Bot's on Market Board...? Really?

[ElazulHP]

From google searching on this, it seems MB bots are far less publicly available than gathering or combat bots. Probably the main reason is because releasing it to the public is impractical, for example 2 or more bots competing and the fact that for the average player it's just not worth camping a MB for tiny profit and grinding prices into the dust when your bot could be out gathering or gil farming. The usual ff14 bots won't add the feature. MB bots do seem to exist, but they're created and sold by commission, or used by, private developers.

I find that sort of thing rather interesting, but it's very disturbing how much of a botting community there is. I think the biggest issues for prices are gathering bots creating massive supply and the fact crafting is just far too easy now, with demand at an all time low since there are ten times more sellers, but far less buyers since more people can just make their own.

The ones that I found with a quick google search also have full YT videos up on their own YT channels highlighting the cheats they can do and one of them includes MB bot. Don't want to link because I don't want to encourage it, but it's pretty easy to find if one searches for it. The software's own forums are full of cheaters discussing how to do it as well. It's pretty disgusting tbh. I wish Square would take a more active role by perma-banning accounts of people using this kind of software.

[Aramina]

I wish Square would take a more active role by perma-banning accounts of people using this kind of software.

They do, but the bots are like roaches.... they just come back with a new account (likely purchases with stolen cc info).

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa0e1254699e41

[ElazulHP]

They do, but the bots are like roaches.... they just come back with a new account (likely purchases with stolen cc info).

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...fa0e1254699e41

Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts terminated: 10
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 31

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

[Sqwall]

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

I think it boils down to "caught redhanded". With the average player in mind it can be difficult to "see" the bot's as they generally go under the radar...naturally. Now when you compare data for: Amount of posted items per day, amount of retainer access, amount of price adjustments, time spent in one position, time spent gathering, etc; These I would imagine are things SE doesn't track as it's a stupid amount of data to sift through and very time consuming.

If SE keeps track of the data and puts it up against the TOP legitimate earners...I'm sure you will see a HUGE gap in what the bots are bringing in and the actual hard nosed earners. I have some top earners in my FC and they are really active in crafting/gathering. But I can talk to them normally, and que a dungeon, and they aren't flying around without a mount, not clipping in the city zones, and offer advice on how to be a better crafter/gatherer.

The suspicious ones you have to catch "red handed" like, Clipping through the map and farming nodes underneath the zone so the go "under the radar". Nobody can see them so they can't report them for cheating. This allows them "look" legitimate, and hard to catch.

Honestly all SE would have to do is set limits on node gathering in X,Y, and more importantly Z. You basically have to be right ON the node, and not a meter below it. If you are....your cheating, and should be flagged for suspicion and your cords are being recorded from here on out.

[Shadygrove]

10 accounts are not exactly all that many, but better than nothing I guess. Makes me wonder how they actually catch these people and why they can't catch some of the obvious ones that have been around for multiple expansions. I feel like they're ignoring the legit customers that are using bot software and just banning the outright RMT guys instead.

・Participation in RMT/prohibited activities
　・Accounts terminated: 3,577
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 9
・Botting activity (Using any number of third party tools that allow for automation)
　・Accounts terminated: 10
　・Accounts temporarily suspended: 31
*Botting activity by RMT vendors has been included under "Participation in RMT/prohibited activities."

They may be, but that 3,577 has got to include a lot of bots.

[Nixxe]

From google searching on this, it seems MB bots are far less publicly available than gathering or combat bots. Probably the main reason is because releasing it to the public is impractical, for example 2 or more bots competing and the fact that for the average player it's just not worth camping a MB for tiny profit and grinding prices into the dust when your bot could be out gathering or gil farming. The usual ff14 bots won't add the feature. MB bots do seem to exist, but they're created and sold by commission, or used by, private developers.

I find that sort of thing rather interesting, but it's very disturbing how much of a botting community there is. I think the biggest issues for prices are gathering bots creating massive supply and the fact crafting is just far too easy now, with demand at an all time low since there are ten times more sellers, but far less buyers since more people can just make their own.

There was a rather prominent bot in WoW that was used for farming a PVP currency and while I was surprised to learn just how much of a community it had, I guess I really shouldn't have been. It forms for the same reasons as any other community: people have some sort of shared experience they wish to discuss. I think the fact that they saw the bot developers as helping them against Blizzard's "unfair" insistence that they actually play the game to earn the rewards helped.

Of course, then Blizzard found a way to easily and reliably identify people who were using the bot and was basically able to just nuke them from orbit. The people developing the bot finally gave up. The community that formed around it went supernova. Not sure SE is really capable of the same though, as I believe WoW did it with their Warden stuff, which basically just spies on your computer and keeps tabs of what programs are running and interacting with the WoW client (it's been a while and I don't remember exactly what it did anymore). I don't think SE has an equivalent for FFXIV.

I always assumed those numbers are the guys shouting in Limsa and other places advertising RMT. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

RMT advertising is its own category.

・RMT advertising
　・Accounts terminated: 922

[Sqwall]

The community that formed around it went supernova. Not sure SE is really capable of the same though, as I believe WoW did it with their Warden stuff, which basically just spies on your computer and keeps tabs of what programs are running and interacting with the WoW client (it's been a while and I don't remember exactly what it did anymore). I don't think SE has an equivalent for FFXIV.

1. SE has said in the past and still holds firm today that they do not and will not use anything to spy on your PC. This opens a lot of doors for litigation as Blizzard, Steam, Activision (lately) have gotten into hot water about. The one that springs to mind is DOOM eternal having a warden that had an software that went on the actual kernel to watch dog for cheating software. This ruins clock cycles and performance. Google this and you can clearly see the problems it introduces and for a game like WoW would be MUCH easier to implement as it requires much less in the resource department.

2. Sony and SE have strict understanding on how the game will work and operate through PSN and SE servers. PSN is merely the door to SE servers. If SE were to implement a program to watchdog something for PC they would have to introduce this for PS4 as well. I doubt SONY would offer that up anytime soon as the software/hardware is propriety and under lock and key outside the dev kits they issue. If you affect one part of the FFXIV world you have to assume they would do the other half of the world.

This is mostly why it is very hard for SE to fix this, and was the exact same situation for FFXI. When you cross console, it limits your control on the game as you have to abide by the rules of who you are having allow access. This is why FFXIV is NOT on XBOX 1 this console generation as SE and Microsoft's corporate values didn't line up, and I believe is was centered on how the patches were implemented is what SE walked away from. I think this has been addressed for XBOX series X iteration.

This is why DDoS attacks, security breaches, credit card information, and bank information is held in such high regard and is also very tricky to implement.

The only company that does this as a shinning example is probably Valve (steam). They seem to have figured it out and have been for some time, and have a good track record which the customer trusts.

[Nixxe]

1. SE has said in the past and still holds firm today that they do not and will not use anything to spy on your PC.

I was unaware that they had commented on that matter, but it makes sense. It's not like they couldn't develop a Warden equivalent if they wanted to.

And even if they did, botting is still a very difficult issue to tackle. I'm not sure what has transpired in WoW since the event that I mentioned as I quit over two years ago, but having monitoring software did not do a whole lot for Blizzard for a long time, and I even personally knew people who botted things like gathering with impunity, albeit for personal use and not for gold selling purposes. It was only during Legion that they seemed to get quite good at identifying botters, which probably has to do with how intrusive Warden or any similar programs are combined with game systems that increasingly make botting worthless, not some brilliant breakthrough in anti-botting strategies.

[Shinzan]

maybe you find it interesting? please comment or like:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../blog/4571972/

/shin

[Aramina]

Your kind of new to the internet aren't you?

I'd think the opposite were true. If people believe what others say with no evidence then *they* are likely new to the internet, not someone who is jaded.