Botting

[Max_Damade]

I miss FFXI and being able to MPK the RMT.

Good times...

[Galliano]

SE could just generate the gil out of thin air at the press of a button, why would they spend hours on end botting?

[Adrian74]

Nee... Uhm... I was wondering a thing the other day when watching a fisher that moved to the sides like an idiot for more than ten minutes in a suspicious place... (Probably because when you are more than 30 minutes fishing a message advises you that you can't fish in that zone anymore, and now I understand why that message)... Of course I thought it maybe was a bot... I wrote and tried to interact with that crazy player but nothing happened, continued walking to the sides in the same pattern.


What I'm wondering is... How there are bots? Do they pay for having an account?... Because that way it would be expensive as hell... You pay 25 €, get the game and an account, gets banned because bot, you make another account... Isn't it expensive? Do they access the game for free for using bots or what?...

There's a guy that made four characters identical, one of them is the 'leader' and moves forward while the other three are selecting the leader and following him... I have seen them gathering together like that, three seem cheapy bots. I have seen them crafting, doing quests... Does that person have four accounts in Mog Station?....

Isn't it confusing?

[Ravno]

If they are still here after few month, are you sure, they are bots ? Not a multiboxer or a dude who spam a '/tenemy /ac "spell" <t>' macro while actually sitting behind his desk ?

There's a guy that made four characters identical, one of them is the 'leader' and moves forward while the other three are selecting the leader and following him... I have seen them gathering together like that, three seem cheapy bots. I have seen them crafting, doing quests... Does that person have four accounts in Mog Station?....

Perfect exemple. Seems like a boxer to me. (And you can register 8 ffxiv key per SE account)

[Meshico]

Just keep reporting them, I reported a few more yesterday.

I don't have expectations that as soon as I hit the send button these guys will then dissapear...although they did yesterday which makes me wonder if they have somehow tapped into the report system, and gives them a heads up and they just stop.

Hmmm I wonder.

Any-who just keep reporting them and have faith that they will get dealt with in the timeliest manner possible.

[Synapse]

SE takes long time to ban the RMT(yes they do ban them) because they don't want to accidentally ban a normal player.

What if i get my entire FC to report a player i hate.. and report them as Bot?

[cloverkitty]

Reporting a bot does not necessarily lead to a ban. Even if you report them every time you see them.
This has turned into a WitchHunt and that makes it hard for SE to process reports due to the large number of you don't conform you must be a bot.
SE has to investigate these characters and log checks.
1. Not responding to tells is not grounds for being a bot (I don't respond to tells from those I don't know on my main or my alts).
2. When i farm I typically only wear crafted, or pink gear this is so I can get spiritbond while i am farming (2 for 1). That does not make me or my alts a bot
3. While farming i will get into a rhythm typically while listening to music, as a result i will follow a similar or same type pattern for an extended period of time. When playing on a controller it just becomes repetition.
4. If I am farming sometimes I just use Smn or if i need certain sub skills on arcanist. This allows me to sick my pet and let them take the mob down while i take down another or just stand there. Again this is not botting. This is simple Macros on my hot bar. I am still present and I am still hitting the buttons. This is called farming. It can take a while and it can be mind numbing.
5. When farming mining or botany points I do get into a rhythm, (run towards a target, hit the desired spot over and over again) then move on to the next point. This again is not botting it is with a controller.
6. When i run out of stuff to do (which happens when you have everything capped). i play on my alts and take advantage of the extra leves from crafts i do. I don't take the time to level anything more than what I need to complete the tasks and the story/quests. I enjoy building from nothing and I have very little to show. I only play these once in a while. This does not require botting either.

Both actions can look like botting. 1 of them is not.

This is the situation with SE. They see macros and command sets being entered in the logs and they don't see an active tool being run (most of them don't access the game but instead pull data and perform actions or movements the same way you and me do.
So if they cannot show that you have been trading with known RMT, and they can't see the bot in the logs. Then that account will not be banned.

Due to this bots have become more sophisticated with the intention of not being detected.
Sometimes they will catch a few, but most of the ones they catch are the ones that are not doing a good job of hiding their actions, or are trading with known RMT.

Hope this helps. A report does not = a ban. 100s of reports encouraged by another player also does not = a ban.

However if you do push to mass report and it can be shown in the chat log you are pushing people to report a particular person, that person is not shown to be a bot but knows you pushed for the reporting. You can become the one in GM jail or banned for harassment. So be careful how you go about handling suspected bots.

SE is not going to sit around 24/7 and watch for everyone that has a rigid pattern in actions, that would take too much time, cost to much and put users under the thumb causing them to want to leave.

This has all Basically turned into a WitchHunt and nothing more. Anyone who does not conform to their standards is a bot that is not the way it is supposed to work and just water down the effectiveness of the reports.

[MorbidAngel]

Well..from my recollection..GM's give 3 /tell and if you respond you're off the hook. This was back in the FFXI days so not sure if it's changed or not.

[LalaRu]

TOS have included that you MUST react to GMs chat. I you don't, you are violating TOS and this is sufficient for your account being sanctioned.
I think this has been included to cut the head of people who states they were busy and didn't paid attention to the chat.