Underground Bots

[Ronin_Symphony]

I am boggled - - this seems "low hanging fruit".

I just started using Idle Cam - enjoying the show - - and always always (ALWAYS) end up with a view of a pod of identical bots underground.

You could sweep - manually or automatically and burn all players underground - that does not seem complicated given an absolute parameter.....underground.

In order to "report" I need to be able to see/target the offending payer character.

If the SE team is waiting for that to happen the Bots are forever safe.

Proactively burning everything underground........ that's like getting rid of termites or cockroaches. Rats.

Low hanging fruit. Burn the nest.

I retire in ten years and have been shaking my head in this economy faced with the inevitable jobs to seniors like "Wal-Mart Greeter" or "Costco Food Taste Demonstrator/SampleGiver". What a great job I would enjoy so much more in my sunset year - - - burning pirates 4-6 hours a day.

Low hanging fruit - cost effective - HUGE dividends.

[Absimiliard]

Back in ARR you used to see them running around in the sky.

[Saraide]

Low hanging fruit - cost effective - HUGE dividends.

The impression I get is that if they expected to make big bank from less bots being around, SE would have done so already. They only act if it's enough bad PR. Run sellers in PF managed to become that because of how in the face to everyone opening the PF window they ads were. Underground bots arent.

[Jojoya]

I am boggled - - this seems "low hanging fruit".

I just started using Idle Cam - enjoying the show - - and always always (ALWAYS) end up with a view of a pod of identical bots underground.

You could sweep - manually or automatically and burn all players underground - that does not seem complicated given an absolute parameter.....underground.

In order to "report" I need to be able to see/target the offending payer character.

If the SE team is waiting for that to happen the Bots are forever safe.

Proactively burning everything underground........ that's like getting rid of termites or cockroaches. Rats.

Low hanging fruit. Burn the nest.

I retire in ten years and have been shaking my head in this economy faced with the inevitable jobs to seniors like "Wal-Mart Greeter" or "Costco Food Taste Demonstrator/SampleGiver". What a great job I would enjoy so much more in my sunset year - - - burning pirates 4-6 hours a day.

Low hanging fruit - cost effective - HUGE dividends.

There's really no need for us to be report those obvious RMT bots. SE is aware they're there. They've even got underground death traps scattered in various places. I used to love to watch the bots trying to go to the Waking Sands die to the one under the entrance.

The bots you want to be reporting are the gathering bots and the like that may be trying to imitate normal player activity but have failed somehow. Example would be a bot I found in Diadem flying into a tree branch going nowhere for over a half an hour. A normal player would have corrected immediately and continued to their node, or would have been kicked from Diadem for inactivity. Since it was that same position for over 30 minutes, I knew it was a bot.

Back in ARR you used to see them running around in the sky.

That was happening again in the city-states at Shadowbringers launch. You could watch the trains of bots floating thru the air and buildings.

[KageTokage]

There's really no need for us to be report those obvious RMT bots. SE is aware they're there. They've even got underground death traps scattered in various places. I used to love to watch the bots trying to go to the Waking Sands die to the one under the entrance.

Did they really start doing that?

That feels like it was years overdue, though hopefully they also applied it to the dungeons the bots run because they'll likely just adjust by staying in-bounds in the overworld, but they have to stay out of bounds in dungeons in order to kill the bosses.

[SassyAssassin]

Ok I have to turn idle camera on

[KageTokage]

Ok I have to turn idle camera on

You'd have to check the bots are actually around first (Player searching for sprouts with weird gibberish names typically gets that job done), since the floor bots aren't nearly common as they used to be; possibly because "sustainable" botting via level-capped characters who almost never get banned is more efficient.

[Raoabolic]

You'd have to check the bots are actually around first (Player searching for sprouts with weird gibberish names typically gets that job done), since the floor bots aren't nearly common as they used to be; possibly because "sustainable" botting via level-capped characters who almost never get banned is more efficient.

It's not that hard, just /icam by the Aetheryte in Ul'dah and you will see them. Honestly, I'm shocked that they don't swat them down. That's just more game keys that SE can sell to the botters, lmao.

[Jojoya]

Did they really start doing that?

That feels like it was years overdue, though hopefully they also applied it to the dungeons the bots run because they'll likely just adjust by staying in-bounds in the overworld, but they have to stay out of bounds in dungeons in order to kill the bosses.

I went back to my old screenshots and tracked it down to Oct 2020 when I was leveling one of my new alts. I could see the damage text rising out of the ground plus hear whatever noise then character would make when dying followed by a faint thud. I had captured the battle log information, and a few would come back after rezzing and briefly appear above ground at the entrance so I could target them easily.

I'm assuming the traps are still there though the bots probably have been given a different way to get in and out of Waking Sands since. And as you say below, they seem to be a lot rarer now at least there. I think they can still be found if you idle near the GC HQ or a company chest.

I might try checking for them when I transfer a couple of my characters to the new data center next month. It should get swamped with bots, especially if all the current NA worlds end up Congested.

Hard to say if those traps would work in dungeons since those are instanced. I'm not even certain exactly how the bots were dying, I could just tell they were.

It's not that hard, just /icam by the Aetheryte in Ul'dah and you will see them. Honestly, I'm shocked that they don't swat them down. That's just more game keys that SE can sell to the botters, lmao.

Except this type of bot is usually on an account set up with compromised payment info. They only last long enough for a quick farm and gil transfer before SE gets the chargeback.

I know people like to think that nothing is done because the bots mean more game license and subscription income but they're actually a loss to SE because the payment info is fraudulent or stolen. Chargeback costs add up for businesses.

[Jeeqbit]

It's possible to fall underground by accident because of terrain although it's very rare. It's happened to me a few times before over the last decade. Just running normally for a quest and then fell.