I wish FF14 had a world chat

[Jkap_Goat]

FFXI has a world chat, you can tell from any main city, so for example, your in Jueno, you can shout and you friend ( whose in Windurst) will be able to see it, I don't know why this isn't a feature in XIV

[Liam_Harper]

I'd be all for it.

I don't get the attitude in this game of "no we shouldn't get any nice thing because there's a tiny chance it might be abused by a small fraction of players/bots". Any QoL or feature that could have the slightest negative use is instantly shot down.

[Lium]

It makes no sense that returners get an automatic invite to the NN, but brand spanking new players do not. That is some truly odd logic.

That said, these days everyone is on Discord it seems. Even my FC chat is dead for the most part because they're all on the FC Discord channel. I think they were talking about enabling Discord chat in-game, but not sure when that would be. And I feel like it wouldn't be allowed in FFXIV for some reason.

[MomomiMomi]

It makes no sense that returners get an automatic invite to the NN, but brand spanking new players do not. That is some truly odd logic.

It's because of RMT bots.

[Packetdancer]

It's because of RMT bots.

Specifically, if newbies were auto-joined, the RMT spammers would just make spambots and start spamming the NN instead of just spamming the local area around the aetheryte in hub cities. Returners are (presumably) real players who have previously paid and all, so you have reasonably solid evidence they’re not bots and thus safe to join to the NN.

Sadly, any really reliable method for preventing RMT bots from spamming the NN would require some form of human oversight and intervention to make sure they weren’t just a bot. Such as making the network invite-only.

[Snowdove]

Such as making the network invite-only.

The problem is, that keeps a lot of people out who need it.


Are RMT bots so bad that we want to hinder new people?

[MomomiMomi]

Are RMT bots so bad that we want to hinder new people?

Yes. Also, I don't know about your world, but on Behemoth our mentors regularly invite novices.

[Vaer]

The problem is, that keeps a lot of people out who need it.


Are RMT bots so bad that we want to hinder new people?

You can use Player Search to find every mentor on the server with the filter. Mentors can also use the New Adventurer filter to find them to invite. /shrug Just gotta take that first step to ask if you want in. The chat channel is persistent, so once you get in you don't need to find a mentor every time you login or need help (all of the ones that participate are in the channel, and when you ask a question all of them see it) unless you somehow get kicked of course or graduate.

It's obviously not perfect but it still serves to filter people that might do it for the lulz in a world chat and if needed people can kick annoyances out of the channel.

[Packetdancer]

The problem is, that keeps a lot of people out who need it.

I agree that's a huge problem; this solution isn't a good one. But...

Are RMT bots so bad that we want to hinder new people?

Unfortunately, they are that bad. The RMT spammer problem is worse on some servers than others, but even on Leviathan—which is not as bad as many, from what I hear—I can usually find 2-3 RMT bots shouting advertisements just near the aetheryte in Gridania during peak hours. If you gave them a place to reach a huge quantity of the playerbase all at once, the RMT bots would immediately start using it as well, and if the channel had even just 6 bots (conservative estimate, based on an assumption of two RMT spammer bots in each of the three starting hubs) each yelling their RMT advertisement every five minutes, the channel could rapidly become unpleasant to use. Yes, you could blacklist the bots as new ones cycled in, but it's likely a number of people would get tired of doing that and would just leave the channel (or start ignoring it). At which point the channel becomes useless... or at least, a lot less useful.

Anything you do which is an automated system to allow newbies onto the newbie network will allow the RMT bots. If you make it so you have to have run at least one dungeon... well, the RMT folks already have bots running dungeons to farm gil, so those qualify. (And also now it means the sprouts can't join the channel until their first dungeon.) If you make it so you need to get at least one commendation in the dungeons, they'll just write the bots to comm each other and then hurl them at the queue repeatedly until they're matchmade with each other. (And also now it means a sprout who's playing DPS might have to wait a long time before they can be invited.)

The invite system is basically a horrible compromise to keep the Newbie Network still functional at all.

[SamSmoot]

Are RMT bots so bad that we want to hinder new people?

For me, I immediately put my chat in battle mode when I'm in Limsa to hide the bots. (Side effect: I don't see anything other payers are saying / doing, but that's OK..)