What's With All The Bots?

On Sylph, in Ceizak right now there are 20 players with hidden stats. Half of them have keyboard smash names. In Yahse there are only 6, but I've seen a lot more. Right now I've had one (not one of the keyboard smash names) looking at a mob I've claimed for half an hour. It's a MNK.

What is their behavior? They wander around a small area of mostly safe mobs (no aggro, and preferably no link) looking for something to attack, never wandering too far lest they get aggro. They're like Mr. Magoo, they seem to only be able to see what is right in front of them, as though they were in first-person view with some kind of screen-srcaper AI. If they want the mob you have claimed, they will stand there staring at it for as long as it stays alive, not caring that it has a purple name. I can turn my back to the mob and the bot will stare at it for at least half an hour. I did try pulling one away once, but it rubber-banded back to its area.

The keyboard smash names all seem to be DRG, probably /WAR for voke. In Yahse they're usually hanging around bees and flies. They also seem to be multi-boxed by whoever is running them, and sometimes I've seen them in Adoulin in a /follow line, selling things to an NPC or using a waypoint. That must have been manual, because the waypointers went one at a time. I suspect the goal is simply to kill a lot of stuff to generate sparks, then buy stuff with the sparks and sell it for gil. This of course is all completely automated, start 'em up and let them farm all day.

This one is near Ceizak #1, with the Mantis nearby. What happens if it's stuck looking at my mob while that thing aggros to it? Will it defend itself, or will it just stand there? And the answer is... it stands there! Too bad the mantis can barely scratch the bot... but it can! It took half an hour to die. Now will it stay there for the full hour? Probably, but I'm not going to stay around to see. Oh you BSTs back in the old days, what fun you must have had with RMT.

The main problem I have is they seem to have taken over both zones completely, and it's hard when you want to do a RoE on stuff in those zones. They were even fighting the Ceizak mandies this morning.

I guess SE really must need the money these days. Yes, I did make a help desk report on one and got the usual non-answer. I can't be bothered to use the web form, as I don't expect any response there either, since FFXI staffing is on maintenance mode anyhow. Also, the gil sellers are doing a /yell every hour or so to advertise their web site. They're not even trying to hide it.

Good going, STF. That's a great way to show us why we should Return to Vanadiel.

So, is this happening on other servers too?

Sparks, they farm sparks for NPCing shield.

Bots pay subscribe fees also they won't get rid of them. Maybe a few to make it look like they crack down. But they don't really care.

How else will I fuel me epeen? I gotsa get the gilz from my boy dirty mike.

There is a way to get them to leave their 'designated route' but it takes some time but completely doable! (I won't say just in case they try and fix it.)
I have tons of fun leading people into a corner to wake up to a stuck bot all damn day. I don't take it as far as MPK though, cause I had a GM tell me that even if they willfully attack the monster, it can be considered monster player kill. He would NOT explain himself to me and asked if there was anything else I could be assisted with. USUALLY, botters won't call a GM, though, because then they would have to actually tend to their character or risk receiving a GM respond while they are botting. :)

Filthy hackers!

Its a bot. If you claim it right before the bot locks on that will happen and will stay like that until you kill it or the real player switched. You can rly *** with one doing this. They then convert sparks to gil.

Task force reports are slow to get a response, but if you don't send them you'll never get one. Using proper channels is necessary to have action taken, especially with the JP mindset.

It's not just Slyph. I have mules across all sixteen servers due to the current free play campaign and have seen them in Yahse and sometimes also in Ceizak on "ALL" servers less Asura. Asura has its Cirdas Caverns /anon sparks bots though, so no current server is immune to the sparks bots.

Agreed, and you're seeing an abundance of it now because of the free campaign, alongside the experience/capacity points event.

I am shocked about all the bots in my game that is 50% bots by this point.

I think at this point, I'd leave people alone because the RMT, clipper/JA0wait and bot crusade could easily move this game from profitable to not profitable. S-E is dying to shut this game down and won't hesitate to do it the first moment it turns a loss.

And there a lot of people buying gil. I'm even seeing gilseller tells making a comeback lol

supply and demand.

Facts.

A lot of that is price. I have been tempted to try it but afraid of getting ripped off. Last time I checked it was like $1.27 a mil, that's dirt *** cheap.

Do you have any evidence of this claim? Has S/E stated or published anything to this effect online anywhere?

A reply or two from the Reddit AMA a year or two back implies it, as well as Matsui discussing the future of XI back when 2015 hit and he was doing interviews at the time, stating that they can't do things like reduced subs because the game needs to make as much money as possible if it wants to stay alive.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/4ulgh1/official_ffxi_developer_ama_with_producer_akihiko/

I wouldn't imagine SE is looking to kill the game as much as it's just realistic business practice to operate at a profit whenever possible. XI is SE's most profitable game of all time, on top of being the last bit of active legacy from before the Square-Enix merger, so I'd imagine that a game closure on this would be treated with respect instead of "Not enough sub money this month? CLOSE DOWN ALL THE SERVER PORTS!" that others are implying.

This.
I mean, we've seen the alliances of them in Yahse or Ceizak for well over a year on Fenrir, assuming it's like that on all servers for quick napkin math.

Ally of 18 players named Gkjdfkhshdjfh x 16 Servers = 288
288 x $12.95 (assuming no wardrobes etc) = $3,729.60 per month
$3,729.60 x 12 months = $44,755.20 in sub fees

In a game that will take every $12.95 it can, they might slap one or two of them at this point, but don't expect all RMT to be gone forever.

On every server, we have three types of Gil Sellers:


Type 1:Automated Chinese/Asian "Keyboard Smash" named bots that are stuck in adoulin farming sparks all day on lolDRG with a lead BST power leveling "Pimp" making sure the cycle continues with fresh new bots in brothelDRGmania.
These poor little DRGs get reported all day by various JP/US/EU players and usually get banned after 1-2 weeks from online reports (if you provide a list of all the names).
Fun Fact: During power leveling, these new bots hide inside mountains so not to be seen or get agro but in range for XP so it will look as if a BST just farming there and they use speed hacks and hide in walls inside adoulin trading sparks and these are reasons enough to be banned for (speed hacking and going through walls)

Type 2:Real players with a bot "squad" usually 3-6 clearing Delve, vagary and/or V1/Sparks during gains selling all the mats with a clear monopoly on AH then sell Gil for real money to people they know because they cant afford "yet" going international :) or they sell to Type 3 with dirt-cheap ratio.

Type 3:Real Players (Epeen ones,Programming Wizrds HQ onry who played this game before Pangaea broke apart) with a bot army of 12-18 clearing HELMs all day for Lazy/Bored/*Smart?* Players with high paying careers and no time to grind? that got the Gil from buying online.
-Please note that they can also be type 2-

Type 3 also have all crafts/shields controlling HQ monopoly on server, and they ship international (or sell to friends when they feel like it) Few of them are blatantly out (Oh I'm so sassy style!) but hey its a full time job for them and they got to put food on the table, so be understanding please.

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"I extend my gratitude for the existence of said system for it made sure this game survives since SE clearly doesn't treat this game as a legacy!" (said a cat-lady in her 50s that still plays this dying game by being idle in Rabao staring at the ripples in oasis next to a Fisher Elvaan!)

So there my OP Friend, welcome to the real force behind this game's existence, you can thank them for saving all our *** "apparently".

Personally I stopped caring for all this once I found out that some of these RMTs live off this game #yolo. (that was in 2015)
Also like Nikolce said "Supply and Demand"

We have a type 2 in ragna that's usually on the most viewed, bot farms vagary day/night and asura server hoppers get loaded > move back to asura to sell higher/craft, this guy been selling gil for at least 2-3 years, first to gilbuyers that were in ragna that moved to asura not too long ago and now probably in webpages.

The best evidence is SE doesn’t give a ***about these bots and the slow or nonexistent of GMs doing anything about. But then again common sense isn’t so common which is why I don’t expect most individuals to realize this reality.

They do that three times a year that’s not a surprise.

Right when they fix Monk.

Autobots, roll out!

So I take it this thread is a protest against people who bot for Gil? Because I know some people who script (yeah, still a bit) purely for XP/CP; and most of them have insane work schedules, I can’t help but understand their particular problems.

Crybabies. They don’t bother me so I ignore them but you’re right some people don’t have time to exp and script I get that.

But really, just a horrible attempt to generalize people. Take it from someone who knows the market, there are sellers and buyers at every level. Chinese bots that get banned every 3 weeks, people who sell a few mil a month to repay their sub, players who sell their gain exp gil but still progress, dedicated RMT.

Flattering you gave me an entire category to myself though, even if it was only to try to grandstand.

I dispatched 3 ninjas to your current location - giving up trade secrets is bad.. Mkay

^ When delusion hits so hard you cant even begin to fathom reality.

I'm flattered that you think its about you but honey it was not :)

Also...



I didn't even know what you're doing until recently when you posted this ***which I'm surprised you're not banned from AH solely based on that but Hey as I mentioned before I don't even care! you do you Boo!

However; I cant blame you, a summer house is nice, I know that first hand.
Best of Luck~
P.S Once you're ready PM if you want a designer for it, I will make you a good offer(Not kidding)...