought extra retainers for listing items. I'd have to research that tbh. If they only have the standard 2 you get with an account though, that's 14 retainers and just $15 a month.

So bare minimum you have two accounts running at $30 a month (less if the main crafter pays the lesser cost of $12.99 a month and less still if they buy it in 6 month chunks). And a one time purchase of at most, $50 for story skip and job boost. Compared to players who frequently purchase more than one retainer, buy plenty of stuff on the cash shop, and tend to pay the full $15 a month in order to have more alts than just 1 per server.

Meanwhile, the botter is likely selling the gil they make as RMT, so paying out $30 a month with a one time $50 fee is worth it, they make more without really having to do much as their operation is 95% automated.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

The marketboard bot rings I've run into do seem to be two accounts per botting FC. But it's hard to say much they generate in money on SE's side of things. Would they return if banned? I think so. I've seen the same person create the same scheme on every server on the Crystal DC (and I suspect they've branched out to other DCs). That's quite a few accounts, so yes it would hit their 'so many subscribed' number by like... 14 accounts? And they'd lose each account's $15 a month. But those accounts do nothing else. They don't buy anything on the cash shop (other than maybe a boost and story skip for the main crafting bot, that's $50 once, or less if the boosts/skips are on sale at that time.). Their second account *might* have bought extra retainers for listing items. I'd have to research that tbh. If they only have the standard 2 you get with an account though, that's 14 retainers and just $15 a month.

So bare minimum you have two accounts running at $30 a month (less if the main crafter pays the lesser cost of $12.99 a month and less still if they buy it in 6 month chunks). And a one time purchase of at most, $50 for story skip and job boost. Compared to players who frequently purchase more than one retainer, buy plenty of stuff on the cash shop, and tend to pay the full $15 a month in order to have more alts than just 1 per server.

Meanwhile, the botter is likely selling the gil they make as RMT, so paying out $30 a month with a one time $50 fee is worth it, they make more without really having to do much as their operation is 95% automated.

Pretty sure one of the forum trolls is a botter. Accounts on so many servers all crafting focused

[WingsOfAzrael]

bye, crafting is still good money, bots are an issue yes, but they aren't going away anytime soon.

[KageTokage]

Crafting is obviously still profitable, but it's sucky that you're basically forced into niche markets when the bot farmers dominate everything mainstream.

They should never be so oppressive that you're forced to adjust your gameplay to accommodate for their presence.

Sometimes I honestly wish they'd bring back the specialist requirements for the top end gear because it restricted how much influence a single player could have on the market.

[Liam_Harper]

I see comments of how "bots exist in every MMO, it can't be helped" but this wasn't really an issue until the crafting nerfs started late Stormblood and only got worse the easier they made it. Between cross-world markets, simplifying 2-4 star crafts, tripling exp, spamming Ishgard collectibles to level and making materials far easier to obtain, they've gradually turned crafting into a mindless bot heaven. I'm sure the occasional bot existed before late Stormblood but they didn't control the markets like they do today. The issue has become 10 times worse and only continues downhill, with bots constantly improving their AI and leaking into all aspects of the game, PvE, PvP, treasure maps, leveling, dungeons, raids, market board, housing, Expert crafts and so on. This is because Enix have all but confirmed they have no power over player bots and you won't be punished as long as you don't announce it in chat or make it extremely obvious.

It says a lot about the state of crafting when spamming Coffee biscuits for the 6k leve reward is becoming one of the more lucrative ways of making quick cash. 6k used to be peanuts, but in todays economy it's often easier than trying to sell 4 star items on the mb.

[Nafreyu]

Imagine rage quitting because you can't sell something at the profit you want. Check your privilege. I'm glad that Medium sized house which you don't seem to appreciate will be going back into circulation.


Signed, someone always looking for the best deal.

[Kaurhz]

Imagine rage quitting because you can't sell something at the profit you want. Check your privilege. I'm glad that Medium sized house which you don't seem to appreciate will be going back into circulation.


Signed, someone always looking for the best deal.

No, it's actually a matter of principle, if they continue to do nothing, as this guy has clearly seen first hand then there's no reason to stay in his case since it infests his last avenues of play and the precedent being set here is they're too afraid to step on players' toes, and this will continue to happen until it truly gets out of control. It's not a matter of privilege, people shouldn't be botting in the first place.

[KageTokage]

Imagine rage quitting because you can't sell something at the profit you want. Check your privilege.

It's less "sell at the profit you want" and more "can't sell anything at all" ever since the undercutting scripts went mainstream.

More then a few of the bot farmers sell their gear on dedicated alts that adjust their prices so often that it's virtually impossible to move items unless you sell it below their price floor which is generally going to be so low you'd be better off just spamming coffee biscuit leves.

The prices have tanked so much that it's not even worth trying to sell anything mainstream on the marketboard for the most part.

[ReynTime]

It's less "sell at the profit you want" and more "can't sell anything at all" ever since the undercutting scripts went mainstream.

More then a few of the bot farmers sell their gear on dedicated alts that adjust their prices so often that it's virtually impossible to move items unless you sell it below their price floor which is generally going to be so low you'd be better off just spamming coffee biscuit leves.

The prices have tanked so much that it's not even worth trying to sell anything mainstream on the marketboard for the most part.

Yeah, also here's a thought.
Imagine if every non-botter burned their monthly leve allowance on coffee biscuits leves after being fed up with competing with bots. And now imagine if come 6.X we get leves giving greater gil reward in a similar scheme. And then think about the number of gil being generated into the economy thanks to SE's negligence...

And then imagine the "best case scenario" where SE realises that and, they don't do anything about the bots, they just nerf the rewards.

[Arillyn]

Yeah, also here's a thought.
Imagine if every non-botter burned their monthly leve allowance on coffee biscuits leves after being fed up with competing with bots. And now imagine if come 6.X we get leves giving greater gil reward in a similar scheme. And then think about the number of gil being generated into the economy thanks to SE's negligence...

And then imagine the "best case scenario" where SE realises that and, they don't do anything about the bots, they just nerf the rewards.

I've been thinking for a while that they'll do exactly this.