Suggestion for GMs: play the game.

[Sarteck]

Although the GM I spoke with recently was polite and professional, they don't seem to have ever done a S Rank Hunt, because they did not understand many key aspects of it, like the time it takes to get from one end of the map to the other.

An actual quote:

If they chose to watch the hunt die and not attack it then that is their choice, which by extension makes it not an interruption.

They actually believe that the others just "sat and watched it die."

I therefore invite the GMs to actually play the game. Take the time and spawn some S Ranks on your own. I completely understand that Mr. Yoshida ad an utter lack of foresight for Hunts, but that's up to the developers to fix.

[Ayasaki128]

Actually, I think GMs really play the game. (I think it's excellent to understand the game and how it works)
I already did it, I saw a hunt dying and dont touch him because I am not in need of seals. I was there just to heal a friend, but was not in party for hunt because was in a cross-pf party if I remember well.

[Canadane]

I can confirm GMs and developers are encouraged to play.

But by extension of the quote, it sounded like people were too slow to get to a hunt? All they really could do was watch it die in such a case.

[Sarteck]

The situation on Behemoth is that we've had a group that uses bots to camp maps where an S Rank may spawn and then the bots alert their main accounts when they parse a S Rank from the map data. They come, immediately know where it is, and engage it straight away.

While this is not as MUCH of an issue for SB A ranks, the ARR ones die so quickly that even those of us that actually worked for an hour in SOuthern Thanalan to spawn the thing, some were unable to get to it in time to even see it, let alone engage it.

I actually had read about this before in the Hunt thread while I was on Exodus, and I was personally rather skeptical of it. After having been on Behemoth a while now, though, I see just how bad it is.

(What's worse is that the GM suggested that "forcing" others to wait was what would be considered "interruption of gameplay.")

[Alien_Gamer]

What you need to realize is that early pulling or not waiting for people is not against the rules. S ranks were designed to be killed by smaller groups like that so there is nothing for the gms to stop. But you provoking a mob and resetting its progress is definitely not how the game was made and this considered griefing and reportable. You may not agree with it but those are the rules.

[Culfinrandir]

... You may not agree with it but those are the rules.

I don't know if you read the post above yours but the problem is that people are using banned tools to get to the hunt before anyone else. S Ranks need to be spawned using certain processes, like catching a certain rare fish during specific weather, so require *work* & determination to spawn. The cheaters are waiting until someone else does the work & then using hacks to get the benefits. In the process it is making it so that those doing the work get nothing at all. Imagine if you were doing a treasure chest & someone walked up & took the treasure after you killed the monsters (not possible, thankfully!).

In the past GMs have said that it could be classed as griefing to deliberately 'steal' a S Rank but they have since made opposing statements.

[Sarteck]

In the past GMs have said that it could be classed as griefing to deliberately 'steal' a S Rank but they have since made opposing statements.

Yes, but I don't think this is entirely their fault, to be quite honest. After these kinds of complaints reached Mr. Yoshida's ears, he stated that "Hunts aren't being played like they're supposed to," that it's supposed to be a "surprise" for players and that the Hunts can get killed on a first-come-first-serve basis.

For a lot of the Hunts, I could totally see this. With Nunywumi (Southern Thanalan S Rank), he only spawns when ALL FATEs in the area have been cleared (none left to expire, none failed) for a full one hour period. Something like that does not naturally occur, except during certain special events (like, for instance, the Yo-Kai Watch event, where people were spamming FATEs to get the Yo-Kai Medallions). It actually has to be worked at.

Although I don't like early pulling, I fully understand it's not against any rules. This group, however, has been doing this with pretty much every S Rank Hunt on the server, and has been doing it for quite a long time. It's become so bad that they even have a reputation on other servers.

When you purposely go to pull Hunts before even those that actually spawned it get a chance to get there, over and over and over, I don't understand how it can not be considered griefing. Add in the shady way in which they do it, and it's rather extraordinary that the GMs would go to any length to defend the offending party.

@Alien_Gamer, when it's just a matter of "early pulling," I can handle that. We had the same thing on Exodus before I left. It was annoying, but it wasn't anywhere near this level.

[Risvertasashi]

So what exactly was the complaint? "Early" pulling, or something like that?

Somehow I doubt it was "the GM doesn't understand the situation" so much as "How do I get to the next ticket quickly while gently explaining no rules were broken."

[Sarteck]

So what exactly was the complaint? "Early" pulling, or something like that?

Somehow I doubt it was "the GM doesn't understand the situation" so much as "How do I get to the next ticket quickly while gently explaining no rules were broken."

The complaint was that botting from the offenders caused them to locate and destroy the mark before those that actually worked to spawn it had a chance to get to it, thus causing a disruption in gameplay. When the GM assumed "they sat there and let it die," I think it was pretty clear that they either did not understand the time it takes to travel from one end of the map to the other, or grossly underestimated the time in which Level 70's can dispatch an S Rank.

Before you pass judgement, I would suggest you come onto Behemoth and try your hand at Hunting. I, too, was skeptical before I actually came here.

[Risvertasashi]

Before you pass judgement, I would suggest you come onto Behemoth and try your hand at Hunting. I, too, was skeptical before I actually came here.

I used to hunt on Balmung. Doesn't get much more cutthroat than the top population server. I've found the key is simply to ensure you're in hunt LSs that pass information quickly, as being even a few seconds behind can mean you won't get there and no credit.

Anyways, back to the main topic.... From what I've heard, even if the system's latency-hiding does allow for teleport-hacks, GMs can still see teleports in the server logs. So if you tell them they're teleporting and probably the exact time, they should be able to see that and take action. Not to mention flag them for monitoring to catch them teleporting next time.

Basically, I suggest taking the focus off of hunts, and putting it on the specific illegal action they were doing.