Posts by Cheech

Quote from User12996

Quote from Cheech

Im almost convinced your badidols burner account ahaha

Anyway, the issue is these problems have been allowed to develop for years, separating the people from the well-developed problem would be hard.

If you take general banks away, there will be outrage. If you take multi-accounting away, there will be outrage. If you implement negative resource / debt mines, there will ben outrage. Gold banks take longer to transfer - there was already outrage for that and what they introduced wasn't even a solution, just a harder to exploit measure. Even altering ambro prices will cause outrage. People sometimes put years into their ikariam plan, removing stuff will only loose what population ikariam has left. Thats why a new server to impliment stuff would work perfect, people aren't loosing anything, they are just developing with altered rules.

The test server is basically what is ideal being stand-alone and separate but id explain the problems with that. First, its years old, account are massive. Second, i heard it started with unlimited ambro, then they removed ambro entirely. So we got an unfair development for sure. Also since you can't purchase ambro, its profit it none. Keeping players there isn't beneficial unless the players can benefit themselves, and i will explain why they can't. So the statement from the manager was you were to treat test server like any other server, it's rules apply, which basically limits its testing ability but thats fine. Then, after me attacking a person, he defended with about 15 accounts all not IP-shared and i reported with evidence. The funny part is in the ticket system, the admins said 'This is a loose server and not connected, rules don't apply' - thats not word for word but you get the idea. So there is both enforcement and no enforcement ahahaahahahahahaha. Joke, all of it is a bad joke, i would love to explain this further and name names, honestly. Besides the enforcement issue, there is no benefit to test server. Its slow, everything is standard rate and putting time into it is relatively pointless

Its strange how they have all the right things, just the wrong ideas. My IP adress is my home adress, the same it's been for 3 years btw

Individualistic ikariam and debt mines are interesting ideas, it would be intersting what direction ika is intending to go in

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I'm not. It's mostly that we had a huge back in forth with him in another topic. Plus there's been a few other former GOs/SGOs that I've spoken to about the issue. Obviously, they can't tell me "here is how we look for people cheating" because as soon as you give that away, the cheaters know how they're being detected and change tactics.

It's also one of the problems with banning cheaters in general. If you ban them one at a time, they end up A/B testing how they're getting banned. With a game like Ikariam where there's no up front cost outside of making an account, you can spam A/B testing a lot. If cheaters do get banned, they will also mass appeal their bans, if only to waste support's time, because time spent responding to tickets is generally time that isn't spent trying to catch new bans, plus sometimes the bans are on circumstantial evidence and get overturned.

Everyone always acts like there's a very simple answer to bots because "I can see who is botting" but gathering adequate proof is another matter entirely. It also helps that I had my entire Warcraft guild playing Ikariam at my behest while we raided together so I know that it can be easy to coordinate people to play that simply aren't that invested in their account(s).

I've also studied tons of mmos and other online games. They all end up, invariably, having botting problems because it's a demand side issue. Effectively, the player base is so willing to buy power, especially when the same thing in game is less than their hourly wage.

They're already talking about removing general banks. I'm not sure how it'll be done, but it's going to happen eventually, and I've made a topic and I've linked to the topic already about it.

Again, I've got no idea what flagged you, but I've also heard this tale as old as time. I've simply played so many MMOs were people come out and post how they were innocent then eventually support says no, we detected that you were using X, Y and Z and that you actually violated the rules. (I'm not saying this is or isn't what you did, just pointing out why I'm naturally skeptical.) You could also be a victim of more robotic bot policing which is one of the consequences of that - false detection.

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Thats crazy. So i have actually got back in my server so naturally i'm going to stop complaining. Funny enough, when i said i got banned for botting, someone else said they had this issue and has posted several screenshots of their exchange with the support system also blaming them when they were innocent. This is what? The third guy i've talked to already who has had the same thing happen? But regardless, from other experience i know what flagging it, its not just the heavy online usage but also the 2min30s pirate cycles which explains why my other servers dont get banned. Anyways, all is well, everyone i've spoke to has always been in agreement, i've laughed to all the people i've played with over the years as they know i don't bot. All good and god bless. My time will be re-directed back into ika and not forums

Im almost convinced your badidols burner account ahaha

Anyway, the issue is these problems have been allowed to develop for years, separating the people from the well-developed problem would be hard.

If you take general banks away, there will be outrage. If you take multi-accounting away, there will be outrage. If you implement negative resource / debt mines, there will ben outrage. Gold banks take longer to transfer - there was already outrage for that and what they introduced wasn't even a solution, just a harder to exploit measure. Even altering ambro prices will cause outrage. People sometimes put years into their ikariam plan, removing stuff will only loose what population ikariam has left. Thats why a new server to impliment stuff would work perfect, people aren't loosing anything, they are just developing with altered rules.

The test server is basically what is ideal being stand-alone and separate but id explain the problems with that. First, its years old, account are massive. Second, i heard it started with unlimited ambro, then they removed ambro entirely. So we got an unfair development for sure. Also since you can't purchase ambro, its profit it none. Keeping players there isn't beneficial unless the players can benefit themselves, and i will explain why they can't. So the statement from the manager was you were to treat test server like any other server, it's rules apply, which basically limits its testing ability but thats fine. Then, after me attacking a person, he defended with about 15 accounts all not IP-shared and i reported with evidence. The funny part is in the ticket system, the admins said 'This is a loose server and not connected, rules don't apply' - thats not word for word but you get the idea. So there is both enforcement and no enforcement ahahaahahahahahaha. Joke, all of it is a bad joke, i would love to explain this further and name names, honestly. Besides the enforcement issue, there is no benefit to test server. Its slow, everything is standard rate and putting time into it is relatively pointless

Its strange how they have all the right things, just the wrong ideas. My IP adress is my home adress, the same it's been for 3 years btw

Individualistic ikariam and debt mines are interesting ideas, it would be intersting what direction ika is intending to go in

Quote from A.A

About Ambrosia prices, it's natural to have price differences because what is considered affordable or even cheap for some one living in San

--That said I need to mention it's not likely going to be a top priority to fix right now unless it's influencing other problems because, although it feels unfair, it's not breaking the game or causing immediate military advantage to for one side over the other except in some extreme cases, let me know if I'm wrong.

and some are illegal multis which are the ones causing problems.

Locking and bleeding: A long time ago there was a rule limiting this; you would get banned for pillaging a smaller, total points, player more than 5

Finally about the scripting part, lately I have got my attention drawn to the fact that I some times repeat some tasks in a regular timely manner and it could be mistaken for scripting so it, unfortunately, is a thing to keep in mind when playing any game, I would suggest contacting support and reasoning with them to get your ban lifted.

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Ok, im going to expand on the quotes you said above. Not all the points, just the ones i disagree with the most.

Ambrosia prices do influence alot of problems, there's about 6 or 7 really big ones actually and yes, military too. They are responsible for the massive donation accounts flooding new servers, both mines and helious. Then they can buy spartans and open them on new servers, trojan horse the server. There's a million ways to trojan horse a new server, thats why transfers are fundamentally BAD, the only possitive is populism which i have stated, has decreased. Ambro also causes mobile targets, 1 guy i was fighting was warping 2 or 3 times a day, a turkish account so obviously we know the issue here. And its unfair becuase i dont have the purchasing power to do the same and we know that its roughly 10x cheaper. If i was spending £2 for a warp instead of £20, id be warping 2 or 3 times a day too. Then there's all the shop items that can benefit a ambrosia account. These topics i can spend days typing over.

Multi-accounting isn't too bad when it's all IP shared, but almost everyone i fight is not IP shared and i know their combat style because its their only fingerfrint. I know a person by their military actions because everyone is unique, the accounts fighting not IP-shared and its always the same. The same in every server, particularly with the bigger account

When i said locking and bleeding, i didn't mean bashing. Locking is sending actions to someone's towns to make them unable to warp, freightering is the worst, it can be around 30 days and the ability to lock every town very very easily, i dont mean locking as in blockading. Bleeding is miracle bleeding. These are in-game mechanics and not breaking, just not too nice an idea

So when i said about my account being IP banned, there is 2 possible ways. Either the system detected heavy online usage (probably about 20 hours/day) and blocks it OR i got reported as a bot and im guilty by assumption. I know the person who would have reported me because i basically threatened them 'attack me and i'd attack you back right away' kinda thing. The thing that i don't like is the admins saying 'We recommend not going back to using automated scripts' , which just literally says i'm scripting. The biggest advocate for anti-bots is using a scripting bot service, you heard it here folks. What a joke.

So funny story, the 'new experiment server' i was referencing came to a close from me not being able to login. That is why i had time to write all this nonsense in the forums in the meantime. Ironically, the conclusion i've came to is that my IP has been banned off S59 because it has mistaken me for a bot. If i've came to that conclusion, and someone else has, and someone else has etc, i will accept it as the most credible source. They've even insinuated i've been scripting twice which i can only laugh at. So in answer to you, yeah, i have recently found out they are taken measures against bots. I'd give an explination, i play close to 24/7 and leave my PC running - this could be a long explanation and i can't be bothered, i find this all ammusing but if i was serious about this game it should make me very very sad. I can actually expand on this answer for 200 paragraphs to be honest but i actually placed bots as #1 grievance as im fighting hundreds of them in plain sight and nothing is getting done and there is no criteria to report. Bots are free-range to live and yet humans are getting banned for mimicking close to a bot. This entire experience feels like some wacky alternate timeline stuff.

On the subject of Unit upgrades, my alliance member fought 2 alliances at same time, he knows them from another server and doesn't really like them. Anyway, 79/80 of them went in V mode within 12 hours. They have military, just can't fight back because they are un-upgraded. This isn't even good upgrades, it just average yet they can't defend. WHY IS THIS A GOOD IDEA. EVEN AS YOU BEING THE MORE-UPGRADE, THERE IS NO VICTORY IN THE BIGGER NUMBER!! I said i dislike, i continue to dislike, even if i have the advantage.

In not addressing all the points, im just saying my opinion doesn't change, not even slightly

I'd mention what i've experienced/concluded and then move onto what your saying and relate it.

So the starting point for us is the same. We need new playerbase that will actually play long-term and not get 'pushed off'. My idea was a stand-alone server with no transfers. Currently the new servers have transfers closed for 42 days and i've actually got to experience the benefits and drawbacks. From a first glance on the new USA server it is extremely healthy but extremely unpopulated. The EN server on the other hand is very popular, i don't know why, i can only speculate that the EN servers are always more active. The very very basic oversight is that the regions with the cheaper ambro develops alot faster then the regions with more expensive. Not a little bit more, a number im not even prepared to say. But that only becomes an issue when the transfers open, otherwise it favours pay-to-win but it doesn't tip the scales of balance. Almost everyone will actually agree with new non-transferable servers, the issue im begining to realize is the demand just isn't enough. And in the event a merge happens with the other side of ikariam, you might aswell not bother

So it's too early to draw a conclusion to that but from speculation, if you solved ALL of ikariams problems and implimented it on a new server, i still feel the player-base isn't enough to sustain. Thats just how i feel. So yes, phone application ikariam is almost vital - people already play on phone ika while its being extremely dissadvantaged with the set-up. Then also advertising. Most new players are old returning players, it needs something to draw that attention again but if they return to current-state ika, it would eventually be unsuccessful.

What im saying isn't even something new. Other games have closed transfers to develop player growth and the minute transfers open, thats when most of the playerbase gets cleaned out. The longer the development time, the increased chance of survival. This is common sense

Now onto the top issue the game faces, and i'd rank them in my personal experience. The very first thing i will say is the longer the game is out, the more developed the community get. So to go back to a perfect nostalgic landscape is not possible, but there can certainly be progress. The example of this is one game i played, the clans were very small, the first could years of the game we were just wandering about not knowing much and having fun. Upon the games new release, everyone knew what to do and our clan was now over 100 people just rushing this once dosile-slower paced game. Urbanization / Industrialization of the game, this is irreversible. Now, my issues in order:

1-Bots ------------------- Ugh. The full umbrella of it, Piracy bots, discord bots, production bots. The population is getting replaced with a fake population

2-Unit-upgrades ------------- People will disagree, i just hate everything about it. I fight you, i fight you fair, why is this even in the game. I got alot to say

3-Cheap ambro -------------- This causes alot of problems. alot. Thats all i will say

4-Multi-accounting ----------- IP sharing is not terrible but this allows too much twisting of the rules. Its basically a trojan horse for rule breakers

5-Banks --------------------- Takes alot of fun out of the combat and takes away vital parts of the game. Creates undefeatable opponents

6-Lenience -------------------- Lenience to rule breakers is hinderance to the rule-abiders. This takes many forms but if i can see it, admins can certainly see it.

7-Locking and Bleeding ---- Its not against the rules, its just not the intentions of the game, like banks but generally leaning on the toxic side of ika

8-Out-of-Touch ---------------- This one you touched on, the developers just don't know. Just listen to the people who do know, please

9-Idleness --------------------- Unstimulation. Time kills everything, there needs to be a draw factor. This could be cross-server wars, events or better servers

There's more, i just need to think about it. I think gameforge need to think about it more. All they need to do is sit down and say 'how can i create new, healthy playerbase. If a player joins a server tomorrow, how can we make him enjoy himself and stay' . A much needed QoL reform.

So most people i've played with over this roughly 3 year journey have quit or is largely inactive, my personal solution is develop in other games in the event this becomes unplayable because lets be honest, this is a foundation-block reform required. In my opinion. Let me hear if my opinions are far away or close to what you've experienced. I will probably add to this post when i have time and ideas

Quote from Quartz

When a player is wandering about with a 900k GS and 1.6B gold thanks to generals banks and multis (and I'm assuming honest play) it ceases to be fun for the rest of us.

And this player has upgrades up the wazoo.

Sorry, but a player with a single account just cannot compete. And it's not fun.

I have stated almost the exact same thing. General banks and gold banks are bad, but not breaking. When you combine it, general banks, gold + upgrades it's so stupid. To be clear, its mainly the upgrades i dislike, it was the last nail in the coffin for my tolerance

Quote from The crow

Considering how this idea of the 24/48 hour ban was originally from Deliverance who is one of the best fighters on the server (perseus) I will explain what it was all about as it's not complicated. As gen banks give big alliances an edge and especially with the allowing of multiple accounts this will make it very expensive to use one. Gen banks are only used when fighters need ships and troops fast and some will use it to run a million gens and there really is no skill involved in fighting with this advantage and it makes it very hard for anyone with no gen bank to fight back using skills that were needed before like high level barracks and shipyards and taverns and museums. I have fought with and without gen banks and know the difference very well.

The upkeep on a huge gen bank by the hour is phenomenal when it's open and that's why they don't stay open longer then an hour or so.

The original idea was an account coming out of v.mode cant sell arms or troops for 24(or 48) hours. Then when you spend a week building and beating down a guy with a half a million gens he doesn't magically gain another half a million with a click of the mouse while your population is so low you cant even build 1 hop. Fighting in this game used to involve strategy and skill before gen banks and now it's about who has the biggest gen bank and gold.

Without gen banks wars are fought with alliance members making and selling to the fighters and now with the infinite horizons and upgrades even more so.

It takes a lot of alliance participation like wars did in the old days unlike now where guys will throw in 200,000 troops into an attrition fight and check back in 24 hours and add what's needed. Rinse and repeat for 1000 rounds.

There is very little skill or strategy involved and smaller players do not stand a chance.

That being said the #1 fighter on perseus does not use gen banks but he fights people with banks around 30 million gens and is unbeatable.

He has a lot of support and spends a lot of time online fighting because of skill, strategy and tactics and a lot of people helping him and his small alliance against the 2 of the top alliances in the top 3.

I know he is unbeatable because he was my general on 3 servers so far.

Crow

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I fought about 6 wars building military, then the last one i used banks. The difference is insane. Big man must be completely insane to not use banks considering he's averaged about 3m offence for as long as i remember. I don't like this methodology but i didn't create this game - im not numb in the head

Quote from Johnny B.

Have you read this thread? You should.... it seems long, but it is not. Many players said the same thing, they always find another loophole. Some people say the big guys are profitable to the company, that's why things haven't changed much. Others are crazy to see GF's numbers lol

You know what else is profitable? A healthy playerbase. Its slowly getting less - and the new updates are probably driving more people away then bringing them in. Right now im farming someone who's played since old alpha server - im assuming he quit after these updates. But there are ways to bring in new players, they just should be allowed to grow and not over-shadowed by older players. New server, new rules. Even if the devs are completely useless, the bare minimum is allow godly protection until 100k points or 60 days. Listen, im a knowledgeable person but i can say honestly i got farmed until i stopped playing one of the new servers - what chances does a new player have?

Quote from Duske

Yea but they have to be out of vmod which allows you to attack them and destroy army, pillage towns, block ports etc... It is not same...

Hmm, they can Vmode it. Even if they pre-built an army up to 100k generals and V mode 5 accounts to protect a main. They don't even need to trade to acquire generals. This is something i would do myself if banks got banned, im just saying there is always alternative. The difference is i would be doing this IP shared, 80% of others will be fighting un-Ip'd. Even if gold got consumed while in vmode, i would still have spare accounts holding their 'maximum' without going into deficit, probably around 70k generals. Now imagine other people aren't confined to 11 accounts (VPN naughties), there could be dozens of accounts holding and building military without having the need to trade or vmode. I will say again, if they are countering banks, they need to counter multi-accounts at the same time otherwise its pointless

I like seeing anti-bank propaganda. And thats from someone who holds banks. I just hope what they want to implement makes sense because i have a strong feeling it probably won't. The large problem is that if they take them out completely, there would always be a way around it or a next best bank idea. I mean.. if 10 accounts hold small militaries to protect 1 big account, there's not much improvement going to happen. I will say again.. there needs a new server, new rules.. there is too much exploits and ways around things at this point, i don't see a good result going to happen without a complete overhaul tackling all of it not just banks. A new, heavy enforced server, no transfers in, no multiaccount, no cheap ambro.. i am sick of saying these same things. I don't even want someone to agree with me, i wan't to hear a DISAGREEMENT. Why can't this work? Don't say time or effort, there is plenty effort in the wrong direction

It's a nice picture, i assume your REIS, the fastest growing accounts. Im going to give you some trivia, for no reason. You came to P5 with what i can only describe as a perfect setup - so perfect that i told the top alliances that they should attack you while you were small 4m accounts otherwise you guys will be a very strong force. Now your all top 10. I mean.. i do hate being right so often. The only thing i didn't get to measure was ability, but unfortunately we left the server and you guys were the only people i had interest left in attacking. And that's not out of dislike.

I can offer almost all information on the account your questioning but unfortunately i gain nothing from their ban, so it doesn't make sense to get involved

Also hi, we never got acquainted

Everyone had the same 3/3 upgrades and forge. You could just look at ikalogs and see for yourself who has ability and who doesn’t

Now it’s primarily just who had more upgrades. A perfect aspect of fairness just swept away and life goes on. We’ve had this discussion, we both have our different opinions. I like this thing that we have, let’s keep doing it. The battle of wills - keyboard edition

Glad to hear they listen, I’ve got hundreds more complaints to lodge

Anyways I didn’t advocate for unit upgrade changes or the +1 to +5 ‘improvement’ - I haven’t been playing, I’ve been graveyarding my accounts for a combat operation that’s basically ruined. Just like my last one from a game bug yippieeeee

I’m holding a minute silence right now in support of this improvement so far. They’ve read the dislike for grey, lack of colour etc and made change

New never ending is bold words for something like a month old. Also needs to be competitive to be never ending and idk if it’s even matchup. The longer it drags on though the better, I will be joining once I’m available ;))

Hmm, normally when people want conflict they look down the list and never up, pick a nice small target and find any excuse to instigate. Generally harass until there is escalation

I genuinely love humbling bigger opponents but right now I’m king of asphodel and workshopless. One day

Gordos!!! Ooooooh yeah. Yeeeeah buddy. Ima big fan and big purchaser of taco tuesdays special. You get em twiger

Oooooo yeah, oooooooh yeeeah. Drama, suspense, competition. A nice healthy start to a lifeless server. Keep me posted, I am Gandalf the not relevant and I want too see events that unfold from afar. They are big sleepy sleepy giants on euoooriodwykeíë

Also I like to bring this up at every opportunity. They haven’t fixed the bug of disappearing units to my knowledge. I lost a filthy amount of Spartans (as well as other units) and since it was a trade and not a purchase the ‘proof’ wasn’t there to get them replaced. And even if I did purchase them on my account, it would mean relying on the ticket system to get them back. In my experience I’ve never had resolve through the ticket system in this game -or any game so slight disclaimer, at your own risk because I certainly won’t. I actually don’t hold over 200kMS incase it all disappears again. Anyways, enjoy your day

Quote from Quartz

Right now I can tell you that Hoplites upgraded to Level 14 kick butt against Spartans. So much so that it's not really worth fielding them.

This, of course, means it's not worth buying them.

mmmm, compared to before? Yeah, yeah Spartans are worse. But I had no forge with Spartans and fella had hoplites forged around 15/15 and it was almost the same losses. Not a disaster, in terms of balance reworks they are quite a few before it. I am for Spartans getting buffed though - purely so there is something anyone can access to counter these ridiculous upgrades