How to get rid of persistent bot/hack users?

[Kyana]

I'm sure most players have a bunch of RMT and bot users on their blacklist.
I'm also sure most of these players were reported through the ingame support function.
But many of them still play the game like nothing happened.

My question is, what can we do to get rid of them?
I have a number of bots on my blacklist that were reported for teleporting, speed hack, gathering hacks and so on.
All of them were reported but none of them were deleted. In fact, I just saw one of them some days ago happily crafting in Gridania and it made me really mad.

Since we aren't allowed to name such players I won't do that, but what can I do to get the attention on them?
I can't and won't follow them around all day and check if or when they bot again.
I don't remember the day when I reported them while they were using their bots/hacks.

Is there a way to check the report messages you sent to SE to send them the information again?
Can I just report them again for using a bot "a few weeks ago"?

It infuriates me to see bot/hack users getting to the same level as me in a matter of days or weeks instead of months and then continuing to mess up the ingame economy.
I want them to get the punishment they deserve, but I don't know how.

[coffeeking]

we need an in game report button

[amnie]

keep in mind that some of these were actually legitimate players whose accounts were hacked, so not all of them will be deleted to begin with. if you reported them that's really all you can do. when someone's just sitting there crafting, chances are it's the original account owner who got it back (not saying that is 100% the case)

[StarMarmot]

In the same boat. Seems to me the "regular" (non RMT) botters aren't really dealt with. There's a guy on Cerberus running several accounts that has been botting mining and botany for more than two months, literally 24/7. Wouldn't be exhaggerating if I say it's the most known couple of bots on the server, probably with hundreds and hundreds of reports from different players by now, and it's still running as if nothing happened. It's very downputting and makes you feel like a complete moron when you mine next to it, knowing he's watching a good movie, playing a fun game or whatever when you're just staring at the nodes going *clank*, *clank*, *clank*.

I don't have any idea how the investigations go. I can understand they want to monitor the flow of gil and items before they shut a bot down. I can understand it's sometimes tricky to actually prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that 3rd party software is in fact used. However, when you have someone being online for 1500 consecutive hours doing the exact same task without pause, that should be grounds enough in my book. Somewhere along the way, you also have to prioritize what sort of message you send to the people doing the reporting too, at the cost of any gil/item flow investigations you might be running.

[Zedine]

It's very downputting and makes you feel like a complete moron when you mine next to it, knowing he's watching a good movie, playing a fun game or whatever when you're just staring at the nodes going *clank*, *clank*, *clank*.

Why mine if it doesn't entertain you?


Also on a side note, i think it's more like a sting operation. They wait and see if he is botting to sell gil, then who he sells it to, companies or players then who buys it, and once they have all the people, it's ban hammer for all. Instead of just 1. Maybe they let him go on to get buyers. Seeing as if they cancel his bot they get a new one, but if you ban buyers he loses clients. Then no matter how much gil he gets through botting if no one buys due to bans then he has no point in doing that anymore. They could also wait till they have a lot of gil/levels before banning so they feel the burn from the ban.

[Tupsi]

Why mine if it doesn't entertain you?

Why buy insanely overpriced materials when you can do it yourself and make pure profit? Instead of buying your stack of 99 ore for 80k I'll just spend an hour or two mining it myself whether I enjoy it or not.

[Kyana]

Also on a side note, i think it's more like a sting operation. They wait and see if he is botting to sell gil, then who he sells it to, companies or players then who buys it, and once they have all the people, it's ban hammer for all. Instead of just 1. Maybe they let him go on to get buyers. Seeing as if they cancel his bot they get a new one, but if you ban buyers he loses clients. Then no matter how much gil he gets through botting if no one buys due to bans then he has no point in doing that anymore. They could also wait till they have a lot of gil/levels before banning so they feel the burn from the ban.

Leaving bots alone for over 2 Months? No, nothing will happen to these bots if SE did nothing by now.
How should a buyer know if the person who crafted that new piece of gear for him is a bot user?
AH sales are more obvious, if you see 50.000 shards sold from the same retainer.
But we are at a point already where you can't even buy materials from AH and be sure it's not from a bot.

The player I mentioned is lvl50 in all crafting and gathering classes and got 1 mage class to 50, no free company.
He probably used a bot to make millions (I highly doubt he farmed the Tomestones for the crafted ilvl70 gear + accessories + materia for his mage himself) and fill up his retainers with materials. => The damage is already done.

So, back on topic.
How should I report this player if he's doesn't use a bot now?

[Slaxx]

Snip

I have all DoH/DoL classes at 50 and one level 50 combat class. Does that make me a bot?

My retainers are full of materials. Does that make me a bot?

I don't have a free company either Does that make me a bot?

Why do you find it so hard to believe that someone could farm all the tomestones they needed for the gear they have? It's not that hard to make all that ilvl 70 gear if you have all the non-combat classes to 70 (and basically free if you gather your own materials). The materia? No reason it couldn't have been spirit bonded on all those runs for tomestones.

It's easy to get a DoH/DoL to level 50 in a matter of days (if you gather your own materials and have the leves). It took me less than 2 months to get all DoH/DoL to 50. I gathered almost all my own materials and shards (I did break down and buy some diremite web, fleece, and maybe 1k shards). Just from breaking down the gear I used I have a ton of materia to use when I get around to melding my gear. If you plan ahead and use your time efficiently it's actually pretty easy.

I'm not saying this person wasn't botting, but having one combat class to 50 and all the non-combat classes at 50 and good (and easily obtainable) gear for one combat class is no indicator.

[Kyana]

Snip.

No. That doesn't make you a bot.
Now, speed hacking/teleporting between gathering nodes while not reacting to tells...

But this thread isn't about who uses a bot or hack.

I'd like to know how to report someone for using a bot/hack a while ago without any consequences although that person already got reported.
And the person in my example is not the only bot/hacker who got reported and still plays.

[StarMarmot]

I don't enjoy the act itself no, but it can bring a tingle of pleasure when I've gathered what I was after. My point was that it doesn't feel good having somebody beside you cheat their way to the same results without actually playing.

And I also think what you said there is true about dragging it out to map the activities and so on, but I'm thinking the amount of time some bots have been running is just too much and that the priorities here need to shift. Some smaller burns along the way would be appropriate for the RMTs too. And for a non RMT, losing a bot might simply be enough to put a cheater off entirely. Nobody would shell out for another copy of the game to bot on knowing they'd likely lose it within a day or two. If they know it will likely run for at least two months though, that's another matter.