Skybuilder Botting Issue

[Vickii]

With maybe 5 hours of crafting a day on weaver in season 3 I was able to get a pretty solid 2nd on my server. Gathering is pretty definitely even more about time spent but I'd hesitate to say people would bot in such a high visibility environment. Unhealthy lifestyle or highly flexible schedule seems more plausible to me. My experience with Firmament basically seems to indicate that if you don't have those 18 hours a day to dedicate to it for any future restoration events in other cities, it's probably better to stick to the crafting for ranking week.

Yes I’m pretty sure the bots are mostly gatherers. I am a weaver sitting comfortably in 8th and possibly going up to 6th this morning and I can’t say i stretched myself. I’ve mostly been crafting sure but my time played hasn’t changed besides one late night.

I do worry that bots will hand in on the last day and sink me, but I can’t see them botting expert recipes and even with botting the 80 recipe I can’t see that this isn’t being won by normal crafters, I personally recognise the top 3 and none of them are cheating. They’re just going all in.

[Vickii]

I know that not all the top scores are bots and there are definitely people who do it legitimatly, but it's definitely a competition of who has the time/who is willing to push themselves hard enough. Just for a title/achievement is a bit unhealthy to me and I feel like they should have spaced out shorter periods and maybe more then one (so the Firmiment gets done faster, it takes forever after the rankings are done).

I think gathering is definetly unhealthy. Unless you forgo sleep or cheat you aren’t finishing top 12.

Crafting I honestly wouldn’t say it’s unhealthy, although surely some are playing it in an unhealthy way. But I know a lot of us are just really organised. I’ve been prepping this for a month or so and expect to finish top 5 playing less hours than I usually do.

[Tennyoelf]

I gave up as well. Granted I didn't properly prepare, I wanted to see how far I could go with just saint gear (which means no melding), no food, and with a limited supply of cordials. I figured that since I have no job and can spend most of my day in the diadem I might be able to get far. For 3 days I was pretty happy on my server, even got into the first 12 ranks, but by yesterday I was sleep-deprived, hungry, and had a house in serious need of a cleaning day. I fell to rank 15 and then threw in the towel. I'll most likely get the Beata title, so I'm okay with that. I'd have loved to get the Saint title, but I'd realized that I definitely needed penta-melded gear and food, and more cordials, to compete with the bots. Even with that, I'd still lose sleep and be irritable until the 21st to maintain a good possibility of getting Saint. It wasn't worth it to me, especially since it started feeling like a job, and I tend to quit games when they start to feel that way (why I never got too far with FFXI). And I love FFXIV too much so I didn't want to do that to myself.

I'm sad that those who use bots get to get the Saint title again, but it is what it is. Besides, Jewel of the Firmament sounds nicer and I can take my time getting that.

[KageTokage]

After actually checking the rankings of a bunch of the different bots I've seen in the Diadem, a lot of them are actually pretty far away from top 12, and looking at their hilariously inefficient gathering routes I'm not really surprised... though it's also possible some of them are sandbagging by hording turn-ins in order to avoid suspicion.

I've noticed they backtrack way more then is actually necessary presumably to avoid the frequent glitching they were prone to when they attempted to return to their gathering route after going off course for clouded nodes or to use the aetherial auger. They'd often get stuck on a rock/tree or otherwise stop functioning until their instance timed out, which would both waste tons of time and make them even more obvious then they already are.

[Vickii]

I’m not saying botting isn’t going on, but there’s some people with full pentamelded gear going the exact correct route and with unlimited supplies, working almost 24/7 and only coming out now and again. They aren’t sleeping or they have people continuing it while they sleep - there’s a couple in my old FC and they’re basically on shifts. I think these people will beat any bots.

Bots don’t get tired but bots also don’t make the most of random opportunities. And like you say, they can lose hours if something goes wrong with the script.

[KageTokage]

I have a hunch it likely was the "glitching out and getting stuck part" that was responsible for some people getting banned last season.

I haven't actually seen that happening anymore this season, but I've reported over a dozen different people (With priority given to those in the top 12 of their respective servers), so I'll just have to see if anything happens...

[Espritduo]

They aren’t sleeping or they have people continuing it while they sleep - there’s a couple in my old FC and they’re basically on shifts. I think these people will beat any bots.

And those two are cheating and breaking the TOS just as much as a botter. Account sharing is against the rules and just as unfair as botting. In fact it's even worse since at least the botter is taking a huge hit to efficiency and most likely wont be beating any serious grinders. Account sharers are the far bigger threat to legit competitors. There really are hardly any bots in the upper tiers of the rankings. A couple to be sure, but it's not an epidemic.

[EtherRose]

Considering some people may not have jobs or don't work at all it could be 50/50. However i do to think it's absurd how these people have over 200k points.

[Vickii]

And those two are cheating and breaking the TOS just as much as a botter. Account sharing is against the rules and just as unfair as botting. In fact it's even worse since at least the botter is taking a huge hit to efficiency and most likely wont be beating any serious grinders. Account sharers are the far bigger threat to legit competitors. There really are hardly any bots in the upper tiers of the rankings. A couple to be sure, but it's not an epidemic.

Oh absolutely, they’re breaking the rules. My point is the same as yours - people sharing accounts will win this. Because a player who doesn’t sleep is more efficient than any bot.

[Eien713]

or the top 30 get the same reward

This! Why did they make it 12? That's not enough (T_T). I slaved away in the previous competition and could only get rank 18, if memory serves. It hurt.