The bot problem is rising and real.

[Mirhd]

They could realistically put the whole botting problem on ice by reworking the enemy AI to reset if it detects that their targeted player is out of bounds or otherwise in a location they cannot actually path to.

Their success shoulders entirely on the fact that they can kill literally everything without need of a tank due to being able to go out of bounds to avoid damage.

I don't understand why SE haven't just made it so you die instantly if the game detects you're out of bounds... No, it wouldn't kill botting outright, but it'd certainly make a dent in that garbage at the least...

[Tiraelina]

You don't even need to be in-game to see it in action.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/community/

[Mirhd]

You don't even need to be in-game to see it in action.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/community/

... Wow. I rarely ever visit Lodestone community pages, so I had no idea there were so many bot FCs. Keyboard smash names as well... not even trying to hide themselves. I don't know whether to be impressed at their persistence, or depressed that SE really isn't taking this as seriously as they should. Rampant botting at this level isn't a good look for them as a company. >_>

[Hash_Browns]

You don't even need to be in-game to see it in action.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/community/

Why are bots even forming FCs?

[SomeRandomHuman]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

craft/gather bot FCs so they can operate more privately.

craft bots do all their crafting and such in there while gather bots dump the mats in the box and/or trade amongst each other. There was a post in this thread that broke it down more in-depth.

[Mirhd]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

For the FC EXP Action, I'd image. The quicker they level their clone derplander BMs, the sooner they can get to spamming dungeons for gil.

Above poster beat me to it.

[KageTokage]

Why are bots even forming FCs?

All types of bots benefit from having access to a FC chest for easy item/gil transfers.

For each bot you need to have an active subscription, no? So first they need to buy the game, then get a subscription, and then carry out their activities. Doesn't that mean the people behind these bots make sufficient money through RMT profit from the initial investment? And, would they running multiple instance of the game on a single machine or would they require separate machines?

I imagine people already know this but bots are just the outcome when the disease is something else altogether.

Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

[Hash_Browns]

Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

This reminds me of a similar situation that happened with RS years, and year ago.
They had to remove free trade because bots were killing the game.

RuneScape had such a bot problem that banks threatened Jagex.
Either stop the CC fraud, or they will refuse Jagexs transactions all together.

Jagex was forced so have a dedicated bot busting team, and continues to do so to this day because of how bad it hurt the game.

[Moonlite]

Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

You might not have been around, but this is why we had crysta. It was a super complicated system where we put our credit cards into a 3rd party website to purchase crysta to then purchase time. SE has had a lot of trouble with charge backs since 11.

[boldpaste2]

All types of bots benefit from having access to a FC chest for easy item/gil transfers.



Someone actually mentioned that their bank straight-up blocked transactions with SE presumably because of all the chargeback fraud the bots were doing.

Got a call from my bank asking if the monthly charge was from me. They said they got a huge number of charge backs from SE. I would say its a huge problem that square needs to take seriously. Probably first need to implement fraud protection which hopefully gets rid of a handful of bots...