Cheating/Multi accs

[CHH]

If bots do get taken then I really think, despite Dawnseeker saying their income hasn't changed, that a LOT of people will quit as they just wont do everything manually. I'm pretty sure that botters spend a lot more than non-botters. It's when people have a load of bots running at once when things get bad so I think 3 accounts is enough for anyone and is a good idea if it works although it seems lag has got worse and people can still use many accounts. Would be interested to know how much you have lost so far due to this

[YaYo1995]

I'm going to assume you dont have a background in business or IT, so I'll give you a brief explanation. Server computers and personal computers are not in the same league in terms of cost. Servers are vastly more expensive in cost to purchase, cost to run, and cost to maintain. Being a "multimillion dollar company" is not relevant. Every business with more than 5 employees is a "multimillion dollar company."

Like most businesses, we run on thin profit margins. There's not some guy running Evony on a PC in his basement. We have deals worked out with several internet datacenters who host and provide power and internet for our servers. This creates enormous costs associated with running the game and those costs must be paid for by players, or else we go out of business and no one gets to play.

These costs include server processing capacity and internet throughput capacity. The more players we have connected to our servers, the more it costs. Normally, this is a good thing. More players means that even though our costs go up, we have more people making purchases, so it pays for itself. However, with bots, our costs go up, but our income does not. That is because bots don't buy things. In fact, many people use bots instead of buying things.

It costs more and more to host all of these bots, but we aren't getting more income. Its not hard to see that our thin profit margins will quickly evaporate and we won't be able to continue to function as a business. If that happens, then Evony goes dark, permanently.

So we're taking this step. We know its not popular, but we also know that we like Evony. We like our players and we want to keep operating. So we have to do the unpopular thing so that we can continue to exist.

It was our mistake to allow botting in the first place. We thought it wasn't a big deal and we could deal with it down the road. We were wrong. We messed up. Now we have to do the best we can to clean up the mess. We hope in the long term that players will understand.

JoeyDaBull has just been taken to school


Thank you for the no-bs answer Dawn. This is how we like it. No running around the bush.

Good luck in cleaning up this sludge that's taking evony down, called bots and multi-accounting!

[Kantot]

Yeah! Whoever is threatening that evony will lose players and they will quit are the ones who does multi-bot (hundreds) and does not buy chests. Sad but true...

And the most funny part of it all... They complain on whatever Evony does that affects their bots losers!

[DrOrnery]

Wow, something I can't disagree with. And kudo's for admitting that you allowed bots but "enough was enough".

Next, lets see if evony can work on communication. maybe better that 1 or 2 day notice on "planned" events or changes. I know, I have high hopes.

As for the merge. I have an account that was "cheated". There was likely less than 1/4% failure on transitions, which is pretty good. So a little advice here. Tell your CS people to admit problems can happen, apologize, tell them there really is nothing that evony can do at this point. Paying customers will likely get upset but get over it faster than dragging a CS ticket on by ignoring it and denying the problem.

[A666]

I see the problem for Evony, and thats not acceptable in the long run.

But having let us run bots for YEARS, taking it all down is a bit drastic in my view.

I agree that hundreds of accounts for one player is clearly unacceptable, so what should the limit be then? Surely Evony has statistics of how many accounts are logged from a certain IP. So setting a limit that will stop the insane botters - but keep the Little average botter in the game should perhaps be the limit.

If I were Evony, I'd simply disable all bot login completely BUT not untill you have build in some of the functionality of the bots in your own client. Face it, people have grown used to not farming, queueing troops etc.
Besides, those tasks are the ones that makes the game boring - using the troops to fight your enemies are the Heart of the game. And as such we should try to maximize the time available to do just that, instead of just having to farm and q troops.

Just my 0.02

Looking forward to stable servers and fun gaming, but I may quit if the limits become too restrictive.

[DrOrnery]

And here is another idea evony, since I seem to be in an agreeable mood.

Take some time to create a "bot like" interface for evony. The bot is less of a memory and system resource sponge. It is much easier to have a bot like screen up 24/7 than the "In Game" graphic environment for simply monitoring your accounts.

[FlatHolder]

Any word yet on IPv6 support? Unless an ISP is run by idiots, there's no such thing as a shared IPv6 address. That would solve the 'dorm' issue.

[FlatHolder]

Ugh, can't edit posts. Hey, why is this is Commanders of Evony and not the Age I server areas?

[Christine Tiberius]

Why not look for some real answers? Take away the loyalty raising powers for Governor. This will eliminate hundreds, if not thousands of voting alts. Look at some of the reasons players turned to bots. Mainly, it began to fill the need for food and gems. Larger players, often coiners, need 3 or 4 alts to feed one account. Give players the ability to keep more food in cities. This could be done by reducing the usage by 50%, refilling the food in npcs every hour, or even bringing back multi-taps. People don't mind putting in some effort if they can get a return. Make it easier to star, also eliminating the need to have bots on multiple accounts farming constantly. In over three years in the same account, I still have the 13 set I had over two years ago. Address and correct the causes and bot using will diminish, players will enjoy the game more and remain with Evony longer.

[iamme]

This is the commanders of eviny section your whining in the wrong section of the forums