Destroying Server Economies

[aesteval]

Have a feeling they are working towards systems in the expansion that make botting much harder to do especially with Crafters. They hinted at an endgame crafting system that's the equivalent of raids. Will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Wasn't the "savage" crafting content mentioned in relation to the restoration of Ishgard? Or some other content that would reward like a title and nothing else? They don't want the commodity crafting to be too hard, they want to bring more people into that market for price competition.

[ExKage]

The fact that the bots are able to control even just the markets for mainstream items like crafted gear and infusions is enough of a problem as that's where the vast majority of gil is being spent.

I've also noticed a slow, but definite increase in the number of bots on my server as time has gone on, too, and not just transfers from other servers as I've spotted a number being leveled up from scratch.

I hadn't seen bots in the wild in a long time since early 2.0 on Balmung but last weekend I've noticed a lot of bots leveling out in the open (along with teleporting shenanigans) in East Shroud near Hawthorne Hut / Little Solace.

To be honest, I know a lot of NA doesn't like it or consider it right but I remember hearing that many of the worlds on JP servers have their market economies very similar and level. There isn't the level of price disparity there as it is on our markets.

[Vahlnir]

I don't think this is really going to destroy anything. Personally I don't think too many people are going to go through the trouble of shopping around different servers for most things. I know I won't. But for those who do some prices may even out which I think was the intention behind this.

[LalaRu]

Not only that. People on the smaller worlds would have to server hop all the time to adjust their prices if they want to sell something. Sounds extremly annoying.

Well, if you are listing items for millions Gil, it is worth the time. I'd sure won't jump to see if my batch of ten 15 Gil items is sold at 14 there.

[aesteval]

What if they took a system like those mining minigames in the gold saucer. I imagine it's pretty dang hard to bot those successfully. Even harder if they combined it with timed nodes. Just add something very active on high value rare nodes that makes it very difficult if not impossible to bot.

In the beginning of Heavensward we had the favor system for end game gathering. The only thing these sort of things actually impede are actual players. Bots go 24 / 7 and can keep going 24 / 7 even if they lose some efficiency over esoteric mechanics. Players always get hit.

[Angelov-Mercy]

The fact that the bots are able to control even just the markets for mainstream items like crafted gear and infusions is enough of a problem as that's where the vast majority of gil is being spent.

I've also noticed a slow, but definite increase in the number of bots on my server as time has gone on, too, and not just transfers from other servers as I've spotted a number being leveled up from scratch.

Is this what you are talking about?

A bunch of guys with funny, unpronounceable names are currently running around...there are like 6 to 8 of them atm.

[Vnolan]

Just checked out that new tool and saw the vast majority of infusions on Gilgamesh are being sold by bots lol. Also saw someone buy from a bot and relist on their low-pop server for almost 3x the price.

I don't think this is really going to destroy anything.

Of course not. The problem is a much higher percentage of goods will be acquired through "illegal" means. It's hypocritical for people to be against the use of bots but then look the other way when it can benefit them.

[Enla]

-snip-
A bunch of guys with funny, unpronounceable names are currently running around...there are like 6 to 8 of them atm.

Those are gil farming bots from the looks of it, judging by what I think is the BLM staff. They farm gil usually one mob at a time and aid gil sellers. The bots that control marketboards generally are gathering and crafting bots. The latter of which is hard to prove, and the former of which is easier but SE is chronically allergic to investigating them even with video evidence, which they often dismiss. (Gathering bots can't jump and they always use the same path with no deviations. They're hilariously easy to spot once you know what to look for.)

[Vahlnir]

Just checked out that new tool and saw the vast majority of infusions on Gilgamesh are being sold by bots lol. Also saw someone buy from the bot and relist on their low-pop server for almost 3x the price.


Of course not. The problem is a much higher percentage of goods will be acquired through "illegal" means. It's hypocritical for people to be against the use of bots but then look the other way when it can benefit them.

Yeah, they need to get a handle on the bot situation for sure. If anything this made the situation a bit worse. If they weren't such an influence the World Visit system would probably be working swimmingly. I would think that the problem is a lot harder to ignore now on SE's end but they stuck their heads in the sand for years and have yet to resurface so...I doubt things will change.

[kidalutz]

I like to believe that Square Enix has destroyed individual server economies now. i'm an omnicrafter on Diabolos, and no one is going to buy things for the prices crafters have set here because you can get it cheaper on Balmung. It's a HUGE slap to the face. This is the ONLY thing I'm upset about with the update, otherwise the world visiting system is great.

Having seen the prices on Diabolos MB I can only say Lucky Diabolos players nobody should have to pay 3x as much as the second highest mb center.