RMTs are starting to bother me...

[Antipika]

Question isn't "should I be banned?". You accepted the ToS before playing. You have to ensure that you can comply.

It's not like GMs won't give you a small window of time to reply anyway. You could be distracted etc. But if you are not watching your screen, the result is exactly the same as having a bot doing craft for you.

On XI fishing required full focus, but skilling up did not. Someone in my LS got banned because of using scripts to skill up magic (he was at fault, so deserved it). He wasn't banned because the GM did prove that he was using scripts, but because he did not comply and kept on casting magic for a good 5 minutes.

- He could have been spamming macro while watching a movie
- Could have been -that- famous 6 y/o little brother who was crafting for him while he was away for a smoke and couldn't reply the tell because he didn't know how. (that little brother is so famous in all MMO!)

In the end, he got banned for "absentee play" which is different of "using third party tools".

So be on the safe side, filter your logs so you can at least see tells and keep an eye on them if GMs start investigating often on XIV. Do what you can to fully respect the policy you accepted.

[Onisake]

Question isn't "should I be banned?". You accepted the ToS before playing. You have to ensure that you can comply.

It's not like GMs won't give you a small window of time to reply anyway. You could be distracted etc. But if you are not watching your screen, the result is exactly the same as having a bot doing craft for you.

On XI fishing required full focus, but skilling up did not. Someone in my LS got banned because of using scripts to skill up magic (he was at fault, so deserved it). He wasn't banned because the GM did prove that he was using scripts, but because he did not comply and kept on casting magic for a good 5 minutes.

- He could have been spamming macro while watching a movie
- Could have been -that- famous 6 y/o little brother who was crafting for him while he was away for a smoke and couldn't reply the tell because he didn't know how. (that little brother is so famous in all MMO!)

In the end, he got banned for "absentee play" which is different of "using third party tools".

So be on the safe side, filter your logs so you can at least see tells and keep an eye on them if GMs start investigating often on XIV. Do what you can to fully respect the policy you accepted.

There is a huge grey area here. Keep in mind the policy also says we are not allowed to reverse engineer game data.

So technically Kannican's beautiful post about attack damage, damage taken, etc. are all against the policy. while he is not using it for monetary gain, it is still reverse engineering.

Activities that destroy game balance
Activities that destroy game balance
Using third party programs or tools in FINAL FANTASY XIV is strictly prohibited since they allow users to gain an unfair advantage over other players. The use of programs or tools within FINAL FANTASY XIV that allow certain continuous actions to be performed automatically are often referred to as absentee play, which is also prohibited in FINAL FANTASY XIV. Additionally, during the course of an absentee play investigation, players may be requested to respond to or comply with a GMs instruction. Failure to do so is consider a violation and may result in disciplinary action being taken against the account.

The following activities are also prohibited in FINAL FANTASY XIV.
•Modifying, analyzing, integrating and reverse engineering game data
•Utility creation and distribution
•Exploiting SQUARE ENIX programming that does not run as intended to gain profit or damage other players

The bolded statement is the official definition of absentee play.

The italics section is an expanded definition. IE: me watching a movie is against the policy, since i'm not paying attention to my chat log.

Curiously enough there is nothing in the policy about dual-boxing. (personally i feel this gives a far greater advantage to some players than absentee play) but then again there are not many machines capable of dual boxing the game at this point. You'd need to computers.

Anyway, looks like i need to revise my habits.

[Antipika]

So technically Kannican's beautiful post about attack damage, damage taken, etc. are all against the policy. while he is not using it for monetary gain, it is still reverse engineering.

It is against the policy. All datamining is. But SE decided not to hunt these people, however they have the power to legally attack a website using datamining to provide data that cannot be obtained by normal means to the community.

The policy is also there to protect SE and ensure they have the right to take legal action if they want to. Reverse-engineering in general is not a good thing for any company and can cause harm.

The harm won't come from a random player over there, trying to figure out of gameplay mechanisms are working or from your average FF XIV item database. However what about someone stealing a part of SE's code/technology through reverse engineering and using it for his own products?

(Yeah I know it's not like anyone will steal anything from XIV anyway...)

Another example would be using reverse engineering techniques to make a plugin that allow you to decode the music files present on the game data (such plugins existed for XI and data can be extracted on XIV). This can cause SE harm. Music is their intellectual property, they do whatever they want with it, we do not.

Having a policy/rule doesn't mean it will always be strictly enforced. But I can tell you for sure that on XI, skilling-up without responding to GM would get you jailed. (crafting/fishing as well, but well to do this you must cheat obviously )

[Dragon]

I guess when I want to go AFK I should cancel auto-attack while fighting an NM. lol

[Jhanaka]

Hi Guys!

I thought I would take a moment to chime in about in game reporting features.

If you include the Name(s) and which activity is being performed, the GM staff will submit the names to the Special Task Force on your behalf. I will look at the message we send to you as we do not want any misunderstanding or feelings of neglect. Also, the Special Task Force is the department who handles all the investigations into RMT and Cheats, so the GM staff cannot always get involved in the ways you wish.

Thank you for helping keep our game running smoothly and I will bow out from any further discussion.

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka

[Gerrr]

What you describe has been happening on Karnak (now Excalibur) since the beginning. If they bug you take some screenshots and go narc on them to the Special Task Force Unit.

Edit: lol quick reply... "what Jhanaka said."

[Bebekurenai]

Ok you say no investigations are needed, ok I have been mining all day, someone decides to report me for botting, some time later my phone rings when I am half way through a node, I receive a GM tell and can't answer it because I am on the phone, should I be banned for a badly timed phone call or should they investigate?

I am doing leves, decide to stand at camp to eat, someone has seen be doing leves all day, should I be banned?

This is what the investigations avoid it ensures they only ban guilty parties not people who afk'd for a short time in a bad position.

As Antipika already answered, you should'nt be moving if you are afk.
And also I mean by obvious not someone who is going afk once and missed a tell or too lazy to scroll back. I mean repetetive behaviour which is obvious, like ppl turbocrafting inside the wards for a WEEK come on! Don't tell me its someone who went for food, how can you compare that to when you are at camp after a full day doing leves cause you're hungry and decide to go afk?
Or fishers at lakes blinking for hours, supposedly running a bot that tries to equip a bait.
Please some common sense ppl. I didnt mean any of you guys who need to afk from time to time, I mean obvious botters and/or RMTs. Those who we keep complaining about but are still at our camps and are supposed to be investigated, this is what I mean, investigate WHY?

[Naraku_Diabolos]

What really gets me is why the botters are using CNJ to fight and farm the Leves. I don't understand 'why' they chose CNJ instead of THM. Then again, they do use Fire when they are CNJ (I can tell from the equipped weapon). I'm guessing it's because of Aerora and Stonera, since those are specific to CNJ but Fire can be used as well; all three spells are AoE.

What I really don't understand is why they are wanting to fight the Faction Leve that has those sheep/ram, the wolves and the NPC... Why that Leve and nothing else?

I did get a giggle out of this two weeks ago; the lead RMT got killed during the fight, laid there and the surrounding RMTs just stopped fighting while getting beat up by the enemy monsters. It's like if one of the fishing RMT leaders gets KOed, the rest stop what they are doing and become inactive.

[AsterBarnivere]

Hi Guys!

I thought I would take a moment to chime in about in game reporting features.

If you include the Name(s) and which activity is being performed, the GM staff will submit the names to the Special Task Force on your behalf. I will look at the message we send to you as we do not want any misunderstanding or feelings of neglect. Also, the Special Task Force is the department who handles all the investigations into RMT and Cheats, so the GM staff cannot always get involved in the ways you wish.

Thank you for helping keep our game running smoothly and I will bow out from any further discussion.

-Senior Game Master Jhanaka

D: you took the words out of my mouth, I demand that you put them back in.

[Ksenia]

When I am waiting for a queue to log in I will decide if I care. Until then, nope. I don't see why I should.