Is this a bot and how do I report bots?

[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.