Please add something to FFXIV that disables 3rd party software interactions.

[Granyala]

Sarcasm doesn't translate well over text.

It was pretty damn obvious to me and I actually chuckled.

[SenorPatty]

where does the genderlock debate fit into this? :^)

Genderlock debates has gotta be relevant for a minimum of one year. Then it graduates and gets a spot in the alumni of never-ending topics. Or at least until Principal Yoshida takes a complete black or white stance about it, where then it gets demoted and floats up during the (game) drought season.

[Josco]

It would make botting a lot harder. I wouldn't be sad to see parsing go, either.

All your combat log data is saved to your PC. Parsers simply take this file and read it real-time for you. It's not cheating, it doesn't violate the TOS, and it is a great tool to use if you want to get better...if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Now to the real point--no, you can't hide from it. You can choose to improve or not, but wanting it eliminated so you can hide subpar performance is not happening. As Fleece Johnson puts it, "The choice is yaaaaws."

[Vivi_Bushido]

The problem with disabling third party tools is it'd have to include all of them. Bots, parses, textures, reshades, screen shot filters, clothing mods, body mods, auto hotkey mods, ect. You get the point. If they did something that detected one, they'd have to eliminate them all; and as much as the community hates bots, there is an even bigger community that utilizes the rest of them. There would huge repercussions for disabling them. And you better believe that a LOT of people would in-fact unsub if they lost access to all third party tools. Even if they did actually go through with this, people would scout ways to counter it so that they'd still have these tools. Unless you brought the legal system down upon people which is impossible given international waters; these things are forever here to stay. Especially as long as people are receiving donations for making these tools from their supporters.

[Mihana]

On the matter of parsers I'm somewhat in favor of them if people wanna use them for personal improvements providing they don't use it to harass others. Parse to your heart's content but keep the results to yourself unless asked. That's all I ask.

[RoyalBeef]

On the matter of parsers I'm somewhat in favor of them if people wanna use them for personal improvements providing they don't use it to harass others. Parse to your heart's content but keep the results to yourself unless asked. That's all I ask.

Results are just numbers. Anyone can scroll through battle chat, add up all the damage a person did, then divide it by encounter time. I don't see how that is harrassment. The only person that would call that harrassment would be the one that already knows they are bad but is hoping to get away with it. Now they feel harrassed bc they have to step up their game or find another party to do stuff with, until they get caught again.
By that logic you wouldnt be allowed to call out undergeared tanks for their low hp and lack of defense either, those are numbers as well, only that the game already did the conveniet math for you so you can see the actual numbers faster :P

[Zfz]

Is it even possible, though, from a systems engineering point of view? Things like:

• Is it possible for an application to tell whether one specific input action received is automated or human? For example FFXIV currently accepts input from Windows TSF services, which itself could possibly be considered a third party tool.
• Is it possible for an application ito hide its network traffic such that not even the operating system can inspect it? Because if the OS can inspect it, then any tool that gets Administrator priviledge necessarily will be able to inspect the traffic.
• Even if all of the above are possible in practice, what are the ramifications and impact to the system while the game is running? Would FFXIV have to literally take over the whole system and the only way to interact with anything other than FFXIV is to log-off and close FFXIV?

I suppose if FFXIV is ran inside a sandbox pre-configured by Square Enix to allow only FFXIV to run, it may be possible? But I feel this is going beyond what a game company is capable of and is more likely done for software that requires the highest security, for example financial institute authentication service applications.

[RoyalBeef]

Original Everquest operated like that, was only runnable in Fullscreen and as soon as you tried to tab out or run other applications you got disconnected. It was an unpleasent user experienced to say the least. They even added an ingame MP3playerso you couldlisten to music at least lol.

[HWalsh]

Is it even possible, though, from a systems engineering point of view? Things like:

• Is it possible for an application to tell whether one specific input action received is automated or human? For example FFXIV currently accepts input from Windows TSF services, which itself could possibly be considered a third party tool.
• Is it possible for an application ito hide its network traffic such that not even the operating system can inspect it? Because if the OS can inspect it, then any tool that gets Administrator priviledge necessarily will be able to inspect the traffic.
• Even if all of the above are possible in practice, what are the ramifications and impact to the system while the game is running? Would FFXIV have to literally take over the whole system and the only way to interact with anything other than FFXIV is to log-off and close FFXIV?

I suppose if FFXIV is ran inside a sandbox pre-configured by Square Enix to allow only FFXIV to run, it may be possible? But I feel this is going beyond what a game company is capable of and is more likely done for software that requires the highest security, for example financial institute authentication service applications.

There are things that can be done. The real problem is that anything done can be worked around.

So, here is an example:

To combat RMT bots - You have to cancel any and all free trial time abilities. If every account costs $60 to start (the price of the game) then it becomes less feasible to make it work.

Even then, if it is profitable enough, people would still do it.

Another thing to do is cut the inflation off at the knees. People resort to RMT because they don't want to grind for months to afford one thing off the market boards.

I grind ore sales out and in my whole time playing I've only made about 3 million gil. When there are market items in the 30 million gil range it means those are simply things I'll never get.

So a combination of price controls and removing free accounts are the best way to combat bots. This has a higher chance of working than any software solution.

[RoyalBeef]

So a combination of price controls...

No. Have you every played BDO? That is the worst system ever. A friend has a spare weapon they want to give you to get you started?Well too bad, there's no private trading, and MB prices are set so he has to put it up for sale for a price you cannot pay. And even if you can, purchases are randomized along all poitential buyers, so GL sniping that item when 20other ppl want to buy it as well and it's random who gets it. it's the worst. There is already too little player interaction, taking away the private exchange of items/gil, including fc chests etc surely wont make the game any better,