Has anyone noticed a decrease in botting activity in light of recent events?

[Remedi]

Sadly I don't think banning bots is good enough, I think they should go after the ones programming them like activision-blizzard did to do something effective against this problem

[KageTokage]

Sadly I don't think banning bots is good enough, I think they should go after the ones programming them like activision-blizzard did to do something effective against this problem

Last I heard, it didn't actually accomplish much because the bot creators simply started distributing the program under a different name on a new website.

Preventative measures seem more effective, honestly. The only reason the gil farmers are even able to function is because of their warp hacks, so if they did something like turned all of out of bounds areas into kill zones, it would put a quick end to the problem. It honestly seems like they don't know how to stop them, though, considering that they tried to slow them down by moving the items they were farming in Amdapor Keep deeper into the dungeon (Which obviously is not going to matter when they can warp wherever the heck they want).

As far as the other bots go, they really need to give the GMs the authority to take action against them, as they seem a lot more active then the STF judging from quickly they tend to respond to queries, not to mention you can actually communicate with them to know things such as whether or not you're even giving them enough/the right information/evidence for them to properly investigate a matter..

[KisaiTenshi]

Last I heard, it didn't actually accomplish much because the bot creators simply started distributing the program under a different name on a new website.

Preventative measures seem more effective, honestly. The only reason the gil farmers are even able to function is because of their warp hacks, so if they did something like turned all of out of bounds areas into kill zones, it would put a quick end to the problem. It honestly seems like they don't know how to stop them, though, considering that they tried to slow them down by moving the items they were farming in Amdapor Keep deeper into the dungeon (Which obviously is not going to matter when they can warp wherever the heck they want).

As far as the other bots go, they really need to give the GMs the authority to take action against them, as they seem a lot more active then the STF judging from quickly they tend to respond to queries, not to mention you can actually communicate with them to know things such as whether or not you're even giving them enough/the right information/evidence for them to properly investigate a matter..

There's plenty they could do, but it would either break immersion, make it a pain in the butt for real players, or break how some content works.

The solution to the teleporting problem is to stop believing point-to-point movement from the client. That would also break the aethernet, and how some dungeons are setup (eg Halitali). But you know what, if it stops bots, take the teleport-anywhere aethernet away. Replace ad-hoc teleportation with server-sided teleports that are invoked by buying tickets for the destinations, from that destination. Then they can just audit the ticket use, and people who have teleported one more time than they've purchased tickets = ban. If the teleports are even more stupid, eg blindly accepting moveTo(x,y,z), that's something that needs to be solved in a game client communications.

Probably half the reason it works the way it does is so players can avoid AOE's during combat, but that doesn't excuse it outside of combat.

[XenoCranel]

Giving more tools and power to GMs in-game wouldn't really do anything to negatively impact gameplay but help the FF14 Team actually do their job better.

Honestly, just have them sit in gathering zones for like 5-10 minute based on reported botters and ban them on the spot.

[Paladinleeds]

Giving more tools and power to GMs in-game wouldn't really do anything to negatively impact gameplay but help the FF14 Team actually do their job better.

I actually had an idea for that. "Sting ops". So things like bots, RMT, etc, get the GMs to start up a "Sting campaign" designed to try and catch them. Complete with non-GM characters. Act like a normal player interested in the services, reach out, make contact, compile evidence while doing it, and ban once enough evidence has been compiled. Would require more staff, but the effectiveness would be great. Because it's humans doing it, they can adapt to the new moves being played by the offenders, and keep fighting.

[KageTokage]

I just felt throwing it out that if anyone is uncertain of how to identify a gathering bot, there's a very obvious behavior they all share, which is that they cannot take flight while moving. They'll always come to an abrupt stop, jump in place, then start flying. I assume it's due to some limitation in the botting scripts not allowing them to queue multiple movement "inputs" at the same time or some such.

I actually had an idea for that. "Sting ops". So things like bots, RMT, etc, get the GMs to start up a "Sting campaign" designed to try and catch them. Complete with non-GM characters. Act like a normal player interested in the services, reach out, make contact, compile evidence while doing it, and ban once enough evidence has been compiled. Would require more staff, but the effectiveness would be great. Because it's humans doing it, they can adapt to the new moves being played by the offenders, and keep fighting.

This wouldn't work, since as far as I can tell, the RMT farmers strictly use expendable accounts. They form a FC using one of their bots, deposit all of their farmed gil into the FC chest, then if someone wants to buy gil, they'll just invite them into the bot FC, quickly complete the transaction, then continue with their business. They can amass a huge amount of gil in such a short period of time that it's hardly a setback if they get banned, and unless they get banned with such frequency that they can't even get enough gil to make a decent-sized transaction, they're going to keep at it.

The sad thing is is that it's almost guaranteed that anyone who's gullible enough to make a purchase from them is going to get banned once the FC that gave them the money gets cracked down upon, with no lasting consequences for the RMTers.

Prevention is really the only thing that can stop RMT when it's almost fully automated.

[Paladinleeds]

This wouldn't work, since as far as I can tell, the RMT farmers strictly use expendable accounts.

Ah, I was referring more towards those who sell services like clears for real money (apparently people do), when referencing RMT. Those who would be hit harder by being banned from the game. As for the bot operations for RMT, I aren't so sure how to stop that. Maybe legal action?

[Alucard135]

Giving more tools and power to GMs in-game wouldn't really do anything to negatively impact gameplay but help the FF14 Team actually do their job better.

Honestly, just have them sit in gathering zones for like 5-10 minute based on reported botters and ban them on the spot.

So things like bots, RMT, etc, get the GMs to start up a "Sting campaign" designed to try and catch them.

I do agree that there should be some human input from GMs and authority regarding gathering bots. Those take time/money to level up all the way to 70. And when they do, they will have to cover the cost of leveling before they can start making profit. So their growth is significantly slower compared to RMT bots and so are their numbers. So GMs don't have to fully dedicate their time handling them until they become noticeable by the players' community (Just like now). If GMs were given authority and start taking actions against them now, it will only be a matter of time before it becomes impractical for botters to create new ones and would have to act much more discreetly; reducing the gathering bot party that you see now.