Underground bots all over Eorzea

[Edmund_Blackadder]

Hi all,

Firstly this is my first ever forum post and I don't know if this is the correct section to post this but I have been levelling an alt job and noticed quest enemy NPCs taking damage from an invisible source.

I waited for a while and eventually captured a player who popped out of the ground and then popped back into the ground - thinking this was a bug I ignored it, but then I saw this same spectacle happen in other zones.

Luckily I was able to take a couple of quick screenshots of one such player. The problem is that they disappear underground so quickly its difficult to target them and report. Is there a means to report such behavior?

I understand that my post may seem mundane, but these are clearly bots and ruin the game play experience for newer players. I have refrained from showing the screenshots here in case I am breaching some sort of name/shame policy.

Any signposting / advice on this would be most welcome.

[TlachtgaSi]

I once had my idle cam lock on to something deep under Limsa, an option for the chat log to show what it's locking on to would've been a big help in this instance. If you look for support in your options, there's a menu that lets you report suspected cheating.

[Jojoya]

Honest advice? Learn to ignore them as best you can. There are too many and they have a persistent presence in every MMO with a game currency that can be traded between players and used to purchase desirable items, whether from NPC vendors or other players. New accounts for more bot characters get created as the old accounts for the previous bot characters get banned.

SE does have ways they detect and identify those types of bots so player reports are rarely any meaningful help. Each week, SE posts a notice on Lodestone listing all the temporary and permanent account bans for the previous reporting week. The most recent one is here:

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...9d0b8ebdc6783f

The best way to combat them is to encourage those you know not to purchase gil for real money. If players weren't buying gil, those bots would have no reason to exist.

[TlachtgaSi]

Honest advice? Learn to ignore them as best you can.

Considering you cannot trade money without handing money (and thus CC info) over to Square, this means the blacklist of CC details gets longer and longer. They will run out, especially if Square starts saying to banks "We're not accepting your business anymore". Besides, these gold sellers don't make money selling items, they make money from blackmail. When you buy items from them, they prod you a month later and threaten to expose you unless you start paying them money every month.

[Jojoya]

Considering you cannot trade money without handing money (and thus CC info) over to Square, this means the blacklist of CC details gets longer and longer. They will run out, especially if Square starts saying to banks "We're not accepting your business anymore". Besides, these gold sellers don't make money selling items, they make money from blackmail. When you buy items from them, they prod you a month later and threaten to expose you unless you start paying them money every month.

With RMT still going strong in online gaming after more than 2 decades, I doubt there in any danger of running out of stolen/fraudulent payment information to use. Credits cards are not the only form of online payment now.

I'll have to rely on your personal experience for that piece of information about the blackmail. Personally, I would have thought that's unlikely since they would be exposing themselves by trying to expose the buyer. Being exposed would actually be in the buyer's best interest if it was happening. They would only face a temporary (though lengthy) ban on their account if it's a first time offense, they would no longer be "forced" into continuing to make purchases, and they would be able to give SE some information the seller that could help protect other players tempted to make the same mistake.

I know people want to think there are simple answers to the problem but there aren't. The simplest answer is the one I mentioned - get players to stop buying from RMT in the first place - and that won't happen because people are looking for simple answers to the problems they face (in this case, feeling like they don't have enough gil).