Are the developers doing anything to combat bots?

[Rekujin]

Hi,

I returned to the game recently and one thing I noticed very obvious to me was the amount of bots in the game right now.. including bot healers in dungeons.

Are Square doing anything to combat this? I was in Costa last night and saw 10 (yes 10) Arcanist bots doing fates, they even heal people.

Can we please have an announcment regarding this? are you aware how bad it has become and are you trying your best to combat this? I know blizzard had a similar problem but they actually sued one of the major players and reduced the number significantly.

[Xystic]

They are pretty good about announcing their current actions against RMT/BOTs. If I'm not mistaken it appeared or maybe still on the FF14 launcher about the current actions against RMT/BOTs.

[WellFooled]

Can we please have an announcment regarding this?

They make announcements almost bi-weekly about this here's the latest one

RMT and other illicit activities upset the balance of the game and, as such, are prohibited under the Terms of Service.

Because we have confirmed the existence of players who are engaging in these illicit activities, we have taken the actions listed below.

Time Period: Jan. 8, 2015 to Jan. 14, 2015
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 701
- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 2,342
- Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 1
- Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

Players who discover any confirmed cheats should, under no circumstances, exploit or disseminate such information. Instead, we ask that players file a report by using the in-game command [System Menu] -> [Support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating].

We will continue to take stringent disciplinary action against any accounts with confirmed involvement in RMT/illicit activity; players should take care to steer clear of any activity that violates the Terms of Service.

There were other, similar actions taken on the 8th and that's just this month.

[DoctorPepper]

Nope. As far as I can tell they're only banning bots linked to credit card fraud. Take that as you will, I could be wrong, but I still see some bots that have been around since launch and have been reported numerous times.

A lot of bots are capable of semi-coherent replies nowadays so good luck proving without a doubt that somebody is botting. I've even ran into them in scob and they don't start to repeat their phrases until several wipes in. A couple of times people couldn't even tell they were bots until they started repeating themselves, they just assumed that they were a shitty player.

[Rekujin]

Seem like most of their reports are based on gil sellers though and not really bots that plague fates and dungeons? ah well, at least they tel us how many people were banned, that's always +1 in my books.

[Tigerlilley]

The complexity and the shear number of bots has grown a lot, yes.

Urth's Gift has more than I can count, all doing that weird spin around thing and set to AFK while fighting. Coerthes has a couple farming the fleece while spiritbonding.

The most alarming one I saw was in Mor Dhona where a BLM bot was clipping through the map and dragging mobs with it then reappearing a few feet away and repeating the process. It's getting crazy out of hand and I don't know what processes SE has for dealing with bots like this but man I wish I could just be like, can you see all of these fake characters? Just come have a look at how bad its getting!

[WellFooled]

Seem like most of their reports are based on gil sellers though and not really bots that plague fates and dungeons? ah well, at least they tel us how many people were banned, that's always +1 in my books.

In my experience the vast majority of bots are operated by gil sellers. A few players will use them, but I think most people who are invested in the game itself aren't stupid enough to risk their account for bottling.

[Shadex]

Short answer: No

Long answer: Hell no.

[Spawnie]

honestly i rarely see bot spam in the main cities anymore i dont just simply block i take the time to report b4 i do.. so many have the ( deleted) in my blacklist
and i hardly ever get a /tell from a bot these days unless i say somethin on shout then i might get 1-2 not long after but report n block solves that problem :P

[Tigerlilley]

honestly i rarely see bot spam in the main cities anymore i dont just simply block i take the time to report b4 i do.. so many have the ( deleted) in my blacklist
and i hardly ever get a /tell from a bot these days unless i say somethin on shout then i might get 1-2 not long after but report n block solves that problem :P

OP isn't referring to the gil spammers. He's referring to the actual bots out in the world who bot through dungeons and spiritbond. The one's you can see.