Season 8 known cheaters

[Bubbley]

@suzyq he is completing his objectives as usual!!! As for TG he is a competitor of course he will try to beat his score – it’s his only fair competition after all.

I really hope you bought something special.

[Suzy]

@bubbley

Unfortunately, I was looking for clothes for winter, but because of all the summer sales I couldn’t find anything as winter clothes are only just starting to trickle into the stores. Still had a good time in spite of that :)

[datguygamer]

@bubbley So as I said, the system is changed a bit. We all now have a Unique ID applied to our accounts. Previously, this ID was used to restore our progress, modify it. But now it is also used to identify the score modifications I mentioned earlier.

What this essentially means is that the system now actively keeps track of your scores while previously it did not. So if you modify it, the system will flag your ID and will immediately send it to the server. Also, one small thing, if a player has been labelled “cheater”, that player is flagged on a list to be monitored further.

Yes, there is now a list of players in-game that tracks cheaters to make the system a bit effective. So now, the anti-cheat system is now both auto and manual while earlier when it was introduced it was only manual. But, the list is not complete so you still may see some out there. Hope this helps you.

[Bubbley]

@datguygamer thanks for this. Just to be sure I have understood and I apologise for being so laborious. The server now tracks a players score such that if, say, I play three battles and score 35, 175 and 175 making a total of 385, it knows the individual scores that make up the total. Therefore it knows that I haven’t cheated.

On the other hand if a player has a total score of, say, 15,000 and adds 2,000 making a total of 17,000, it knows that’s impossible and therefore resets the score to zero. Furthermore because it’s now using our unique identity will it always catch the cheater?

In an earlier post you mentioned that it could label a heavy grinder as a cheat. Has this changed or is this mistake still possible?

Once again thanks for your help.

[Bubbley]

@suzyq glad you had fun.

[datguygamer]

@bubbley The game tries to see what league the player is in or whether they have completed the objectives or not or whether “Arena Mayhem” is running or not. So, if that addition of 2000 is possible, then it’s fine but if that jump is done with no way of backing it up, then it will be a problem. So what you are understanding is correct. But as I said, the ID system is incomplete as there are so many players. I think it will be gradually fixed as time progresses. So that “always catches” is not guaranteed.

No, that is still there but it’s in a controlled state now.

[Bubbley]

@datguygamer many thanks. One more thing labelling “Cheater” is different from resetting to zero. Are players monitored if they are reset to zero?

[datguygamer]

@bubbley Of course. When you’re once zeroed or reset, you are on their watch list. That might not necessarily label you as a cheater but the game is still keeping track of what you do. Also, if you are labelled as “Cheater” once, you are in a different list which I like to call hitlist. These particular players are heavily monitored than normal ones. So in other words, all players are watched, some more and some less.

Also, as I said, you can now grind but the game will actually try to stop you from doing that and there are reasons for that. It won’t reset you but it will create obstacles in your way.

[Bubbley]

@datguygamer what are the reasons for the game to prevent a player grinding. Obstacles? Such as? I can’t see why Rovio would want to stop someone playing.

[datguygamer]

@bubbley If a player grinds too much and gains a huge leap over others, people at #4 or below will have a hard time catching up to them and in order to advance to the next league, they have to fight them as there’s no other choice. Also, since people have varied amounts of resources, there’s no way all will be able to accomplish this feat. So to give the lower tier a chance at cracking the Top 3, the game tries to hinder the Top 3 by throwing stronger opponents that may or may get the job done. If the teams do what they are assigned for, then the chance is there but if they don’t, the game tries it again but with even stronger combinations.

I forgot to mention this, but there is a reason people keep finding themselves in strong leagues, once you get a considerable amount of points (arena or event), the game thinks that you are a good player, remembers your player ID and thus matches you with equally strong or even stronger opponents who also suffer the same fate. That is the change they did in 1.5.2.

So starting the event or arena a day late doesn’t matter at all now. So to speak, your own action of grinding becomes your own hubris.

[Suzy]

@datguygamer

Thanks for taking the time to explain what is happening it’s very much appreciated, especially as you have just started a new job, which I hope is going well.

[datguygamer]

@suzyq No problem. I will always take some time to help out others who need help. Thanks for the compliment. The new job is going well.

[Pointless]

@bubbley another one to add to the ever-growing list…Nova has also magically put up over 70K in a few hours.

So while I strangely still have only nine players on my board, two are confirmed cheaters and one, Ss, is known, but has yet to make a move. Great :(

[Bubbley]

@datguygamer many thanks. I really appreciate your help. I now have much greater understanding of what is going on and I’m sure others do also.

@pointless added. Hopefully they will get reset or even better the “Cheater” label.

[Pointless]

And more wonderful news! HoHo has just joined my board as the tenth member! Only at ~6K right now, but so much time left. So out of ten, two are confirmed cheaters, and two others are known cheaters. I definitely know how you felt last week @bubbley

[datguygamer]

@bubbley No problemo. If you need help, just ask. I will definitely try if it’s within my ability.

[Suzy]

@pointless

My goodness, that’s awful. Very sorry to read your update.

[Bubbley]

@pointless sorry to hear that. All my fingers are crossed.

I am still struggling with the number of cheats we ABN players are seeing. We must represent a tiny number of people who play epic yet our boards are crowded with cheats. I have to ask do most who play the Arena cheat or is this some further manipulation by Rovio?

[Pointless]

I also wonder that @bubbley …I believe those of us that have actually invested some time in Arena are the real losers here, as what @datguygamer says, we are therefore matched with higher competition, and one would expect those who cheat at will to represent this top tier, although I will add in a purely artificial, undeserved way.

[Suzy]

@bubbley

Glad you brought that up as I’ve been wondering about the same thing, especially when I got most of the same cheaters from last week again this week.

I will probably end up 4th this week as I still have a cheater behind me in 4th place and the weekend is coming. Whilst it’s not the end of the world because I’m in Diamond and just need to keep out of the bottom 3, I do feel sorry for others if they are still trying to advance in the league, if they face the same situation.

[Bubbley]

@pointless yes I agree the cheats inevitably have high scores and those of us who invest time and energy to advance are placed in leagues with them. What further concerns me is that although the cheats are sometimes reset they are not demoted. Demotion would be automatic for an honest player who find themselves in the bottom three.

@susyq cheats ruin it for everyone but they are still allowed to participate. I think the word play inappropriate.

[Suzy]

@bubbley

I agree 100% they should be demoted, preferably to wood. I can’t under why they aren’t?

Just checked to see if I’ve had a response back from Rovio, but I haven’t. So, as it’s now Friday my cheaters from last week win again this week as none have been zeroed :( :(

[Bubbley]

@suzyq yes the cheats win again.

I have just had a reply to one of my tickets. Rovio state that:

“the fixes are working; however, it also appears that the cheaters found some new breaches in the game that they can exploit to gain impossible scores………. However, we are not currently focusing our efforts towards removing or banning individual cheaters but rather towards finding the sources of the problem to fix it once and for all.”

All of which still doesn’t answer the guestion of why cheaters who are reset are not demoted. It’s also not an answer since ever since the Arena began Rovio have promised to fix the cheating issue with every single update.

I am disgusted with this reply.

[Angry Johnny]

…we are not currently not focusing our efforts towards removing or banning individual cheaters…

So they ARE currently doing that? Double negatives are hard :-D

[KennyMcC]

@bubbley
So I changed my name there :) Any better that I can write there :)?