Legitimate bots going unbanned after reporting

[Lecru]

When are you guys going to honestly start banning legitimate bots that have been reported by multiple people? You have this entire "Special team" that looks into these things, yet week after week they are left to just do as they please. There is a bot on Excalibur that has been untouched in every round of your supposed efforts to stop RMT and third party usage. I wont' say the name. but if you check material purchases, they buy mats by the literal THOUSANDS (of stacks). How do I know they are botting? They retire to an INN room, not a house, not an FC house, etc. They have NO 90 battle crafts. Highest they have is 84 to unlock first few zones. yet they have all 90 Crafters and Gatherers. And do nothing day in and day out but sit in that Inn room and craft. I've taken naps to monitor whether or not they actually get off and they are on 24/7 in that inn room. Only coming out to use the market then go right back in. And y'know what? If they aren't botting, then they are account sharing. Which is also a no no. But my money is on third party botting. HOW is this not being taken care of by the special team? This is like the third person i've piled evidence on as to not falsely report and seen them week after week after week. These are the same types of people who then post 99 items for 1-2k under market price btw.

This needs to stop.

[KageTokage]

As far as I've noticed, the only chance you have of reasonably getting a bot banned is if their script encounters an error and leaves them stuck repeating some pointless action (Jumping in place endlessly being a common one) for a long enough time that the STF is able to get to them before they correct the issue.

The highest number of bans I ever witnessed in one of their reports was during the initial Firmament rankings where the Diadem botting scripts were extremely rough and prone to glitching out, which when coupled with the sheer number of players in the zone meant there were also more witnesses to report them, but by the time the second ranking rolled around the number of bans had fallen to its usual lows.

[Lecru]

As far as I've noticed, the only chance you have of reasonably getting a bot banned is if their script encounters an error and leaves them stuck repeating some pointless action (Jumping in place endlessly being a common one) for a long enough time that the STF is able to get to them before they correct the issue.

The highest number of bans I ever witnessed in one of their reports was during the initial Firmament rankings where the Diadem botting scripts were extremely rough and prone to glitching out, which when coupled with the sheer number of players in the zone meant there were also more witnesses to report them, but by the time the second ranking rolled around the number of bans had fallen to its usual lows.

Yeah it's actually wild that they don't do anything in game. Like, if you message these people they NEVER respond. And a GM/Special Team can literally just go watch them and notice there is NO down time between crafting skill uses. Which is directly linked to third party application. Not to mention, all they would have to do is check the log in times and notice they never log out. Other than that's what the poitn of even having these teams if they don't do basic investigative work? Hell I do more than that being a PI IRL and this is just baseline work that could be put in with these reports.

[KageTokage]

I don't really get either because it's not hard to tell foul play is involved from how they rapid fire actions (They also do this while in combat as they seemingly aren't subject to the OGCD delays actual players are) as well their awkward movement patterns.

[Lecru]

I don't really get either because it's not hard to tell foul play is involved from how they rapid fire actions (They also do this while in combat as they seemingly aren't subject to the OGCD delays actual players are) as well their awkward movement patterns.

Yep. They can actively start another action the very millisecond the previous is finished. And not to mention they have no downtime between crafts. Like how a normal person would have to click the craft button again or the control clicks the item THEN the craft button again and then click at least a macro. It's just straight to the craft and macro with one movement. And repairing is also instantly done. I've legit stock piled enough reports on actual bots to witness all of this. Yet the teams have done nothing and they continue to just do it

[LunaJoy]

I was actively reporting bots during ShB. They’d made FCs filled with low level alts that just rotated logging in and undercutting. All on 24/7 just every 10 min at a summoning bell. And the main character never left their apartment in Mist except very rarely to buy materials. Anyway, I ended up reporting every single alt and the main with my suspicions and finally, FINALLY, after like 4 months they vanished never to been again. I guess they weren’t technically breaking any rules until what I can only assume was getting caught in RMT. They haven’t been back either (though there’s a new FC doing the same exact thing, so maybe they created a whole new account) so I think they have to be caught in the act. But if me, my Mom and my Sister hadn’t all reported them, then maybe it wouldn’t have been brought to the GMs/Devs attention.

[Lecru]

I was actively reporting bots during ShB. They’d made FCs filled with low level alts that just rotated logging in and undercutting. All on 24/7 just every 10 min at a summoning bell. And the main character never left their apartment in Mist except very rarely to buy materials. Anyway, I ended up reporting every single alt and the main with my suspicions and finally, FINALLY, after like 4 months they vanished never to been again. I guess they weren’t technically breaking any rules until what I can only assume was getting caught in RMT. They haven’t been back either (though there’s a new FC doing the same exact thing, so maybe they created a whole new account) so I think they have to be caught in the act. But if me, my Mom and my Sister hadn’t all reported them, then maybe it wouldn’t have been brought to the GMs/Devs attention.

Botting and third party usage (which is again used for botting) IS against ToS. So yes. They WERE breaking rules. Because if that's the case i'm telling you now. I'm going to start third partying and being on 24/7 if they dont' see it that way. It's horseshit that I have to break my fingers when i'm on and craft around the clock to do what they do 24/7. AND with being able to use skills right after one is finished with no buffer. If reporting is supposed to call out suspicious activity. Then they need to start acting on the reports and going out and monitoring those reported. ESPECIALLY on the reports that have detailed information on numerous days of activity and on these peopel that have NO max level battle class but have multiple 90 crafters and gatherers and are on 24/7.

The person being talked about here on Excalibur has no FC or any search info either. It's just used to bot craft all day.

[Saimeren]

When are you guys going to honestly start banning legitimate bots that have been reported by multiple people?

Now, when you say "you guys"; do you mean us the players? Because we can't do anything about it.

The forums are literally only a place for players to chat with other players without having to use a third party site like Reddit. They're not, and never have been a direct line to the developers.

Coming here asking for Devs to make any kind of change is just screaming into the void. All you're doing at this point is venting to other players. So stop pretending that you're talking to the Dev team.

This needs to stop.

I agree.

[Lecru]

Now, when you say "you guys"; do you mean us the players? Because we can't do anything about it.

The forums are literally only a place for players to chat with other players without having to use a third party site like Reddit. They're not, and never have been a direct line to the developers.

Coming here asking for Devs to make any kind of change is just screaming into the void. All you're doing at this point is venting to other players. So stop pretending that you're talking to the Dev team.



I agree.

Yes yes because the devs NEVER check the forusm. All of them saying 'We read the forums" are just lying

GO outside. Touch grass. If posts like this annoy you when you get back, scroll past them. Thanks

[Shibi]

Yes yes because the devs NEVER check the forusm. All of them saying 'We read the forums" are just lying

They do, the Japanese ones.

Posting on this side achieves nothing as it goes completely unread. Posting on the Japanese side is noticed and dealt with - the Sage job icon, and the complaints about moves in servers 30 days before Ishgard (amongst many) are proof there.

Luckily the Hroth ears and OS X 12.3 are over there, so they will be noticed. But here... we pee into the wind.