PVP bots

[Mofafafa]

Do we know if the support team grew over time?

Most probably not, most of the funding went towards the funding FF15 and other SE games. (if i'm not wrong, that yoshida said they have shortage of crew to handle the overwhelming of production)
This however, iirc, yoshida said that for the stormblood expansion, they receive a much more budget compared to the heavensward expansion budget.

[saucyshortcake]

There's a number of behaviors you can pick out that you can 100% tell they're bots. Almost all of them are clearly running the same application(I obviously won't link the site here) and it's very, VERY easy to tell botted characters once you pick up the ways to distinguish them. Problem is, I can give these quirks to SE and report the same bots as much as I want, nothing ever happens. It's a waste of time. I've given up at this point and just pretty much accepted that nothing will ever be done about it. People blatantly do it on their main active service accounts with top end raiding gear/titles because there's zero risk.

[Culfinrandir]

I wish that were still true, I never get in a match in 15 mins or less unless it's during peak time these days(I que almost exclusively for PvP).

That's the irony. I, along with most members of the FC I'm in, used to be fairly active in PVP; even more so after Freelancer was introduced. However, it got to the point that so many people were botting that it made games predictable & boring as all Hell. I began to think "why should I 'support' these cheats by willingly playing alongside them?" & therefore decided not to play. I went from several PVP matches per night (& many more on the weekend) to zero. I don't think many of the FC crew are as active either, unless they need Wolf Marks. I certainly don't see the shouts in FC Chat for doing some FL teaming like I used to.

TL;DR - Bots stopped real people playing. Queues were fast & with real players, now queues same but mainly bots. No bots would make real players return & retain fast queues.

[Theodric]

-snip-

Yeah. I used to do a lot of PvP with a handful of buddies. Now I'm the only one out of the eight of us still bothering...and even then I mostly just do my daily PvP roulette and stop at that unless I'm lucky enough to be able to catch Rival Wings with a decent queue time.

[Cadmus]

I was post #2 in this thread, pointing out someone pvp botting on his own stream and recording it.

I got my post deleted. Then banned on here for "naming" him. I am too tired.

I quit FF. I will play a game that cares about its pvpers and doesn't support botters. They likely get a $cut$ on all the botting. It's $9/mo for the bot and $15 for the pvp bot mod fyi.
They also "dumbed down" the pvp to make it easier for bot profile programming. Then boosted the exp to make it enticing.

I'm a conniving businessman irl sometimes too.

This is my final sexay look. Ciao.
https://goo.gl/D4Rb8U

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

It may be in vain, but we need to bring this to light. Topics get moved here where they'll be lucky to be seen by anyone, and we all know how visual evidence is handled.

Like Kisama said, start sending your screens and vids to media outlets. Report streamers who are botting to their streaming service. When they create a thread for accepting Live Letter questions, make sure the issues about botting/exploiting in PvP is mentioned (Please. PLEASE! I'd rather the question be dodged than not asked in favor of that damn male bunny suit again). This is a serious issue they've ignored for half a year. And while too many of us may be used to lengthy periods of neglect/non-acknowledgement from SE when it comes to PvP, they're perhaps convinced by numbers and skewed data that PvP is now a success, when it's become a hollow shell of its former self, hardly living up to the concept of "player vs player" with all the rampant botting.

Get the word out. Put the pressure on. If that won't move them, then FFXIV PvP and their precious e-sports dream deserves to crash and burn. And I say that really loving and wanting to see this game's PvP flourish.

[Geryth]

Snip

It's all due to that self destructive cycle. SE doesn't want to put a lot of resources into PvP because hardly anyone participates. But people hardly participate because it's bad and unpolished. It's bad and unpolished because SE doesn't put enough resources into it.

People really hate the botting but I do gotta say that without it, Shatter would never pop. Rival Wings is already pretty hard to get into most of the time.

SE does not dream of FFXIV getting into esports. They have absolutely shown it is not a priority for them. Aside from all the current problems with PvP from botting to ability design to map design to balance issues - it has spectator issues. A good esport is good because it's fun to watch. Aside from unintelligible graphics flying all over the place, a spectator can't see the clutch plays, the perfectly timed CC or burst, or even more subtly the perfectly countered CC or burst. The only people who get entertainment value out of watching someone play Feast is other Feast players. And that's a really small list of people.

I'll say it again - if PvP is going to go anywhere, it starts with SE putting the necessary resources into making it something great. They are just too apprehensive to make that important business decision and they fear it's an investment that won't pay off. So PvP will limp along and stay sparsely populated. The loyal fans are strung along frustrated the entire way while tourists that visit for a brief time continue to cycle in and out - both groups expressing hate for the bots that are actually keeping it somewhat active and alive. In all honesty I think that's why SE generally ignores the bot problem. It's a crutch that gives them reason to leave PvP alone while they focus on other things. "It's good enough for now".

PvP needs a major rework from the ground up. All the maps and abilities just need to be completely redone. I mean I think Rival Wings is actually decently polished and pretty good but it's way too complicated for people to jump into, understand, and feel like they contribute. It's why it's died down so fast. And Feast...it seems to be getting worse every update. SE just hasn't listened to us that the current balance of healing is not fun to play or play against. It's frustrating to hit a brick wall for 8 minutes and it's frustrating to frantically keep people alive and basically be the reason your team wins or loses. You know what would also help spectator value? More deaths. Feast needs more deaths, plain and simple. The medal system is also awful, and the recent addition of light medal status... effing really? Do we REALLY need to make people harder to kill?

PvP needs it's own Reborn campaign.

[Zojha]

It's all due to that self destructive cycle.

Let's be fair here: The SB rework probably did take a good bunch of resources.

It's just a matter of what you use them on. Like, Ezreal's Q probably has more depth to it than an entire job in this game's PvP at this point due to its innate mastery as skillshot plus its large array of interactions and applications, many of them only being relevant because the game doesn't rely solely on coordinated burst.

But it does bring up an idea: We could put all of the bots into a separate queue and call it "PvE training mode". It isn't uncommon for PvP games to offer modes against AI, so if we're not going to get rid of them, we could at least use them somewhat productively.

[Akor]

How would you sepperate bots from normal players if those bots will queu for normal game mode?

[Zojha]

How would you sepperate bots from normal players if those bots will queu for normal game mode?

Secretly flag them so that they end up in the bot queue no matter what they queue for. Just a harmless redirection script to trap them in purgatory.

Realistically, nothing of the sort is going to happen. But I do like the idea <.<