Is it OK to use bots in FFXIV?

[Liam_Harper]

Agreed, I expect the window for profit on 5.3 gear won't even last a week and will be much smaller than previous patches and 5.4 will maybe last a few days. It's bot heaven really, easy to craft endgame gear in good demand made from easy to bot mats.

There has been a gathering bot on Zodiark for months now. I caught them in a dismounting/mounting loop at a timed node for 16 minutes straight and unresponsive, reported it, they're still there. It also seems their bot is capable of Extracting materia, so I assume craft bots are capable of the same, which is why grade 7 and 8 materia is almost worthless compared to the past.

They couldn't have set things up better for the bots. I'm baffled why they basically ripped DoH/DoL from those who enjoyed it and handed it over to bots.

[KageTokage]

As much as some people loathe them, I feel like making expert recipes standard for high-end crafts would help to remove the stranglehold the bots have on the economy because while you can macro them to minimum collectability, that would equate to a rather pathetic HQ chance on a standard recipe.

I'm feeling fairly convinced that almost anything is possible for a bot after seeing a whole team of them farming phantasmagoria tomestones, though...

[Espritduo]

As much as some people loathe them, I feel like making expert recipes standard for high-end crafts would help to remove the stranglehold the bots have on the economy because while you can macro them to minimum collectability, that would equate to a rather pathetic HQ chance on a standard recipe.

I'm feeling fairly convinced that almost anything is possible for a bot after seeing a whole team of them farming phantasmagoria tomestones, though...

As someone who plans to have the Pteranodon mount by the end of this weekend (in other words, thousands of expert crafts under my belt), I both agree and disagree with experts being the "norm" for high-end crafts. I currently have a 95% max collectability rate, with anything below mid-tier very rare and outright failures almost unheard of.

That being said, this is only bearable in bulk because the mats are virtually free. With non-insignificant overhead I would prefer a few QoL adjustments to expert recipes before making them the norm. Centered should be 100%, Normal condition shouldn't be quite so common and streaky (10+ normals in a row should just never happen), and progress moves besides Rapid Synth should have higher potencies since right now anything besides Rapid is just too weak to be of any use beyond finishing the synth. Or just lower the monstrous progress requirement a bit, whichever works.

With some of the more annoying RNG streakiness lightened I could live with these being what we have to do to make what should be the most prestigious crafts on offer. Because while this mount grind has been a soulcrushing experience at times, it has definitely forced me to relearn and find new rhythms with my crafting, and (usually) the crafting experience is much more satisfying once you get past the initial "wtf how do I do dis" of expert recipes.

[MsMisato]

SE ban bots and RMTs in waves every few months.
Unfortunately this means for those few months the botters and RMTs have free reign and are only moderately disadvantaged for a short time when those ban waves occur.

The most affected part of the market however is the sale of crystals/shards/clusters, which would likely be prohibitively expensive if it wasn't for those botters to be frank, so it's a double-edged sword.
If SE could be more proactive on the issue, they would also need to address the balance of obtaining crystals and shards in great enough quantities as well.

Its actually every couple of weeks. They update the number of account banned, and such on rmt and other illicit activities heh

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

It's just so cheap to keep buying the base game and still make a profit honestly. Also doesn't help that people go out and buy gil as well.

[ForteNightshade]

It's not even weeks anymore. Typically the resident botters on any given server will tank the prices of the newest gear to pointless levels within days of release. Mateus's resident botters had the price of Neo-Ishgardian gear trashed before the first weekend even hit when the last patch dropped. I sold one full set of gear at basically no profit and called it quits, permanently, after that.

It's sad, because this is the first time ever I am basically not interested in the new set of crafting gear coming next patch. Usually I'm excited to bang out the new gear, meld it to the hilt, and grind out some money on selling the current battle and DoH/DoL gear with more efficient rotations, but now it's like, who cares? The new crafter gear serves no purpose because there is no money to be made by taking advantage of it anymore. Bots will just be there already controlling everything.

I know the feeling. I have all but quit crafting this expansion save to occasionally poke at Ishgard. It just isn't worth spending all the time to gather up mats for the Neo sets and only make 30k. The level 50-60 vendor gear in Idllyshire sells for more than that. Of course, plenty of players either don't care or actually support these bot wars because they benefit from it. I remember arguing with someone who insisted bots were "necessary" because it isn't fair he had to buy 9k for raid pots, or whatever the prices were at the time. I do always love that mentality because those same people scream murder at other exploits where they aren't benefiting.

[Canadane]

As much as some people loathe them, I feel like making expert recipes standard for high-end crafts would help to remove the stranglehold the bots have on the economy because while you can macro them to minimum collectability, that would equate to a rather pathetic HQ chance on a standard recipe.

I'm feeling fairly convinced that almost anything is possible for a bot after seeing a whole team of them farming phantasmagoria tomestones, though...

Bots not simply auto-click macros you’ve made.
They have logic and some fairly advanced ability to complete tasks.
The only person I know with the Pteranodon has botted their way there. I feel like it cheapens my efforts but I’m still at it.

So sadly, expert crafting isn’t a real anti-bot at all.

[KageTokage]

Bots not simply auto-click macros you’ve made.
They have logic and some fairly advanced ability to complete tasks.
The only person I know with the Pteranodon has botted their way there. I feel like it cheapens my efforts but I’m still at it.

So sadly, expert crafting isn’t a real anti-bot at all.

In hindsight when they already have 1-80 leveling scripts for both DoW/M and DoH/L classes, making a max collectability expert recipe would probably be child's play comparatively.

There really isn't any substitute for them just having a team aggressively monitoring for cheaters, though I'm fairly convinced they're just using some kind of flimsy automatic detection instead with how rarely bans actually happen.

[Kes13a]

Yeah, the market bot issue is rather frustrating. Even reporting a set that has the same name format on EVERY server in my local group, crafted by the same crafter (I guess they just like collecting innocent gil on every server just to see if they can do it) is not considered potential RMT transgressions. The only benefit is they post 4-5 items per neo-ishgard item low enough for a quick sale, which of course then gets undercut by the -1 gil bots.

I dont mind competing against real people, I sleep, eventually they will sleep and stuff will sell. bots that cycle every 20 minutes, that can change prices at the same rate regardless of items up, arent something you can compete against.

setting the price lower isnt a great answer either, since materials cost in time and gil. If you craft a lot you need to buy the materials, because you arent out grinding. if you grind a lot, you cant craft 24/7 like these do.

IT is an issue I wish SE would acknowledge.

[Awha]

I am in a hard spot, as a seller I despise bots, but as a buyer I welcome them. Conflicting emotions!

[ZeroRaziel]

I am in a hard spot, as a seller I despise bots, but as a buyer I welcome them. Conflicting emotions!

You see, the thing is that if we start to endorse botting, which drives prices to a certain minimum level then what is the point of Market, Crafting and Gathering whatsoever?

Square can just remove them all from the game altogether and just make all craftable items available from NPC Vendors.