Cheaters

[t_russell]

@strategia55 — Yes, They know about the leader board hacking and are doing nothing, I don’t care if you leave the points calculation and rewards wheel client side, but the server should be set up not to accept updates of more than 500 points or so. That way you could play a couple of diamond matches between server updates and not be effected. Hackers would have to input their changes slowly. No more huge easy point drops. Or move the calculations for the rewards wheel server side and get rid of this problem altogether.

There were several well known and documented ways to cheat at this game. The one method that you would think would be easiest to fix is apparently the only one left.

[t_russell]

Got back around number three. Now I can’t decide if he’s hacking or just jacking around with the network connection to make play easier. The network thing would explain the point drops and also why they are so low compared to other known hackers.

[HarleyM]

My (platinum) league’s top four are 22605, 19805, 19610, and 17290. I’m so happy with my decision to start the week late.

[t_russell]

By my count that makes four. Big boss has been jumping ahead of me by 10 – 15K at a hop. wonder if he’ll drop the big bomb?

[KerrAvon]

@tigerussell Davichito is still about and still cheating. He has been on boards before (look on page 31 of this thread), but usually changes his score on the last day to get top spot. He has also been forced to change the score he posts. At the end of last season he was using the score 140,140 – but that won’t do him any good on your board.

[SmokeJumper]

@tigerussell Are on the same area, but I gave up the chase, the first 4 are the jumps too full-bodied, and even came to 1.45681 million TREBOR … I step back and next week. hello

[t_russell]

@smokejumper What name are you playing under? I quit playing on Wednesday morning when I knew for sure there were three of them. Then yesterday afternoon BAM here is number four.

https://www.angrybirdsnest.com/forums/topic/friends-requests/page/40/ Hit me up with a friend request.

I reported all this to Rovio this morning though it’s a bit like pounding your head against the wall. Haven’t heard back from them yet.

Got win 5 with princess on wednesday afternoon which cost me two banners, and then got win 3 with cleric and thunderbird yesterday which also cost me two. That would have been enough to slow me down anyway.

My friends are getting a workout today as I try out my new Sinister set.

[t_russell]

Hello there,
and thanks for your message!
We are sorry to hear that you have encountered cheaters in the Arena Leagues. We are aware of the issue, and are working hard to block the cheaters and hackers as soon as possible! We understand that the cheaters take the fun out of the game and are unfair to the honest players who have spent time and maybe even money to advance in the game. Unfortunately we are not able to ban the cheaters right away, the developers are looking for a way to fix this issue once and for all so unfortunately we have to wait for their fix to this.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope that you can still enjoy Epic while we are trying to get rid of the dishonest players!
Best regards,
Iida
Rovio Support Team

Well, was worth a shot.

[mich]

@tigerussell That’s the exact same text they sent me about 4 or 5 months ago…

[t_russell]

@m-ich — I really wasn’t expecting anything else. They have problems, they know they have problems, they are powerless to stop them. What kind of a game server admin doesn’t request the ability to ban players from the coders? What kind of monumental idiot doesn’t retain full control of their own system? It’s just out there on auto pilot? Or perhaps they felt that all ten million downloads went to honest people.

And I still don’t understand the mentality of the cheaters themselves. What is the point? You couldn’t get out of stone league in season one by playing so now you hack your way to the top in season two? What possible satisfaction can there be from that?

I play because I like to compete. The tougher the competition the better as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want easy wins. Just sayin.

[SmokeJumper]

my curiosity and computer training, I did some tests. looks picture.

[t_russell]

@smokejumper — No doubt manipulating the leader board is not that hard. I see you pulled your score right out. It isn’t that I couldn’t do the same, I just don’t see the point as to why anyone would want to. Make sure you put it back when you’re done. When the objectives reset and I get some banners back I might just take a run at you.

[Strategia55]

Yes. This is the identical Reply I received several weeks ago.

[LondoJowo]

The same identical response I received 2 months ago. Just a form letter style reply from lazy individuals/companies. As long as it doesn’t hurt their bottom line Rovio could care less if there are people hacking their software and cheating honest customers.

[Neomerlinmagic]

Thanks Vlad, for letting me think I was in first for 99% of the week.

[Angry Johnny]

@neomerlinmagic I have had “Vlad” in my league before and I can confirm he is a regular cheater. He usually do not play the arena at all during the week but suddenly have several thousands of points at the end of the week.

[Neomerlinmagic]

@angryjohnny He had a zero score up until I went to bed 3 hours before the arena week ended, so he had to directly manipulate the scoreboard. Even a objective resetter couldn’t get 500k+ in 3 hours. Cheaters are worse than ghosts; I don’t like either, but definitely hate cheaters more.

[Bubbley]

@angryjohnny @neomerlinmagic look out for Nickrodregues ( may be missplelt) same approach. I didn’t believe an ex diamond player would not score. He put on about 4k on Friday then nothing until Sunday when he jumped to first place not an outrageous score just 10k above the leader. Rotten for the legitimate player who was pushed to 4th.

[Angry Green Pig]

this really sucks, last week someone made over 1 million points in arena in 1 day, and several other above 100k, now this week started the arena with my 5k+ just to see about 5 people on top with over 20k points on day 1 and a few hours after reset, there is no point in playing this anymore.

[SmokeJumper]

how is it possible? Level feathery.
Baceros 50

[t_russell]

As it turns out for @smokejumper and myself there were indeed five cheaters on the board.

That means two did not make it so anyone else still in platinum be on the lookout. Unfortunately for me I have at least one again this week.

[Bubbley]

I am expecting something similar to last week still 8 players with zero.

[t_russell]

@bubbley — I think we will find going forward that starting late will not be as helpful as it has been in the past. I think the zeros are players who just haven’t started yet. Rovio has definitely been messing with the leader boards, perhaps as an answer to the “ghost” issue. I think many here made a mistake when they assigned it the same amount of importance as cheaters.

They have also monkeyed heavily with the opponent selection criteria as we have all seen. And if anyone thinks my being placed on a board with five hackers last week was some kind of fluke they had better think again. I think Rovio is handicapping and building boards ahead of time. I would guess that my aggressive style of play and frequent high scores have landed me in the same grouping as most hackers.

I’ll probably just sit here in platinum and let diamond fill up with cheaters and fluff. Make a move up in week 10 or 11 and finish out. This is getting to be less and less fun with every stupid change Rovio makes.

[Bubbley]

@tigerussell I came to the conclusion that starting late was a waste of time at the beginning of this season. The boards have always been full and I always start in 15th place regardless of whether 10 players have zero (apart from one week when I was alone but I still started in 15th place). I am convinced the boards are built ahead of time. I have also played with cheats. It may be that some people are trying the late start but I thought that last week. It turned out not to be the case. There are too many ex diamond players in my league for them to have reached platinum and then just sit. If I have to sit in platinum so be it. Why such a small pool of opponents? I play because I started and I don’t give up. Yes the game has certainly lost the fun element.

[t_russell]

@bubbley — The small grouping of opponents and the new presentation is to help you lose of course. Before the new max level and line up changes I was spending absolutely no LC in the arena any more. I had all my combo’s down and all my set items. Clean up in aisle four.

Obviously this won’t do, and since they are tracking how well you do against certain teams they decided to put that info to good use. Meanwhile the silence from them regarding player issues is deafening.

I also no longer believe in the randomness of the daily objectives. Any more I seem to get one a day which will cost me a banner or two. I don’t get smashed, or anything. It’s always a close loss but a loss none the less.