Some bots are farming mobs from underground

[Saimeren]

And speaking of "name and shame" - those are bots and not actual players, so who do I shame? .

Just because you believe them to be bots, doesn't mean you can blast their names. Because there's a non-zero percent chance that they're not. You don't actually have any solid evidence. It's also not for you to make that judgment on. Report them and let Square decide of they're bots and if actions need to be taken.

All you're doing is breaking ToS and shaming because you made a judgement call without proof.

[DragoAskani]

Yes, i reported it 2 - 3 times to STF already.

And speaking of "name and shame" - those are bots and not actual players, so who do I shame? In fact, I depict breaking of TOS and help devs.

I mean its your forum account, its up to you on if you don't mind the possible forum ban or not.

[RitsukoSonoda]

They went underground because it was too easy to spot and report them when they just floated up out of reach in the air on their cookie cutter template THMs.

They've been doing this since before there was a free trial of the game. Adding the free trial just means they can mitigate some of their risk by not paying for a full version until it's accumulated things to sell. Though apparently free players cannot hold more than 300K gil and have no retainer or marketboard access and I think no ability to trade either.

Its possible they're aware of the bots and just flagging them for action to be taken when they transition out of free version to paid version so they can see who it interacts with at that point in an attempt to trace and remove more of the actual RMT accounts conducting the actual business.

[Mitsuka_Souji]

They went underground because it was too easy to spot and report them when they just floated up out of reach in the air on their cookie cutter template THMs.

They've been doing this since before there was a free trial of the game. Adding the free trial just means they can mitigate some of their risk by not paying for a full version until it's accumulated things to sell. Though apparently free players cannot hold more than 300K gil and have no retainer or marketboard access and I think no ability to trade either.

Its possible they're aware of the bots and just flagging them for action to be taken when they transition out of free version to paid version so they can see who it interacts with at that point in an attempt to trace and remove more of the actual RMT accounts conducting the actual business.

Didn't see them year ago on my world, though.

[DragonFlyy]

The other problem is, they get banned, so another account is made (free trial) and that bot is replaced.

[RitsukoSonoda]

The other problem is, they get banned, so another account is made (free trial) and that bot is replaced.

Which is why I mentioned they may just flag the free version bots to mark them then take action when they push it out of free version and start trying to move the stuff it collected in order to try getting to the actual RMT accounts holding or distributing things. Deleting free version bots is like trying to kill an unwanted weed by plucking it's leaves off 1 at a time.

[Ranaku]

Welcome to XIV, get used to it. They are basically a common thing by now and existed since i started to play which was HW so...no worries. They just teleport through the world and get banned at some point, best to just ignore them.

[KageTokage]

The teleporting bots are not on the free trial as they routinely form parties to speed through the MSQ dungeons using non-standard party comps (Usually pure DPS with no healers) plus they need to be able to transfer the gil off their accounts before they get banned.

Perhaps the weirdest thing I've noticed regarding them is the sudden emergence of pure DRG parties when they traditionally have only ever used ranged jobs.

[Voidedge_Ragna]

The teleporting bots are not on the free trial as they routinely form parties to speed through the MSQ dungeons using non-standard party comps (Usually pure DPS with no healers) plus they need to be able to transfer the gil off their accounts before they get banned.

There is 2 categories of bots, the obvious ones that have names that happen when you headbutt your keyboard or play Roegardyn and jump and glitch all over the place, which i believe to be free trial ones.

Also theres the bots which have normal names, likely look like an afk player just vibing in town, those are paid accounts, these are the banks which have the cash.

From just this idea you will have an idea on how futile it is to ban the jumpy broken name bots. To address the Party system, you only need 1 of the 4 to have a paid account, 3 can be free trials as they just need to join.

Here it derails theres 2 imo viable outcomes.

1. SE really only cares about the obvious bots and does not track the money or who they play with, in which case you could make the banks directly play with the free trial bots.
2. SE bans the bots that have direct contact to the free trials bots, in which case you need 3 step process. Free trial > Normal game > Bank.

Regardless of that the 2 weeks cycle is ...

Day#1 Bot is created
Day#2 Bot is reported
Day#14 Bot is banned
Repeat from 1

As to what you could farm with a dungeon party for money ... im not entirely sure even but it would likely be a direct money drop or npcable.

In 2.1 i somehow stumbled into a run when i did my first Wanderes Palace. I loaded in and was alone, so i figured ... okay they prolly need a bit more loading time. Instantly the msg "x will close in 15 sec pops up" ... it did and they killed it fast, same with the 2nd and final boss. At which point all the normal chests seemed to open. Everything was instantly rolled and instantly left before i rolled so i got everything.

A Bizzare adventure to say the least.

[ICountFrom0]

1. SE really only cares about the obvious bots and does not track the money or who they play with, in which case you could make the banks directly play with the free trial bots.
2. SE bans the bots that have direct contact to the free trials bots, in which case you need 3 step process. Free trial > Normal game > Bank.

The step you are missing is stolen credit cards, or otherwise false money.

A stolen credit card is acquired, thousands of dollars of subscription cards are bought, the cards get shuffled around a few times, so it looks like they are sold to some innocent. Months of subscriptions for all the trial bots are charged to the card, they become "real" for about 72 hours before the card holder can chargeback and those subscriptions get canceled. This lets all the trials unload. The subscription cards are used to keep the normals alive. The gold is sold off at pure profit with no real money ever being spent.