This game...

[Thurston Forbush III]

was A LOT better when I first started playing two, or so, years ago.
It's crap now.
Either "improvements" or the rampant cheating has driven players away. It's damn near impossible to get a decent automatch game now.
Congratulations, SMG! You are God level at ripping people off. I really wish I hadn't paid for this game.

[BobMarleysLungs]

Please provide evidence of cheating. ive noticed alot of "discussions" about how the game was this and that but is ruined because of cheating but nobody ever explains how or provides evidence. How do you know people are cheating?

[BIT Bear]

Originally posted by BobMarleysLungs:

Please provide evidence of cheating. ive noticed alot of "discussions" about how the game was this and that but is ruined because of cheating but nobody ever explains how or provides evidence. How do you know people are cheating?

There are different types of "cheaters" and I will try to explain it to you.

"The Fake AFK'er"
Fake AFK players will let the bot take over to avoid destruction by another player (who thinks the Fake AFK'er will bot out but he won't). And will continue to Fake being AFK or disconnected or not do anything until other players are dead in an attempt to become 2nd place. In some rare cases they may even become 1st place with good timing.

"Player collaberation"
Probably the worst kind of cheater and can be done in numerous ways by either inviting a friend or playing yourself using multiple accounts (and using a VPN to mask locations).

To a "seasoned" player it's very obvious when there is collabaration because it almost always follows a certain pattern like:

-> Both players use the exact same avatar and don't communicate with other players (such as using emotes or accepting alliances). (This isn't always the case but happens quite a lot)
-> One or Both players never attack eachother, break borders or invade completed continents, even when there is only 1 troop standing and instead focus on others.
-> They don't want to win for themselves, nor get a kill on a player and will "suicide" to weaken other players. They don't care about defending against a certain player.
-> Afterwards you will see these exact two players join another lobby, in some cases right after another. This moment right here is when you stop believing in "coincidence" and have to admit that cheating does in fact happen and sadly it happens a lot.

With "they" I mean the other collabarating player, ofc.

[BobMarleysLungs]

Originally posted by BIT Bear:

Originally posted by BobMarleysLungs:

Please provide evidence of cheating. ive noticed alot of "discussions" about how the game was this and that but is ruined because of cheating but nobody ever explains how or provides evidence. How do you know people are cheating?

There are different types of "cheaters" and I will try to explain it to you.

"The Fake AFK'er"
Fake AFK players will let the bot take over to avoid destruction by another player (who thinks the Fake AFK'er will bot out but he won't). And will continue to Fake being AFK or disconnected or not do anything until other players are dead in an attempt to become 2nd place. In some rare cases they may even become 1st place with good timing.

"Player collaberation"
Probably the worst kind of cheater and can be done in numerous ways by either inviting a friend or playing yourself using multiple accounts (and using a VPN to mask locations).

To a "seasoned" player it's very obvious when there is collabaration because it almost always follows a certain pattern like:

-> Both players use the exact same avatar and don't communicate with other players (such as using emotes or accepting alliances). (This isn't always the case but happens quite a lot)
-> One or Both players never attack eachother, break borders or invade completed continents, even when there is only 1 troop standing and instead focus on others.
-> They don't want to win for themselves, nor get a kill on a player and will "suicide" to weaken other players. They don't care about defending against a certain player.
-> Afterwards you will see these exact two players join another lobby, in some cases right after another. This moment right here is when you stop believing in "coincidence" and have to admit that cheating does in fact happen and sadly it happens a lot.

With "they" I mean the other collabarating player, ofc.

Thank you for your explanation, now that you have described some of the ways the community feels players cheat, it makes sense to me. not all of it, however.

As per the AFK'ing , Sometimes the message saying "I am Offline" returns to one of the two other messages about alliances. I had suspicions that players raged out and restarted the game to come back. Im guessing the message hasnt always returned or there is a chance it fails to return, which would give the player an advantage because as you stated above.

The amount of rage players have is crazy high, if players dont get the perfect start or right as soon as somebody gains somewhat of an advantage they rage quit. Its honestly toxic af and i believe they should start timing people out if they quit within the first 6 turns or so.

For the issue of collaborating as you described, were really trusting the gray with this because this behavior could just as easily be a byproduct of a players specific vengeance and need for retribution or revenge. Organized Collaboration surely happens and it should be dealt with, however, i suspect the majority can be boiled down to our behavior in that Everybody on the board knows when its happening, even with the fog blinding the map, everyone knows its happening and takes advantage of it so it wouldnt be out of the norm to not attack or bolster those fronts because that adversary is tunnel visioned on whoever got the jump on em.

For me, what makes this game great is the level we stoop to, im guilty of spamming the laughing emoji while somebody is trying to attack me and im extraordinarily salty lmao

i guess what im trying to say is as the community we have to be careful about what we ask for from the devs because they could easily make this game a dull, perfectly fair, and nice game for everybody. Which out of the reasons that we like to play RISK,none of these three reasons are even close to the top.

Its in the name of the game.
we know what were getting into lmao

Thanks again for taking the time to explain to me, you gave me new insight.

[Thurston Forbush III]

i have played far too many games in which players receive 10 armies every three cards.
it's not coincidence, it's a cheat.
i have never once played a game where i receive 10 armies every three cards and i play hundreds of games.
i see opponents receive 10 armies every three cards at least once a week.
i have seen it happen several times in one day.
that's not even touching upon dual profiles, which are well known and recognizable if you play the game. several people have described how they have tried to play with multiple profiles and have succeeded.
and as far as dull games, there's dull games all over the place!
army builders, who do the minimal each round and prolong the game, thinking they are some kind of strategy genius. you're not a genius, you're just waiting people out.
getting rid of rankings would help quell some of the cheating.
as far as i've seen. grandmasters suck at this game. i don't know how they achieve that level, but it can't be through fair gameplay.

[BIT Bear]

Originally posted by BobMarleysLungs:

Thanks again for taking the time to explain to me, you gave me new insight.

Sure there are "bad" players out there. Who will rage and suicide if they didn't get the spots they wanted (or for other reasons). That doesn't change the fact however that it is ridiculously easy to cheat using for example your mobile phone and/or invite friends to skew the game in your favor and ruin it for others.

Originally posted by Thurston Forbush III:

i have played far too many games in which players receive 10 armies every three cards.
it's not coincidence, it's a cheat.
i have never once played a game where i receive 10 armies every three cards and i play hundreds of games.
i see opponents receive 10 armies every three cards at least once a week.

I have seen opponents like this as well and it's infuriating to play against. Another thing i've noticed is that they seem to have impossible levels of luck playing on TRUE RANDOM yet never lose a troop when attacking. Now unless this player is named "Gladstone Gander" that shouldn't be possible. I've reported these players but I don't think they are getting more than a 3-day ban (don't think there is a higher ban amount than this, I know because i've been "banned" several times). Afterwards they will just ruin games again.

[Thurston Forbush III]

Originally posted by BIT Bear:

Originally posted by BobMarleysLungs:

Thanks again for taking the time to explain to me, you gave me new insight.

Sure there are "bad" players out there. Who will rage and suicide if they didn't get the spots they wanted (or for other reasons). That doesn't change the fact however that it is ridiculously easy to cheat using for example your mobile phone and/or invite friends to skew the game in your favor and ruin it for others.

Originally posted by Thurston Forbush III:

i have played far too many games in which players receive 10 armies every three cards.
it's not coincidence, it's a cheat.
i have never once played a game where i receive 10 armies every three cards and i play hundreds of games.
i see opponents receive 10 armies every three cards at least once a week.

I have seen opponents like this as well and it's infuriating to play against. Another thing i've noticed is that they seem to have impossible levels of luck playing on TRUE RANDOM yet never lose a troop when attacking. Now unless this player is named "Gladstone Gander" that shouldn't be possible. I've reported these players but I don't think they are getting more than a 3-day ban (don't think there is a higher ban amount than this, I know because i've been "banned" several times). Afterwards they will just ruin games again.

every game i have played this week had at least one player doing this.
they also play like they know they will receive 10 armies every three cards.
the complete inaction by SMG on this issue has led me to believe that it's SMG employees who are doing it.

[Multihack]

I dislike SMG, but they have made improvements on the gameplay over the years, so I can't deny that.
I'm also a Grand Master rank in FFA. Maybe I can shed some light on the situation:

1. Are there friends / one person using 2 accounts in the game? Yes, but it's not as often as it used to be.
Hit the report button and report both players for collaboration. The system logs everything and eventually a pattern will emerge. (IPs, playing hours, playstyle, etc.)
It's very easy to catch now except for the most dedicated cheater who spends tons of time on loads of smurf accounts and different IP addresses. Trust me nobody with that much energy plays this.

2. Is someone treating you unfairly? Like sending everything he has to you and quitting? Sometimes it's just rage, other times it means you crossed the golden rule:
You were too aggressive against that player and removed all hope of winning. You never do that, because you will also lose your chance of winning when he suicides into you.

3. Players pretending to be bots - this used to happen a lot, but now bot troops get spread evenly and there's no benefit to pretending to be AFK.

3.1. Bots were absolute morons and would focus on 1 player exclusively, you could game the system if you turtle against the bots so they would shift focus to your enemy. I lost more games to bot-aggro than anything else.
THANKFULLY now there's passive bots (highly recommend this setting) where they never attack the entire game.

4. Players not attacking each-other. Similar to #2 - this is often a high-skill play. I don't want to spoil the fun for you but you can figure out why this can happen naturally. It happens 1/5 of the time in my games.

[Thurston Forbush III]

Originally posted by Multihack:

I'm also a Grand Master rank in FFA. Maybe I can shed some light on the situation:

I'm not impressed. In fact, you feeling the need to include that lost me.
Most of my wins come against grand masters.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a title that has little to do with a player's capability.
And let's not get carried away with strategy.
Strategy is third in this game after dice rolls and cards.
Good dice rolls and receiving 10 armies every three cards is the real advantage.
Cheaters know this.

[Carnageloser7]

noob