I'm sure many people have noticed the elephant in the room by now. Tons of hackers have been going unchecked for a couple of months, even the painfully obvious ones. I haven't been around as much this month, but I've noticed that every time I pop into discord or forum I see a ton of people repeating the same thing-- "__ has been hacking for __ days now." I personally feel like the amount of hacking / rwt has gone up tenfold to what it used to be. I don't know if it's because we're noticing it more due to monster cards, or if it's always been this bad, or there's just simply not enough active Staff members.. People started submitting more and more evidence in the gm assistance channel on discord, since we can't really see the report section on the forum it's hard to tell from a player's perspective what seems to be the faster route, but I have noticed Shane's been stepping up and cleaning out the discord reports on a daily basis. (Once again, since we can't see the forum reports it's kind of hard to tell what's being done on the forum end, just from the player's perspective.) I'm sure other GM's are doing their best as well, but like I said, I'm only in and out everyday for 5-10 minutes so I'm not here for the full duration of the day, that and timezones are a thing, but the only person I see responding is Shane most of the time. Which leads me into my next segment... I'd like to first start out by saying that I genuinely appreciate everything every GM, ex GM (good or bad, we learn from the bad ones too) has done for us, and giving the opportunity to help this server grow over the last 6 years. However, there is a huge problem with MIA Staff members, and the amount of hackers running around is speaking for it. I understand that it's a volunteer role, but to me personally if you are not communicating with your team members about being active, then that's when it becomes a problem. I've had a few ex members tell me they just got up and left without saying anything for a month or so. To me, that's irresponsible. You're basically shifting all of the weight of being a GM on to the shoulders of those who are actively trying to get shit done. We may have 12 Staff members (including Evan lol) but I only ever see maybe 4-5 respond to anything, and it's been like that for a few months, maybe longer. I'm not making this post to call out those who are completely MIA, as I understand that people do have lives, and you guys are human. This is a feedback thread, so I'm simply just giving some feedback. I also understand the need to take breaks from Royals completely. What I'm saying is, I don't understand why the mentality of getting up and leaving without any notice is acceptable when it wouldn't be for a job setting. I understand not telling the player base, but not communicating to your team members about how long you think you may be, or just simply saying "hey idk when I'll be back, but I can step down until I'm ready" seems highly irresponsible as you've signed up for a position that requires constant attention. I'm not saying "don't ever take a break, you're lazy grrr" we're all human, we get burnt out. What I'm saying is something needs to be done, initiative needs to be taken on the Staff members who are MIA and either step down until they are ready, or just simply give a rough estimate on when they should be back. I'm not suggesting you tell everyone where you are, why you're taking a break, etc. But just a simple "I'm taking a break for _ amount of days / months" or "idk when I'll be back, I'd like to step down until I'm ready" can go a long way, and can help the Admins manage the Staffing situation better. I really do believe there's a ratio imbalance right now between Staff members, and the amount of problems happening behind closed doors on the server. Something really needs to be done about both problems. Edit: I'd also like to add that I'm aware of the projects happening, new control panel, working on updates, etc. So some things will get neglected, however I don't think hackers / rwters should be pushed to the side, especially with Anniversary just around the corner. Spoiler: Convo from this morning
I agree that more action is needed at the staffs end but my anger is directed more towards the rwters, hackers and botters. As mentioned by sparky, I really hope that the autoban system is coming soon, else the damage done by them is going to get worse.
What I don't understand is how so many people seem to break TOS, take a look at 3rd party websites. The amount of attention they get is insane. Yet there's only 1k players online, literally feels like 50% of the playerbase is up to something.
What are your solutions then? Regardless of how many there are, there will always be hackers and RWTers. I agree the amount right now does seem high but imagine being one of the staff members and having to deal with all of this everyday. I could be wrong but I don't think the staff get much benefits from being part of the staff except for like experience and just helping the community. There's nothing wrong with that but like you said we all have lives outside of this game. They volunteer their time to this server and I don't expect them to be available all day and solve every issue. If they added more staff, the process of adding staff, teaching them and trusting them to do their job is a lot. Adding members could be beneficial if it works out but in the cases where it doesn't work out, it can backfire. Examples I could think of is wasting time if the fit isn't right and I've even read from other servers that people have stolen information by joining the staff and gaining their trust. You do make fair points but both these issues are staff related. The most we can do is talk about it and bring light to the situation possibly coming up with solutions or anything helpful. At the end of the day, they did voluntarily join the staff and that comes with a certain amount of responsibility but if they slow down and are running behind I don't blame them at all. In my opinion, the staff don't get the acknowledgement or credit they deserve to begin with. They may not want it but without them there's no server lol. Royals is the #1 server and it maintains that for a reason. Hackers gonna hack and RWTers gonna waste their money but they all eventually get banned. All part of the game, especially a private server. (My bad if I ranted and went off topic)
You're absolutely right, as for a solution I couldn't tell you because I don't have one. It honestly sounds like there isn't really one for this problem yet. You are right, there always will be rwters and hackers, but it was nothing like this back in 2017. Hell, even the other years it's never been this bad. You can ask any older player and they will tell you the same thing. I'm not saying I expect the staff to be here 24/7. A couple of ex staff members told me they've literally logged off without telling anyone and didn't come back for a couple of months. That is what I don't like. It's one thing to volunteer your time, but if something comes up in a personal setting then it's up to that person to make the decision to either step down and let someone else come in to help out, or to at least let the other staff members know they will be unavailable. Don't just panic and disappear. You are 150% correct. They really don't, and I think the community underestimates a lot of things they do. Honestly all Matt has to do is click 1 button and the server's gone. Then guess what, 6 years of progress? Gone. All of those countless hours we've spent grinding? Gone. All of the rwter's progress and money? Gone. Lol
the issue is that the staff have lives to live and they need money for their day to day activities so most of them are pretty busy in their lives, just like everyone else's, what we need is people with a clean record of several years in the game that can volunteer for gm's positions with the sole purpose of taking the hackers out, like, low level gm's with the capacity to dc a hacker and put it in a black list, so that they remain banned until they are finally banned for good by the higher lv gm's, what do you think of the idea?
Why wasn't it implemented before? Is it because auto-ban lacks concrete evidence? I could see players mistakenly getting banned by auto-ban. But, at the same time, it would be efficient and effortless for the staff.
It did exist, but it was so buggy and auto banning clerics for healing undead mobs lol I don't remember when they got rid of it, 2016 I think, but they did have one
I've been aware of the situation and it led me to creating a guide on capturing evidence/reporting hackers. I understood that several members of staff seem inactive for their own reasons and I have encouraged the community to keep their eyes open for suspicious activities and report them, whether privately or publicly to help keep hackers in check with limited amount of staff. I should probably encourage people to report hackers privately more often since they can read shoutbox and discord to see if they've been found and try to become more low-key on that character, or move on to a new one. And its usually the same people that keep coming back to hack on new characters after getting constantly banned. It also doesn't help that the individual who made the hacking methods floating around also gave hackers tips on how to ban evade. Even though staff do ban many hackers they just keep coming back, but obviously that doesn't encourage a hopeless attitude, or at least it shouldn't. Players would start losing trust in the server if that were the case. The problem currently though, is that many players have reported hackers and some of them were still around since the past week as those reports went unanswered. I am glad more of the community have gone out of their way to help report these individuals but the inactivity lately seems very apparent and it could cause some problems. Hackers being left alone for too long can easily affect the market or fund their main accounts, and I am pretty sure it gets worse as their numbers keep growing. Not to mention it can lead to an even larger scale of illegal activities as seen by the creator of the hacking program. Theres alot of things staff are working on and people have lives, yes. And unfortunately, even if measures are taken there will still be hackers who continue to do so. But the issue currently is how big its become and it will keep growing unless something will be done. Hackers are becoming bold enough to go to more populated areas lately, and that shouldn't be a good sign. Maybe more of staff will be returning to their active roles soon, but I do think there needs to be more active members of staff especially in the present.
I completely agree with everything I believe most of us are on the same page when it comes to this topic imo which I'm grateful for, because it is becoming an issue. There's people reporting the hackers and spreading the awareness around, but there's no perma bans being done frequently enough to keep up with the demand because everyone's so scarce. I just don't want to see the server crash and burn because of this. This was a screenshot someone had in a discord group I'm in. It was submitted several hours ago. I really hope the admins see this because it's ridiculous. I'm sure it's possible to farm a ton in one sitting, but I've been told it's been like this since May / June now. (I'm not suggesting that these IGNs listed could be a part of it, but I do know a few notable players have submitted detailed reports on possible Gold Tooth hackers in general)
In the past few months i've found and reported a lot of hackers through the forums. So from my personal experience i can tell you that my reports get resolved fairly quickly, 1-2 days on avarage. Tim, Shane, Muff and Yan are the GMs that usually take care of my reports, so i can see that they are all working hard on fighting the hackers back. But this latest hacking wave that was assisted by ban evading tools meant that banning almost does nothing to affect the general hacker population. I used to report almost daily since i started playing as an ironman. I explore many maps people dont bother visiting nowadays, so i've seen countless hackers, to the point that i cant even be bothered to make a report... I'm glad that i moved to ironman because they cant affect my meta now, but its fairly easy to see how big of an impact they have on the market. I honestly have no interest in playing on my normal mains anymore in a game that is so infested by hacking and RWTing. Only real solution rn is to pray that a new autoban system would be in place, and that the GMs would clean the mess afterwards by hunting down the people that benifited from this hacker friendly situation. Because right now, banning hackers is like cutting a hydra's head. EDIT: Hahahaha, it didn't take me even a day to prove to myself that reporting a hacker is meaningless. I spotted a hacker that hacked boldly on ant tunnel ch 5, reported him and got him banned. Now i logged back on after a day, and lo and behold, a new hacker, that hacked exactly the same way the other guy did, in the same ch. That shows just how little these hackers care if they get banned, they just leave their hacker bot running, and see if it got banned or not, then shrug it off as they make a new account. Without autoban, this fight is meaningless
Yeah same for me. A typical report takes 1-2 days average for me as well. Only difference for me is the amount of reports I make. Earlier it was mostly the bold hacker that doesn't give a crap if he/she gets caught. Due to card hunting I've seen more hackers recently. As an older player I'm not sure if the amount of hackers have increased necessarily, it's just that we have caught more hackers recently due to exploring more. My friend who is also looking for cards caught a hacker in some obscure map as well not long ago. As for the GM's not telling us/the rest of the staff about absence. "What I'm saying is, I don't understand why the mentality of getting up and leaving without any notice is acceptable when it wouldn't be for a job setting." "I understand that it's a volunteer role, but to me personally if you are not communicating with your team members about being active, then that's when it becomes a problem." I agree with this entirely, however, the truth is, if people don't get paid, they are going to care less. If my boss at my old job was like "I need you to work overtime and do this lame task", I would do it, because I got paid to do so and I need an income. If my boss was like "I need you to do this shit work, but im not paying you" I would tell my boss "Lol no, go do it yourself". Same if I had a volunteer job. If I don't like it, I can just leave. I have nothing to lose If I don't get paid for it. I'm not saying this to excuse anything, but that's the truth. I have personally met an unprofessional GM, but to some extent, if that GM don't get paid, I sorta understand why he doesn't care about professionalism. If someone doesn't want to be professional, just let them go. They lose nothing on it, staff doesn't lose anything on it really (if the person they "fire" didn't do much good anyway), just get someone else, there are plenty of people here willing to help the server out by being a GM.
