What does it take to get the STF to actually act on a report for cheating/botting?

[KageTokage]

I ask because while they're clearly doing some work judging from the weekly illicit activity reports, I've literally never been able to get any of the bots on my server removed despite multiple years of repeatedly reporting the same individuals exhibiting obviously scripted behavior, following the exact same paths repeatedly, staying online for several days straight without any lulls in activity, etc.

I provide information about when they're active, what they're after, what zones they go to, as well all of the many traits that readily out them as bots, but that's clearly not enough information/evidence for them to think they're ban-worthy.

I've even gotten in touch with the GMs and asked them to forward a report to the STF after several attempts at a direct report yielded no fruit.

I don't know what kind of backwards screening process they're using, but simply looking at various player statistics like number of items gathered/crafted, FC credits earned, time played, etc, and comparing them to normal players would make it exceedingly obvious which players are cheating if the evidence available to the ones reporting them isn't convincing enough.


I'm getting very concerned about the rampant botting going on with 4.5 on the horizon, as the World Travel function going to allow them to extend their influence to other servers that may not have as much of a problem with them (If at all), particularly in regards to the economy where they try maintain a stranglehold by lowering the prices on everything to the point where legit players start feeling like it's not even worth the effort to gather/craft anything because of how little profit they make for the time investment.

I feel like this would not be nearly as much of an issue if they simply consolidated the GM and STF teams into one and gave several more people the power to investigate and ban suspicious players because if the credits are any indication, they're severely understaffed for how big of a game XIV has become.

I love this game and all, but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with how more and more people are resorting to bots to get an edge over those who actually have the time and/or dedication to do things manually, yet I continue to see no signs of actual improvement in how well they're being managed. It's gotten to a point where I've seen FCs actively encouraging new recruits to get involved in botting because of how rarely it's punished (Though obviously in places like Discord or their personal websites that are outside of the GM/STF's jurisdiction).

[KageTokage]

I'd appreciate an actual answer regarding this, because I'd think the GM team has to have some idea about what's going on behind the scenes with the STF to know what can actually help with getting offenders caught if nothing seems to be working.

This is why two way communication is normally standard when it comes to reporting because if you can't actually know why your reports aren't being considered valid, it makes it impossible to know what you need to do differently.

Even just since I made this post, multiple new bots have shown up on my server and it's honestly inexcusable for people to be getting away with cheating this frequently in a P2P MMO, especially when there's so much readily available evidence that can be used to identify them.

[Lucerna]

Likewise. I've lost track of how many bot reports I've made over the years, and the same bots are still pulling impossible hours on the same pixel-perfect paths.

[KageTokage]

Even some mentors in the Novice Network on my server are regularly pulling overnighters on ALC and/or DoL classes despite observably being active throughout the earlier hours of the day for 12+ hours or so.

The fact that they never get kicked for inactivity is rather telling as whether you're being flagged as AFK or not, you'll get removed from the NN for 30 minutes of inactivity regardless, meaning these players are constantly doing something all day long.

It makes it particularly annoying that these guys never get banned when they're putting themselves on a pedestal and making it even more obvious then usual that they're using bots.

[KageTokage]

It's pretty telling how bad this whole situation is when I've run into a FC that's actually afraid to remove a player who they're mostly convinced is botting (And I already know to be) on the grounds that they could potentially be punished by a GM if they decided to report them in retaliation and made claims that they were wrongly removed on accusations of botting.

The GMs can't actually conduct investigations for cheating, so if a botter gets salty about being "mistreated" because of their behavior and reports somebody, the report can only be taken at face value, as opposed to looking into matters on both ends before passing judgment. This almost ensures that the actual offenders are always going to be viewed as the victims in scenarios like this, which is quire frankly really messed up.

Having two distinct parties enforcing the ToS really doesn't make sense when it can create scenarios like this.