How is the botting situation in this game?

[Nepentha]

Snippity snip snip.

I think the issue here is, the markets you sell in haven't been affected, so you attribute this to all markets. And yes, there are house sniping bots. A lack of imagination on your part does not make it a non-issue. The operation is simply multiple accounts, one bot sitting at the aetheryte and scanning the wards at the top of every hour and when something pops, it dings on an alt who then runs to relocate to the larger house. This is a problem mostly on larger servers where housing is difficult to attain. (Also they use FCs with housing attached to accomplish this. Either they sell the FC with the house, or sell it as a relocation.)

As for the marketboard, again, I think you aren't looking at the larger picture outside of the microcosm of markets that the bots haven't yet figured out how to dominate. If you take a peek at the Aesthete's gear, you'll probably find the prices are so ridiculously low that it barely covers the cost of making it. This is because full scale botting operations have taken over with crafters and gatherers automated to gather and craft 24/7. And they also have retainer bots who cycle through their retainers on a continuous loop to undercut by 1 gil over and over.

It doesn't take much to find these, either. Just look at the grand company rankings and you'll find most of these botting ring FCs are in the top 20, if not #1 or #2 on them.

This is an actual problem, you can insist it isn't, but that's only because you're not being directly affected by it.

Edit: Last thought. If the botters figured out how to send their bots into PotD's floors where you get those whistles? You'd see the marketboard flooded with them, driving the price down. So far the reason why that stays high in price is because they haven't yet.