Lack of action against gathering bots, it needs to be changed, and soon

[KageTokage]

The aethersand bots are usually not involved in RMT and are simply owned by greedy players who want free gil at the expense of every legitimate crafter/gatherer on the market.

I can't help but be suspicious of the "obviously an alt account" ones that only have one combat class maxed and are using generic character creator names, though.

[Nedkel]

if they put a fraction of the resources aimed to crack down on "harassment" towards this, it would no longer be a problem.

But if they do so, how would they sustain another useless "FFXV" failure project?

Why should they reasonably upgrade their living and most popular game, when they could just burn the cash away in the camp fire for employees who work on another "genius unpotimised, 1 button gameplay triple A no scam" game?

[Oxidized]

The aethersand bots are usually not involved in RMT and are simply owned by greedy players who want free gil at the expense of every legitimate crafter/gatherer on the market.

I tend to agree, although I do report them for RMT if their operation is large enough to justify looking into it, and I report them for harassment if they are there 9 times (usually 10 times) out of 10 when I am, as well.

I mean, a lot of people have stated that it is a fruitless endeavor and a pipe dream to see actions being taken against reported bots, and I agree with them...which is exactly why I made this topic in the first place. Every change that is made is born from small steps, and if I can get even one person to become aware of how thankless the DOH/DOL aspect of the game has become, I will feel happy to have played a role in it.

It is infeasible to ask FF14 to install thourough, seamless measures against cheating and install personnel to keep a vigilant eye over the community at all times. However, it is not too much to ask for them to look into bots that are outed not because of FF14's sophisticated detection measures, but because of legitimate crafters/gatherers taking their own time and efforts to try to clean up the community.

I have wasted hours trying to defeat these cheaters, and will probably waste another hour or two until my sub runs out. I can only hope that awareness of this issue continues to grow, before they completely alienate a large portion of their playerbase.

[KageTokage]

I've more or less given up on trying to sell any kind of mainstream crafts because of the bots already.

The newest face on our server is single-handedly ruining the market by doing an endless loop of gathering from an unspoiled node then undercutting everyone who tries to sell lower then him until the next node spawns, then repeat basically 24/7 outside of the periods where he goes on a crafting binge.

[NanaWiloh]

I was in Limsa earlier tonight crafting bluespirit sycthes for leve's. Using 80 dur macro I got from a very well written and detailed crafting guide. My stats exceed what the guide recommends so I HQ 99% of the time with it even when using NQ mats. Well another player stopped at one point and watched me for a good 5 minutes straight. It was really nerve racking cause felt like I was going to get reported for botting. Knowing botting is a problem just added to the fear..

[KageTokage]

You don't have much to worry about if you get reported and aren't actually botting considering that they almost never ban the people who get reported and are botting.

[Oxidized]

I was in Limsa earlier tonight crafting bluespirit sycthes for leve's. Using 80 dur macro I got from a very well written and detailed crafting guide. My stats exceed what the guide recommends so I HQ 99% of the time with it even when using NQ mats. Well another player stopped at one point and watched me for a good 5 minutes straight. It was really nerve racking cause felt like I was going to get reported for botting. Knowing botting is a problem just added to the fear..

You have nothing to worry about, and the last thing you should be is fearful given my testimony; I cannot get a bot I report 5 times per DAY who is gathering 23/7 (because I assume they need to post on the MB sometime) who lists thousands of aethersands on Zalera, Malboro, Brynhildr, and Goblin at cut-rate prices DAILY banned or even looked into.

Nobody is going to report you for pressing a crafting macro unless you are literally there every single day at all hours crafting in the exact same spot...and even if you did that, nothing would likely happen as a result of the report.

[Enla]

You don't have much to worry about if you get reported and aren't actually botting considering that they almost never ban the people who get reported and are botting.

This. I've had friends threatened to be reported even though they aren't botting and nothing has come from it. Though it's always hilarious hearing or watching the reaction of the person instigating when they realize they're accusing someone wrongly and back off before it gets that far. On the other side the same botters who were selling crystals by the stack full back in ARR are still plugging along now, several years later. SE just doesn't care enough about this matter to do anything and I think the only people who get banned for it were the ones foolish enough to admit to botting in game where other people could see it. Even then it's rare for punishments to actually go out.

[KageTokage]

I see scattered stories from botters who got banned out of blue without making a peep about their activities and who were using the same programs that generally do not get caught, so they do actually ban people but their criteria for doing so seems extremely strict for it to happen so rarely.

I can't help but wonder how much miscommunication from the English side of things to the STF is a factor in that. They seriously need a western division to lighten their workload since they're probably too busy picking through the endless waves of gil farmers to give them other types of bots much attention.

[Vnolan]

I feel like someone needs to bring this subject up in an interview or something where they can't simply ignore it.

They won't give a straight answer as "we can't detect them"and "they aren't a priority" would have more people botting.

The last time we actually got an official response was several months ago in a live letter where the question was wrongly read as bots being a problem in PvP specifically when the original question in the Q&A thread referred to them as a problem in general.

Already have one example of deflection.

The Raiders selling clears and Savage drops on the PF for Paypal Transfers, that's RMT right there. Customers pay them RL money and in return they get clears and Savage drops. Literally no difference between them and the Aethersand bots.

There is no cheating involved and it doesn't affect the gameplay of others. The amount of gil that can be made through crafting and especially gathering is greatly reduced because of the bots.

The aethersand bots are usually not involved in RMT and are simply owned by greedy players who want free gil

so they can sell it for real money.