Attention devs: Game Surveillance Unit re: open world Bots.

[ToffeeCoffee]

This is true. They will delete your post and temp ban your account if you don't censor the names, because they call it shaming.

Which is rather ridiculous because if you hack (run 3rd party tools) you should get named and shamed - and subsequently banned.
If you aren't cheating then the result would be that you don't get banned and the post gets removed. There's no shame in that. They could even create a private forum that only the GSU can see where you can post pictures showing names and details of the alleged offence. Too much work for SE, they wont police the issue at all. It's hard to do anything about characters with their names blacked out but not impossible if server and coordinates are listed. Again, SE just doesn't care.

[zileas]

Here on Sargatanas, I see groups of Black Mages in the Ul'Dah aetherite plaza, sometimes AFK, sometimes queuing in to duties. They're all wearing the same gear and have nearly identical names, but the truly puzzling thing to me is that upon examination, one of their equipment slots is occupied by a piece of ST gear, yet they are all listed as not being a member of a Grand Company. That seems to me that it's going beyond botting and into straight up hacking the game.

[nugglets]

These two lv50 BLM's are soon to be joining the ranks of the hoard in AF gear you can see surrounding them. Identical gear, with everything aside from weapon/shield being under lv15 NPC gear.

Also, I sent the AF BLMs friend requests to see where they're going so quickly all the time. They are almost always in WP all day long. They only queue up when all 4 of them are there. If 1, 2 or 3 are still in duty, they sit there until the 4th shows up. Then, they queue and are back in WP seconds later. If I queue for WP, it takes 5-10 minutes. They are not in parties. I have no idea how this is possible.

[ToffeeCoffee]

These two lv50 BLM's are soon to be joining the ranks of the hoard in AF gear you can see surrounding them. Identical gear, with everything aside from weapon/shield being under lv15 NPC gear.

Also, I sent the AF BLMs friend requests to see where they're going so quickly all the time. They are almost always in WP all day long. They only queue up when all 4 of them are there. If 1, 2 or 3 are still in duty, they sit there until the 4th shows up. Then, they queue and are back in WP seconds later. If I queue for WP, it takes 5-10 minutes. They are not in parties. I have no idea how this is possible.

I suspect once they port in to WP they teleport hack to each of the treasure chests, port out and repeat. They do the same on Tonberry. That's why they are only in there a couple of minutes. I used to be able to open trade with one of them to make the group get stuck and not able to port in, but now if I try that the trade gets auto ignored/cancelled and they still port through instantly.

[Theresa]

Server: Malboro

[Rhindas]

The chocobo deathstare may very well be the best part of that picture!

And I agree with you Toffee, I really do, but...it's what they do. I was temp banned in January when I posted pictures of people using that underground hack in hests and leves. Blatantly obvious it wasn't a bug or graphic issues, and yet, banned for shaming. They even said so in the e-mail!

[ToffeeCoffee]

The chocobo deathstare may very well be the best part of that picture!

And I agree with you Toffee, I really do, but...it's what they do. I was temp banned in January when I posted pictures of people using that underground hack in hests and leves. Blatantly obvious it wasn't a bug or graphic issues, and yet, banned for shaming. They even said so in the e-mail!

Sorry to hear, well I hope they don't just pull this thread down and sweep it under the carpet.
The more people post screenshots of bots with locations and details (with names omitted) the more noise will hopefully be made so SE starts caring and starts banning them. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, lets keep making noise.

[DizzyDragonfly]

I know on my server I have reported bot's so many times I've lost count, it's kind of disheartening to me because I love this game so much, one of the best MMO's I have ever played, but to watch these bot's rip it to shreds with no repercussions it makes me feel as though SE only truly cares about the money their making and not a continuous quality of virtual life for the dedicated fan base.

[Aleczan]

I think botting situation is getting out of hands. I ran into many players with good gear, have reasonable mixture of jobs/classes levels, and seem legit, yet they behave like a bot.

For example, last night I ran into this Monk with Novus who was doing FATEs and at first seemed normal. But when it got to "It's not Lupus" FATE, where there is a gigantic Megalocrab boss named Cancer, the person had bot-like behaviors.

They engaged in a battle with Cancer, and when I arrive,d I tried to Stoneskin and Regen them while I was on WHM50, without level sync. However, the person died and INSTANTLY homepoint. This is irrational, as most people do not go back to homepoint in the presence of a WHM, they usually wait for a raise, as other FATE players did during that FATE later on.

The person came back to the FATE quickly, but instead of engaging the FATE boss, they tried to kill a FATE small mobs (the red jellyfish which I can't recall name). Mind you, in this FATE, the small enemies are incredibly tough and are impossible to solo even one-on-one, and even with a battle chocobo. (The person had their battle chocobo summoned).

I ran around kiting Cancer while healing other people, yet the monk in question kept standing and fighting the same jellyfish on the beach. They did not try to run away from it even when they were dying. I ran to them and threw a Regen and said in /say This way. Please assist. (with auto-translation) but they did not respond and did not move.

Of course the person died and went to homepoint, and then returned to the scene again, still trying to fight the small monster instead of the correct FATE boss. I was like WTF =_=;;

This is highly suspicious, because normal players would learn from their mistake and adjust to the situation. Bots, on the other hand, just do whatever they are coded to and do not adjust to real situation. I can't bring myself to believe that this is just a player whose brain is slower than average players.... It really seems suspicious for botting.

[Starvald]

With their handling of the bot problem, I am starting to ask myself why I am not botting myself. Seriously, I've seen the same bots going on with their merry ways for weeks and nothing is happening.
I am starting to wonder why I should be the idiot that is not exploiting the fact that SE is not doing anything against it. I have long work hours where I cannot play and I could optimally use that time to...well, choose your poison...mining, gathering, etc, pp. I could be rich by now by selling materia from spiritbonded gear.

But I guess I will stay the honest idiot I am and not do it...it leaves a bad taste in my mouth though to see how SE chooses to handle this.