Non registered IP multis being used via VPN.

  • complete BS that several months ago PGA had 30 accounts banned all at the same time. Obviously the offense was multi accounting but were these accounts banned permanently? No now they are back and funny enough the place holder towns that PGA used to hold the islands full were removed right before they came back? Sampisa can you please explain why multi-accounting isn't a permanent ban for those accounts? Its only a 1 year ban does gameforge really think they aren't going to continue cheating when all 30 accounts come back!? Complete BS and i've had it with Ikariam.

  • Hi all,


    we have exchanged some additional vews, and this thread has been going on for a while.

    So it seems like a good time to move forward and try to close it.

    I will contact each member posted his views here, and active on Beta through in game messaging to finetune and finalize the proposal for the fixes previously stated. Then we can present them here and ask Sampisa to take this forward through the process.


    BR
    Krizminjo

  • complete BS that several months ago PGA had 30 accounts banned all at the same time. Obviously the offense was multi accounting but were these accounts banned permanently? No now they are back and funny enough the place holder towns that PGA used to hold the islands full were removed right before they came back? Sampisa can you please explain why multi-accounting isn't a permanent ban for those accounts? Its only a 1 year ban does gameforge really think they aren't going to continue cheating when all 30 accounts come back!? Complete BS and i've had it with Ikariam.

    nah give em a second third fourth chance to cheat and destroy the server just like they did to the ungovernable Iranian systems- you are being to hard on them GOW you meanie :-)


    Meanwhile I would find it next to impossible to naturally navigate to this thread the forum is so convoluted without someone sending me a link. Hence much less posting.


    It would also be nice to try and get a pal from Iran on this thread as well.

  • Please keep this thread alive

    Yes and lets try resolve these issues to make the game enjoyable again.


    It would be nice to have some PGA input as they do have some decent people who are good at diplomacy and dont like the cheating as much as anyone else.


    Del You get a well earned rest tonight bud after a couple months of 24/7 non stop fighting!

    Salute my friend.


    Crow.

  • With revenge out for the night they are picking on another farmer who wants nothing but peace.

    PGA will farm their own members if they dont comply untill they go inactive.


    Name: warrior 11 (24)
    Title: Marathon Runner
    Player: warrior 1380
    Alliance: -
    Points: 4,639,656
    Master builder: 4,140,265
    Scientists: 455,059
    Generals: 14,220
    Gold supply: 106,170,451
  • Good day all,


    It is pretty clear that if GF desires, there are many and simple solutions to the multi account general banks that sit in vmode, exit for crazy trades and go back in.


    The most obvious, keep them online for 1-5 days until they can trade on the black market. With the size of these accounts, their banks will disband in a few hours from the gold bleeding.


    There is not even a need to check on multi, vpn, etc. If someone can spend his/her life playing Ikariam on 20 accounts, good for them, that's a good life :D


    Speaking as a veteran player that somehow still stands, I can only say that the game experience nowadays just drives me (and many others) to pressing that vmode and forget about the game. Staying around mostly to build ships and help folks like Del and other like minded to keep annoying the cheaters.


    Oh, and did I mention, ambrosia is no longer on my shopping list for some time? Why bother ....


    Cheers,

    Cri

  • God_of_war for legal reasons, we can't ban any more 9999 as in the past, just 365. If user has paid ambrosia on his account, he can recover it in a year. In any other case, account is definitively deleted.


    Deliverance the thread will not die, don't worry.


    About the presence of banks used via BM... if I'm not wrong it is a cross-faction behaviour, widely used by both "sides". And - generally speaking - it is part of strategies from lot of alliances. So, I don't wanna put gas on fire, but I'm not totally sure that there are banks managed via VPN from a side only: yesterday - as you noticed - we stopped a lot of multis for this reason. Be sure that we don't care where banned players come from... just to be *really* clear about this matter.


    Just to let you know, we are putting more efforts on this aspect, not only on beta. And I remind that we are still looking for new GOs ;)


    Sampisa

  • God_of_war for legal reasons, we can't ban any more 9999 as in the past, just 365. If user has paid ambrosia on his account, he can recover it in a year. In any other case, account is definitively deleted.

    Well thats a bummer now... Hope those accounts are marked and instantly banned again when they break the rules or are required to be linked.

  • About the presence of banks used via BM... if I'm not wrong it is a cross-faction behaviour, widely used by both "sides". And - generally speaking - it is part of strategies from lot of alliances. So, I don't wanna put gas on fire, but I'm not totally sure that there are banks managed via VPN from a side only: yesterday - as you noticed - we stopped a lot of multis for this reason. Be sure that we don't care where banned players come from... just to be *really* clear about this matter.


    Just to let you know, we are putting more efforts on this aspect, not only on beta. And I remind that we are still looking for new GOs ;)


    Sampisa

    Yes the BM 'features' are used by all sides now. Everyone had no choice but to make use of the very broken mechanics, otherwise they would have been wiped out by those players who did use the mechanics. This does not mean that the mechanics make any sense or improves the game for the majority of players.


    The issue with the BM are independent of IP Sharing vs VPN vs Solo account play. What the BM mechanics allows is very unbalanced game play when a number of non IP Sharing accounts work together. In the distant past when the Trading Post was used for even the smallest amount of gold transfer it was nerfed very quickly. The BM is currently 1000s of times worse that the Trading Post ever was.


    In many ways the BM mechanics are the game for many players/accounts where the focus is just on pushing gold and units to a few key fighters on each size of the never-ending war. Such accounts once built need just a few minutes management a day, before the BM wars required far more players to be truly involved in the fighting.


    The ultimate outcome of the current game mechanics would be a player investing the time to build a large number of accounts under IP Sharing rules to allow the BM to be used to the full extent. Is that how the Ikariam see the future of all the servers. If so let me know and I'll start the account creation, which I'm sure will cause others to follow in kind.

  • Hi all,


    after some direct communication with players on Beta participating in this thread, we can now present final proposal of the game fixes mentioned in previous posts. Although there were some additional proposals that expand and elaborate the general ideas, we have decided to go in a simpler form not to complicate things. Therefore they were not included.


    Before stating the proposal, we would just like to elaborate about our intention behind this initiative. Our ultimate goal is to improve the game experience equally for entire playing community, there is no hidden agenda behind this demand, or intention to put anyone to a disadvantage. For this we have condensed our direct game experience and picked out most critical points currently plaguing Beta server. Level of discontent among lot of senior players has reached critical levels, and this has been the triggering point behind this initiative.


    Sampisa - we would appreciate if you could take this forward through the process towards Gameforge.


    Therefore summarized fixes of the identified game issues:


    1) Bank/gold accounts:

    Usage of Gold and General banks has reached very a high level on Beta server. Our understanding of the game is that members on server are by default living beings with an intent to play the game, be proactive, grow, and not stay in almost permanent vacation mode until the request for gold/army/fleet is received. Therefore we would like to propose a fix to this missuse of regular game mechanism of vacation mode.


    Proposal:

    Introduction of a waiting/buffer/activation periods when entering and exiting vacation mode. Proposed time is 24 hours. Time required to enter or re-enter vacation mode is equal to the time required to exit vacation mode. This fix would have little impact on all rule obiding players, and would severely hamper the usage of accounts for te usage of Gen of Gold banks.



    2) Black market:

    Black market allows for legitimate trade of land and sea units, however, lot of missuse in the mechanics of the Black market trade has been occuring on Beta server lately. Usage of Gold or General banks has put a large focus on Black market trade, fueling exponential disbalance of players that are using and that are not using Gold or General banks. Working together with point 1) above, fix proposed below would lead to more natural usage of Black Market:


    Proposal:

    Ships bought through Black Market to travel through their own steam. Land units can be transferred through merchant ships. This solution is more aligned with real life mechanics. Minimum and maximum pricing ranges should be set to lower levels, as existed in previous game version (min and max ratio 2.5). This would make gold transfers between bank accounts more difficult and time consuming, and still allowing all regular game trade activities.



    3) Piracy missuse:

    Suspected usage of VPN has also resulted with a large amount of small feeder accounts used for the purpose of fueling the larger accounts. Ideal solution would be to block and multiaccounting outside of the reported IP sharing mechanism, but an in game mechanism preventig such a behavior would also be good as a second line of defense.


    Proposal:

    Limit the pirate fortress levels to the level of town hall. This will require additional investment into feeders account and make pirating exploit more difficult, and will remove the possibility to have low level town hall with a high level of pirate fortress. Proposed mapping between town hall and pirate fortress:


    Town hall level 1 - maximum allowed pirate fortress level 1

    Town hall level 2 - maximum allowed pirate fortress level 2

    Town hall level 3 - maximum allowed pirate fortress level 3

    ...

    Town hall level 30 - maximum allowed pirate fortress level 30


    Krizminjo

    Speaking on behalf of a group of Beta players

  • Well, you posted about doing it yourself, so you should know, and you're not denying it.


    Rest assured that I will mention this to the right people.

  • Prins Ogidius ,

    I see a tiger in a cage that is continuously trying to find a way to exit to tear in pieces who has trapped him. I think that this is the reason that moves you, acting borderline and in a questionable way, on forum threads and PM, Discord, tickets. As we told in lot of occasion, any personal issue can't be publicly discussed (just to remind it), and telling to the world that you feel yourself victim of an injustice, due to incompetent/biased/stupid administrators or buggy/badly designed/stupid tools, no matter if it is right or not, does not change the situation, you must live with it: you are currently assisted by our CoMa, who doesn't have any of our office limits, so you can clarify everything with him.


    I want to think that you reached the age of wisdom, so please, avoid in the future any childish (borderline) behaviour that we are - at the moment - gently tolerating just because we know your situation. Obviously, if you want to add you 5 cents to the discussion on this thread, you are more than welcome. Thank you.


    Sampisa