Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[KitKatnip]

I thought the purpose of having the Adjust Price feature was in part to combat the 1 gil underselling bots. Granted it would be a bit time consuming to keep up with all the time. However, I've noticed if I adjust my prices (and I do far more than 1 gil at a time) when stuff stops moving, I find then stuff starts selling again for a while. It slows down, repeat. It's not that difficult and would be a lot less annoying than paying a tax every time I need to adjust my listing price. I think having a tax that worked when you post an item would punish actual players far more than the annoying bots (which SE eventually deals with anyway).

[Jojoya]

I think having a tax that worked when you post an item would punish actual players far more than the annoying bots (which SE eventually deals with anyway).

That's part of why it feels like SE is always slow in tackling the bot issue. They need to find ways to do it that won't punish actual players at the same time. They also need to be reasonably certain actual players aren't getting caught up in any bot sweeps. As bot programming improves, the differences between bot behavior and player behavior get smaller.

[KageTokage]

I think having a tax that worked when you post an item would punish actual players far more than the annoying bots (which SE eventually deals with anyway).

Except they don't, and if anything they just give up because of pressure from other more oppressive bot farmers who have bigger farming operations that can devote separate characters to handling specific parts of the process (Gathering, crafting, then listing/undercutting, namely).

The treasure map bots have exploded in popularity presumably because the market has hit a breaking point where the sales aren't happening often to make competing with others worthwhile, so they're now relying more heavily on self-contained sources of income.

[Buena]

This right here. I made a few Aesthete's items to test the market out because I just recently started playing a few months ago and got back into omnicrafting. Coming from heavensward I could make a few of the high end pieces and list them and within 5-12 hours they would all sell pretty quickly. Now these items I've had up for 4-5 days now and everytime I go to adjust the price it's the same 3 or 4 retainers who are priced right under me and undercutting each other constantly by 1-10 gil. Everytime I adjust my price and then i'll say take a shower and come back, I've been undercut already. I've tried reducing the prices, but can't seem to find their floor. I gather 90% of my own materials most of the time so my profit margin is higher always and I don't mind selling even at 50% of what they list at, which I'm tempted to do just because I don't care about bots making gil it doesn't help my gameplay or my actual economy on my server.

[KageTokage]

The willingness of the bots to tank the prices into the sub 50K range if necessary made me decide it was probably more productive to just levespam at 20Kish gil per pop.

The thing that annoys me most about this whole situation is that it's not as though it couldn't be controlled if they could actually recognize and ban the bots, as it takes much longer for an omnicrafter bot to get itself established then the other types.

[Buena]

The willingness of the bots to tank the prices into the sub 50K range if necessary made me decide it was probably more productive to just levespam at 20Kish gil per pop.

The thing that annoys me most about this whole situation is that it's not as though it couldn't be controlled if they could actually recognize and ban the bots, as it takes much longer for an omnicrafter bot to get itself established then the other types.

Yep and for example I tanked prices and my items sold then the bots somehow magically just raised their prices back up. Or theirs sold also on a couple but I know they'll just make more cause they have multiple bots going at once for materials and crafting.

[Jojoya]

This right here. I made a few Aesthete's items to test the market out because I just recently started playing a few months ago and got back into omnicrafting. Coming from heavensward I could make a few of the high end pieces and list them and within 5-12 hours they would all sell pretty quickly. Now these items I've had up for 4-5 days now and everytime I go to adjust the price it's the same 3 or 4 retainers who are priced right under me and undercutting each other constantly by 1-10 gil. Everytime I adjust my price and then i'll say take a shower and come back, I've been undercut already. I've tried reducing the prices, but can't seem to find their floor. I gather 90% of my own materials most of the time so my profit margin is higher always and I don't mind selling even at 50% of what they list at, which I'm tempted to do just because I don't care about bots making gil it doesn't help my gameplay or my actual economy on my server.

Someone had tested the floors of their local market bots some months back and found them in the 30-50k range depending on the item. It could be even lower now with Endwalker getting close and material prices much lower than they were at that time.

You're also jumping in at a point where demand is low because it's end of expansion. While we got a lot of new players over the summer, not many seem to be jumping into crafting hardcore and it makes no sense for them to spend a lot of gil (which they don't have much of yet) on gear they're going to replace in less than two months. That's going to make it harder to sell.

[ForteNightshade]

The willingness of the bots to tank the prices into the sub 50K range if necessary made me decide it was probably more productive to just levespam at 20Kish gil per pop.

The thing that annoys me most about this whole situation is that it's not as though it couldn't be controlled if they could actually recognize and ban the bots, as it takes much longer for an omnicrafter bot to get itself established then the other types.

If they simply did a mass sweep without any prior warning, that alone would scare off a good number of players. Actual player boys have become such a problem lately simply because they know SE won't do a damn thing.

Yep and for example I tanked prices and my items sold then the bots somehow magically just raised their prices back up. Or theirs sold also on a couple but I know they'll just make more cause they have multiple bots going at once for materials and crafting.

To quote someone I once did ucob with whose friend botted. "I could crash the pot market to 100 gil if I really wanted to. It's still profit for me."

Until SE actually starts doing something, there isn't anything people can do. Bots have essentially infinite resources.

[Kes13a]

Someone had tested the floors of their local market bots some months back and found them in the 30-50k range depending on the item. It could be even lower now with Endwalker getting close and material prices much lower than they were at that time.

You're also jumping in at a point where demand is low because it's end of expansion. While we got a lot of new players over the summer, not many seem to be jumping into crafting hardcore and it makes no sense for them to spend a lot of gil (which they don't have much of yet) on gear they're going to replace in less than two months. That's going to make it harder to sell.

they are definitely lower now, I recently was testing, and on Zalera, the floor seems to be in the 20-30k range, but we are also at the very tail end, so sale son Exarchic wont be high anyway.

what I DID notice was the floor on Urban items seems to be around 800k for the boots and 900k for the coat. but then shell leather here is around 330k still so generally those would be expected to be higher.

[Kes13a]

I still say, if they want to combat the bots... punish the buyers. players create the bot issue by buying gil and services, so... penalize the people causing the problem and the bot issue starts to dry up with less customers. follow the gil SE.... follow the gil.