Has Square Enix given up on countering RMT and botting?

[KageTokage]

Just standing around by the ephemeral nodes will readily out who is/isn't botting strictly due to their awkward movement patterns; particularly how they mount up and take flight before moving to the next node.

You also can often guess at who is/isn't a bot by simply glancing at the level-capped gatherers/crafters in player search and taking note of the ones that have only one DoW/M job at 90 with none of the others touched at all.

[Jijifli]

Just standing around by the ephemeral nodes will readily out who is/isn't botting strictly due to their awkward movement patterns; particularly how they mount up and take flight before moving to the next node.

You also can often guess at who is/isn't a bot by simply glancing at the level-capped gatherers/crafters in player search and taking note of the ones that have only one DoW/M job at 90 with none of the others touched at all.

Or the fact their flights are always pixel perfect. Not in getting there, but the path it ends up taking. It's terrifyingly consistent, which is hilarious, because people aren't going to be that pixel perfect when doing something like gathering.

Don't forget how a huge chunk of them are incapable of handling, *Checks notes* A single trade window and completely freeze. And before someone says it, no one single in general trade isn't a ToS violation. However, it's certainly strange when one will gather for hours on end, suddenly get a window, and just freeze for however long you choose to keep the window open. Of course the second you do drop it, they're right back to work, which makes it clear what code it's trying to pull.

[KageTokage]

If I had any experience of recording/clipping footage, I'd probably make a short looping GIF of the awkward mounting/flight sequence literally every type of bot uses since it's most easily observable quirk they have vs. normal players.

[DigbyCaesar]

If I had any experience of recording/clipping footage, I'd probably make a short looping GIF of the awkward mounting/flight sequence literally every type of bot uses since it's most easily observable quirk they have vs. normal players.

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

[Jijifli]

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

I love just skipping around the video, click 3:38, and see the bot mount, take a step to centralize itself again, then completely stop, jump in place, and THEN turn to its intended route on a dime. Ya, I'm sure normal people would be moving exactly like that every time.

Or the fact their flights are always pixel perfect. Not in getting there, but the path it ends up taking. It's terrifyingly consistent, which is hilarious, because people aren't going to be that pixel perfect when doing something like gathering.

Don't forget how a huge chunk of them are incapable of handling, *Checks notes* A single trade window and completely freeze. And before someone says it, no one single in general trade isn't a ToS violation. However, it's certainly strange when one will gather for hours on end, suddenly get a window, and just freeze for however long you choose to keep the window open. Of course the second you do drop it, they're right back to work, which makes it clear what code it's trying to pull.

I just want to quote myself to add: I forgot GC too. It's very rare for these gathering bots in particular to have any rank ups in their grand company at all. And while yes I'm sure someone will come over going "Actually since it's not a requirement there's plenty of player who don't" and while technically true, I would like to think someone who's committed time to the game (you know, like being logged in 24/7?) would have at least touched their grand company. Specially when it does have items to help level said gathering and in general is actually content. So why does every 'player' I see that moves like in that video also conveniently avoid that section of stuff entirely, on top of only leveling 1 thing, on top of poor trade reaction? And yet must have exactly pixel perfectly taken paths, not straight, but always perfectly consistent? That takes a ton of practice and attention, and I'd think someone that committed to pathing wouldn't be that common either.

[Skiros]

Yeah, they're shockingly easy to spot.

I just recorded 2 earlier today (good old shadowplay) and decided to pile that along with how it affects the market board because some people still refuse to believe that this is doing anything (market board at the end of the vid):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjlvL3cId4

One thing worth mentioning, the second bot was wearing fully melded gear to boost spiritbonding and farm materia.

There's a wealth of information in the thread I linked in the OP. People have amassed evidence for years now. People have even tried to organize efforts into pressuring SE through a public awareness campaign on social media. All of it has failed.

And that's because this playerbase is too stupid to realize when it's being harmed.

[Saraide]

There's a wealth of information in the thread I linked in the OP. People have amassed evidence for years now. People have even tried to organize efforts into pressuring SE through a public awareness campaign on social media. All of it has failed.

And that's because this playerbase is too stupid to realize when it's being harmed.

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

[Jijifli]

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

Content selling didn't hurt the general playerbase either. Someone else paying for their UwU clear doesn't mean you didn't get yours, nor does it impact your gameplay. Far as I'm aware too, nobody's accounts were being compromised from these top end sellers, since that'd be very bad for them to get continued business. Despite that, they put a very clear indication eventually to not advertise your content selling, and doing so is bannable for both PF rules and RMT rules.

Abuse of glitches for an advantage never hurt any players either, and instead made clearing stuff to advance player progression easier. Never forget Ungarmax. Yet, players who abused that were getting suspended, despite the fact that nobody would be negatively impacted by it, only positively.

Just because something "doesn't hurt the general playerbase" doesn't mean that makes it suddenly okay. Both examples listed above are cases that have no actual negative impact on any players, only, potentially, possible ones. And despite that, Square puts a stance against it. The only real difference here is more bots = more subs, and having an actual stance on bots means less people will bot, which is less subs.

[DigbyCaesar]

Isnt part of why bots get to fly under SE's radar exactly because they dont hurt the general playerbase? Unless a majority of people crafts their own shit, low market board prices are going to help the majority of players, not harm them. The lower prices are, the easier it is to get by just by gil you get from various rewards.

This is the problematic perspective people have right now.

On the surface, the result to all this botting is "we get things cheaper". But what will you get to sell then if you have bots constantly undercutting you? What happens when new players come into this game wanting to make a few mil but literally can't?

There's more pressure to resort to RMT under the circumstances that exist now, and that pressure is being put on by RMT sellers. When people buy those 5000 wind crystals for 100k that was farmed by bots, that goes directly into the pockets of an RMT seller to redistribute.

Don't get stuck on the simplicity of things, botting has cascading effects.

[KageTokage]

So far, it seems like the only time changes happen in regards to illicit activity is if:

1. Someone presses the devs about it directly in an interview.

2. The devs themselves notice a problem during one of their community interaction sessions (Yoshi got RMT spammed once which made him promptly add the quick report function for RMT).

3. The activity in question is so blatantly disruptive that it's making some aspect of the game legitimately unplayable (The Rival Wings hackers who got trial accounts blocked from PvP until further notice).


I think the best chance of anything happening is for one of the influencers in the community who routinely are able to get in direct contact with the devs to be made aware of the issues and bring it up, because there's clearly a disconnect that's making it difficult to get anything noticed by them via the forums and other media.

The one time they did actually invite the head of the STF onto a live letter interview session just made it painfully obvious how unaware even they seem to be of how broad the scope of cheating is because they seemed to be thinking that the bulk of the botting was taking place in PvP (Where it is a problem, but not nearly to the extent of the other parts of the game), and the only response they could offer to the complaints of inaction was "Just keep reporting them.", so I feel like only the head developers can be counted on to resolve anything at this point.