It's a BOT INVASION!!!

[Entity]

Omg just what the HECK is going on?! Bots here, bots there, bots freaking everywhere!!! Never in years I have played games have I seen something THIS big of a magnitude before. I don't know HOW they got in or HOW they're doing this, but this is insane. I'm surprised an emergency maintenance hasn't been issued out yet.

 

Just LOOK at all this shiz. And this is JUST in Thanalan:

 

[Aaron]

Everton how people could be so desperate to try and do this much for real money.

 

Blame the people who give them business.  The bots that is

[Mae]

From what I now understand, the server locks have to do with how many people are attempting to log in and not how many people are currently logged into the server.

 

That being said... yeah. Holy crap. I saw those guys out there just a little bit ago (I think I see me in one of your screenshots), and from what I understand they've been there since noontime-ish. People have been reporting them, trying to lure them off to random places, and even MPK them, but they keep rubber-banding back to these locations and even somehow magically avoid mobs. 

 

I sadly have very little hope that SE will get these guys anytime soon -- I know I've been reporting a party of bots out in North Shroud every time I see them for the past five months. Whoever is on the GM team for Balmung seems to be... very lax.

[Entity]

It's ridiculous, I feel like it's more the bots fault, because there are so MANY of them that Balmung is denying access to anyone who wants to come to this server. I mean, I would be pretty peeved off if JPN's servers never have this problem. But yeah, these guys weren't here last time I was on, and even then Balmung was still locked out, which begs the question of how they got in here.

[Titor]

They might have made them all right before the servers went down. You can nearly always make a new character in the 5 min before maintenance starts. Since everyone is logging out and few people are logging on. That is when I normally make my alts.

They might have just all made new characters on new accounts the other night with maint so that is how there are so many there now.

[Kou]

It's not just bots, actually. I think people were hacked during the last maintenance as well, as the gil seller names I've been seeing seem to be more human-like than random gibberish.

 

That, and I've had a friend earlier today had their account shut down and their characters promptly deleted because "they were selling gil."

 

Whatever happened in this last patch, it seems to have opened some sort of hole in the network.

[Xiaoli Vorgan]

I saw the horde of people in Thanalan while RPing with some friends. I thought it was a hunt going on.

 

Most bots that send me messages are hacked people. Always someones name, I rarely get the Gzzhhaiiwa names anymore. Then again, if I'm not RPing, I'm crafting at which point my busy is up so I've probably been saved from spam tells.

[Kellach Woods]

I've seen mostly random names added with wcmt or a random 3-4 letters to bypass the odd chance the name is already taken.

[Ashe]

I'd suggest sending these to SE management.....it's better than typing individual names out in a report to SE in-game, right?

[Altitis Acquired]

Is there a way to report bots and goldsellers in-game?

[Mae]

There is a "contact us" tab that brings up the report harassment, cheating, bugs, and suggestions options. Botting and gilselling falls under the cheating heading.

 

Sadly, I've had little luck with reporting botters (see my above post about the group I've been reporting for months) in-game... starting to think I should brave the official forums and just report there cause at least I can see if someone's looked at the report.

[Aldotsk]

Time Period: Dec. 11, 2014 to Jan. 7, 2015

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 2,512

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4,450

- Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 1

- Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

Sounds like they are trying to relevel their BLMs.

[SerialX]

Time Period: Dec. 11, 2014 to Jan. 7, 2015

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT advertising: 2,512

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for RMT/illicit activity: 4,450

- Action Details: Permanent ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

- Accounts receiving disciplinary action for participation in RMT/illegal activity: 1

- Action Details: Temporary ban from FINAL FANTASY XIV

 

Sounds like they are trying to relevel their BLMs.

That's what I figured as well. Since so many of their accounts were banned, they had to make new accounts and characters. But since Balmung is closed almost all the time, there was only one time they could create a new character, so they all ended up doing it at the same time.

[Kailia]

Yep, they were there this morning too. I logged onto Miah, my moon kitty, decided I was going to work on thaumaturgy today. Went to central thanalan, and headed for the clutch, because I needed cactuar and quiverons. There, 5 thaumaturges in black robes, moving in unison and casting the same spells at the same time. I reported them and commented that there were bots there.

 

Then once all my log entries were done in central, I started running towards western, and a fate spawned near that zone border. I thought "Awesome this will help my XP" but then I noticed I was lagging. Slowly, 5... 10... 15... yep 25 to 30 thaumaturge bots dressed in red. I called my FC to look at it, we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

 

 

After admiring the sheer volume, I proceeded on to the zone border... finished loading and what do I see? An army of more red dressed thaumaturges! I needed the mobs around the mine, so made my way past them, got to the mine, and there were tons of black robbed thaumaturges, and a few teleport hacking. By a fiew, one moment there's hardly anything around me, next thing I know 10 thaumaturges appear, kill my target, then pop, disappear.

 

Then I proceed to the swampy ruins area past Horizon. Oh look EVEN MORE BOTS! I didn't bother even checking the other zones. But the sheer lag these things generate in the area, is unreal. I even made a post on the official forums about it. And a few hours ago when I was last online, bots are still there. SE really needs to get a handle on this before these bots start doing RMT stuff with our ecconomy.

[Aldotsk]

With amount of these bots, I am pretty sure they can conquer Garlemald at this point.

[Spethah]

We don't need some overpowered, godmodded Warrior of Light to take down Primals, prevent a Garlicean invasion, kick Bahahahamoot's ass or spy on BT call receptionist (Min"filling"ia).

 

We have RMT Bots.

 

A lot of them.

 

FFXIV: A Realm Rebotted.

 

Please look forward to this.

[Warren Castille]

"Sir, I'm trying to target them with our cannons but the controls are locked up! I think- No! Engines just 90K'd! Weapons locked behind a queue of -65353 people! Am I lagging?!"

[Tokki]

Everytime I play lately I keep getting a bunch of bots sending tells to me. :cry: More than usual.

[Swashbuckler]

I've noticed that a lot of them are THM's, which is why they're only showing up in Thanalan. I posted a few of them on my tumblr. The following, for example, is I believe 12 THMs targeting the same thing.

 

[Aldotsk]

WHAT DID OROBON EVER DO TO THEM.

[Tiergan]

It really, really grates on me realising that all of these bots are here because even now PEOPLE STILL GODDAMN BUY GIL. >_<

 

I wish people would stop giving these assholes money so we can play in peace.