Planetarion Forums

Jonas · 27 Jun 2004, 23:14

I am not the only one having my round totally ruined because of random free accounts currently taking up half the spots in my gal. Whever we exile one, a new one exiled from somehwree else takes the spot. They are most likely farms. Hardly being used at all except for initiating roids. Only making the active players in my gal having to defend them all the time, until we eventually gives up as we get nothing back from it. Also, a few top gals managed to abused the "intelligent" admins to make private gals. I suggested in advance to the round that this would be a problem. But no. PA admins never seem able to get their heads down to player level and see what its like. They keep doing stuff without asking the players. It goes wrong every time.

Now, I decided to pay for this one guy in my gal, as he was atleast being active and trying.
Today he got closed. he liked the game and had his friends signup from his place. He was out of protection for a few hours max before the l33t multihunters with teh real powah got to him. How can he possibly have interacted with them?
Clearly if he was cheating he would not sign up several accounts from the same IP. Real cheaters use methods to hide such things. Is this the way to threat new players? And we wonder why nebies are rare? WTF. I bought 12 credits this round. Trying to make people get their friends to play. This is what happens...

There is so many stupid things about this that makes me wanna cry. What do we have to do to make admins make this a fair even game. Supposedly random with buddypacks. But its not the same for everyone. Said rules bout interaction. Doesnt count in all cases.

I just think its sad :/

-Jonas-

Phil^ · 27 Jun 2004, 23:20

he woudlnt have been closed unless there was reason to

ive checked up on this person. he was closed for having multiple accounts, and from the report which was done on him , rightfully so imo
the one you upgraded was created last

Guran · 28 Jun 2004, 00:17

Since when have admins started to explain in public why someone has been closed?

xtothez · 28 Jun 2004, 00:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonas

Clearly if he was cheating he would not sign up several accounts from the same IP. Real cheaters use methods to hide such things.

a) Not everyone on the internet even knows about the concept of IPs and address tracking. It's possible he didn't realise it'd be so easy to find him.
b) For those that do understand, they can always claim their 'brothers' play. It's not like anyone has ever gotten away with that, eh Phil? :)

Treveler · 28 Jun 2004, 02:35

Yeah I think the pa team own us an explanation to why they alowed some ppl create "private" gals. That has really screwed up this round. Ignoring that I find this round to be great fun tho!

Phil^ · 28 Jun 2004, 02:51

we didnt, this is a myth some people just love to believe purely because they want to
the gals you are (once again ) referring to GOT LUCKY with the buddy codes. i , and spinner have explained this on the other thread

xtothez we do our best to discriminate between genuine family members, and ones just claiming it, the no-interaction advisory we give is one way we have to try and stem the tide. family members can interact if they want, but its at their own risk and shouldnt come crying to us if they`re closed

and guran, im not discussing the details of the case, merely the generalities

Stealth · 28 Jun 2004, 03:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonas

But no. PA admins never seem able to get their heads down to player level and see what its like.

I know what you mean. I've made about 3 or so suggestions that most people seem to agree with, only to have admins ignore it. I've also seen this happen to many other people. I wonder why they even HAVE a suggestion forum.

Blacknova · 28 Jun 2004, 04:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil^

we didnt, this is a myth some people just love to believe purely because they want to
the gals you are (once again ) referring to GOT LUCKY with the buddy codes. i , and spinner have explained this on the other thread

They sure *look* like private gals in more than one aspect.

Luck is like any other factor, it can be influenced after all :/

Nova

Dark-Strider · 28 Jun 2004, 05:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stealth

I wonder why they even HAVE a suggestion forum.

Agreed, we are forever telling PA Team what we want, and being ignored.

I know Gal Status being brought back has been suggested since its implementation in rnd 10.

yet still nothing.

please listen to the community.

b4 u lose the few players u still have.

Jonas · 28 Jun 2004, 15:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil^

he woudlnt have been closed unless there was reason to

ive checked up on this person. he was closed for having multiple accounts, and from the report which was done on him , rightfully so imo
the one you upgraded was created last

Yeh possibly I was too hasty to spend my last credit on somoene I hoped would make the gal have a chance of survival. But can you tell me 100% sure that it wasnt friends signing up from his house, instead of him having multiple accounts? I mean if he did try to get his friends to play, its an awful reward to delete him.

And if he did cheat, he probably created several accounts either to get a good gal eventually or until he found someone as intelligent as me who paid him

Anyway. The main problem here is the extremely unbalanced gals... Something must be done. And when will admins listen to suggestions?? Like WILL gal status come back? Will it? You cannot possibly have read the suggestion forums the last year without seeing any complaining bout it...

-Jonas-

Jonas · 28 Jun 2004, 15:09

oh on more thing...

What basis do you delete the account on?? I just dont understand how a planet in protection can interact :/ Yes same ip etc. Didnt think that was reason enough. I paid for it. I want to know. If you can proove to me he is a cheater, ill stfu. But atm ive only lost money on what seems to be "a bit too good multihunter tool".

-Jonas-

The_Fish · 28 Jun 2004, 15:43

If I was a PA Team member, I'd give you your credit back.

Tis · 28 Jun 2004, 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Treveler

Yeah I think the pa team own us an explanation to why they alowed some ppl create "private" gals. That has really screwed up this round. Ignoring that I find this round to be great fun tho!

Spinner gets the blame fair and square for this one. He was warned many many times that this is what would happen with the current set up.

Aparantly he didnt believe it. :/

Jonas · 28 Jun 2004, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Fish

If I was a PA Team member, I'd give you your credit back.

Well, The_Fish thanx

but this really isnt about the credit. I bought 12 so obviously I havent got huge economical problems

This is about the current gal setup. And what happens when I try to survive in the most unbalanced gal system ever in PA. And also what might be a guy trying to make his friends play the game, and gets deleted for it(Which I am not saying I am right. But I want it prooved, as my guess is that its all due to one ip)

I did pay for the acc, It isnt mine but id still want to know why I wasted my money.

-Jonas-

mist · 29 Jun 2004, 12:57

can't say if they still do or not, however the pateam certainly used to pay attention to the suggestions forums.

however, there's a difference to paying attention to, and implimenting everything that someone says sounds cool.

99% of the threads made on these boards are made without any kind of game play justification. i'm sorry, but "impliment this because it'll be cool" just doesn't cut it. it'll probably get the suggestion thought about, so that it can be looked at in terms of in game effects, but if you cba to post that kind of thing with your suggestion then odds are it'll not be taken as seriously as something that comes ready packaged with reasons to impliment it.

when you get right down to it, there are a lot of suggestions that turn up which are simply unworkable. take the classic death star example for instance. loads of people suggested this, and it's be lame. take old thieves and pirates comming back. loads of people seem to want this, but they're not brought back because they were, to put it mildly, overpowered. all the posts neglect to address these problems, and therefore they're going to be put down as problems and the ideas ignored. if someone were to suggest a way of implimenting a death star that was fun and added to the game then we might see them.

also, there's only a limited amout of coder time. as far as i know spinner's the only one coding at the moment, and didn't he go find another job or something? therefore, i can't see there being that much coding time available. given that, things have to be done in a prioritiesed fashion, and shockingly the things that add to the game, rather than reworking the graphics a little, seem to have been more important

if you want to complain about that, justify your case, don't just whinge about how your pet idea didn't get implimented, so the pateam doesn't listen or care.

on the thread's subject, if you paid for the guy's account why not ask him for the closure evidence? afaik the multi hunters only give it to the account owner (fair enough imo), so wouldn't it be more fruitful to ask him for it than to ask those who're not going to give it to you.

i seem to remember a thread by spinner many moons ago, in which he mentioned that someone in his gal had been cheating, and he's not believed zeus at all untill he'd sene the evidence, and then it'd been blatant. just because it seems unlikely they cheated, doesn't make it impossible, so i'd go with looking at all the evidence before you start worrying.

-mist

Zo0f · 29 Jun 2004, 15:57

To start with i agree with The_Fish, someone like Jonas trying to help and get new players into the game shouldnt be punished like this, he deserves his credit back, as he will and has used it for the benefit of PA.

And about the exiling. I totally agree, it went from one joke to another. First it started off allowing people to make private type galaxies, but putting people in the biggest galaxy with a space. And now it has gone from one extreme to another, by putting exiles into one of the smallest galaxies. Which is death to any active planet.

Aside from the point that this now prevents my galaxy from ever getting any new planets, which seems to be a huge error to me. It is far more painful to see all my initially unlucky alliance friends getting put into a worse galaxy every time they exile. With the code as it is, it is impossible to get into a galaxy worth being in for an active player.

Exiling should clearly be totally random, between every single open space in every galaxy. Which at least gives people a small chance to get into a good galaxy.

I am loosing my faith in PA totally. First this, a simple and predictable situation. Was totally missed and I wont even go into the XP formula......All i can say, is please listen to the players PA Team. We find the bugs, we point them out, as we are the people who exploit them. We know how to do it, so we know when its going to happen. All you need to do is listen and not claim 'it wont happen' 'people wouldnt go that far' 'its just luck'.

Dark-Strider · 29 Jun 2004, 16:21

mist a decent gal status is possible surely?
a slightly updated version of the old style gal status would be perfect.
we pay for this game yet at the moment we get very little/no say in the game. :/

Precursors · 29 Jun 2004, 17:47

PA team have their "private gal" in 1:1
I would suggest them to make a change once and have their own planets in random gals next round and see what other players suffer
See what you can do then

Gerbie · 29 Jun 2004, 18:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Precursors

PA team have their "private gal" in 1:1
I would suggest them to make a change once and have their own planets in random gals next round and see what other players suffer
See what you can do then

Rofl. Like anyone in 1:1 has ever had a chance to gain a decent score. Yes, they have a gal where most people login every day. But don't think they can have a normal roidratio without huge incomming. Or a day without anyone trying to covop them.

jupp · 29 Jun 2004, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerbie

Rofl. Like anyone in 1:1 has ever had a chance to gain a decent score. Yes, they have a gal where most people login every day. But don't think they can have a normal roidratio without huge incomming. Or a day without anyone trying to covop them.

Maybe the should use fakenicks next round ;-) everyone knows that you dont take your IrcNickname as planetname

they need mentoring!

Precursors · 30 Jun 2004, 19:40

I was just trying to make a point that they should try and see what an average player feels like when playing this game in a completely inactive galaxy (some of which you might have upgraded)

Dark-Strider · 30 Jun 2004, 19:43

lol, PA Team do need mentoring

Assassin · 1 Jul 2004, 09:07

lol

Phil^ · 1 Jul 2004, 12:17

the point of 1:1 is also to be a point of contact

besides if we werent in 1:1 , i pity the poor sods who would be
at the moment there are about 5k ships incoming on 1:1

Colt · 1 Jul 2004, 14:30

only 5k?

Phil^ · 1 Jul 2004, 15:40

at the time i checked yes

it was quite light compaired to what it is usually

Precursors · 1 Jul 2004, 16:49

you are having fun aren't you?

Stealth · 1 Jul 2004, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phil^

the point of 1:1 is also to be a point of contact

besides if we werent in 1:1 , i pity the poor sods who would be
at the moment there are about 5k ships incoming on 1:1

Nah, everyone knows we only attack 1:1 because it has the PA Team

Fakhiri · 5 Jul 2004, 01:40

Short story:

We used to be a bunch of people at work playing together and man was it fun. We defended, attacked and made "evil" strategic plans to conquer the PA universe. I remember calling up coworkers late at night begging for defense. One time I even canceled a weekly meeting (sorry boss!) because of massive incoming of nastiness on my planet

.... and I managed to fight them off . Friends at work and at war !. We played both from work and from home. From work we were all behind a firewall using the same IP. Of course we were never closed down, but this was way back in R6 and 7.

This scenario would not be possible today, and I believe that this is what finally will break the back of PA. Why oh WHY! is it so important to close down a few multis when you are very effectively destroying the fun times families, friends and colleagues once had? WHY is this multihunting so important? Has it become some sort of powertrip for the hunters... it looks like it.

I don’t have any conclusion or answers, just remembering what PA was like ... and dreaming of the good ole' times.

Auro · 5 Jul 2004, 19:08

I'm a bit puzzled at the exile system and on how it works. I hear all these small planets getting into decent galaxies, yet in the past 7 exiles in the past week, I've never wound up in a gal bigger than 1 mil

Gerbie · 5 Jul 2004, 19:30

It's a question of luck. Chances to land in a good gal are very small. Try to exile when you notice a lot of free spots in large galaxies. You can use pilkara to search for that.

newt · 5 Jul 2004, 20:57

I signed up with a mate, only the two of us active in the galaxy so I never logged in again

and will probbaly never return to PA - but I guess I'm the type of player that people would prefer not to see playing.

By the way Jonas, I rmember talking to you about this kind of thing in #mentors where you ridiculed me more or less

I was slagging off the PA 'hard attitudes' towards new players who might or might not be cheating ... you told me to stfu etc.

So yeh, this thread is mucho amusing for me.