botting.

[Raidou]

Botting on my server is ridiculously rampant. People don't even bother trying to hide it, and you basically trip over a dozen automated crafters on the main streets of Uldah. It's extremely dismaying as a legitimate player. I always feel like people who don't really care about the game and cheat at it, be it in auto leveling, power leveling, or craft botting get rewarded greatly for their efforts. And I only get a character who can't keep up and a worn out enter key.

I kind of blame a series of faults for the issue:

-The crafting game isn't engaging and people feel comfortable only using the standard method to complete a synth. This has made it possible to successfully level crafting with one key press and without looking at the game. Far too easy to automate.

-The crafting game takes too long to complete. Pairing with the above stated, even if you went through the attentive effort to try to achieve a HQ result, the probability is so flakey it doesn't feel worth it in the end. Hopefully the upcoming adjustment will help this. In the meantime, I think the length of the minigame has turned people away from wanting to do it hundreds of times required to level up.

-Admitted lack of GM monitoring by SE while trying to rework the game. Doesn't help that in FFXI there wasn't a very strong presence either. I think people feel safe to get away with anything that can't be concretely undisputed in a chat log. Like using fowl language that someone reported offense to.

-Several players don't seem to value their character as much yet and don't feel particularly threatened by being banned.

-Popular notion that a mass banning of known botters would greatly impact the server populations and playerbase. A lot of people are comfortable and confident it just simply won't be done.

-Too much emphasis and importance placed on needing all classes leveled. You may not need to have subcrafts leveled anymore but there's still a strong disadvantage in the game in not having all the crafting classes brought up. For battle classes it's pretty much mandatory. Hopefully the upcoming adjustments and job system corrects this.

-Cumbersome GM call system even if you were bothered to try to report someone.

-Since it's become such a widespread practice, people considering it feel safe that botting in this game is not only safe, but also a wiser thing to do. No one wants to tattle on friends and linkshell members, especially if they benefit from having someone around to do one stop crafting for them.

Sorry for lack of articulation, in a rush out the door. Everyone is free to disagree with my points of course.

Nice post Kio.

Bot crafting is really bad on Trabia.

I don't post much, but I'll post some thoughts on this thread.

I don't think the point of this thread is to say everyone who crafts bots. Not everyone does, but the ones that do and get away with it should be punished.

Hopefully when they start the billing cycle, the people who bot in a more casual manner will either quit, or fear using a bot will get them banned for good.

I could go on and on about why I hate people who use bots in this game. And how I feel its like spitting in the face of the players who do things legit.

Instead, I'll just post some ideas on how to punish those that use bots.

I don't think they should be banned for good, it would probably reduce the population on some servers quite a bit. While this is sad, that would not be good for the game. (Like Kio mentioned in the post above.)

I think they should set up a system. If someone is caught using a bot, they are banned for a short amount of time. I won't pretend to have the perfect amount of time, I'd just leave that up to SE.

During this time, when you go to the players lodestone profile, it should list they have been banned, and what they were banned for.

Yes, I think it should be made public. It would be a very hard lesson for those who are caught, and I seriously doubt they would even consider it ever again.

Word would spread quick, and while not everyone would be aware of it, they might get removed from the linkshell they are in, and have to work hard to rebuild the reputation they had before.

The above is just an idea, and I'm sure others would just rather see someone caught using a bot banned for good.

I like to think, as much as the people who bot might pretend they don't care about the character they play, that they are just lying. I think they care, and more than others do. I think they camp pads and pro looking at their profile, looking at the jobs they have, and how close it makes them to being the highest ranked person on the server or whatever.

They want that, they want others to look at them and say, wow, you have so much accomplished, you are awesome, etc. It's just a shame they feel like they need to cheat to do so.

(No, I'm not saying everyone who camps pro and pads and various sites and looks at their profile bots. I know all about achievement hunters, if you want to call them that. I like to unlock achievements myself, maybe not as much as others though.)