Strange buy out of items

[Kyana]

Found something strange when browsing through sales and items in the AH yesterday.
It showed a character buying ~40 HQ Spinel PvP rings and earrings for a rather high price, compared to the normal price range.
Because I was curious what someone could do with so many accessories, I checked that character on Lodestone and found a Lv1 CNJ with nothing else.

I'm curious.
Did I miss something? Can these items be traded for something or are they needed for something?
Or is this some character buying gear to equip another wave of bot farmer archers?

Didn't report because, well, nothing wrong with buying stuff from AH.

[Mhaeric]

Or is this some character buying gear to equip another wave of bot farmer archers?

Didn't report because, well, nothing wrong with buying stuff from AH.

I know that today I say a bunch of bot archers running around Gridania on Hyperion, buying or selling something from the NPC jeweller. All of them were on auto-follow in one big mob, they were all either midlander or highlander males, all level 20, and they all were wearing the same ridiculous outfits: orange shirts, yellow pants and boots, and purple gloves and pot helms. They all had the same FC tag too, I believe it was <<saf>> but my memory may be faulty on that one.

So my bet is on another wave of bot farmer archers.

[Feilina]

Did you report em to the STF?
Let's help SE to cut out the fowl meat off the game!

[MPNZ]

Did you report em to the STF?
Let's help SE to cut out the fowl meat off the game!

Yes, plz, report all bots if you see them. They really are a plague for hunting, gathering, and selling items. So many markets have crashed already, and bots just make things worse for both gatherers and crafters in the long run.

[Sparky]

I know that today I say a bunch of bot archers running around Gridania on Hyperion, buying or selling something from the NPC jeweller. All of them were on auto-follow in one big mob, they were all either midlander or highlander males, all level 20, and they all were wearing the same ridiculous outfits: orange shirts, yellow pants and boots, and purple gloves and pot helms. They all had the same FC tag too, I believe it was <<saf>> but my memory may be faulty on that one.

So my bet is on another wave of bot farmer archers.

That doesnt so much sound like botting to me. That seems to be more like one person playing multiple accounts, or Multiboxing, to use its term. Some people do it for fun.

[Mhaeric]

That doesnt so much sound like botting to me. That seems to be more like one person playing multiple accounts, or Multiboxing, to use its term. Some people do it for fun.

Yeah, no. People do not multi-box 8 separate accounts like that. This was a clear case of RMT.

[Sparky]

Is that because there's proof of this, or just because you say so?

All I've seen in this thread so far is "evidence" that points towards multiboxing, and not towards RMT behaviour. Unless you can demonstrate you know for certain that these characters are involved in RMT activity, I call BS.

[Lollie]

To the original post this is a common tactic to artificially raise prices. They flood the history so you can't tell that the previous price was pittance in comparison, or in the case of rmt to hide a money transfer through item purchase. If they did it with 1character they are either new to it, or have found se no longer track this rmt/monopolization method and being lazy.

[Xystic]

To the original post this is a common tactic to artificially raise prices. They flood the history so you can't tell that the previous price was pittance in comparison.

This is precisely correct. Its a common tactic used to drive prices up. It has nothing to do with bots.

Bots in general, buy the cheapest of the items. They aren't going to dump that much gil. If someone is buying it for high prices, they are bumping up the value of items themselves. You pay a small amount but you bring the overall value of the item up and if you have a huge supply, you can technically now increase your overall gain.

[Mhaeric]

Fine, we'll play your game.

They all ran up to the jeweller merchant, the 7 auto-following behind the 8th. All eight of them at the same time turned their heads rapidly back and forth towards the jeweller at the same time over and over for about 2 or 3 minutes. When they were done that, the leader then turned his head to each of them one by one. When that was done, the 7 that were on auto-follow teleported out at the exact same time. Then the leader stood there for about 20 minutes doing nothing. I don't know when he left or how, because I left at that point, because I was done my crafting.

If they are not RMT, which is so incredibly doubtful as to be laughable, they are most certainly using botting software.

And believe me, I know all about multi-boxing for fun. I used to play a game where multi-box afk scripting was allowed and even encouraged on one specific server. I know what it looks like when someone is legitimately multi-boxing. This was not it.

I hope Square Enix investigates your account for RMT/bot activity, because your defence of this is highly suspect in my opinion, especially given that you primarily only have gathering classes levelled to any significant degree.