Does Square intend to address Market botting?

[Dragonkat]

I'm sitting here right now watching two bots undercut themselves by 1 gil over and over on rings of crafting. It's hilarious and sad because i'm in the middle not being able to sell a damn thing because i'm being undercut in seconds. the frustration is actually quite real. and a STF report has been sent for all the good it will probably too.

The kicker? One player is in topmast, the other is in Kholusia NOWHERE NEAR A BELL!

I mean for gods sake how much more obvious can the cheating get here?

As a legit crafter who basically is finding it impossible to sell a single damn high end item this is all kinds of stupid. Bout to just flood the market with super cheap Aesthete gear and say screw it. Any gil is better than none but this is ridiculous

[Kes13a]

I'm sitting here right now watching two bots undercut themselves by 1 gil over and over on rings of crafting. It's hilarious and sad because i'm in the middle not being able to sell a damn thing because i'm being undercut in seconds. the frustration is actually quite real. and a STF report has been sent for all the good it will probably too.

The kicker? One player is in topmast, the other is in Kholusia NOWHERE NEAR A BELL!

As a legit crafter who basically is finding it impossible to sell a single damn high end item this is all kinds of stupid. Bout to just flood the market with super cheap Aesthete gear and say screw it. Any gil is better than none but this is ridiculous

according to some, legit crafters apparently only care because we are exceedingly greedy.

but, how can someone change prices not near a bell? its easy, the crafter has an Fc with various... shall we say..members (usually below 30 that live by retainer bells) they are the bot marketers. the crafter can be anywhere and the bots just cycle in and out changing prices.

[Dragonkat]

according to some, legit crafters apparently only care because we are exceedingly greedy.

but, how can someone change prices not near a bell? its easy, the crafter has an Fc with various... shall we say..members (usually below 30 that live by retainer bells) they are the bot marketers. the crafter can be anywhere and the bots just cycle in and out changing prices.

Duh me, I should have thought of that.

Honestly either way though I just like selling things cheap anyway because the inflation on Bryn is stupid. I mean 300K for a Ase ring of crafting? At that point it's the crafters paradox, you need to craft to make money, but by the time you've made the money you pretty much can craft it yourself because it's cheaper AND easier. More so if you have a few friends like me who help you with the mats.

Of course we can probably thank the bots for some of that inflation too I imagine, but the fact the in game economy is pretty much busted for anyone trying to actually use it is... yeah... frustrating is the most diplomatic word i can use. Anything else would get me a forum ban.

[Prrringles]

...Bout to just flood the market with super cheap Aesthete gear and say screw it. Any gil is better than none but this is ridiculous

All i can say is: DO IT. Sell any item you craft with about 10-20k profit. You will still rake in millions this way. Just prepare to craft more because everything will sell fast. Bots won't go below a certain point. You will even have other crafters trying to buy you out, but just keep spamming those cheap items, you will be king/queen of the MB. Just don't expect any friend requests

[Dragonkat]

All i can say is: DO IT. Sell any item you craft with about 10-20k profit. You will still rake in millions this way. Just prepare to craft more because everything will sell fast. Bots won't go below a certain point. You will even have other crafters trying to buy you out, but just keep spamming those cheap items, you will be king/queen of the MB. Just don't expect any friend requests

So far i've got the bots down from 300K to 99K, they're persistent. Though I just realized my reports probably wont do much good since it's reporting the name of the crafter, not the name of the character that actually owns these retainer bots. but such is life. Least I get to see how far i can take this before moving on to make something else.

[Xoto]

Let's be real here. If there is a player who defends bots or says oh well. . . Than they either aren't affected and should stfu or they use bots themselves.

[Prrringles]

So far i've got the bots down from 300K to 99K, they're persistent. Though I just realized my reports probably wont do much good since it's reporting the name of the crafter, not the name of the character that actually owns these retainer bots. but such is life. Least I get to see how far i can take this before moving on to make something else.

Just keep going until they stop undercutting. Even if you make only a small profit. Once you reach that point, only you will make profit.

[Kes13a]

Let's be real here. If there is a player who defends bots or says oh well. . . Than they either aren't affected and should stfu or they use bots themselves.

dont worry Xoto, we have done that. they pretty much seem to be of the opinion that SE is doing all it can, and that any crafter who complains is just greedy

seems to be a bit misplaced since the sole purpose of using a bot is greed in the first place, generally most non cheating crafters just want a fair playing field and to be useful for what they produce.

[Xoto]

Bots are real and are preventing the enjoyment of aspects of the game. For those who go on these threads and make light of the problem... nixie and joy.... dont tell people how they should enjoy the game. And if you haven't been affected than this isn't the thread for you. We are all looking for a solution. The only way for that to happen is to make sure the developers know its affecting a portion of their player base.

[Jojoya]

The only way for that to happen is to make sure the developers know its affecting a portion of their player base.

Why do you assume they don't know? Because they haven't waved a magic wand yet that turns all the cheaters into honest players with positive ethics and integrity?

Trust me, they know.

I'm not trying to telling you how to play. I'm pointing out that botting is not something that is going to disappear. No matter how hard SE and other game development companies try to stop bot activity, the bot programs are not going to go away as long as people like to cheat.

I used to be one of those who raged and moaned over the existence of bots. It didn't do anything except make me more miserable.

I decided I'm not going to let it bother me anymore. If a bot moves in on what I'm selling, I switch to other stuff. If I have witnessed what I believe is undeniable proof that someone is botting, I will report that character and what I have observed.

A lot of the examples of bot activity I've seen in this thread are things that any player with enough time on their hands can do for themselves with an extra account to move items to. Other examples seem to be things more likely accomplished with the use of 3rd party mods similar to the auction house add-ons that WoW players have access to, not by bot programs or other form of automation. Still against ToS but SE has their don't ask don't tell policy and they seem disinclined to do anything about them unless they disrupt competitive balance, as we saw with the changes made after the last Ultimate race.

My stance will always be that if you want to get rid of the bots and RMT, get rid of the players who want to cheat in the first place. Without the cheaters, those things would quickly die due to the lack of customers. People need to stop making excuses for the cheaters. They need to stop associating with the cheaters.

Do what you feel you need to do.