Just had the most fascinating conversation with a GM

[ICountFrom0]

Apparently, even though there are enough bots in central shroud that the game is literally unable to be played, that nobody else can even enter the zone, GM's are not allowed to do anything.

They can't show up.

They can't view the list of players.

They can't view the list of events.

They can't help in any way at all.

A single person with a bot farm can cripple the game so badly that no new players can use a server at all, and the GM's are completely helpless.

If this is true, and not just a lazy GM unwilling to do the work, who do I go to get a refund? This is quite clearly not a functioning state.

[MomomiMomi]

Refund he says lol.

[Thamorian]

Yeah the in game GM's are not allowed to do anything about the bots. SE has a separate team for bot busting and bans them in waves to hinder bot creators from finding out how their bots were detected since SE uses mostly an automated system to detect bots. Having humans banning the bots one at a time while nice for optics, is not very efficient. Bots are created pretty fast and SE would need a lot of employees working to keep up, probably. RMT bots use stolen credit cards to buy the accounts so they don't care about the money/subscription lost from a banned bot.

[ICountFrom0]

A game that has GM's, that aren't allowed to even show up, to fix things.
Yes. The game is not a fit state. It is not the advertised product.
Am I supposed to never visit an ARR zone, ever, is that the only solution to trying to play this game?
Anywhere I want to go, might have thousands of bots sitting in it, taking up all possible player spots, and the GM's literally are not allowed to do anything about it. Or so they claim, that one might just need to be fired for refusing to do the job.

A simple DB query to get everybody standing at that pixel, a quick sweep to get everybody clipped outside of the world, teleport them all out into the "naughty player room" and boom, problem solved.

Only, they cannot. Not allowed. Not anymore.

What kind of game intentionally prevents the problem from being solved?

[ICountFrom0]

Yeah the in game GM's are not allowed to do anything about the bots. SE has a separate team for bot busting and bans them in waves to hinder bot creators from finding out how their bots were detected since SE uses mostly an automated system to detect bots. Having humans banning the bots one at a time while nice for optics, is not very efficient. Bots are created pretty fast and SE would need a lot of employees working to keep up, probably. RMT bots use stolen credit cards to buy the accounts so they don't care about the money/subscription lost from a banned bot.

This wasn't normal levels of bot storm. This was enough to prevent anybody from entering the entire zone. This was intentionally disabling the game and making it unsuitable for purpose.

You want "bad optics" I'll give you bad optics, any new player, attempting the very first quest, would be told "you can't enter". The game was broken. You think anybody starting up, seeing that, is going to stay, and pay for a subscription?

[Rivxkobe]

Is Hyperion really this much of a mess that you can't enter South Shroud because there are so many bots? I find this hard to believe honestly.

I can go anywhere and rarely encounter bots on Zalera.

"What kind of game intentionally prevents the problem from being solved?"

They don't. Someone already explained this so you are just being inflammatory now since ignorance is no longer an excuse.

[Thamorian]

A game that has GM's, that aren't allowed to even show up, to fix things.
Yes. The game is not a fit state. It is not the advertised product.
Am I supposed to never visit an ARR zone, ever, is that the only solution to trying to play this game?
Anywhere I want to go, might have thousands of bots sitting in it, taking up all possible player spots, and the GM's literally are not allowed to do anything about it. Or so they claim, that one might just need to be fired for refusing to do the job.

A simple DB query to get everybody standing at that pixel, a quick sweep to get everybody clipped outside of the world, teleport them all out into the "naughty player room" and boom, problem solved.

Only, they cannot. Not allowed. Not anymore.

What kind of game intentionally prevents the problem from being solved?

Now you're just being hyperbolic. Bots are only an issue in a few places in the low level zone. Personally I've never seen someone get locked out of a zone because of to many bots. Only place I've heard of that was overloaded with bots was Ampador Keep.

Also, how is it not in an advertised state? its not like there is game breaking bugs. SE never advertised FF14 being bot free so you can't claim that.

[Risvertasashi]

...I think that might be because it's the STF that's supposed to investigate and handle bots?

That said at times SE's response can be a little lackluster...

[ICountFrom0]

Is Hyperion really this much of a mess that you can't enter South Shroud because there are so many bots? I find this hard to believe honestly.

I can go anywhere and rarely encounter bots on Zalera.

"What kind of game intentionally prevents the problem from being solved?"

They don't. Someone already explained this so you are just being inflammatory now since ignorance is no longer an excuse.

Yes, it quite seriously is that bad. You get an error message when you try to enter the zone, unless you get lucky enough to be entering as one of the bots hits level 5 and teleports out.


And no, removing the bots "latter" on some other date, does not fix the problem of a zone too congested to enter, that isn't a solution to the trouble NOW. Just because you don't want to hear it, don't make things "solved".

[ICountFrom0]

Also, how is it not in an advertised state? its not like there is game breaking bugs.

Being unable to enter the zone is not an exaggeration. It is literally the state of Central shroud on hyperion. Not being able to go to the zone, is indeed a game breaking bug. The bots have made it impossible to play there. Anybody who wants, apparently, can do that at any time. For as long as they like. The gm's can't stop you. The game won't stop you. You can cripple it for as long as you like. Until the next "ban wave" in a few weeks, you can apparently do anything you want, as long as instead of doing it one at a time, you do it with a few hundred of bots.

This is the current state of the game, right here, and right now. Until the bots want you to be able to enter central shroud on hyperion, you will not, unless you get lucky. In a few levels, it'll be somewhere else. Next week it might be outside limsalimnisa.