Botting is getting worse.

[Welsper59]

Botting in SE games rarely ever goes punished, just because of the fact that it's more of a hassle than necessary. Bad behavior, outside of RL violations such as threats, is often swept under the rug in these games. Win-trading, for example, is practically encouraged here in XIV. Short of it breaking the game in someway (like the old marketboard one), hacks are also not a big concern of theirs and will often go unpunished, despite any feeble attempts to report it. Maybe the GM/STF are just being lazy due to how tedious and (often) impossible it is to track bots/hack attempts on what's likely a system that was not designed to do so... maybe they're being told to not really bother... who knows. Either way, people can and will almost always get away with cheating in SE titles, just because of how they poorly deal with in-game problems.

To be fair, without them the economy would likely crash for a good bit as no one in their right mind would sit and grind thousands of shards/crystals/clusters when that time can be invested elsewhere but i digress

That's actually where the devs would have to change things up, similar to how they did for crystals and clusters. RMT have long been the suppliers of very cheap shards across every single server (though not as rampant now, as it was before). As a result of that, the devs never really bothered to change how you obtain them since it is impossible to be rid of RMT presence in a game like this. It's kind of ridiculous that, given how necessary shards are/were for housing stuff, there's no efficient way to obtain them in a timely manner that can be considered worthwhile for their use.

Its not that hard to grind out 1000 shards, it takes a retainer 16 ventures, thats all. Getting crystals is even easier, with an ephemeral node can give you up to 200-300. I have got, without huge effort, 9k fire and earth crystals. The same nodes can also give clusters at a slightly slower rate.
So we dont need bots to get our shards/crystals/clusters.

Remember though that shards are used at ~10x the rate of crystals and clusters per synth. While that 1000 shards might sound like a lot, the length that it'll take you ends much shorter than the others tiers.

[Welsper59]

I never understood the logic behind botting. Pay extra so play even less of a game you're paying monthly for!

Generally speaking, people play to experience the game. Once you've done something enough, you tend to grow bored of that activity and find it tedious. People like to play the game, but find some of the methods to achieve their goals within it to be blocked by said tedium. In this case, gathering bots are designed to help people achieve their goal of getting the mats they might need or to have an easy means to have things to sell for gil to buy the thing they want. It's not much different from the same mentality of people who choose to do content when it becomes easier or who choose to be carried through things by others. If you just don't care about the method to achieve your goals, you'll take the easier approach. Mind you, one is clearly more morally corrupt than the other, and is obviously in violation of ToS lol.

[Torunya]

If you just don't care about the method to achieve your goals, you'll take the easier approach.

I see this everywhere like we're in some kind of era of instant gratification. As if actually working to achieve your goals is a thing of the past that kids don't have time for these days.

I'm getting old. ;_;

[Welsper59]

I see this everywhere like we're in some kind of era of instant gratification. As if actually working to achieve your goals is a thing of the past that kids don't have time for these days.

I'm getting old. ;_;

Not necessarily, as it's actually a universal thing that everyone experiences. I'm fairly old myself (31) by internet and gaming years, but I can understand why people take either approach. I mean, think about outside of games. We use cars to get from point A to point B faster, whereas you might see someone doing the same thing walking or cycling to and from. Convenience is a thing no matter where we are in life. Advancements to provide said convenience (faster computers, better hardware, cheaper products, etc) all make for the current "norm" to slowly shift into something different. It took decades for gaming to shift into the current state it is (which is very rampant with instant gratification) from the old Atari and NES days. Honestly, it was a slower approach than we tend to realize. Some folks just rather take advantage of "unnecessary" convenience more than others... like folks that use bots. Doesn't mean it's acceptable though, obviously lol.

[Torunya]

Some folks just rather take advantage of "unnecessary" convenience more than others... like folks that use bots. Doesn't mean it's acceptable though, obviously lol.

Hear hear. I was indeed more concerned with the unnecessary kind of convenience, as anyone would ride a mount over walking (in contrast to driving over walking in real life). But if I ever tried to send my twin to work in my stead, you can bet my boss would be on my neck within the hour.

But ah well, night night. ^^/

[Zeonx]

It takes about a week of reviewing them if you report the bots then they get banned,

I reported one in shire area mining Hardsilver ore walking to each point invisible and then aoe would hit them if someone was doing a Fate they take off running still hitting mining points while monsters killed them and sat there dead no home pointing nothing id wake up next day to see them still on ground dead.

So I reported and about a week they were gone, best thing you do is report them.

They will have to do all the work to get back to heavensward its either that or do nothing it is your choice if you want your market to thriving or undercut just to make ends meat cause Botters swamp the market board.

So far I am from Cactuar I report any bot I see near the mining points and the botanist area's, I bust my butt legit and not gonna let some bot get it easy when I don't.

I see arguments about bot use saying I have a life, well to answer that so does everyone else but they don't use it, what makes you so special.

Also someone said we need to stay out of peoples lives I agree though this isn't your life this is a square enix game.

Though I do agree that people shouldn't tell someone what to do with their lives but you cheat you get banned that's on you has nothing to do with your life.

[Imsyu]

Its not that hard to grind out 1000 shards, it takes a retainer 16 ventures, thats all. Getting crystals is even easier, with an ephemeral node can give you up to 200-300. I have got, without huge effort, 9k fire and earth crystals. The same nodes can also give clusters at a slightly slower rate.
So we dont need bots to get our shards/crystals/clusters.

1000 shards would last me 15minutes, same for crystals and clusters lol unless they make it so you can obtain x10 like someone said then yeah thats not a practical way for crafters especially to obtain shards/crystals/clusters if they use x10 that a hour sometimes more then that a day

[Zeonx]

1000 shards would last me 15minutes, same for crystals and clusters lol unless they make it so you can obtain x10 like someone said then yeah thats not a practical way for crafters especially to obtain shards/crystals/clusters if they use x10 that a hour sometimes more then that a day

I mine crystals but cannot sit there for 1000 of them, I get extremely bored and mind begins to go numb, highest I get is like 300 or 500 before I have had enough.

Then you have people who mine up 9000+ crystals all down the board and I say no damn way they didn't do this legit, I do understand there are treasure maps that drop crystals and maybe they do that over time but then you check next day and they have same amount the next day then I say to myself time to find another source of farming GiL or undercut them.

[AsteriaStarfall]

I mine crystals but cannot sit there for 1000 of them, I get extremely bored and mind begins to go numb, highest I get is like 300 or 500 before I have had enough.

Then you have people who mine up 9000+ crystals all down the board and I say no damn way they didn't do this legit, I do understand there are treasure maps that drop crystals and maybe they do that over time but then you check next day and they have same amount the next day then I say to myself time to find another source of farming GiL or undercut them.

There is another better way. Go to an atherial node and mine it. Reduce it and depending on quality youll receive a nice chunk of crystals or clusters. Just tag a single node from the pair of nodes on opposite sides of the atherial and go right back and collect again. 15 minutes netted me about 800 fire crystals. I think it was fire...could have been water. Not sure now which one it was but you get the idea.

[Felis]

My point is they should just make it legal so that everyone can have the same advantage or do something and ban these bots or at minimum break the bot program.

Or just remove PC support

I mine crystals but cannot sit there for 1000 of them, I get extremely bored and mind begins to go numb, highest I get is like 300 or 500 before I have had enough.

Then you have people who mine up 9000+ crystals all down the board and I say no damn way they didn't do this legit, I do understand there are treasure maps that drop crystals and maybe they do that over time but then you check next day and they have same amount the next day then I say to myself time to find another source of farming GiL or undercut them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUnqclZrGmc