How is the botting situation in this game?

[KageTokage]

i always feel like SE is actually doing something about bots but cant keep up with how fast the bots keep appearing, and it gotten worse now that the game pretty much F2P all the way until HW expansion.

at least its not as bad as wow bots, i have seen this bots in certain area, took screenshot of it, report it and go do my own things, month later i check back and the bots are still there, same name, the very same bots still doing the same thing for a whole month and now there is 4 of them

The only type of bot I've noticed much of a decrease in are the teleporting gil farmers, as I used to regularly see upwards of 100 on my server alone, but now it's rare to see more then a dozen. The DoL/H bots have just been getting more and more plentiful as time goes on, though.

WoW also used to be a lot more prudent about banning bots prior to the Activision buyout (They unsurprisingly laid off most of the customer service employees to reduce expenses); to such an extent I could typically get one banned in just a day or two of back and forth communication with the GMs.

[Xoto]

at least its not as bad as wow bots, i have seen this bots in certain area, took screenshot of it, report it and go do my own things, month later i check back and the bots are still there, same name, the very same bots still doing the same thing for a whole month and now there is 4 of them

Sadly. This is exactly what's going on in FFXIV. However, players are reporting these bots daily for months and nothing is happening to them. This includes the gathering bots which bot farm high end mats 24/7. It isn't that they cant keep up.... they don't even try.

[Nepentha]

i always feel like SE is actually doing something about bots but cant keep up with how fast the bots keep appearing, and it gotten worse now that the game pretty much F2P all the way until HW expansion.

at least its not as bad as wow bots, i have seen this bots in certain area, took screenshot of it, report it and go do my own things, month later i check back and the bots are still there, same name, the very same bots still doing the same thing for a whole month and now there is 4 of them

I know of one botting ring that has been active for over a year now despite multiple reports to the GMs and the special task force. They are still active. I just checked and as of right now they're on, botting away.

[Kes13a]

i always feel like SE is actually doing something about bots but cant keep up with how fast the bots keep appearing, and it gotten worse now that the game pretty much F2P all the way until HW expansion.

at least its not as bad as wow bots, i have seen this bots in certain area, took screenshot of it, report it and go do my own things, month later i check back and the bots are still there, same name, the very same bots still doing the same thing for a whole month and now there is 4 of them

yeah, it has nothing to do with not being able to keep up.. has everything to do with doing nothing.

banning accounts advertising Gil in major cities is simple enough that a 5 year old can do it. thats not "action" thats doing as little as possible
you have RMT rings operating for months ACROSS worlds in a data center, and there is no argument for a single crafter trying to amass as much gil as possible across worlds unless they are selling gil on those worlds...
and now, SE, wants to connect data centers
so yeah.. I dont see SE as doing much.

[Nepentha]

yeah, it has nothing to do with not being able to keep up.. has everything to do with doing nothing.

banning accounts advertising Gil in major cities is simple enough that a 5 year old can do it. thats not "action" thats doing as little as possible
you have RMT rings operating for months ACROSS worlds in a data center, and there is no argument for a single crafter trying to amass as much gil as possible across worlds unless they are selling gil on those worlds...
and now, SE, wants to connect data centers
so yeah.. I dont see SE as doing much.

I've even tracked several FCs I have on a spreadsheet to keep an eye on, as they are likely meant to be jumped to if the original accounts are banned. (Not that they appear to have much to worry about.) It's just that pervasive. And snowballing liek whoa. If you don't bot, you aren't going to sell anything anymore.

[Deceptus]

Terrible and the FFXIV team is doing virtually nothing to stop it. Bots are rampant.

[Jijifli]

i always feel like SE is actually doing something about bots but cant keep up with how fast the bots keep appearing, and it gotten worse now that the game pretty much F2P all the way until HW expansion.

at least its not as bad as wow bots, i have seen this bots in certain area, took screenshot of it, report it and go do my own things, month later i check back and the bots are still there, same name, the very same bots still doing the same thing for a whole month and now there is 4 of them

A whole month? I wish Square would go that fast.

I'd been reporting the same bots for years now in some cases. Mr. gberugbw erbgewg the hyur BLM under the floor does not count, as those I'm pretty sure are just smacked with chargebacks which get your account perma-banned. And even if not, those are so painfully obvious a 3 year old could tell that's not a player.

But gathering bots, crafting bots, market bots, MAP BOTS, etc, those are left free to roam. Interesting once it's an account not likely to use stolen money too that it suddenly take them forever to do anything about it.

[Nepentha]

A whole month? I wish Square would go that fast.

I'd been reporting the same bots for years now in some cases. Mr. gberugbw erbgewg the hyur BLM under the floor does not count, as those I'm pretty sure are just smacked with chargebacks which get your account perma-banned. And even if not, those are so painfully obvious a 3 year old could tell that's not a player.

But gathering bots, crafting bots, market bots, MAP BOTS, etc, those are left free to roam. Interesting once it's an account not likely to use stolen money too that it suddenly take them forever to do anything about it.

I've tracked a gatherer botting ring that literally has a gathering bot FC set up on every NA and EU server. They're so obvious they recycle the same FC names. That's how comfortable they are, knowing they're not going to get banned.

[Kes13a]

I've tracked a gatherer botting ring that literally has a gathering bot FC set up on every NA and EU server. They're so obvious they recycle the same FC names. That's how comfortable they are, knowing they're not going to get banned.

they operate with impunity.

its at the point where I have seen people using bots that have a full stack of 80's. they know they wont get banned so why not?

SE has given up all attempts to control the issue, I think now they are just hoping people dont complain enough OUTSIDE the forums to impact their... "efforts" to control them. might give them a bad reputation or something.

[Nepentha]

they operate with impunity.

its at the point where I have seen people using bots that have a full stack of 80's. they know they wont get banned so why not?

SE has given up all attempts to control the issue, I think now they are just hoping people dont complain enough OUTSIDE the forums to impact their... "efforts" to control them. might give them a bad reputation or something.

Burying their heads in the sand won't work forever. I'm seeing rumblings about this problem everywhere now. Discord servers, Facebook groups, Tumblrs, Twitter. The kindling is there. All it takes is a spark and they are going to have a PR problem on their hands.