Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Account History log, with Nations played and Captains names used previously.


Recommended Posts

Hi,

In game we have a serious issue with alt accounts, some may not see it as a big deal but it is, especially with how easy it is to delete a character and recreate a fresh one just after, then grind a few missions and blend in the mass...

While we heard many times there is nothing that can be done to prevent alts ( which is plain false and just a lazy answer as there is things that can be done to highlight such accounts even if the guys use different machines or vpn's for them alts ) anyways since this is maybe too hard for the Dev's why not just allow us to see a player account history only instead ?

When looking at one player info we will see the complete list of the factions he played for associated  with the Names he used for his captain, a simple list with captain name + an icon representing the flag of the Nation in the "player info"  associated will be perfect.

I'm really fed up to see spies getting burned by an entire Nation and then they just have to delete the character, create a new one and they come back again with a new virginity to do the same stuff they were doing, until burned again and deleting his character once again to make a new one and so on...

So let us see what was his characters names and Nations played before, if they want to spy they will still do it but will have to do it less obviously than they do now, not burned easily as now doing them things in plain sights sitting in a harbor and not care for it, all this with an entire Nation not able to do anything about it ( unless you are a pirate able to attack each others and at least make him blind for a while ).

Even if it had been probably really funny don't make it retro active, just inform all players before a major patch and start from there, all players deleting them characters on a server to create a new one will have the account history of the steam account displayed i ngame,  but please don't come tell us that you cannot do this simple thing, this is something easily done...

Obvious spies burned will have a cost for them owners, either get burned and buy another account to get back virgin, or get burned and wait months for people to forget about you, or do act of penance to be forgiven and trusted again ... which in the end is all good to favor the alt account sales the economic plan of this game seems to like so much...

Now the ball is in your side, you can easily do it, just prove us that you want to do something against this plague for once ...

Thanks.


 

Edited by Kanay
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem with this is it can be abused.  I know of a few cases where it involved harassment of a player that the player changed there in game name and even nation to avoid other players.  Not to mention if they are getting caught that easy they aren't very good spies in the first place.   It's the ones you never find out about and still haven't that are the true spies and the ones you should worry about.  I get my info from players and don't need alts.  You be surprised how loose lips can get when you get folks upset with there nations and such.  

That and how many times have you accused a new player of being an alt simply cause they are a new player?  Hell when I switched from PvP1 to PvP2 I was getting accused of being an alt/spy cause no one seen me before but I was ranked up from my play on the EU server.   That  over a year ago and we see folks do it all the time. Hell we do it in Pirates too where we accuse folks prob wrongfully of being an alt or spy.   I think there are prob fair less spy's than folks think.  If they worried more about getting along with each other, organization of there nation and team work they prob get a lot further than accusing every one of being an alt.

Remember, "LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS."

 

Oh and the guys that change there alts all the time are prob more /TROLLS/ than actual alts/spies most the time.

Edited by Sir Texas Sir
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A player is free to change Nations and names as much as he wants, having a long history list will not automatically means that a player is a potential spy in my eyes, not at all.

But there is a lot of players that got burned as spies in game, taking out paranoid or false accusations of course, and those are the problem, they are burned and come back innocent as a new born child, some were obvious not making even the smallest effort to hide them intentions just spying in plain sights for them alt accounts to pick on targets spotted, some others it took a bit more time as they were better spies but at some point revealed themselves with no doubt possible.

False accusations and harassment can and already is punished by the game rules, suspecting a new guy in a basic cutter sitting somewhere and having the proof he is an alt is something different of course, but for some they were not even trying to hide them intentions and just had to delete the avatar and create a new one each day or couple of days , with this history they will have to make a minimum of efforts for them tasks to blend in the mass ...



 

Edited by Kanay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Skully said:

Killing off your character and restarting fresh is good enough self-inflicted punishment for spies.

No need for any logs or such.

It isn't when the player can do it without even once having to do anything at all beside spying, not even once having to do a mission and doing his task in a free provided ship, nor it is when he takes the time to do a few mission and pass the next level which is done quickly ...

There is no self punishment or punishment at all involved when you can spy in a basic cutter ship and delete it at the end of the day to restart the next day under a different name, or just have to pass a few hours leveling up easily to blend a bit more in the mass and spy for a week or so before getting burned and restart again...
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Kanay said:

There is no self punishment or punishment at all involved when you can spy in a basic cutter ship and delete it at the end of the day to restart the next day under a different name, or just have to pass a few hours leveling up easily to blend a bit more in the mass and spy for a week or so before getting burned and restart again...
 

Likewise there is no gain with a log. He would still spy in the same manner. Properly punishing a spy should be the way to go.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A "real" spy will be one nobody ever knows about...

The problem we have in NA is tht people are conflating "spies" with "griefers"....  "Griefers" are the ones that are so obvious and just recycle their character after griefing for a few weeks...   A prime example are the midshipmen cutters from your own nation that sit outside of ports "fishing" all day or the ones that kite groups reporting their heading, etc...  

Those are not "spies"...  those are "griefers"...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

A "real" spy will be one nobody ever knows about...

The problem we have in NA is tht people are conflating "spies" with "griefers"....  "Griefers" are the ones that are so obvious and just recycle their character after griefing for a few weeks...   A prime example are the midshipmen cutters from your own nation that sit outside of ports "fishing" all day or the ones that kite groups reporting their heading, etc...  

Those are not "spies"...  those are "griefers"...

 

And a log will change their behavior how?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

good lord, another "evil alts" post....

Alts ARE allowed.

Alts make MORE money for the developers.

Alts are NOT the boogie man...

 There isn't really any way to prevent spying, even Lord Commander Trump has problem with them.  Seeing previous names, clans, nations will do nothing, I could sail in the middle of your fleet with the user name "evil alt spy" and what could you do about it?  Stern looks? Worried about spies? stop talking about important stuff in national chat or with midshipman Newbie McNewb.

You are not going to beat alts, you might as well join in and get alts of your own....maybe then you will realize they are not some kind of "uber game breaker".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Griefers like you call this category of players do it because right now it have no consequences at all on the account involved, they can do it for a few hours or an entire day and delete the character at the end of the day and come back the next day with a fresh new name having no history at all, and of course it will change it if the history is printed, real trolls won't mind, others doing it because it have no consequences at all and can reborn innocent will think twice.

More than this there is all the spies that come as new guys and at the very start ask basic newbies questions on chat, like any starting player will do, but after a few days they reveal them true nature, knowing way more about the game mechanics that they tried to make others think a couple of days back and burning themselves... Once asked about some details they spoke about they vanish and a few days later the account shows as born on 01/01/0001... not exiting anymore...

Of course many want to keep them dirty history secret and want to continue using this with ease, not surprising, but alts are a plague and there is nothing you can do about them in game right now, there is plenty of things they could do to prevent them like in many other games, this is a simple thing they can do to prevent some of them of getting a total impunity and able to reborn innocent when they want.



 

Edited by Kanay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

the Devs need to fix "broken" game mechanics, but it's alts that are the reason for most of it.

But you cant do anything against alts, so implementing bullet-proof mech that prevents abuse is the only solution.

I personally don't mind any farming alts but I feel very pitty for every feature that is taken away becaus of possible alt farming abuse :-(

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, The Red Duke said:

Previous nicknames can be accessed in simple gamer profile in Steam, so I don't see a big issue.

  You cant tell my in games names from my Steam account? How? unless I tell you my Steam account name and friend you you shouldn't even know who someone is..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do see some use of ALT's as a problem, and the aforementioned griefing is a very good example.  However, I would not be supportive of the OP's proposed methodology.  I don't claim to have the solution, but if something doesn't pass the sniff test, we should collectively find a better way. :mellow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, CaptVonGunn said:

other players should NEVER have access to information that detailed on each other.... None of your damn business..

Many games allowing players changing names show the entire history of the names used, i really don't see why this one should not do it, especially since there is so many uses for alt accounts and spying being part of game.

If a spies gets burned it will have consequences, either buy another account and try to get more smart as a spy or put the burned account on hold until people forget about it, not only delete characters and restart with a clean new one barely 1 minutes later, this is too easy and have to go.

Spy accounts will be forced to work a minimum on the alt account to make it look more credible, less obvious than many we have right now,  those don't care as once burned it takes a few clicks to restart again clean, i bet this does not please much of those using them but if you want to use paid advantages like alts accounts to get it easier in game and give you advantages on other players then you will have to work those accounts, not just buy a bypass to have it easier in game and able to make your dirty account look clean as a newborn each time you delete and recreate it. 
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You just gave a reason why it shouldn't in your reason why it should... If you know what a persons previous Name was and he re-rolls and either rejoins same faction or another one.. There is ZERO work involved now on your part to find out who that account has become.. So he will be pegged spy even f he isn't this time..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, CaptVonGunn said:

You just gave a reason why it shouldn't in your reason why it should... If you know what a persons previous Name was and he re-rolls and either rejoins same faction or another one.. There is ZERO work involved now on your part to find out who that account has become.. So he will be pegged spy even f he isn't this time..

If you burn your alt, buy a new one. You choose to make it pay-to-win? It's a fair consequence.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Eyesore said:

If you burn your alt, buy a new one. You choose to make it pay-to-win? It's a fair consequence.

Not really.... Why should others get free intel?  I just think the entire arguing about alt spys is funny..  Unless they break the rules people need to calm down and worry about actual game issues

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, CaptVonGunn said:

You just gave a reason why it shouldn't in your reason why it should... If you know what a persons previous Name was and he re-rolls and either rejoins same faction or another one.. There is ZERO work involved now on your part to find out who that account has become.. So he will be pegged spy even f he isn't this time..

Using an alt is getting it easier in game for many tasks, from simple trading to crafting or pvp hunting, or even the pvp event of ship wrecks where players leave them alts logged out at sea as they always spawn in the same areas of the map, genius concept favoring once again those with alts... The alts are the ones getting it easier and bypassing many restrictions those playing with a single account get in game, there is already way more work put in game from those not using an alt or multiple alts, don't try to turn it the other way around .  If you get burned there should be no free card to reborn virgin, live with the infamy of being a spy red marked on the account that got burned or buy another one and get smarter the next time, simple as this.

 

31 minutes ago, Eyesore said:

Using an alt to spy is a childrensgame, they also do harm to the economy, rvr, etc.

If you have to cheat and get caught, buy a new account or play the burnt one and live with the consequences.

This ^

 

Edited by Kanay
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...