Does SE really not care about bots?

[Titor]

There have been botters on my server in Coerthas for, literally, months. They are hogging the places where the ornery karakuls have the best spawn rates, which drop the mats needed for woolen cloth, making it very difficult/inefficient/hard to farm yourself.

They are very clearly bots, both /Archers/ in full spiritbinding gear, with their chocos out all the time, instantly tagging mobs, never moving from one spot however rotating around, on DnD, gibberish status messages, never responds to anyone talking to them in /say or anything like that, blowing cooldowns even when they are not hitting anything (they use raging strikes whenever it is off CD it seems), not only this but they do this for hours to days at a time. I have not watched how long they do it, but they are there every single time I go to coerthas for the last few months.

I have reported them a few times, I have gotten my FC to send in reports to them, and have even gotten some random passer-bys to file reports about them and their very obvious botting behaviour. I am sure others have also reported them on their own if they went to try to farm a few karakuls.

Due to these bots, both fleece and anything made from fleece are at unreasonably high prices. I would like to farm the mats myself, but I do not want to try to tag the mobs before the bots since it would then seem like I am somehow with the bots (Not that SE seems to care about that anyway) and want to avoid anything having to do with them. The only other alternative is running around the entire area looking for spare karakuls, which I can maybe kill one every few minutes, which is super inefficient at gathering these materials when they bots have two of their character conveniently placed in the two best areas for farming these mats.

Is there anything that can be done about this? I waited months now, and nothing has happened. I was hoping and hoping they would be caught in a wave of RMT/Illicit Activities bans, but so far it has been numerous waves and they are still there.

And do not say they are not bots, for they are the literal definition of what a bot does. If you want to try to see for yourself, hop on balmung and run to coerthas 21X 16Y or 22X 16Y and see for yourself.

[UltimateAoe2]

Think what I did is I used a different ticket/report function to actually have the GM go to you. Usually by then, you can show the GM to those BOTs, and usually banned on site.

[Titor]

Think what I did is I used a different ticket/report function to actually have the GM go to you. Usually by then, you can show the GM to those BOTs, and usually banned on site.

Thanks, I will try this.

[Xystic]

Bots are relentless. You can remove them and they WILL come back.

[chocomaid]

I know who you are talking about. These bots have been live since about 8 months ago, getting reported by me and friends constantly since then, but still to no avail.

2500gil per one undyed woolen cloth, pure BS.

[Alurwen]

Well, I'm gonna go with no on this one. They added more sheeps to the zone but didn't do anything noticeable about botters...so...no SE doesn't care about bots, they pay a monthly sub fee too ya know!

[Caligamy]

During beta, early access, and on.. I saw the same botter teleporting around to mining nodes on my server, with their name barely sticking up from the ground trying to conceal themselves. I must have reported it a dozen times on a daily basis.

That "player" is still running around our server with only miner leveled up constantly running back and forth between the most expensive nodes. I do not even bother with reporting it now because I know nothing ever comes of it. It is extremely discouraging as a legitimate player trying to make some money in game to have this going on right along beside you and thinking they're probably the ones undercutting the prices on your market items.

Edit: The last time I posted a thread on this topic (and about this person) was at 09-27-2013 at 06:49 PM
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...99#post1340999

[Felis]

Due to these bots, both fleece and anything made from fleece are at unreasonably high prices. I would like to farm the mats myself, but I do not want to try to tag the mobs before the bots since it would then seem like I am somehow with the bots (Not that SE seems to care about that anyway) and want to avoid anything having to do with them. The only other alternative is running around the entire area looking for spare karakuls, which I can maybe kill one every few minutes, which is super inefficient at gathering these materials when they bots have two of their character conveniently placed in the two best areas for farming these mats.

Try it with retainer ventures.

[Quesse]

When 2.0 first started there were tons of bots doing just as you describe for Snurble Tufts at the Burning Wall. I would report them every day for weeks. Nothing ever happened.

[Anova]

While the bots are undoubtedly annoying, especially in their competition for SB spots, the main damage they cause is to the economy. I think the majority of SE's effort is in deterring goldsellers from destroying the marketboards.

It is no coincidence that SE limits trades to retainers and players on their friend list. It lets them track gold farmers and gil exchanges, especially if they know which characters are generating the gil for the goldsellers. This in turn lets them identify which players may be buying gil or which characters are acting as 'banks' and stop them before they do too much damage to the market. In that way, they are doing the most damage to botters and the most good to the game economy. Proof enough can be seen on the marketboards. Despite the number of bots and some ridiculous prices on the marketboards, prices are still fair.

In short, SE doesn't like bots but they let them go to be able to catch the bigger fish. At least, that is how I see them working. That said, I do wish there was something more we could do about SB bots.