Invasion of the Smurfs

[Casimus]

Hi Guys,

Just something I can't see being seriously discussed in here however a point worth raising IMHO. Lately it seems we have had an invasion of smurfs, first of all let me clarify what I think is a smurf, perhaps this point on its own is up for debate.

Smurf - Someone who actively sets up new account in order to decieve fellow gamers into thinking he/she is a noob.

I am not talking about name changes, we all do that from time to time and the rank/score stays the same so it is fairly easy to track who each person is. Also I have asked known smurfs in a lobby to identify themselves before kicking them, I know sometimes people have 2 pcs at different houses and as long as they identify themselves again I dont see an issue.

Back in the old days of GPG in Playertrack it showed the router address for all to see, it meant that anyone with a separate account could be identified and thus it was never a problem (I even did it myself back then) I would like to see this introduced here if possible and or a method of tracking people that are using separate accounts.

I appreciate there is a rule, which means you can only have 1 account per computer, but unless certain people buy several computers im sure there is a way round this.

We are actively as a community fighting to keep this wonderful game alive, anyone who is new and bashed by a smurf my decide not to bother playing again, it also wrecks the balance of decent games. I for one am becoming quite grumpy about the subject much against my nature, I would really like to see an open debate about this.

The other problem is now I and many others have become "smurf paranoid" anyone who joins with 1-2 games the question raises in your mind "is that another smurf"

There is no conspiracy here people are abusing the rules and it is becoming more and more frequent.

FAF for the win!!!

[Ze_PilOt]

Some people using certain techniques to smurf will be surprised shortly, and not in a good way.

[Casimus]

That is very welcome feedback Mr Zep! I presume this will be on an upcoming patch? Any idea of timescale.

[Ze_PilOt]

No.
I won't give any ETA. Can be in 5 min or 1 week. But it will result in a immediate ban of all detected accounts, without warning.
Smurf is NOT tolerated, there is a uniqueId function specifically for that, so if you think you are smart trying to defeat it, think twice.

[Casimus]

Excellent that is far batter a response than I could have hoped for.

Great work WP!

[Eukanuba]

Before Zep implements his secret new weapon, there is a fairly good way to tell how good a player really is. If they have for instance six games, and a very dark score of 800, the chances are that they are much better than 800. The darker the score, the less sure the system is of the rating. In reality this (pretty much) always means that dark-score players are much better than their displayed rating and the system needs more data before it can pinpoint it.

The other way you can check is to alt-tab to Aeolus and right-click their name and view player statistics. This shows you the graph of their estimated skill. A player with a near-black 800 rating could well show up on the graph as most likely 1600+.

[Softly]

Looking at colours is very qualitative, I always balance from looking at their view player statistics. That way their rating will be able to change in an appropriate fashion.

It does mean you get labelled as either a stacker or a time waster though.

[Casimus]

Problem is some smurfs play 5-10 games then get a new account, I think I know what they are doing (wont share as I dont want others doing it) but Zeps master plan to wipe out the party poopers is a major boost for me.

People with more than 1 pc will always be able to smurf to a certain extent but at least this stops the ones that have multiple accounts.

Strangely I havent noticed so many in the lobby since Zep posted about this (could just be coincidence), there are some that I know for sure are smurfs. Perhaps they have seen the warning and will take heed, lets face it noone wants to get banned playing on Steam is not a nice alternative!!

[ColonelSheppard]

smurfing is not tolerated?

i think it's time to prove it:

Smurfprove.fafreplay

just read the dialog at the end of the game

[Eukanuba]

A person could use that information ("I have the second-highest number of ranked games") to identify the player quite easily.

Mind you, account in that game now has 100 games, so does that really count as a smurf? Especially if his first PC won't log in as he claims?