Level 70 gathering bots go unpunished

[Hyperia]

I have a feeling that SE is sorta trapped in their current crafting situation. If they were to exterminate all of the bots, then crafting in its current form may become unsustainable due to supply costs skyrocketing and crashing the market. Because of this, they just turn a blind eye to the whole botting system on the crafting side. I have read about the sophistication of the bots in the media and they are getting to an amazing level. The amount of resources that SE would need to invest to capture these automatons would be incredible. I'm not fond of botting in any way and wish people would not do it but I don't see any way for SE to stop the current generation of bots with the resources they have.

[Alucard135]

If they were to exterminate all of the bots, then crafting in its current form may become unsustainable due to supply costs skyrocketing and crashing the market. Because of this, they just turn a blind eye to the whole botting system on the crafting side.

What if SE was to make its own bot system in the game for these kind of stuff? In a game called Forsaken world, they literally give you the tools to make your own combat bot for quests that asks you to kill 200 mobs.

[KisaiTenshi]

What if SE was to make its own bot system in the game for these kind of stuff? In a game called Forsaken world, they literally give you the tools to make your own combat bot for quests that asks you to kill 200 mobs.

Mabinogi let you script your pets in a way that Nexon had to nerf because people used it to harass others by "following" people not in the party and such. Modders quickly nerfed those limits.

That's why you don't see this kind of thing, despite it probably being the next best way to destroy the illicit tools market. Basically create an "online-idle" script that switches the player into a mode that allows the game client to execute certain things depending on what job the player is currently as:

- DoW/DoM = Player will start participating in FATES in the zone, or doing any currently pending combat Leves according to a combat script defined per role by the player.
- DoH = Player will produce gear using a specific series of steps until X amount is in the inventory, or until all materials in inventory have been exhausted, if all materials exhausted but space is available, attempt to buy materials under a ceiling price.
- DoL = Player will start gathering specific items a specific way until X amount is in the inventory, or until the shopping list is full.
- DoW/DoM/DoH/DoL without sufficient inventory space = Player will check their shopping list (buy and sell) and attempt to sell all items on their sell list in order of priority.

Offline-Idle mode will not participate in parties, nor attack anything they haven't been specifically set to "KoS" (Kill on Sight). Anything set to KoS, activates whatever macro the player defined for KoS'ing that target.

An RP mode could also extend that to housing zones so that a player can target a "RP - Shop" player who owns the house and will be able to pay for any services the player is capable of (eg "I have X materials, I want a Y, how much?", "repair this for me", "meld this materia to X for me") along with being able to sell any materials or items that aren't market prohibited in the players inventory. An "Appriase" skill would need to be added.

I'd like to extend that to a full "merchant" class/job that is scriptable with buy and sell tables, but I think the problem with that is there are players who would just sit there with a multi-box setup and take up all the best spots all week like what happened in Mabignogi. Of course that can be made harder by creating a license system so that a player can only sell items of a certain level in places that are that level, so no selling HW items outside Limsa Lominsa or Mor Dhona. If you want to sell items in the back of a cave, that's cheaper than being able to sell them near a sanctuary. You'd get those licenses from the same NPC that does the leves since it's essentially a "merchent leve".

Anyway, it's all a lot more complicated for normal users. Players who enjoy programming or role playing might get a kick out of having their player avatar do certain things, but it might also just get old and stale fast, and then we're back to just lazy bots drowning the market.

[Liam_Harper]

I have a feeling that SE is sorta trapped in their current crafting situation. If they were to exterminate all of the bots, then crafting in its current form may become unsustainable due to supply costs skyrocketing and crashing the market. Because of this, they just turn a blind eye to the whole botting system on the crafting side.

I doubt it. This would imply that bots are necessary to maintain a stable economy.

Crafted items wouldn't skyrocket. It's not like there aren't crafters in the game, quite a large number of players enjoy it. If supply ever dropped, crafters would see a profitable market, move in and competition would settle prices down fast. You just wouldn't get Rakshasa for below material cost and 4k gil endgame consumables anymore.

[KageTokage]

Trying to offload that much work onto such a small team, let alone a foreign one we can't necessarily even communicate with properly is honestly ridiculous with how much bigger their GM team is.

I'm assuming this is just another side effect of SE trying to fund XIV as little as possible.

I have a feeling that SE is sorta trapped in their current crafting situation. If they were to exterminate all of the bots, then crafting in its current form may become unsustainable due to supply costs skyrocketing and crashing the market. Because of this, they just turn a blind eye to the whole botting system on the crafting side. I have read about the sophistication of the bots in the media and they are getting to an amazing level. The amount of resources that SE would need to invest to capture these automatons would be incredible. I'm not fond of botting in any way and wish people would not do it but I don't see any way for SE to stop the current generation of bots with the resources they have.

While XIV bots can execute some pretty complicated scripts, they're still terrible at making themselves not stand out like a sore thumb, and even if they weren't obvious, the sheer amount of time they spend online and active is still a giveaway. The GMs wouldn't need anything more then their eyes and a few PMs to determine whether or not someone is botting.

Also, the whole situation with bots and crafting/gathering isn't quite that simple. A lot of people back out from crafting/gathering to make gil specifically because the bots have tanked prices to the point where it's scarcely worth the effort. Get rid of the bots and more people will be gathering/crafting again.

[KageTokage]

Honestly, as long as people can still make a profit from crafting, the supply costs are reasonable. If people don't like the costs, then they'll just gather mats themselves until the prices tank because nobody wants to buy anything.

I was able to move aethersands at a decent clip for 5K each when SB first dropped, but the bots swiftly crashed it all the way down to 1.5K within a few weeks of them becoming active.

[Krojack]

Honestly, as long as people can still make a profit from crafting, the supply costs are reasonable. If people don't like the costs, then they'll just gather mats themselves until the prices tank because nobody wants to buy anything.

I was able to move aethersands at a decent clip for 5K each when SB first dropped, but the bots swiftly crashed it all the way down to 1.5K within a few weeks of them becoming active.

This kind of thinking is what kills gathering. I've never been a big fan of crafting in most games. I've always enjoyed gathering more and used it as my income. How would you feel if there were crafting bots non-stop spitting out gear and making the market on that tank?

[KageTokage]

This whole situation is extra concerning now that we know World Travel is going to be a thing. There'll be literally no reason for people not just seek out the cheapest items with the aid of marketboard databases, which is going to shift even more sales to the bot farmers.

This kind of thinking is what kills gathering. I've never been a big fan of crafting in most games. I've always enjoyed gathering more and used it as my income. How would you feel if there were crafting bots non-stop spitting out gear and making the market on that tank?

Uh...what are you getting at exactly?

I was making a counterstatement to the people claiming that the economy would get messed up if the gathering bots were eliminated when the exact opposite would happen, since if legit players sell stuff at prices that are too high, people simply won't buy them, so prices will eventually normalize until both gatherers and crafters can be satisfied. Right now, the trend I'm seeing is that the prices on gathered items are so low that it's not worth the effort. The only fluctuations that occur are a result of the bot farmers noticing that they've scared off their competition which leads to them occasionally jacking up the prices until people catch on, after which they'll tank everything down to uncomfortable lows again.

And there already are crafting bots tanking prices on pretty much every server. Either yours is lucky or you just haven't noticed them yet.

FFXIV is a product/service created and maintained for what purpose? To make money for SE. Going after bots would cost money and it would result in players getting banned, which would result in fewer subs and less money generated. What would the benefits be to SE if they did it? None. Almost no one is going to unsub because of bots at their current numbers and it won't attract more subs. SE doesn't care because there is no incentive to.

You could apply this logic to every MMO in the market, yet some like WoW still make an active effort to actually control their issues with cheaters because they know it can potentially turn people away or discourage them from even starting.

XIV is easily the most negligent P2P MMO I've encountered when it comes to this matter, but who knows whether it's due to incompetence or an actual lack of concern because we already know they have serious communication issues between their staff from how long it took them to address the Ungarmax glitch.

[Vnolan]

XIV is easily the most negligent P2P MMO I've encountered when it comes to this matter, but who knows whether it's due to incompetence or an actual lack of concern

72-hour ban for botting makes it easy to see which.

[Melondra]

They need to do what they did in Final Fantasy XI Online ban about 7-12,000 people per week, they literly almost completely eliminated RMT in that game.