Player Feedback: Gathering Bots

[Vnolan]

"If you believe someone is using a program which gives him/her an unfair advantage, or have witnessed the buying, selling, or bot-driven farming of items using real currency, you may submit a claim here" - Located under "Report Cheating"

Using a bot to gather provides an unfair advantage over a gatherer that does not use one.

• There is no record of any reports made when reporting cheating
• There is zero feedback for the report. I'm talking about something as simple as a status to indicate it has been reviewed
• You can't name people using bot programs and naming botters seems to be a more serious infraction than actually using bots

I reported several gathering bots multiple times back in November. From what I can see, most are still botting.

I'm not sure what the intent of the current setup is, but for me, I won't be reporting any more bots, as the system in place seems to favor botters, which is fine, but please stop sending mixed messages.

For people that will suggest that I have been wrong in identifying bots:
https://gfycat.com/UncommonAcidicAmericankestrel
There are six bots in the link, some of which were reported for the same activity back in November. The bots doing this don't have gibberish names. While some are obvious alts used to bot, others are using their mains, as they'll have most/all jobs at 60.

I would even go as far as saying there are times when the MAJORITY of endgame gatherers online are botting.

[Dustytome]

I understand the frustration. It feels like you have to jump through hoops just to report someone cheating and nothing is done about it. I've reported using support desk options that don't feel like they just go to a shredder and received this:

Hello and thank you for your GM call.

We are aware that the use of third party programs has caused disruptions for many players, and we take every measure to stop violations of the User Agreement. If you have included names in your report, then the matter will be recorded and investigated.

However, for this and any future cases, we also recommend submitting a report directly to the Special Task Force to ensure a more thorough investigation. You can submit your report by visiting http://support.na.square-enix.com and choosing FINAL FANTASY XIV. Then, select Report Bugs or Offending Players to access the reporting form.

We are constantly striving to improve the game and our services to our customers, and are open to any feedback you might have. To submit feedback, please visit the forums at http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv and make a post with any suggestions you may have for our teams. Although individual responses are not sent, please rest assured that all comments are submitted to the appropriate parties so that they can be read and considered for future updates.

We appreciate you contacting us about this matter. Should you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be glad to assist.

Thank you for your patience, and best wishes to you.
FINAL FANTASY XIV Game Master Team

You may wish to try reporting via the part of the response in red. It still takes forever, you won't receive updates and it's possible they still do nothing. I know you're thinking "I shouldn't have to do that, this is ridiculous!" and yes it is.

[Mwynn]

Same here. 15-20 Reports and each of these Reports have 5-8 Names listed.

The World, The Zone / Coordination they're currently, the Time and Eorzean Time listed too, Names obviously, fully detailed explanation what they do once they teleport into a Zone.
It's not funny anymore if you know People sleep and still Gather tons of Items (In this case Crystals, Clusters and Aethersand) and destroy the Market doing so by putting 99x Stacks being overpriced even if they lowered the Price for that.

Did a Test yesterday and each one of them hit my Mount and was flying through me, for damn 30-40 Times in those 4 Eorzean Hours!

Why did I even bother to grind the Folklore Books? This is a spit in the Face for every Gatherer that does Gather legitely with their hands.

Let's not talk about how many People are doing this, it's getting extreme and more extreme each Week...

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I mean, the link just shows people spawning in and heading towards the same node. Not sure how that determines botting lol.

I know when I'm gathering, I'm usually not paying attention to the screen, go in the same rotation over and over again cuz its all memorized at this point.

[Mwynn]

I mean, the link just shows people spawning in and heading towards the same node. Not sure how that determines botting lol.

I know when I'm gathering, I'm usually not paying attention to the screen, go in the same rotation over and over again cuz its all memorized at this point.

Flying the exact Pathway again and again and again and again, just stay in the air where one Player was flying and those Players will hit you for tons of times indicating they use a automated flypath.

It's so obvious when you stand or fly in air near a Ephermal Node....

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Flying the exact Pathway again and again and again and again, just stay in the air where one Player was flying and those Players will hit you for tons of times indicating they use a automated flypath.

Not necessarily? I mean, you could just be standing in the most direct path from one node to another.

I'm not saying botters shouldn't be punished, but you have to make sure they are ACTUALLY botting first before taking measures to punish them, which is why SE seem's to not do anything/its very slow.

[Mwynn]

Not necessarily? I mean, you could just be standing in the most direct path from one node to another.

Sure and the other 10 Players hit me in the middle of the air, riiiiiight.

I'm pretty sure hitting the Node Mid-Air while dis-mounting at the same time counts too, eh?

Did I mention the stacking in front of a Node?

Oh Please... all the same Players as usual in the Zone... since MONTHS...

Same Spot they all stand in front of the Node when they get off the Mount, also land in other Players directly, this is too obvious.







People are so blind, seriously LOL

[Vnolan]

I mean, the link just shows people spawning in and heading towards the same node. Not sure how that determines botting lol.

I know when I'm gathering, I'm usually not paying attention to the screen, go in the same rotation over and over again cuz its all memorized at this point.

It shows them all moving to the same spot before mounting up and flying away. Anyone who has ever grinded gathering knows the back and forth can be mistaken for botting, but moving to the same spot before mounting up when entering a zone? Don't know if you can see with the quality, but one zones in on a mount, dismounts, moves a few feet to the same spot everyone else takes off from and then mounts up and flies away.

If the link doesn't prove that they're botting, exactly what would you need to be convinced?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It shows them all moving to the same spot before mounting up and flying away. Anyone who has ever grinded gathering knows the back and forth can be mistaken for botting, but moving to the same spot before mounting up when entering a zone? Don't know if you can see with the quality, but one zones in on a mount, dismounts, moves a few feet to the same spot everyone else takes off from and then mounts up and flies away.

If the link doesn't prove that they're botting, exactly what would you need to be convinced?

I couldn't even see that in the link lol, quality was low, i just saw flashes of light and then mounts.

[Zigabar]

I'm on the same server as you and can confirm, it's quite frustrating seeing all those player ran bots farming Ephi Nodes and Noble Sage. It's definitely bot activity, but your video doesn't do it much justice. There's a specific FC that my friend and I note as infamous for proving player ran bots aren't being handled properly, since they've been around for a very long time (read: years). I wish it were handled better, but without them admitting in chat, proof is a hard thing. Until then, I'll reap the benefits of them providing cheap shards on the MB.