Would you be opposed to SE implementing a program to scan for addons/parsers?

[Mr_Happy]

Anti cheat is not a one and done solution because many people still cheat in games with anti cheat software. At least there is a chance of getting caught. Having zero systems in place to detect cheaters other than seeing them use software on a stream is indeed appaling.

[JOsha]

Anti cheat is not a one and done solution because many people still cheat in games with anti cheat software. At least there is a chance of getting caught. Having zero systems in place to detect cheaters other than seeing them use software on a stream is indeed appaling.

But to what degree would they work is the question? Would you be banned for using QoL plugins without which the game is quite literally unplayable for many people and SE is far too lazy these days to even consider adding them.What about Gshade?

I feel like SE truly doesn't care about QoL, HUD or Gshade stuff, but they are bothered by Raid cheats and I'm not sure if they could find a way to prevent one without preventing the others which is likely why they haven't come up with an anti-cheat yet.

[Midareyukki]

But to what degree would they work is the question? Would you be banned for using QoL plugins without which the game is quite literally unplayable for many people and SE is far too lazy these days to even consider adding them.What about Gshade?

I feel like SE truly doesn't care about QoL, HUD or Gshade stuff, but they are bothered by Raid cheats and I'm not sure if they could find a way to prevent one without preventing the others which is likely why they haven't come up with an anti-cheat yet.

They don't. A mod called Hvinire already mentioned as much as far back as 2013.

Third party tools like reshade seem to be fine, and I'll get to a technicality later. Tools that give an unfair advantage such as housing bots, market bots, gathering bots, overlays, and yes, even zoom hacks, are not allowed. Cosmetic things aren't fine, but there's no motivation to check files or persecute people as long as they are quiet about it.

Their stance has always been "They aren't allowed. But we have no intention of going after people who use it unless it's made public or it's causing problems".

Yoshida usually says so every time there's an interview. But the one time he didn't put in that disclaimer, encompassed every potential third party tool regardless of impact in gameplay or fairness, is the one time people decide to ignore everything else Yoshida said so far and start going nuts about their existence. All about one sentence.

This topic isn't new, and his responses aren't new either. Everyone and their grandmother has heard it all before. This is from a 14h livestream on 10-08-2022.

Q3: During the previous PLL you mentioned that if we are just playing it normally this shouldn't be concerning us and we have been playing things normally but I do see terms like third party tools that are against the rules and regulations being listed as required in Lodestone or mentioned in forums, and I personally dislike talking about third party tools so to have to mention to these players about how using third party tools during recruitment and whatnot are being forbidden really makes me sad sometimes, so if you have plans on trying to provide warning to those who continue using third party tools, or any plans that deal with those who use third party tools, I would like to know.

YoshiP: We have no plans in trying to delve into this issue any further. I am aware of how impactful my words are when it comes to this issue, so if I were to keep on providing explanation further about this issue like saying using such and such in particular is against the ToS it will cause a terrifying amount of mass reports and it becomes a issue of what's the point of even playing the game.....so yeah. And if you are to ask me if I would go my way to crack down on third party sites that upload everyone's data (it's obvious that he mentions FFLOGS in this case), and this..well I am aware of how much of the nuisance that site caused, having to see the numbers we don't want to see, that are normally not displayed in the game and then get told about it ...but as mentioned before that if we are told that this concerns personal issues it's not something we could........this is something we have to keep fighting with, and that could end up really unhealthy I think...of course if we could quash them for causing such trouble we could have done it.

But still......I mean, this is related to the conversation we had earlier but to define all things in black and white is something I think I find it stiff....of course this depends on personality as well... of course my real intention here is to do things that are fun, and this is what I've been doing up till now and I try to avoid doing things that cause people discomfort...still, this is getting out of topic but I believe I've been saying more than what I should have in this matter as a member of this company, as a board director, as a gamer, in personal capacity and as someone who obtained full trust from the company, and I've likely touched on this topic more than I should have. So I don't think I'll be able to step into this issue anymore and I think we had enough debates about this already..so yeah, I don't want this game to end up a game that mainly cracks things down and I don't want to create a game like this either. If we have to remove everything then might as well not work on the game and it'll be a game where everything becomes a mess. So even if I get pressed on the issue it's going to be nothing but trouble so yeah I'm sorry that's going to be the answer I'll provide

And this is from a statement done shortly before 5.2 in February 2020.

Another topic they wanna discuss are 3rd party tools
"Since the player base increased a lot, I feel like I should talk about this because of the different backgrounds players have"
"It is against the ToS to use 3rd party tools, please refrain from using them. There can be consequences like penalties to your account"
"But what about apps like Discord, being in voice chat technically is using a 3rd party tool"
"There isn't really anything "bad" happening to the game if you use these apps, not like you are rewriting data or input anything into the game... so it is hard to draw the line between tools we "accept" and the ones that break the game"
"DPS meters simply add the numbers that are shown in your battle logs... It isn't accessing game files. What if I get asked "So can i use a calculator instead?"... Really?"
"I am an engineer myself, I understand you could just write an Excel macro to read the log file after a fight is done. But I am taking a stance on this, we won't know what you have installed on your PC, but 3rd party tools are against the ToS, grey zone is still grey, I am asking you to not use these 3rd party tools"

They've literally never allowed 3rd party tools of any kind, and while they recognize the utility brough by some, they still would prefer to discourage it. They operate mostly on a "don't ask don't tell" policy, but definitely do take matters when someone is caught.

Everyone knows this. This is how it's been like for years. Yoshida saying "No third party tool is allowed" won't change it.

And he defined 3rd Party Tools in the 9th of May of last year in the Lodestone here.

The only one that I think pertains to shaders in any way might be the UI modifications, which he defined as

tools to expand the HUD and display more information because they feel that existing functions are insufficient for tackling high-end duties

He wants to discourage their use and implement them into the game, least of which to give Console players with difficulties a fair chance. Which is fine. It's even desirable. However, shaders don't expand or display any more information, they just alter the visual information you get. NVidia has such tools, and you kind of can't stop NVidia from loading them since that's what's going to render the game altogether. And if what the shader is doing is making the information that's there visible to you so that you can understand it the same way others do (ie, if you're colourblind), is that considered additional information, or is it not? This is debateable. Because on one hand you can argue that it's not, it's the same sort of information everyone else but you has had... but at the same time, Console players won't be allowed to have this sort of tool, sooo.... :shrug:

TLDR: it really doesn't matter. No tool is allowed, but as long as you're not being an idiot and displaying it out to the world, you're fine. There are some tools that SE acknowledges and will try to bring them in to discourage others from using.

[JOsha]

I know, I've read the statements. All I'm saying is that while they have to say they don't support them or allow them, they just don't care if you're using non-hacky plugins. Or at least if you're not going around advertising about their usage in-game, you're free to go. They know the backlash if they tried to prevent all plugins which is why they haven't made an "anti-cheat" yet,

[Midareyukki]

I know, I've read the statements. All I'm saying is that while they have to say they don't support them or allow them, they just don't care if you're using non-hacky plugins. Or at least if you're not going around advertising about their usage in-game, you're free to go. They know the backlash if they tried to prevent all plugins which is why they haven't made an "anti-cheat" yet,

Yeah, I know. I'm not disagreeing with you I just know how very stable geniuses in this thread like to be.