New Trend? RMT using MAR bots

[HaelseMikiro]

Just came back from an afk to find the camera centered on some Hyur MRD-bots stacked together underground by the Aetheryte Plaza. Not exactly revolutionary, but I was surprised to see an RMT operator going the WAR route instead of the usual BLM or BRD. Maybe they're not picked up in the normal bot catching algorithms and this is why the weekly number of bans suddenly dropped from 30k to 3k?

[Canadane]

The abbreviation is MRD.

[Claviusnex]

The spam bots been MRD on my server for as long as I can remember.

[KageTokage]

This isn't new at all. MRDs are traditionally used as RMT spam bots due to them starting off in Limsa Lominsa. The ones hiding under the floor are free accounts, as they're only able to advertise in /say. The shout spammers that stay out in the open are paid accounts.

The silly thing is that they apparently updated the spam filter again so now they need to break up their spam with so many random characters that it's now a totally garbled, nigh incomprehensible mess that I don't think most players would even bother trying to read.

I'm also pretty sure they don't have any kind of "algorithm" for banning gil farm bots, because they're extremely inconsistent about how often they get banned. Sometimes, they scarcely last a week; other times, they're able to exist for over a month.

[Iscah]

I think that looks like one character, not a stack. (Unless it was more obvious in motion?)

[Bacent]

I think that looks like one character, not a stack. (Unless it was more obvious in motion?)

They said they were underground

[HaelseMikiro]

I think that looks like one character, not a stack. (Unless it was more obvious in motion?)

Yes, it was more obvious in motion, I think when I used the Player Search function it was actually 4-5 level 1 MRD together.

This isn't new at all. MRDs are traditionally used as RMT spam bots due to them starting off in Limsa Lominsa. The ones hiding under the floor are free accounts, as they're only able to advertise in /say.

I see, thanks. I wasn't actually paying attention to the chat log to see if the spammer names matched up with the results from player search or not. I used to see a fair number of ARC bots farming mobs while underground and arbitrarily assumed these MRDs were a new string of farm bots as well, but I guess it'd make zero sense for them to be placed where they are if that was the case. I'd be a bit surprised if /say chat can reach the MB from that spot, unless they actually teleport under the MB long enough to spam before porting back to their safe spot.

The abbreviation is MRD.

[Lunalepsy]

That is so creepy.

[KageTokage]

That is so creepy.

Not as creepy as the piles of BLM/WHM bots hiding inside of the wall behind the FC chest in the Immortal Flames/Twin Adders HQ.

[Lubu_Mykono]

We seem them all over the place on my server late at night just teleporting and farming stuff in some of the smaller zones. I've reported it when I was a sprout thinking it makes a difference, and maybe it does but there is so much of it nowadays you just leave it alone.

Whoever is doing it will keep doing it, since they just need to create free accounts. I wish that SqEnix made accounts be tied to a financial payment or something even on the F2Ps that get refunded if you don't like it, cause at least then you can track the RMT accounts.