Teleporting Group of Bots

[Omegabear]

So few days ago I found a group of maybe 10 bots completely breaking the rules of the game. They've clearly hacked the game in a way that allows them to instantly move from one place to another, repeatedly (every few seconds), to any place they desire without casting anything.

The bots were found inside a cavernous area in Central Thanalan in "The Clutch" area. The bots would appear above a group of monsters, kill, disappear, then appear above another group of monsters. The bots were also seen in Ul'dah, zipping in and out of thin air en masse. I'm assuming they are turning in quests. I've taken screenshots and recorded the bots but I can't post here due to forum rules.

I've reported it to GM ingame but unfortunately (as expected) they haven't responded in any way, not even a "we received your message" notice. I'm relatively a new player here, about 1 month old. Are bots like these a normal occurrence?

[Rufalus]

Yes sadly it is a normal occurrence throughout the lifetime of the game. You are encouraged to report them in-game and there's supposed to be a team responsible for dealing with them, but more bot characters will be created.

[Hasrat]

I'd be just about willing to put money on bots being common in nearly any game. If someone somewhere can make money off of selling game resources for cash, bots will flourish. Stopping them is like trying to stop counterfeiters. You can do everything you can to craft the perfect defense, but sooner or later, someone will find a way around it.

[Bacent]

Only way to counteract bots is to make everything in the game untradeable, and having a queue system where you were put into parties at random and couldn't do anything in a premade group. But then you have a terrible game.

They used to be very visible at the start of the game, including spamming the /shout chat so it was basically unusable. Now bots tend to only spam certain gil selling sites around main hubs, and they warp around underground to do MSQ stuff, always as blm lalafell

[SaitoHikari]

Only way to counteract bots is to make everything in the game untradeable, and having a queue system where you were put into parties at random and couldn't do anything in a premade group. But then you have a terrible game.

They used to be very visible at the start of the game, including spamming the /shout chat so it was basically unusable. Now bots tend to only spam certain gil selling sites around main hubs, and they warp around underground to do MSQ stuff, always as blm lalafell

They used to be able to spam /tells as well. It was so bad that I knew plenty of PC players that actually downloaded a third party program known as Guildwork to completely block tells if they contained certain keywords or phrases set by the player. Shortly before Stormblood release, the SE staff disabled the ability for trial accounts to send /tells, which appears to have completely destroyed that intrusive advertising method. The creator of Guildwork hasn't updated the program since (and it no longer works for FF14 as far as I know), likely because the primary function is no longer needed.

I think that recently, the devs might have disabled their ability to send messages in /say as well, judging from the amount of players in Brayflox and below dungeons who don't type back when others ask them questions/try to give them advice regarding their skill usage, but the players are clearly behaving/gesturing as if they are listening. I haven't actually seen any bots advertising /say messages in Limsa as of late, unless they stopped advertising in Sargatanas entirely. These days, I only ever see adverts from trolls/moles in novice network inviting advert bots in before said bots are swiftly booted out.

[KageTokage]

I haven't actually seen any bots advertising /say messages in Limsa as of late, unless they stopped advertising in Sargatanas entirely. These days, I only ever see adverts from trolls/moles in novice network inviting advert bots in before said bots are swiftly booted out.

At least on Cactaur there's bots in Limsa hiding underneath the market board that still advertise via /say. They also speak proper English unlike the guys spamming shout chat so I'd assume they're a US group.

I've noticed there's two distinct groups of gil farm bots, as well. One is all Lalafells that use pure gibberish names, while there's another group that's all Hyurs who use names that incorporate random words in the gibberish.

[KisaiTenshi]

At least on Cactaur there's bots in Limsa hiding underneath the market board that still advertise via /say. They also speak proper English unlike the guys spamming shout chat so I'd assume they're a US group.

I've noticed there's two distinct groups of gil farm bots, as well. One is all Lalafells that use pure gibberish names, while there's another group that's all Hyurs who use names that incorporate random words in the gibberish.

That's exactly like on Excalibur, except the bots are behind the FC chest's in Ul'dah - Steps of Nald, and New Gridania. I haven't been able to locate them in Limsa Lominsa but it makes me think that they're all using the same bot software and there's at least three different bots.

[SaitoHikari]

At least on Cactaur there's bots in Limsa hiding underneath the market board that still advertise via /say. They also speak proper English unlike the guys spamming shout chat so I'd assume they're a US group.

I've noticed there's two distinct groups of gil farm bots, as well. One is all Lalafells that use pure gibberish names, while there's another group that's all Hyurs who use names that incorporate random words in the gibberish.

Right, so it seems more like they just stopped advertising entirely in Sarg (outside of the douchebag that keeps inviting bots into the novice network). Curious.

[MsQi]

They used to be able to spam /tells as well. It was so bad that I knew plenty of PC players that actually downloaded a third party program known as Guildwork to completely block tells if they contained certain keywords or phrases set by the player. Shortly before Stormblood release, the SE staff disabled the ability for trial accounts to send /tells, which appears to have completely destroyed that intrusive advertising method. The creator of Guildwork hasn't updated the program since (and it no longer works for FF14 as far as I know), likely because the primary function is no longer needed.

I think that recently, the devs might have disabled their ability to send messages in /say as well, judging from the amount of players in Brayflox and below dungeons who don't type back when others ask them questions/try to give them advice regarding their skill usage, but the players are clearly behaving/gesturing as if they are listening. I haven't actually seen any bots advertising /say messages in Limsa as of late, unless they stopped advertising in Sargatanas entirely. These days, I only ever see adverts from trolls/moles in novice network inviting advert bots in before said bots are swiftly booted out.

People on trial accounts can't use /tell. They also can't shout, trade, or use the market board. Just because people don't respond to a tell doesn't mean they are a bot. Paying players ignore unwelcome advice.

[KageTokage]

People on trial accounts can't use /tell. They also can't shout, trade, or use the market board.

If they really can't use /shout, that means that all the spammers that show up Limsa are paid accounts.

I feel like they have to be getting these accounts for free somehow, whether through credit card fraud or some other means because I seriously doubt they actually sell enough gil to cover the sub fees for several thousand bots on a weekly basis.