Concerning multi/script using accounts
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:04 am
To any mods reading this: please leave this topic in SGW General and not move it to For Admin, as it is meant to inform the other players reading this forum. The admins have already been informed of this issue.
The short story
As some of you know, there have been (and still are) accounts in Main using scripts to farm. I've watched over a dozen such accounts for several weeks/months, and then reported them to the game admins. I've sent several e-mails on two occasions. I got no reply, but 2 of the accounts were ostracized some time after the first e-mail.
On the second occasion (a week ago) I made an updated list of all the suspicious accounts and e-mailed it again; I sent another e-mail in the weekend, adding another ID to the list. Still no reply as of yet, but I found yet another ID.
So - until such time than an admin looks into this issue and, should there be sufficient proof, decides to ban the accounts that are breaking the rules - I decided to also share this information with the community and ask for your help to, as much as possible, make it harder for the cheater(s) to continue their illegal (and quite profitable) activities.
The IDs
Accounts still active:
Accounts reported and ostracized:
The proof
Of course, only a game admin can decide if there is enough proof for these accounts (and others that may be connected to them) to be banned, but I've watched them for long enough (since September or so) to be convinced that there is no way they are simple, rule-abiding noobs with the same playing style. I've limited my interaction with them until an admin could look into the matter, but from now on I plan to make their cheating as difficult and unprofitable as possible. I will keep a record of the naq and UU I get from attacking them and, in case they are found guilty, send them to ID 1 if requested to do so. I suggest everyone else do the same or, otherwise, avoid attacking/raiding these accounts altogether.
I'm sure I'll have more to add to this later on (and I'm also hoping for some reactions) - but for now, I guess this much is official: I'm back to hunting stupid multis, like in the good old times.
The short story
As some of you know, there have been (and still are) accounts in Main using scripts to farm. I've watched over a dozen such accounts for several weeks/months, and then reported them to the game admins. I've sent several e-mails on two occasions. I got no reply, but 2 of the accounts were ostracized some time after the first e-mail.
On the second occasion (a week ago) I made an updated list of all the suspicious accounts and e-mailed it again; I sent another e-mail in the weekend, adding another ID to the list. Still no reply as of yet, but I found yet another ID.
So - until such time than an admin looks into this issue and, should there be sufficient proof, decides to ban the accounts that are breaking the rules - I decided to also share this information with the community and ask for your help to, as much as possible, make it harder for the cheater(s) to continue their illegal (and quite profitable) activities.
The IDs
Accounts still active:
- 1981031 (Form Fist)
- 1986574 (Sinc)
- 1987884 (elittmann)
- 1987891 (biter)
- 1987892 (badabum)
- 1987893 (anabolist)
- 1987898 (atomic bomberman)
- 1987900 (monstrosity)
- 1987947 (bnovaki)
- 1989254 (mightymoe)
- 1989307 (the big kahuna)
- 1989371 (avkos)
- 1989386 (Praetorian)
- 1989489 (bulldozer)
- 1990572 (aberg)
- 1990574 (sweiss)
Accounts reported and ostracized:
- 1989640 (Ikenga)
- 1989700 (lughClt)
The proof
- The most important proof is that I've watched these accounts for a long time, and I've seen them doing the same things, the same way, many times: they farm periodically, for several turns, even hours at a time, without taking any breaks; they hit low-ranked accounts indiscriminately, even if their targets are defended, and have attacked the same targets unsuccessfully more than once; they hit for low amounts, repair their attack weapons after only a few hits, then bank the naq; they keep doing this until they run low on attack turns and, even if attacked repeatedly, don't stop farming, don't try to hit back or communicate in any way (the things human players usually do when the naq they're farming is stolen).
This, unsurprisingly, is exactly what another group of banned accounts used to do a year ago: viewtopic.php?f=159&t=189177 - The IDs of the suspicious accounts (see above) are in 2 narrow ranges, the first of which also overlaps with the range of IDs of the banned Slovenian multis mentioned above. 3 of the IDs are even consecutive.
- They usually have 0 defense or, in some cases, a very small defense; the defenses started appearing after I attacked a few of them in the beginning, so I assume the player(s) who created the accounts still log in at least occasionally.
- All of them are accounts with no alliance, and no commander or having themselves as commanders.
- All the accounts are currently unascended, or at most Priors.
- They all have decent covert skills (level 32 or 33 without exception), presumably to benefit from the bank size; they also have lower anticovert skills (but above level 20), and small to average unit production, well above a new account's starting unit production.
- A few of them even have/had planets with similar and identical names.
Of course, only a game admin can decide if there is enough proof for these accounts (and others that may be connected to them) to be banned, but I've watched them for long enough (since September or so) to be convinced that there is no way they are simple, rule-abiding noobs with the same playing style. I've limited my interaction with them until an admin could look into the matter, but from now on I plan to make their cheating as difficult and unprofitable as possible. I will keep a record of the naq and UU I get from attacking them and, in case they are found guilty, send them to ID 1 if requested to do so. I suggest everyone else do the same or, otherwise, avoid attacking/raiding these accounts altogether.
I'm sure I'll have more to add to this later on (and I'm also hoping for some reactions) - but for now, I guess this much is official: I'm back to hunting stupid multis, like in the good old times.
Who is to say that these are not your scripted accounts, which you are now benefiting from? 
Sorry, I must have skipped over that. 
Want me to write you a script to automatically farm those scripters whenever they start?