Would you be opposed to SE implementing a program to scan for addons/parsers?

[Absimiliard]

It is unwise to underestimate people with too much time on their hands. No consoles, not even those that maintain fairly strict requirements to access their online functionality, remain unbroken for long. There has never been a firmware update on a console that someone didn't figure out how to break, barring of course those occasional instances where a firmware update is immediately followed by a corrective update to fix something they botched.

[solimiano]

It is unwise to underestimate people with too much time on their hands. No consoles, not even those that maintain fairly strict requirements to access their online functionality, remain unbroken for long. There has never been a firmware update on a console that someone didn't figure out how to break, barring of course those occasional instances where a firmware update is immediately followed by a corrective update to fix something they botched.

I have no doubt that it may already be jailbroken in closed groups or circles, the bits that are available to public at the moment do not represent any danger, like I said they are restricted to a lower firmware and you can't run unsigned code yet, not to the extent of modifying a game anyway.

But I could wake up tomorrow and it's completely jailbroken, I do doubt it would stay that way for very long, the cat and mousse game would start very quickly between the creators of the jailbreak and Sony, I digress as usual.
For now it's safe, works as intended and it only supports official software, the way all things should be.

[Videra]

Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat should literally never be in an MMO.

[Absimiliard]

Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat should literally never be in an MMO.

Kernal-level anti-cheat should literally never be in any game. It's complete overkill to begin with, and the majority do come with a noticeable decrease in performance when active. People always find ways to bypass them anyway

[HikariKurosawa]

There's no reason for an anti-cheat. Just several regular banwaves and much more strict moderation. They need to have a way of detecting if people are doing this stuff. They need to crack down hard on anyone they find guilty, and they need to be very ban heavy with it.

Until they remove all ultimate weapons from the game and force people to earn them without cheating, prestige is lost forever in this mmo. Cheaters ruined it, but there's nothing to prevent square enix from doing a complete progress reset. You'll still have your memories if you cleared it honestly, you'll still be able to reclear it and it will revitalize player engagement in the ultimate system. But the main thing is, prestige would be restored. They could do this multiple times to avoid needing an anti-cheat. Make sure to ban people each time they reset it and watch for cheating like a hawk. It's an easy way to fix the game in so many ways. People don't want to do ultimates after getting the weapon, especially if they cheated to get it.

Wiping everyone's progress regularly will both expose cheaters regularly, and restore prestige + player engagement to the ultimate system. It should be a "seasonal" thing until the cheating is sorted out in this game entirely. There is absolutely no point for anyone to have ultimate weapons until the cheating issue is solved.

Absolutely shameful.

[Zebraoracle]

There's no reason for an anti-cheat. Just several regular banwaves and much more strict moderation. They need to have a way of detecting if people are doing this stuff. They need to crack down hard on anyone they find guilty, and they need to be very ban heavy with it.

Until they remove all ultimate weapons from the game and force people to earn them without cheating, prestige is lost forever in this mmo. Cheaters ruined it, but there's nothing to prevent square enix from doing a complete progress reset. You'll still have your memories if you cleared it honestly, you'll still be able to reclear it and it will revitalize player engagement in the ultimate system. But the main thing is, prestige would be restored. They could do this multiple times to avoid needing an anti-cheat. Make sure to ban people each time they reset it and watch for cheating like a hawk. It's an easy way to fix the game in so many ways. People don't want to do ultimates after getting the weapon, especially if they cheated to get it.

Wiping everyone's progress regularly will both expose cheaters regularly, and restore prestige + player engagement to the ultimate system. It should be a "seasonal" thing until the cheating is sorted out in this game entirely. There is absolutely no point for anyone to have ultimate weapons until the cheating issue is solved.

Absolutely shameful.

#citationneeded

[HikariKurosawa]

#citationneeded

?????? Logic needed in your coping brain.

As I have mentioned previously, the terms of service for FINAL FANTASY XIV state that the use of third-party tools is strictly prohibited. This has always been the case and will continue to be so, and unless announced otherwise, there are no plans to enact any changes.

I have come across posts from individuals that say things along the lines of, “Yoshida allows the use of third-party tools, so it’s fine to use them.” However, let me make it clear that I have never permitted the use of these tools. You may find information below from past posts and livestreams which outline my stance and policies surrounding third-party tools.

Here is your citation, directly from yoship. You're a cheater. The devs don't want you here.

When other instances of unfair play were identified during previous ultimate raids, we enacted penalties at that time as well. If an investigation is carried out and the facts are confirmed, we have not, and will not overlook this kind of wrongdoing.

In the event that we confirm the use of third-party tools through this investigation, we will enact penalties such as temporary account suspension or permanent account bans to those involved.

It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again in the wake of what happened with Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate).

The ultimate raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.

Want more? Just read the article you have been avoiding since you're afraid of the truth.

[Zebraoracle]

?????? Logic needed in your coping brain.


Here is your citation, directly from yoship. You're a cheater. The devs don't want you here.


Want more? Just read the article you have been avoiding since you're afraid of the truth.

#citationneeded

[Coatl]

prestige is lost forever in this mmo.

There's no prestige. There's never been any. Most people do ultimates because they're FUN. It's the only content in the game that can engage them anymore.

There's no need to put so much stock into a video game.

[Johners]

Snip for characters

You know they'd only be able to fully detect cheating with an anti-cheat, right? That's the entire point of anti-cheat software being part of multiplayer games. The difference maker between say an MMO and an FPS game is the enforcement policy. In a game like Valorant, for example, you'll want to remove cheaters as quickly as you detect them due to the game relying on quick matchmaking and rounds lasting around 30 minutes. In an MMO, such as World of Warcraft of Final Fantasy XIV, ban waves are methodical and are timed for impact.

I think WoW serves as two great examples for XIV to be honest. The first being in how far players push the officially supported LUA-based addon framework and the second being in how ban waves should be handled. Blizzard control the addon framework in WoW and even with the ability to change or remove functionality on the fly (they can live patch the game without needing to do server/client restarts these days), players have really pushed the boundaries to an extent that Square Enix doesn't want in this game.

As for cheating, you only need to look at the Honorbuddy ban waves in Warlords of Draenor and Legion. For context, Honorbuddy was a paid cheat that included a rotation bot. This wasn't boss timers which the game allows via the LUA addon framework, it was an external program playing your rotation for you. After identifying the tool and players using it via anti-cheat data (plus the fact they log everything you do in-game), the ban waves were issued. Except it wasn't done quietly or in the middle of the night, they chose peak hours when everyone is online and most likely to be raiding. MMOs are social games and thanks to platforms like Reddit and the official WoW forums, news spread fast. Your top 2 or 3 DPS players that suddenly went offline? Probably cheating, especially if they never came back online.

The removing of titles, weapons and achievement from the Japanese static that cheated in TOP is great but they've made an example from one prominent team. This kind of enforcement also needs to be targeted at the normal, non-streaming and non-world first players also. I'd probably extend it into savage (cheaters play there), ranked PvP (cheaters and win traders play there) and even crafting (you think all those people are actually crafting 6+ hours every day legitimately?). Actively and openly removing the rewards from cheating is a great enforcement policy. It's a social game, turn the social against them. It does work.