So I run one of the largest guilds in FFXIV NA on a high pop server; I’ve cleared all the present savage tier week 1 and have for ages within a short time, done all the ultimates. Our guild is also one of the wealthiest on the FFXIV server. Our guild runs 4 static groups for savage and 3 for ultimates.
We’re gold capped on several throwaway characters for an example.
We take measures to prevent gold selling and botting by funneling and fostering RP communities. We have several large FC’s in Balmung for an example that we downright pay for. The brute of those people aren’t even interested in RAIDING or PLAYING the game. So when they need gold for houses to create venues and decorations, where do you normally think they go to? Gold buyers and botters. So by us funneling them for free, it marginalizes the impact on the community. And as a crafter, I can see how much this fluctuates to normal players who don’t get involved.
We have a large team that works with high-end raiding guilds (even more so now thanks to cross server) to prepare them for week 1 raids. We get potions, predict the farming routes and et cetera to get people their gear ASAP. They pay us to pentameld and the whole shebang ASAP.
I can tell you definitively that bots play a huge factor in this and always do because the cost of materials gets ramped up by players purchasing gold and buying things off the auction house. Now while ideally we’d like to avoid using the AH, there are times when we make mistakes and to correct them we don’t have the time to farm or reach out to sub-teams working with us for an exchange.
In turn, we go to the AH. The cost of most of those materials becomes supply and demand sure but after playing since 1.0 whenever I see players completely decked out in pentamelded crap week 1 on our high pop server and they have no DOH/DOL leveled I have to eye them as to where they get that gold and we both know that the brute of them do so by gold buying from bots.
FFXIV circumvented that by making its most important gear completely independant from any form of purchasable assets. If you want to have the best gear in the game you have to A) do your dailies and B ) Raid to upgrade the gear from dailies while combining it with raiding dropped gear in savage tier and c ) Ultimates. NONE OF THIS IS TRADABLE AT ALL.
Weapons from the raid always drop +5 ilvls higher and do more damage bar none.
This is their direct fight against gold buyerss / botters. Who then turn to people that purchase houses on FFXIV and sit on a fortune.
XIV combatted that by changing the entire schematics of the housing situation by making it so that you can’t just sell houses in 5.1 the way you can presently and in the past.
So now the definitive value and impact of gold will remain contained. No more people buying large amounts of gold from botters to purchase mansions. Look at how this directly affected the cost of housing. It will affect lazy people who don’t want to craft. And people who don’t have DOH/DOL leveled up and wish to get ahead of the savage tier early.
So your statement is really, really ignorant towards the fight against bots.
Everything in Lost Ark can contribute to your end-game. If you buy gold from gold buying websites, it directly effects the playerbase. In T3 the prices are disgusting for things we need so many of. Example, Igniter for Sorc Legendary Book is 80k+ I sold TWO of them. 160k GOLD.
So either the person who bought the book is swiping his card for Lost Ark or swiping their card to a gold buyer. This directly effects the cost for F2P players and punishes those people. Not at all contained like in FFXIV.
So when people complain about bots in Lost Ark it’s important to realize they’re literally highlighting the direct impact bots have on the game as a whole. The bots farm gold, inflate the server, devalue the gold and ruin it for everyone.
Edit: Here’s a direct example
From a website selling gold that I just went to go check, 150k gold is $USD 125.08
On Lost Ark should you use their currency exchange… NA Valtan…
That’s 54,740 Royal Crystals.
12,000 Royal Crystals for $100 bucks or $100 euros, buddy.
That is 4.56…
That’s $460 USD for $150k gold.
Or you can just take your chances with a gold seller and buy from them for $125 USD.
That is a HUGE issue in the F2P market and for players around the world.
You complain about Spam and “unnecessary” messages for AGS to read, yet you are the one opening thread with no other intention than to shit talk and spur up conflicts. Just stop posting, you will do good to your own cause !
