Bot(Novice) Network

[Encio]

Hello,
for sure we are know there is a problem with bots in FF XIV.
There is another problem with bots in Novice Network. There are tons of them spaming 0, RMT and so on.
Currently on Sagittarius is around 130/140 bots in NN and 15-20 new returning players.

They are invited by someone to NN and Mentors can't do a thing about it.
Why can't we change how NN is working?
It should show (at least in option) who invited player/bot we are checking.
There should be a permament ban for someone from NN that will require 5-10 mentors to confirm so we don't need to deal with the bots every 30min.

Really Square Enix should be more strict.

Link for our Bot Network on Sagittarius
https://imgur.com/a/Lhey4va

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

...okay this is actually a problem. I have nothing to add that could help, but I hope this does get fixed.

[UkcsAlias]

There should be a permament ban for someone from NN that will require 5-10 mentors to confirm so we don't need to deal with the bots every 30min.

Knowing that even in the NN there can be clashes between mentors, i do disagree here. As it could also cause legit mentors to get kicked just because a group of 10 members doesnt like a specific person.

For banning bots, it sadly means that it still has to go through other methods (where validation by SE has to take place). But at least with this info, this should also become a lot more reliable.

[Encio]

We wouldn't kick Mentors from NN just Sprouts (bot) Instead of 30min. Ban for longer period of time, after 10 mentors agree.

[Merya]

Or at least give us mentors a way to report them bots similarly to RMT bots.

[Minali]

Heyho,

can confirm this is happening on Alpha as well. And weirdly on Twintania with bots from Raiden...? Are they bored on their new world? The chat gets a bit quieter once the bots reach Amdapor and don't press "0" to interact with NPCs anymore. I reported them (in total around 120) via the official support form for this, as recommended by the GMs bc. the whole RMT bot thing seems to be handled elsewhere: https://support.eu.square-enix.com/c...383&la=2&fty=2 (Category "Report a case to the Special Task Force). So far this seemed to work, with the next bot ban they were gone. But as long as someone deliberately keeps inviting new bots big style, this is not a lasting solution. The last ban wave was today and I checked in the morning, all the bots were gone (minus one or two outliers maybe who looked genuine.) Now it's evening and I just had to send a new report for 20 or so newcomers. And should SE not remove them earlier, it means the Novice Networks in question have to deal with the bot spam (and bots blocking sprout places on servers that are much more populated than Alpha) for a whole week. This is neither what mentorship nor the Novice Network should be about. We have answered "why do they spam 0?" moreoften than any other newbie question in the last week, at least it feels like this. This really takes the fun away of mentoring. (Let's not forget, mentors are just normal players, we aren't getting paid for this, quite contrary we are paying for dealing with this with our subs for playtime.)

I am not sure if a change in the kick system would help with the problem, though making the time-out longer than 30 minutes after being kicked x times or by x different mentors would help in many occasions. (If the "x" is high enough to prevent abuse based on personal pettiness.) Personally I think it would be much more helpful to see who invited the bots in the first place, so you know what name to write on a report to the GMs or the Special Task Force or both. A list with the invites from the last 3 days or so with inviting person and the one who was invited would also help by seeing if someone is doing this on mass or if someone accidentally invited a bot who looked legit. (They seem to change their name pattern to actual game suggestions, which makes it indeed harder to spot them.) This way the people who keep disrupting the Novice Networks would be able to be hold accountable without throwing someone innocent under the bus who just made one mistake.

For now I can just recommend: Keep reporting them via the support website. (You can avoid manually typing down all 100+ names with a "picture to text" website/program, though I haven't found one yet that isn't buggy one way or another.) Even if it doesn't address the cause, namely a mentor with a pulse (or without?) inviting them manually into the Novice Networks, it still helps making SE aware about what scope we're talking here. And that those are not a few isolated small incidents by someone who was bored or salty at a specific NN.

[RationalSquash]

Echoing the problem on alpha.

Its been a problem since the server launched, but it just gets worse and worse.

Today, I've been online for 4 hours, and every unique bot that posted in NN, I added to my blacklist.
145 unique bots... in 4 hours. And these are being added daily!

If you report to support, they redirect you to either their "task force" or to the forums. Eventually the bots are banned in a RMT banwave, but that can take weeks. And by that point, hundreds of new fresh bots are infesting NN. And the cycle continues.

If they're not going to help remove the bots, either find out who is inviting them and get rid of them, or outsource locating the culprit to the mentors by letting us see who invited a player to NN. All it takes is one malicous person on one datacenter to jump between servers and invite to their heart's content, and there is nothing we can do to stop them...

Edit: In the couple of minutes i spent typing this, 10 new bots appeared in chat...

[Minali]

This flood also just makes me hesitent of inviting new actual sprouts. Especially on new servers this is important with many new players around and, well, this is what this channel is for. But what kind of a first impression is this if they enter this new thing and suddenly their general tab looks like this? (Or a 4th tab, should they not just immediately leave and make a new chat tab instead.)

https://imgur.com/a/YyrKM6W
(This is representative for the whole evening.)

[Riusvell]

It's a honest problem and it needs to be fixed. My server is getting infested by these bots coming in from another world. Either Raiden or Alpha.

[Minali]

Just checked how it's going right now in the Alpha NN and thought I'd share, so you can see for yourself that nobody here is exaggerating. (grey box = actual players)

https://imgur.com/a/8D8DclT

This list is far from complete, but I didn't want to include those pages where more actual players are on. Still quite an impression, considering the 299 total sprout number for this channel. We almost reached the player cap last evening. Before this started, we had maybe 100-150 sprouts in there during the busy hours.

They don't spam a lot anymore because their script reached their final loop or something, which apparently works without typing anything. But knowing we have to wait a week until someone actually kicks them out while they're taking up space and then it's likely just a matter of hours until whatever arsehole invites new ones... Let's say, that is not a situation I am looking forward to. Keep in mind, that those are only the bots that are online right now, and only those who are on Alpha, not the ones from Raiden and not the Alpha-Bots on other worlds. Whoever has invited them really must hate the whole concept of Novice Network, sprouts, mentors, or all of them at once. This is just ruining the fun for others for selfish reasons. And dear inviter, should you actually read this and have the feeling you are doing something good here by drawing attention to these bots or something, a speculation I read a while ago, you are not. Please stop. SE *is* aware of bots and even publishes their results every week on the lodestone. You are not helping. If you feel there isn't done enough, report them yourself without bothering other players who can't do anything real against them.