Bot program ruining the game

[Crios]

From what I understand they are basically changing the client side location in the memory and sending the changed information to the server which then places them where they want to be. The security on this game is really lacking and they seem to trust anything the client sends them, WoW tried to battle this with Game Warden and it inspected the data looking for changed information they could then act on.
I was a long time Wow player starting in Cata and never saw bot activity this bad, a lot of what people called bots were actually multiboxing setups where someone is still in control of multiple player characters.
I wonder what else is going to be possible given enough time, will you be able to warp around in an instance to avoid all the trash?
Seems there is defiantly a problem here that needs to be addressed and discussed by SE.

A little information from you would go a long way...

As to your WoW comment, with starting in Cata you missed a lot of the hacking when it came to gathering professions. This was the biggest in Wrath, I forget the name of the big PVP area but that is where the bots would be underground farming. They put the warden system near the end if Wrath, but it took them a long time to do it right there and they had years of that MMO under their belt after they worked through the issues at launch. I'm sure SE will eventually get it together and take care of the bots after all the initial problems with the servers and now the soon to be transfering players. This feels much the same way WoW did when it was happening but they eventually got it right and banned many many accounts.

[KisaiTenshi]

It's actually really easy to report the invisible bots.
http://youtu.be/CmVwi1Qm_XI , this is me taking note of which characters are botting, look at the battle tab or make a custom tab that hides everything but "effects on other players"

That will show you the names. Then just check in the Player Search to see if they have other evidence of being a bot:
a) Has no combat skills leveled higher than the harvesting skills
b) If you can target them you'll notice they have no gear except for the harvesting tools
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/4500386/
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/4507193/
Also, I believe this is the bot author due to data I found on their website.


http://youtu.be/Ie8MB4SEutE
Also those bots have been running for 16 days already. You'd think someone would have noticed.

Players that aren't botting, will use other skills. Using any skill will give away the name of the bot.
I have another video set of the mining bots but I need to go confirm they're still running before I report them... AGAIN.

[Brojam]

A question, why do you think this is ruining the game?

Also how are the node hackers benefiting from this. As a BTN and MIN, I see them all around me, but I am unaffected. I actually think what they are doing is pointless. If anything, all the warping around is doing is saving them a few seconds on travel time.

How is it ruining the game?
1.Well if you can have a bot running 24/7 farming mats you can afford to sell them cheaper as you have 0 time invested in collecting them thereby hurting the economy which will in the end ruin the game. I think you may not be seeing the real use of this. If I had a bot running I would be gathering while I work, sleep whatever and be gaining a huge advantage over you. If you don't see an advantage go look at the prices of mats in the AH then tell me they are wasting their time by having this run all night...

2. Having a method of placing your character at any place in the zone through use of a hack/glitch gives an unfair advantage to the players using it and people will get tired of this and leave the game, I mean why would you pay for a subscription to a mmo that is overrun by bots of all types and not real players. You wont be able to afford repairs in a economy like this.

I really love playing this game and think the overall design is awesome but I have real concerns about how this is playing out and the lack of response from SE. Here again a little communication about the issue and what they plan to do would go a long way with me and help alleviate some of my concerns.

[Brojam]

It's actually really easy to report the invisible bots.
http://youtu.be/CmVwi1Qm_XI , this is me taking note of which characters are botting, look at the battle tab or make a custom tab that hides everything but "effects on other players"

That will show you the names. Then just check in the Player Search to see if they have other evidence of being a bot:
a) Has no combat skills leveled higher than the harvesting skills
b) If you can target them you'll notice they have no gear except for the harvesting tools
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/4500386/
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/4507193/
Also, I believe this is the bot author due to data I found on their website.


http://youtu.be/Ie8MB4SEutE
Also those bots have been running for 16 days already. You'd think someone would have noticed.

Players that aren't botting, will use other skills. Using any skill will give away the name of the bot.
I have another video set of the mining bots but I need to go confirm they're still running before I report them... AGAIN.

Awesome, I like the way you work

[Twilite]

How is it ruining the game?
1.Well if you can have a bot running 24/7 farming mats you can afford to sell them cheaper as you have 0 time invested in collecting them thereby hurting the economy which will in the end ruin the game. I think you may not be seeing the real use of this. If I had a bot running I would be gathering while I work, sleep whatever and be gaining a huge advantage over you. If you don't see an advantage go look at the prices of mats in the AH then tell me they are wasting their time by having this run all night...
.

I can see this to be an issue for those who dont gather their own mats.

[Brojam]

I hope you are right.

[KisaiTenshi]

How is it ruining the game?
1.Well if you can have a bot running 24/7 farming mats you can afford to sell them cheaper as you have 0 time invested in collecting them thereby hurting the economy which will in the end ruin the game. I think you may not be seeing the real use of this. If I had a bot running I would be gathering while I work, sleep whatever and be gaining a huge advantage over you. If you don't see an advantage go look at the prices of mats in the AH then tell me they are wasting their time by having this run all night...

One of the original features of V1 was a way to prevent this, but it was also basically a slap in the face to people who actually play for long periods of time legitimately. The way to "solve", and by "solve" I mean nerf, botting is to make inappropriate gear wear out (crystals only require the level 1 starter gear, but you can't start Mining/Botany until level 10, I followed bots around today and it took them less than 4 hours to hit level 10, then they all logged off.) So a player that is harvesting/mining with newbie gear, will have that gear wear out rapidly.

To solve the bots going after the crystals... well that's an entirely other problem. One thing they're certainly doing is acquiring the crystals from all the quest givers by joining the guilds, this has to be eliminated. The guildmasters should give the player just enough materials to do the level 5/10/15 quest they give, and require the finished product to signed by them before allowing the player to "level up" those crafting skills. The harvesting ones likewise should not level up unless a quest has been completed by the guildmaster. These are basically one-time "level cap quests", and unfortunately the idea comes from Mabinogi because that's exactly the point of the cap quests (to prevent powerleveling by botting.) Players didn't like having to constantly do the cap quests (despite being every 5 levels.)

Ultimately we can't just throw technical solutions on this. SE could hire a few players that fill out accurate helpful reports and give them someone to email/im/skype directly with to kill bots quicker.

[wolfsspirit]

had one yesterday farming fleece at dragonhead .. SE fix this.. i couldnt target a single mob before they did no matter how hard it tried and i refuce to buy fleece for 1k each !! , seriuosly need those mats and i am getting sick and tired of those stupid bots
not only do they screw up market prices , it makes it also impossible for players to gather and craft their mats for own use

[10TailBeast]

A question, why do you think this is ruining the game?

Also how are the node hackers benefiting from this. As a BTN and MIN, I see them all around me, but I am unaffected. I actually think what they are doing is pointless. If anything, all the warping around is doing is saving them a few seconds on travel time.

Think before you post. They are doing this without stop, 24 hours a day, flooding the market with mats to sell for gil to sell to other players that have no sense. Meanwhile, legit players can't make any gil themselves because the market for their items is now in the toilet.

[Mishayangg]

Ban em all.