Concerns about useage of 3rd party applications

[geekgirl101]

This may be a silly question because I'm getting conflicting stories in the game about the useage of ACT and Cactbot which I'm pretty sure counts as a 3rd party application which could result in being banned if someone has been suspected and later proven being used, so I really need to know what SE's stance is on Cactbot being used for tracking elite marks. I've tried arguing against a hunt community over whether or not a player suspected of using it to instantly locate and kill elite marks could be reported for cheating or not and all I'm hearing is stuff like this:

"never will happen, since the tool doesnt not interupt game as itself or interfere with server"
"havent heard about anybody who got banned by using radar, you cant ever prove anybody is using radar, SE dont care about cactbot usage at all, nobody got reprimanded since 2.1"
"all those modders who mod ffxivs 3d models, only those who boasted about using them on social media got their temp bans, everybody else still lives on"
"if he shames someone by boasting it himself of using said 3rd party software, then maybe, otherwise nothing will ever happen"

I'm only asking because I strongly suspect someone on our datacenter is using Cactbot to locate elite hunt marks and is deliberately griefing players by instantly killing them on arrival whether he spawned them or not, and if it's a bannable offense to be using it then I want to report him for cheating. Can I really get someone investigated if I reported that I strongly suspected they were using cheats to disrupt other peoples' gameplay?

[Puremallace]

Soooo Square Enix will never comment on this but the community has basically GUESSED that as long you do not use them to mess with other players they do not seem to care. Multiple Twitch streamers that are world first actively have them on the screen and Square Enix is not stupid enough to think that www.FFLOGS.com is not a real thing.

The same guy who makes Warcraft Logs makes that site also so lets not pretend this is not widely known. If you have an assumption someone is abusing it then go ahead and report.

[Kaurhz]

This may be a silly question because I'm getting conflicting stories in the game about the useage of ACT and Cactbot which I'm pretty sure counts as a 3rd party application which could result in being banned if someone has been suspected and later proven being used, so I really need to know what SE's stance is on Cactbot being used for tracking elite marks. I've tried arguing against a hunt community over whether or not a player suspected of using it to instantly locate and kill elite marks could be reported for cheating or not and all I'm hearing is stuff like this:

"never will happen, since the tool doesnt not interupt game as itself or interfere with server"
"havent heard about anybody who got banned by using radar, you cant ever prove anybody is using radar, SE dont care about cactbot usage at all, nobody got reprimanded since 2.1"
"all those modders who mod ffxivs 3d models, only those who boasted about using them on social media got their temp bans, everybody else still lives on"
"if he shames someone by boasting it himself of using said 3rd party software, then maybe, otherwise nothing will ever happen"

I'm only asking because I strongly suspect someone on our datacenter is using Cactbot to locate elite hunt marks and is deliberately griefing players by instantly killing them on arrival whether he spawned them or not, and if it's a bannable offense to be using it then I want to report him for cheating. Can I really get someone investigated if I reported that I strongly suspected they were using cheats to disrupt other peoples' gameplay?

The problem with doing anything about these tools is they're really just so ingrained in how people play and measure their performance so they'd be doing en masse bans, so they only really like doing something about it when it is a tool used as harassment.

It's difficult to detect or do anything about tools that only read data and not modify said data (At least data that would be sent across the connection and not just local). At least on certainty and not on assumption

[Vahlnir]

Any mods or 3rd party applications are against the ToS. Personally, I wouldn't risk it, but that's ultimately the choice of the user.

[Vipes]

Third party addons run on the same rules as Fight Club.

[Ransu]

I dunno about the radar thing, but parsing is essentially a grey area. The official stance is that 3rd party stuff is not allowed, but for the most part they seem to leave you alone unless you actively do it to interfere with other players.

[Pirana1]

Third party addons run on the same rules as Fight Club.

This sums it up.

[geekgirl101]

I dunno about the radar thing, but parsing is essentially a grey area. The official stance is that 3rd party stuff is not allowed, but for the most part they seem to leave you alone unless you actively do it to interfere with other players.

So theoretically I could report him on suspicion of using third party tools in order to deliberately grief other players, that could classify as warrant for investigation.

[MilkieTea]

So theoretically I could report him on suspicion of using third party tools in order to deliberately grief other players, that could classify as warrant for investigation.

Not really. For usage of 3rd party apps they’d need definitive proof - him saying so ingame - and they’d need proof that he is using said tools to grief others (since they don’t seem to have any issue with the usage of 3rd party apps in streams where they and the player character are both clearly visible.)

[Ilenya]

I've had one chance where I could have reported someone. They said I was doing 12 DPS to Leviathan HM, which mostly was just so funny that we spent time trying to guess what happened to his parser. Something like that *could* have been reported, but unless they say something, you can't really do anything, and reporting without proof to "grief" players is more likely to get you in trouble than them.