I just went there to check it out and my thoughts are.. there is definitely something going on there.
Why I think that... OK, I stayed for maybe 10 mins chatting with another guy who was also trying to figure out what was going on there. In those 10 mins I noticed more than 5 players having with names written in Croatian or Serbian language, examples: Number 10, Number 26...
My guess is they are alts from the same fleet, probably Balkans region trying to gain something, I'm not accusing anyone but it looks very much like that.
EDIT: Removed the actual names, almost forgot about naming and shaming policy. Sorry.
Ten players or so should unite, dress their characters in full omega force attire, slot a flashlight and bust in that cave yelling "THIS IS A RAID!" :P
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
"See Something Say Something." The TRIBBLE mantra of Obama... Just like in TRIBBLE Germany when children would turn in their parents for "standing in caves"...
I am sure we could ask the NSA/FBI to look at the cell phone records of those captains standing in the cave to see if they are members of ISIS.....lol
Maybe it was like that meeting Picard got called to where captains were suspicious that someone was taking over the Federation using those mind control bugs...
Noticed a "Dance Bot" on the dance floor at Risa, (weird looking Alien Gen half cat half anime toon, that obviously used the old tailor glitch, because it had a tail) and one of my Fleeties killed it by exploding one of those crawlers on himself whilst standing right next to it.
What was even creepier, was the fact that in the same instance, there were several "clones" of the at exact same toon/bot all standing around the dance floor. I'm told they were also there last year as well :rolleyes:
You can see those characters often at the dance floor. Although I have no hard proof it is a bot, the behaviour can be duplicated with normal gameplay, I am for 99% sure it is a bot. I do am wondered why somebody that probably goes illegal in the game, does it with a character that stands out and in a way that you see the botting after some examination. There is something smart and something not so smart.
This is not about erotic roleplayers, nor does it appear any roleplaying is going on in the first place.
I beamed back down there and saw 3 other players looking to see what was going on. 1 player said that after some players show up the behavior seems to almost stop but after about 10-20 minutes it starts back up again.
I hung around for a few minutes and only 1-3 player characters were present at a time. The time between character switching took longer but there was still that beep sound effect, though not nearly as often, as if a console or something was being interacted with.
Each of the few characters that showed up all had: character names made up of random letters and their info (biography window) showed each of them in a Light Cruiser and all of their ship names were made up of random letters.
I think I have an idea of what this is all about: RMT (real money trader) accounts, also known as gold sellers, also known as those jerks that spam websites in zone chat in the beta quadrant all day long.
It's very, very common for gold sellers to be lazy and have character names made up of random letters. If you pay attention to the spammers advertising websites to buy stuff for real money, they mostly have names made up of random letters. If a spammer's character name looks like an actual name instead of random gibberish, it's probably someone's account they TRIBBLE and stole and didn't bother deleting the character (the account would get banned for their spam anyway).
So this location I'm thinking is where they are exploiting the game to farm energy credits or whatever to sell on their website, and/or this is where they hide all of their many accounts to spam zone chat with.
You're probably right.. it's likely some type of exploit.
However, since this game has no GM's, no one enforces rules and no one cares.. your concerns are sadly falling on deaf ears. The 'Report' button is there to placate you and make you think someone is going to look into it, but the sad reality of STO is that anything goes.. even cheating.
It's best that you don't waste your time worrying about it and move on. Cryptic will do nothing about it either way.
"See Something Say Something." The TRIBBLE mantra of Obama... Just like in TRIBBLE Germany when children would turn in their parents for "standing in caves"...
I am sure we could ask the NSA/FBI to look at the cell phone records of those captains standing in the cave to see if they are members of ISIS.....lol
Maybe it was like that meeting Picard got called to where captains were suspicious that someone was taking over the Federation using those mind control bugs...
You're probably right.. it's likely some type of exploit.
However, since this game has no GM's, no one enforces rules and no one cares.. your concerns are sadly falling on deaf ears. The 'Report' button is there to placate you and make you think someone is going to look into it, but the sad reality of STO is that anything goes.. even cheating.
It's best that you don't waste your time worrying about it and move on. Cryptic will do nothing about it either way.
About that. Remember when Delta Rising launched there was that whole fuss about a Tau Dewa sector patrol exploit? Yeah the devs got pissed and punished a lot of players, found out later that some players didn't participate in the exploit, then reversed the punishment by giving back specialization points to everybody, but also said that the worst offenders were going to stay punished.
Edit: Think about it. If this does have to do with gold sellers and these are their accounts, I'm pretty sure Cryptic would want to know about it. If it turns out to be the case they can do something about it and maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of the spammers (probably not though but it would put a damper on their activities for a while).
WHY did you go to the place out of the way with nobody there to begin with? I dont have a habit of going to out of the way place were nobody is there ... do you have a habit of going to out of the way place were nobody is there?
Can't speak for the OP, but personally? I like to explore. There are plenty of accolades that you get for doing exactly that, and sometimes you find great spots for unique screenshots.
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
There is no reason to go there to begin, if its out of the way and nobody is there its suspicious when someone shows up and says "you know that place of the way were there is nobody there? there some wierd stuff going on" ... so WHY did you go to the place out of the way with nobody there to begin with? I dont have a habit of going to out of the way place were nobody is there ... do you have a habit of going to out of the way place were nobody is there?
Secluded locations that are off the beaten path are like magnets to me. I frigging love just... looking around.
"See Something Say Something." The TRIBBLE mantra of Obama... Just like in TRIBBLE Germany when children would turn in their parents for "standing in caves"...
This strikes me as being way, way, way over the line of "not in this forum".
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Edit: Think about it. If this does have to do with gold sellers and these are their accounts, I'm pretty sure Cryptic would want to know about it. If it turns out to be the case they can do something about it and maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of the spammers (probably not though but it would put a damper on their activities for a while).
This is exactly the case. But they are doing that for a long time. Its a foundry mission wich they exploit. One character has it, even a "respectable" character/account, even from long time ago, even if now regular players cant acces it via search over available foundry missions menu. Then they share the mission with bots, leave team thus the mission still remains on that toon and so on, over and over. Heck they even sell those missions to other exploiters.
IMO, best course of action would be at every, lets say, 1-2 weeks, to drop all missions on server. Cryptic can do that, but they do it only on certain missions were they change stuff. I am sure everyone withness that with a msg: "Mission X is out of date. Drop mission X. Sry for the inconvineince" upon log-in sometimes. Even this maybe wouldnt stop the exploiters, it would at least make them work abit lol
One more thing. Probably at some level this stuff is allready known. But since I think its PWE's job to handle complains/reports etc. things move slow till they arrive to Cryptic to do something about it.
Are they all wearing personal shields? Fun trick against suspected Bots is to use an Elachi Crawler/Spider thing on yourself
Noticed a "Dance Bot" on the dance floor at Risa, (weird looking Alien Gen half cat half anime toon, that obviously used the old tailor glitch, because it had a tail) and one of my Fleeties killed it by exploding one of those crawlers on himself whilst standing right next to it.
It lay dead, face down on the dance floor (with many players bouncing around wondering WTF?) for several hours, then suddenly it "woke up" and next thing you know, it's got a personal shield. :eek:
What was even creepier, was the fact that in the same instance, there were several "clones" of the at exact same toon/bot all standing around the dance floor. I'm told they were also there last year as well :rolleyes:
I've seen this alien before actually. I'm going to buy that crawlie thing and go bot hunting now
There is a fairly straightforward way of identifying any and all accounts involved in this activity even if they're not directly reported, but whether or not it is feasible depends on what information is exposed to the forensic researcher.
1. Identify a rough rectangular area to search--the bounding box should enclose that cave and as little else as possible.
2. Query the player database for all players where:
a) Last login location was in classic Risa,
b) at a spawn loc that is within the above boundaries,
c) whose current starship is a Miranda.
3. Sort ascending by average session time.
Exploiters and gibberish spam accounts should stick out as glaring outliers--and in a way they simply cannot avoid without a lot of human overhead.
A way to narrow it down from there would be to transform the account activity into a visual analysis. What I mean is, assign a series of unique colored symbols to represent the log of an account's activity over time. Then turn the visualization of account activity into a series of sparklines. At a high level, looking at many targeted accounts at once, the botted accounts should show clear, repetitive patterns of activity.
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Fascinating, depending on the magnitude and duration of this exploit as well as fact that everything in this game is inter-exchangeable as far as currencies work we could easily look at major inflation taking place all made by bots and a very small group of peeps taking advantage of it.
In any case it puts the fast levelling issue when DR hit to shame and hurts everybody for a change.
My bet is cryptic will act fast on the matter and the old Risa cave will be empty by next patch again.
The question is did they get banned or did they just move?
Think cryptic staff just woke up and will check forums over the day. If the controllers of the bots became aware of the few peeps who read this thread and went to cave they probably just think Meh, damn Risa event! When will peeps finally learn where it takes place. Lets wait half n hour.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Ive seen people talking about that elachi critter thing and its used on Risa quite a bit but i cant find it, whats the name of this funny little item that makes a boom? Also ive seen these people too... walked in and i expected them all to turn to me slowly so i backed out... creepy
Ive seen people talking about that elachi critter thing and its used on Risa quite a bit but i cant find it, whats the name of this funny little item that makes a boom? Also ive seen these people too... walked in and i expected them all to turn to me slowly so i backed out... creepy
You should have used a disco ball to force em to dance. It be funny or creepier ether way is good.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
Comments
Why I think that... OK, I stayed for maybe 10 mins chatting with another guy who was also trying to figure out what was going on there. In those 10 mins I noticed more than 5 players having with names written in Croatian or Serbian language, examples: Number 10, Number 26...
My guess is they are alts from the same fleet, probably Balkans region trying to gain something, I'm not accusing anyone but it looks very much like that.
EDIT: Removed the actual names, almost forgot about naming and shaming policy. Sorry.
if only cryptic made mysteries this intriguing.
Damn it, someone tell me now!!!!
Yea guys, atm anything is possible.
Sadly Im at work so I cant hop into game to play Fox Mulder, so Skinner back at office will have to do.
Pleas keep me updated.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
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I am sure we could ask the NSA/FBI to look at the cell phone records of those captains standing in the cave to see if they are members of ISIS.....lol
Maybe it was like that meeting Picard got called to where captains were suspicious that someone was taking over the Federation using those mind control bugs...
You can see those characters often at the dance floor. Although I have no hard proof it is a bot, the behaviour can be duplicated with normal gameplay, I am for 99% sure it is a bot. I do am wondered why somebody that probably goes illegal in the game, does it with a character that stands out and in a way that you see the botting after some examination. There is something smart and something not so smart.
I beamed back down there and saw 3 other players looking to see what was going on. 1 player said that after some players show up the behavior seems to almost stop but after about 10-20 minutes it starts back up again.
I hung around for a few minutes and only 1-3 player characters were present at a time. The time between character switching took longer but there was still that beep sound effect, though not nearly as often, as if a console or something was being interacted with.
Each of the few characters that showed up all had: character names made up of random letters and their info (biography window) showed each of them in a Light Cruiser and all of their ship names were made up of random letters.
I think I have an idea of what this is all about: RMT (real money trader) accounts, also known as gold sellers, also known as those jerks that spam websites in zone chat in the beta quadrant all day long.
It's very, very common for gold sellers to be lazy and have character names made up of random letters. If you pay attention to the spammers advertising websites to buy stuff for real money, they mostly have names made up of random letters. If a spammer's character name looks like an actual name instead of random gibberish, it's probably someone's account they TRIBBLE and stole and didn't bother deleting the character (the account would get banned for their spam anyway).
So this location I'm thinking is where they are exploiting the game to farm energy credits or whatever to sell on their website, and/or this is where they hide all of their many accounts to spam zone chat with.
However, since this game has no GM's, no one enforces rules and no one cares.. your concerns are sadly falling on deaf ears. The 'Report' button is there to placate you and make you think someone is going to look into it, but the sad reality of STO is that anything goes.. even cheating.
It's best that you don't waste your time worrying about it and move on. Cryptic will do nothing about it either way.
Thanks for invoking Gadwin's Law. :mad:
About that. Remember when Delta Rising launched there was that whole fuss about a Tau Dewa sector patrol exploit? Yeah the devs got pissed and punished a lot of players, found out later that some players didn't participate in the exploit, then reversed the punishment by giving back specialization points to everybody, but also said that the worst offenders were going to stay punished.
Edit: Think about it. If this does have to do with gold sellers and these are their accounts, I'm pretty sure Cryptic would want to know about it. If it turns out to be the case they can do something about it and maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of the spammers (probably not though but it would put a damper on their activities for a while).
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.
I think this is gonna be the next best game
Hide and Seek - find the mysterious 7
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Secluded locations that are off the beaten path are like magnets to me. I frigging love just... looking around.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
This is exactly the case. But they are doing that for a long time. Its a foundry mission wich they exploit. One character has it, even a "respectable" character/account, even from long time ago, even if now regular players cant acces it via search over available foundry missions menu. Then they share the mission with bots, leave team thus the mission still remains on that toon and so on, over and over. Heck they even sell those missions to other exploiters.
IMO, best course of action would be at every, lets say, 1-2 weeks, to drop all missions on server. Cryptic can do that, but they do it only on certain missions were they change stuff. I am sure everyone withness that with a msg: "Mission X is out of date. Drop mission X. Sry for the inconvineince" upon log-in sometimes. Even this maybe wouldnt stop the exploiters, it would at least make them work abit lol
One more thing. Probably at some level this stuff is allready known. But since I think its PWE's job to handle complains/reports etc. things move slow till they arrive to Cryptic to do something about it.
I've seen this alien before actually. I'm going to buy that crawlie thing and go bot hunting now
1. Identify a rough rectangular area to search--the bounding box should enclose that cave and as little else as possible.
2. Query the player database for all players where:
a) Last login location was in classic Risa,
b) at a spawn loc that is within the above boundaries,
c) whose current starship is a Miranda.
3. Sort ascending by average session time.
Exploiters and gibberish spam accounts should stick out as glaring outliers--and in a way they simply cannot avoid without a lot of human overhead.
A way to narrow it down from there would be to transform the account activity into a visual analysis. What I mean is, assign a series of unique colored symbols to represent the log of an account's activity over time. Then turn the visualization of account activity into a series of sparklines. At a high level, looking at many targeted accounts at once, the botted accounts should show clear, repetitive patterns of activity.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
The question is did they get banned or did they just move?
In any case it puts the fast levelling issue when DR hit to shame and hurts everybody for a change.
My bet is cryptic will act fast on the matter and the old Risa cave will be empty by next patch again.
Well done OP.
Think cryptic staff just woke up and will check forums over the day. If the controllers of the bots became aware of the few peeps who read this thread and went to cave they probably just think Meh, damn Risa event! When will peeps finally learn where it takes place. Lets wait half n hour.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
You should have used a disco ball to force em to dance. It be funny or creepier ether way is good.
if I stop posting it doesn't make you right it. just means I don't have enough rum to continue interacting with you.