Special Task ForceFollow

I doubt they can catch RMTs crafting 24/7 as long as they don't cheat. However, if gil-buyers stop buying because they get banned, the 24/7 crafters will leave too. It is a matter of time.

Sounds great and I am also happy with the large amounts of gil that have left and/or still being horded I might not be "worth" much gil but being able to look at crafting and not say "well i only lose 10k per synth if i do X item" is great.

Windower - Would be great for PC users, FFXI due to capping the game performance to keep gameplay the same on all systems means some if not most all computers could be doing other things while waiting on the time consuming parts of the game. Or at least just let PC users Alt+Tab since that would be the same as changing the channel which console users can already do freely.

As to finding other "3rd party programs" do what several MMO games already have, start up programs that run in the background to check if unfriendly programs (as they deem) are running or start running after the game starts which is how those companies decide who is cheating via 3rd party programs.

A message to the Special Task Force in regards to RMT's,

GO FORTH AND PUT THEM DOWN LIKE THE RABID DOGS THEY ARE!!!

I started playing this game the Christmas right after the US PC version came out. I had to quit for a long while, then came back almost a year ago, and couldn't believe the price change. I remember the days when gil was really worth something, and yagudo farming in giddeus was decent money.

Things have gotten so bad now, that any effort by SE is better than nothing, so I can't complain.

Now I do have a question, and maybe there's a good answer out there that I'm just too tired to think of, but somebody please help me with this.

"Why doesn't SE just create their own character, buy gil with it, then ban the account that sells them the gil. Then take the credit card number from that account, and ban it and all accounts using it?"

Seems like such a simple solution, maybe this is why I don't get paid to think.

Perhaps I may not have stated my point clear enough so I will take the type to type my take on this. Oh and btw, everyone knows the obvious effect of buying or selling Gil, condoning them or not has no bearing whatsoever, nor does it have any effect on the actual problem. So for those who will attempt to accuse me of Gil buying or supporting, you better concentrate on accusing me of something you can either disprove or prove, rather than one you can do neither; just letting my initial stance on that.

With regards to gill buying: why do people buy Gil anyways? Simple: to power level their crafts, to get their million Gil gear, etc. I highly doubt anyone would so easily spend so much real money just so they can brag about fake digital money. Also keep in mind that the best gear in the game can neither be traded nor sold so Gil buying eventually ends once that’s accomplished.

Having stated that, take PLAYER A for example. that player has been in the game, has done everything without buying gil, no third party software use, got all their jobs to 75 all their crafts to 100, have done all the missions, got all their items through raids and NM kills etc. the whole process took them as long as the game has been out. You can see that it has been a very long time. So far I don’t know of anyone who has accomplished this.
now take PLAYER B. this player has leveled all their jobs to 75 raised their crafts to max, done all their missions, have all the best gear just like player A. only this player has bought gil, probably uses a windower at its minimum, no extra stuff.

What’s the difference? the only difference is that PLAYER B has probably been playing one year less than PLAYER A. but they all ended up with he same things. Should both players quit, SE would probably have it the way of player A as it is far better to have a player who plays for 3 years and quits rather than a player who plays for 2 years and quits. Player B probably gets out more too.

My point is if buying Gil solely to obtain in 2 weeks something that normally would take you a month; why not make it possible to obtain that same thing in a shorter time without the need to buy Gil. Why not form a committee to come up with a way to do that. Because trust me, if people could obtain good gear, without necessarily making it too easy, but accessible by the casual gamer, then they wouldn’t waste their money on Gil.

And all you people who say if the game is too hard quit, you are idiots, you got to look it at the SE's stand point, they don’t want people to quit, there is absolutely no profit in that. How many people do you think quit after just 30 levels because of game mechanics. Or people quit because they couldn’t beat maat with the job they had [all though one would have to start another job to do so, which is what I did]. you have to understand that there are few people willing level three or four jobs simply to perform one specific function i.e. [ninja, whm, rdm for quick parties, blm for BCNM HNM etc.] if someone wants to obtain stuff they probably have to level a job they don’t want in order to be bale to enjoy leveling a job they do what. Most of you probably forget that this still JUST a GAME.

As far as the windower is concerned, simply make the game alt-tab enabled. It is the only game that I now of that don’t allow you to do that. id have to say that most people who do use a third party program its probably simply to be able to alt tab. frankly see nothing wrong with knowing the party's tp, but even that is unnecessary.

not being able to alt tab always reminds me of that opening SE message, "please don’t forget your friends and family, school work etc..." but then not being able to alt tab, and additionally losing game play simply by losing "focus" to the game implies, whether intended or not, that SE wants you to provide 99% attention to the game with no outside interference in the computer, and yet they ask you not to forget your friends and family. As if anyone really does. I think its one of those PR scheme designed to serve as a shield just in case there actually is someone whose life suffered because of the game and sues SE for that reason. This wouldn’t surprise me, since people sue for just about anything these days. [Fast food made you fat?]

My point is: SE needs to focus on removing the factors that affect these "evil acts" rather than targeting a virus that can’t be cured. It’s like nuking an enemy in a village full of innocence, when all that enemy wanted was something to eat.

I hope someone gets something out of that.

Thanks for the condescending response, but that's something I do instead of playing video games. When I'm at my computer, I enjoy being able to access it fully, regardless of what I'm doing. I end up donating a box or two of books every few months just to make room for new purchases.....but I never read at my computer desk. That's what my recliner is for. :p

When I'm at my computer, I like to chat with friends, write code, mess around in Photoshop, queue up new music in Rhapsody and various other things on one monitor while farming/questing/crafting on another. Sometimes, it's just nice to be able to look up quest/crafting information without having to log out of the game or use valuable printer toner ($100 per refill >:( ) to print things for a video game.

It's great that you're so concerned about how I and other windower users spend our free time though. If only others were self-righteous enough to express their concern similarly. I'm sure that many of us have never thought to read a book before! Keep up the great work!







Edited, Nov 7th 2006 at 10:11am PST by senorcoconut

Let's get the thread back on track and give SE some better ideas instead of arguing Windower again. I am sure SE knows about the Windower, and it is pretty clear that no one is banned for that before except the really stupid idiots or liars who claim they are banned for Windower, but they are not.

RMT crafters are killing crafting, or at least taking any enjoyment out of making a few gil that way. Most consumables are no longer break-even on the AH even when synthed at top tier HQ. People have asked me to make things like Silent Oil or Hi-potions, and I tell them to buy from the AH because they are selling below cost.

When RMT groups can farm 24/7 without actually bothering to enjoy the game, and craft ingredientws and final results 24/7 in parallel with that, they can completely control the market. Since they have virtually no costs, they simply set the price slightly below that of what it would cost "real" crafters to make. If a "real" crafter tries to compete, they dump the item at below cost to force the crafters out, and then raise the price back afterwards.

This makes it almost impossible to raise crafting skill without always making a loss, and removes any incentive for raising it as a "fun and profit" activity in the game. One aspect of the game that used to be enjoyable is pretty much shut down and controlled by RMT now.

Yes, this is personal: I raised alchemy to make my own supplies, to complement a friend who was doing the same with cooking. Now anything I can make -- top HQ tier even -- is selling below cost, and the same is true for many food items too. I used to make a steady modest income from status bolt heads. That market collapsed, so I raised woodworking to cut out the middle man and make status bolts themselves. That made a steady modest income for a little while. Now that too has been hit by price dumping.

My perception, although it may be paranoid, is that the RMT groups are constantly monitoring the AH to spot profitable activity and when an island of such springs up, to mobilize and control it.

This is all within the ToS except the final disposition of the gil to the RMT market. But without the RMT market, very few legitimate players have an incentive to monopolize the AH markets completely -- there is only so much gil a character can use in-game.

On another subject, windower and third-party apps. Obviously many people want to alt-tab out. Personally I actually used the Microsoft Compatibility Administration Toolkit to disable alt-tab completely -- I was tired of hitting alt-esc by accident and disconnecting in intense WHM macro use. So I don't really have an opinion on that. I am lucky enough to have another computer beside me when I play, and before I had that I simply printed out everything I needed in advance. I don't see that the ability to alt-tab is per se a bad thing at all, provided it doesn't open the window (pun intended) to cheat activities; and it's pretty clear that nowadays running a windower is not a pre-requisite to cheat programs.

But I do feel that several common add-ons, such as TP displays particularly for non-player characters and monsters, are cheating mildly -- knowing when an opponent is likely to perform a skill move is a fundamental advantage, knowing automatically when your own party members are supposedly ready for it is a disruption to the designed party dynamics. If, however, this is not considered cheating, it should be available to everyone through a configuration menu option.

In closing, I'll simply restate what I've said before: go after the RMT, and get them out of the game, buyers and sellers both. Let me know if I can help. :D

May be for Woodworking or sushi is pretty bad for RMT try to manipulate the price, but I also notice a few occasion is actually players themselves over supply the market. On my server, I on-off make Marron Glace and Bison Steak for profit. I notice, however, players (RMT sometimes too, but RMT on my server go after sushi usually) undercut themselves when people list up to 60 Marron Glace onto AH @_@ which is very unwise.

I think part of the problem is people power level crafts and think getting to 90+ fast cooking and make quick buck without... researching how the market in the game works.

But I do agree, making Sushi for "considerable profit" is pretty much a lost cause for now. I only make Sole for myself, and not for AH sales. And I will probably save like 10%-20% of my money by doing so and not buying from AH.



I will play devil advocate. What do you want them to say then? List the names who they banned (isn't that a privacy violation?) List the changes of their source code that they used to counter bot and hacks (so hackers can make counter measure easily?) Or ban all those weird looking name characters who are on /follow with gimp gear (so make it like a witch hunt?)


Edited, Nov 7th 2006 at 10:48am PST by scchan

Because aside from giving it away free at an NPC, there will always be someone who wants it faster and is willing to pay real money for it. The easier you make it, the more you dumb down the game, it won't matter. The people buying gil now to get their stuff are already rationalizing their actions, and no matter how easy you make it they will still rationalize their actions and spend money to get something a week or two earlier.

A lot of the newest players seem to be rushing their way to 75 as their only goal without bothering to do anything much else in the game (I can't imagine wanting that in such a rich content game as FFXI, but that's their choice). Waiting even a week to get special gear for a certain level will stop that progress, and some of those will want to get the gear NOW, not next week, and be willing to pay for it.

If you think easily available gear will stop RMT, think of this: Bounding Boots are trivial to get these days, probably no more than an evening of camping The Liz. They're as close as anything in the game to "given away free by an NPC". Why is the price on Leaping Boots still high?

Well, she's still a pain to camp. Almost every time I run by, there is at least one other person camping her. Add to that the fact that her drop rate is pretty horrible. At least, it has been for me. I'm 0/10 on her, and I've heard of people who have killed her 20-30 times with no drop. That's pretty ridiculous for a pair of level 7 boots, even if they are super wonderful. It's not hard to imagine why someone would prefer to buy them off the AH rather than sit around camping her for hours or days on end without any guarantee of success.

Because now instead of 1-3 hours worth of camping for a CHANCE at getting them, you need to spend far more time obtaining 30 Beastmen's Seals, find some other people, and do a BCNM for a CHANCE at getting them.

And, now that Lizzy drops Bounding Boots, everyone that had Leaping Boots and the time on their hands to camp it has tried to get the R/EX version so they could sell back their originals.

"Make everything R/EX" is -not- a solution. Just like how Astrals shot through the ******* roof when they were taken out of coffers. I'm happy they finally came back down though.