Dec 26 2014 4:45 pm
We are privileged. While there are people in the world who are homeless, go hungry, lack health care and face other serious issues, we have the ability to enjoy playing a video game we enjoy.
We should all APPRECIATE the time we spend here by making friends and accept the CHALLENGE the game offers! Unfortunately, there are some bad apples in our community who choose to exploit the game repeatedly. Some exploits are more blatant than others but the use of multis is unquestionable. It needs to stop completely.
Shadowing can't chase down all the multis. He depends on us, the community, to report concerns and provide evidence. I encourage the community to start doing so either directly to Shadowing or using this thread. We can discuss the topic openly.
We also need to take care not to become a lynch mob. It is usually better to let a potentially guilty party go than to hurt an innocent party. I will share an example of a suspected multi here, along with the reasoning.
Dakara is a new server. It is highly likely 90%+ of the players are existing players from other servers, yet we have found a ton of accounts that only exist on Dakara and are being farmed in a way that strongly suggests the accounts are multis and not legitimate. Here is one example of many: @Phastan
This account has 7 planets on Dakara as follows:
1-3 CLORUONG 13 Phastan zero buildings, 0 nw
1-3 KLUONT 13 Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, 1 gate
1-3 EANTUTA 13 Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, 1 gate
1-4 ALKURHAH 14 Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, 1 gate
1-5 AESSELO 15 Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, 1 gate
2-3 PHASLANTIA Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, 1 gate
2-3 OSAREA 23 Phastan 100 naq mines, 100 homes, non-gated
The 1200 building credits and 5 gate points fully account for the 1205 networth. I checked and the Phastan account is not being used on Abydos or Chulak. So let's ponder the possibilities.
1. A new player came to the game, decided to perfectly use the 1200 building credits in a way to maximizing farming naq. Not reasonable.
2. A returning player decided to come back to the game and perfectly set up the account for farming with no defenses whatsoever. Not reasonable.
3. The account is a multi. If so, the multi owner would have been the player who hit the account first taking it's 15k and has been farming it ever since.
Earlier today I investigated this account and 1 player, the one who has the top networth on Dakara, had all 6 planets sieged with 1 jaffa. You see, even a sieged planet generates naq. Since these 6 planets had 100 naq mines and 100k slaves each, they generate the maximum amount of naq. The apparent strategy is to leave 1 jaffa sieging the planet then whenever naq is desired "lift" the jaffa off the planet for a moment then re-route it back to the planet. You see, even sieged planets generate naq but it is simply not visible. By using this method the player has 6 extra planets generating naq for him. At the start of a server, having 60% more naq than other players is a MASSIVE boost. It can easily snowball because you invest the naq into your buildings and produce more naq. Also, the extra naq is used to build a larger fleet than others which is used to take the Naq Field and so forth. It's cheating, it's bull cha'tii , especially on the "fair to play" server.
So what can be done about it?
1. Shadowing, please adjust planets so they don't produce resources / naq while sieged.
2. Please remove inactives faster. If a player doesn't log in for ?7 days, perhaps their account can go into vacation mode or an inactive state.
3. For new players, please don't allow protection to end if they don't have 1200 networth. Everyone is given 1200 building credits. 99% of legitimate players will use them the first day or, at the very least, within the 5 days of protection. There are TONS of players who came out of protection with 10 networth. Most of these accounts are new accounts, do not exist on Abydos/Chulak, and are highly likely multis. Please get rid of them.
4. Perhaps the top players should automatically be investigated. Their logs of attacks and trades could be made public so others can review them. I would be open to such if we can do it for all.
5. To all players, if you see any suspicious activity, discuss it with your ally, discuss it here in forums, talk to Shadowing...get involved!
When a player, or group of players working together, acquire more naq or resources for themselves, YOU are affected. The type of player who resorts to using exploits knows they can't be competitive legitimately. They are typically the ones spouting nonsense in galaxy chat about player's mothers along with other immature behavior. Help make a difference. Speak up!
I hunt the sheep of war...
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