[Adohleas]

On Diabolos every day I mine in Mount Zhayolm, there seems to be a new mining bot. GMs take 2-3 hours to reply and kick the bot and then an hour later a new warping mining bot appears. It has become a major problem making it extremely hard to mine in Zhayolm with being very rare to find a MP while a bot is in there.

Has anyone else noticed this on other servers?

[Ziero]

Originally Posted by Adohleas

On Diabolos every day I mine in Mount Zhayolm, there seems to be a new mining bot. GMs take 2-3 hours to reply and kick the bot and then an hour later a new warping mining bot appears. It has become a major problem making it extremely hard to mine in Zhayolm with being very rare to find a MP while a bot is in there.

Has anyone else noticed this on other servers?

I suggest sending a report about this through PoL directly to the STFU. They're the ones that permanently take care of botters and such. All GMs can do is hit them when they hack.

[Sabaron]

The minebots are everywhere. What happens on one server happens on all generally. The warping mine bots are on Asura too and yes, they get kicked and replaced in relatively short time (like as soon as they're pretty sure the GM is gone). They don't seem to go away regardless of the number of GM kicks.

[Vyuru]

It's pretty damn annoying. Mezraq costs a little over 2million on my server, so I thought I'd go and mine up the Khroma ore for it.

Besides having many of the mining points camped, and some obvious warping going on, I found it interesting that mining points were disappearing as I had them targeted with no one around them.

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

It's pretty damn annoying. Mezraq costs a little over 2million on my server, so I thought I'd go and mine up the Khroma ore for it.

Besides having many of the mining points camped, and some obvious warping going on, I found it interesting that mining points were disappearing as I had them targeted with no one around them.

Yep, I noticed that too--there's no one to target other than the point and then Poof!--it's gone. It's almost as if they don't even need to be at the point physically to mine from it. Of course, it might just be a delayed load similar to how you can't target people in a crowded area for a few seconds when zoning.

[IfritnoItazura]

Assuming the bot does linger in the zone for a bit (if not at the same location in the zone), it should still show up in search. Report that name to Special Task Force (that's STF--there is no 'U'), and see what happens. IIRC, you need the following info:

- World.
- Area.
- Time, Time Zone. (Don't write just "7:23 p.m".--is that EST? PST? GMT?)
- Name of the character(s).
- What were the character(s) doing.

After receiving enough reports, STF will likely start to monitor the situation more closely, and eventually devise counter measures.

* * *

I seem to recall S-E stating they are considering changes to the game to prevent speed/pos hacks entirely. That probably means calculating and monitoring every player's speed on server side instead of letting the client set the player position at will, which would likely create more stress on the server hosts, and possibly needing hardware upgrade.

Would be kind of funny if new software and hardware needed to catch hack users end up causing weeks of system instability and people demanding the dev team to be whipped in public.

[Karinya]

I had this problem and discussed it with my LS, and they suggested that someone might be inside the walls mining the points from there (and that's why you can't see or target them).

If the STF is halfway competent, they know this stuff already, though. All they have to do is trace back a gil-supplier, look up their AH history and see it full of khroma ore, and they know *something* squirrely is going on in mining; lurk around Zhayolm in perma-invisible mode and they can observe the same things we do (if not more).

[Adohleas]

One very easy way to catch people on my server is you check all /anon not in a party and search ffxiah.com if one doesnt have anything sold there, then you /target name in game every time you mine and frequently you catch them behind the wall or underground where you cannot go.

Many of us miners here report them and have had many banned but within an hour a new one pops up, we have also one time seen the same bot return a week later after the gms supposibly took care of it.

[Boldfinger]

Originally Posted by IfritnoItazura

Special Task Force (that's STF--there is no 'U')

but I like that 'STFU' moniker. Hmmm. Is it ok if I call it the Special Task Force... Unit?

[Vyuru]

It's actually a bit of both from what I've read on some other forums.

From what I've read it seems like people CAN be inside the walls somehow when they mine, so you can't see them.

Also I remember hearing about a hack that brings NPCs, including mining points, to you. Now the rumor mill said that this hack was disabled awhile ago in one of the updates, but it's entirely possible that they got it back up and running, eliminating the need to stand next to a mining point.

It is most definately NOT the case that this is some funky loading thing though, I am standing RIGHT next to a mining point when it appears, and it disappears before I can even run the 5 paces and swing my pickaxe? With absolutely no one nearby in open view? And no chat message saying Player X uses Prism powder/invisible and no one to tab target before or afterwards? No blue dot on the radar?

Thanks for the contact info IfritnoItazura, I think I'll be sending in a report.

Maybe I'll be able to get an affordable Mezraq after all, just read the front page and it looks like the STF is taking a look at Mount Zhalom, woo!

[Karinya]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

Maybe I'll be able to get an affordable Mezraq after all, just read the front page and it looks like the STF is taking a look at Mount Zhalom, woo!

Eliminating the RMTs probably won't make khroma more affordable; it'll just mean that the profit goes to legitimate miners and not to RMTs. Khroma is still hellaciously rare in Zhayolm and as an ISNM drop, and in great demand for Salvage armor. Supply and demand have more to do with the price of khroma than deliberate market manipulation by the RMTs (who don't even really control Zhayolm, let alone the ISNM side of the supply).

People always want someone to blame for something they don't like and RMT make a damn convenient scapegoat for any economy related issue, but in this case it's really not that simple.

[little ninja]

I have had a few Exp sessions where I would stop to hit a mining spot only to see it disappear. They are most likely pos hacking behind the walls and floors to avoid all forms of detection both from the players and the mobs. More likely then not its just a lvl 1 RMT.

By the way they are just as bad in I.C as well. Only they don't even bother to cast sneak or Invis when they do it.

[Vyuru]

Eliminating the RMTs probably won't make khroma more affordable

No, but eliminating the RMT will most likely make the mining points stop disappearing before I can get to them, which means I have a chance at getting Khroma Ore and cutting off at least 70% of the Mezraq's cost by doing so.

[Karinya]

You have a chance anyway... I've successfully mined a bunch of stuff in Zhayolm, RMTs and all. None of it was khroma, but that's just because khroma is so insanely rare you can mine literally hundreds of other crap per 1 khroma.

[Adohleas]

Originally Posted by Karinya

You have a chance anyway... I've successfully mined a bunch of stuff in Zhayolm, RMTs and all. None of it was khroma, but that's just because khroma is so insanely rare you can mine literally hundreds of other crap per 1 khroma.

When Warping bots are on, I use up an average of 3-5 stacks of picks per 3 hours. When there isn't a bot, I use up 9-11 stacks depending on competition. Khroma ore is much more common when warping bots arnt around due to the frequency of mining.

It seems warping bots have been hit hard on my server now, they still come but you rarely see them taking mining points now, unless you just barely entered the zone with no other miners there, which doesnt last long as they end up staying in the zone without mining for the rest of the time while your there.

The sad thing is, they are extremely obvious. They always make a character with a strange name with anon on and you cannot see anything sold in the auction under ffxiah.com. Its extremely easy to catch them in the process of taking the MP by /target name if they are mining.