Is this a bot and how do I report bots?

[Teirshin]

Don't waste your time, no action will be taken.

Well, SE doing nothing is technically an action... of sorts.... they're looking the other way....

Its a double edged sword. BOTS are still paying accounts... and its money in the bank for SE to keep them, even though they claim to want to be informed so they can ban them... which they oddly never seem to get around to doing....

Funny that.

[Shneibel]

Don't waste your time, no action will be taken.

I belive the last no action will be take, ban 1k+ acc involve with RMT

[Gerolan]

Don't waste your time, no action will be taken.

Agrees, I've reported the same bard bot in north shroud for few months now, always on same mobs dies when you initiate trade due to locking them. Yet they are still their farming same mobs

[Alukah]

Agrees, I've reported the same bard bot in north shroud for few months now, always on same mobs dies when you initiate trade due to locking them. Yet they are still their farming same mobs

I don't know what annoys me the most, the bots themselves or SE ignoring this.

[Snugglebutt]

Quite franky it's truly disgusting level of customer care and makes their policy on botting an absolute joke when they refuse to enforce their own policies. We can't even get responses from members of the team who are supposed to handle the issue so cannot hold anyone to account for their lack of care or piss poor ability to do their job. I feel like this 'special task force' should be sacked and replaced by people who actually do care and will do their job enforcing their policies.

If playing a DoW or DoM class it isn't so bad as you can generally ignore them and might even prefer they stay because the negative impact has on economy lowering prices to the extreme of any materials or goods want from marketplace but as a DoH or DoL character it is immensely disheartening and soul destroying as your character is so reliant on using the marketplace yet is not competing on an even playing field.

[Gerolan]

Quite franky it's truly disgusting level of customer care and makes their policy on botting an absolute joke when they refuse to enforce their own policies. We can't even get responses from members of the team who are supposed to handle the issue so cannot hold anyone to account for their lack of care or piss poor ability to do their job. I feel like this 'special task force' should be sacked and replaced by people who actually do care and will do their job enforcing their policies.

If playing a DoW or DoM class it isn't so bad as you can generally ignore them and might even prefer they stay because the negative impact has on economy lowering prices to the extreme of any materials or goods want from marketplace but as a DoH or DoL character it is immensely disheartening and soul destroying as your character is so reliant on using the marketplace yet is not competing on an even playing field.

I wish I could like your post 1000times

[ToffeeCoffee]

Well, SE doing nothing is technically an action... of sorts.... they're looking the other way....

Its a double edged sword. BOTS are still paying accounts... and its money in the bank for SE to keep them, even though they claim to want to be informed so they can ban them... which they oddly never seem to get around to doing....

Funny that.

Thats just the thing though. Players are using an in-game function that we shouldnt be using (GMs told me not to) and a Lodestone tool that gets ignored. Which is more insulting, that we pay sub in a game where cheating is allowed or that we waste our time reporting it that falls on deaf ears.

[TheRogueX]

Thats just the thing though. Players are using an in-game function that we shouldnt be using (GMs told me not to) and a Lodestone tool that gets ignored. Which is more insulting, that we pay sub in a game where cheating is allowed or that we waste our time reporting it that falls on deaf ears.

What in-game function? What Lodestone tool?

[ToffeeCoffee]

What in-game function? What Lodestone tool?

The Game Surveillance Unit are the only ones that are supposed to be investigating/banning bots.

In-game: System, Support Desk, Contact Us, Report Cheating. These reports do not go to the GSU. Seems only GM's action in-game reports and they don't deal with bots.

Lodestone homepage: Help & Support, Customer Service Suggestions & Feedback Bug Report, Report Bugs or Offending Players. These reports supposedly go straight to the GSU.

You'll never hear back from them and after 2 months of reporting the same 4 bots on Tonberry and their spiritbond gear crafter I have given up. I identified the 3 locations they bot in and I watch them get lined up against the wall in Limsa, each taking turns to trade each other. I identified the retainer name they use to sell the multitude of materia III's/IV's they accumulate every day on the MB.

I understand the need to investigate, and I understand that once banned they will likely create new bots but nothing gets solved by allowing it to happen. If anything it encourages the practice even more.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to identify a bot and SE have access to more game activity data than we will ever see. They shouldn't need more than a few minutes to identify a bot and ban it. I can see 5 of them on my screen right now.

[Delsus]

I understand the need to investigate, and I understand that once banned they will likely create new bots but nothing gets solved by allowing it to happen. If anything it encourages the practice even more.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to identify a bot and SE have access to more game activity data than we will ever see. They shouldn't need more than a few minutes to identify a bot and ban it. I can see 5 of them on my screen right now.

You obviously don't understand, SE has server side information to go on only, if they are for example gathering in SB gear, the nodes pop at certain places, items also have different values, so you can see someone going along the same route gathering to make a little money and make the materia at the same time, two birds with one stone. Now if I log on at the same time as you and do this every day ( because I love gathering loads), by your logic I am a bot and should be banned. The same goes for farming materials from mobs for crafting, might as well SB whilst fighting these trash mobs, so by your logic again I would be a bot.

SE cannot just ban for seeing people fighting the same mobs, gathering the same items or using SB gear, now if they were there 24/7 then yes they could look into it, but you personally cannot prove that unless you stay there watching them 24/7.

A good bot will ensure that only normal commands are sent to the server, as if they were using a keyboard, therefore it makes it much harder to ban.