What the heck is the player database?!

[hg789]

I wrote my own data reader months ago, just because i'm curious. I certainly haven't gained any competitive advantage with it, as i'm outside the top100 and not a gold spender. Sounds like all the top teams are doing it anyway, so it's an even playing field up there. I mostly just check out my fellow syndicate members and opponents who beat me.

There seems to be a fair bit of anger directed towards the data-reading "cheats" instead of the lazy programmers at Funzio/Gree. Returning the entire row from the db query instead of the relevent fields is just crap coding.

Anyway, i'd love to know more about these other readers. I'm starting to wonder if there is more to the story.

[VikesUK]

I wrote my own data reader months ago, just because i'm curious. I certainly haven't gained any competitive advantage with it, as i'm outside the top100 and not a gold spender. Sounds like all the top teams are doing it anyway, so it's an even playing field up there. I mostly just check out my fellow syndicate members and opponents who beat me.

There seems to be a fair bit of anger directed towards the data-reading "cheats" instead of the lazy programmers at Funzio/Gree. Returning the entire row from the db query instead of the relevent fields is just crap coding.

Anyway, i'd love to know more about these other readers. I'm starting to wonder if there is more to the story.

To what end are you checking opponents? If not to gain a form of intelligence on them that the developers never intended you should have (an advantage), then it seems a very fascile activity you are using your energies on.

You suggest all top teams do it. They do not. Are you suggesting that all top team should participate in data cheating to 'level the playing field' as you put it?

If this is your implied suggestion, then you would have to extend that stance I think. It is not much of a secret that certain top teams include hackers/cash cheats/RP cheats. Should all top teams be obliged to engage in these activities too to level your playing field?

[bald zeemer]

I struggle to see how any of the top teams would benefit from harboring RP hackers.

[VikesUK]

I struggle to see how any of the top teams would benefit from harboring RP hackers.

Depends on your definition of 'top' - the poster I replied to appeared to be thinking as low as top 100/75/50. These teams certainly would benefit from anyone with several hundred doomsday frags, for example.

[BigMoney]

I struggle to see how any of the top teams would benefit from harboring RP hackers.

Because certain top 25 syndicates have players with stats so terrible that they need 500 of the top RP items just to have a chance at attacking anyone.

[bald zeemer]

Fair call, BM. And that certain syndicate stands out like a sore thumb for the insanely low average stats of its players.

Depends on your definition of 'top' - the poster I replied to appeared to be thinking as low as top 100/75/50. These teams certainly would benefit from anyone with several hundred doomsday frags, for example.

Fair enough. I came at it from a fairly one-sided perspective.

[Green Drake]

What did the top 25 syndicates actually use the data for? I have a difficult to e believing that its sole purpose was to weed out respect point and money hackers........my kid could figure out a person with 500 doomsday was not legit.

Has to be a pretty effective recruiting tool, correct? To be able to see that player x has 1500 gold on hand and has purchased 40k gold seems to be pretty valuable info.

[bald zeemer]

It's just as easy to get a pretty accurate idea of how much gold someone has spent as it is to see if they are RP hacking/time travelling. Even easier, if you are doing a detailed inventory check.

[hg789]

To what end are you checking opponents? If not to gain a form of intelligence on them that the developers never intended you should have (an advantage), then it seems a very fascile activity you are using your energies on.

As I said, to satiate my curiosity. It in no way helps me to find out an opponents skill point distribution, gold spent, or anything else like that after i've just attacked/robbed them.

Perhaps if i had a database populated from previous attacks and hoods i've visited, shared and populated by numerous other players, then that that would be a different story. But personally I don't do that, so i maintain my claim that i've gained no competitive advantage.

You suggest all top teams do it. They do not. Are you suggesting that all top team should participate in data cheating to 'level the playing field' as you put it?

No, i just suggested that they probably already are. Post #60 listed multiple syndicates in the top 25 that have similar systems in place. I'm not naive enough to believe the others don't.

... It is not much of a secret that certain top teams include hackers/cash cheats/RP cheats. Should all top teams be obliged to engage in these activities too to level your playing field?

No, but it's also no secret Gree doesn't give a toss about cheaters. Cheaters just encourage non-cheaters to buy more gold.

[BigMoney]

No, i just suggested that they probably already are. Post #60 listed multiple syndicates in the top 25 that have similar systems in place. I'm not naive enough to believe the others don't.

No, these aren't multiple syndicates in the top25 she was referring to, these are multiple syndicates in the top3 she was referring to. Plus one guy in HTC who everyone knows anyway.

[montecore]

I've been curious about this database for a while now, and once had started a very long thread about it, which gave one poor guy a permanent vacation when he tried to explain the difference between reading data and UDID hacking (the kind of real hacking done to my friend Baddad's account). This is what I have found out so far. And, since everyone seems to like numbered lists, I'll even use numbers.

If you still think baddad was hacked, and he didn't willingly give his UDID to Ian so Ian could collect for him or score for him, then your detective skills need work. But I will humor you and go through your points anyway.

1. That a top syndicate, that is higher than second, has a data reader.

It wouldn't surprise me. I have heard "they have something similar" but nothing I would say is provable as a fact. I know they have planted at least one spy on SAS and in SAS chatrooms, and seem to gather information very quickly, so very little would surprise me.

2. That a self proclaimed smug syndicate has a data reader.

Maybe they do. But if you are going to grade all syndicates in the game on ethics since the start of the game to today, they would score higher than any other team in the top 50.

3. SAS first created their own data reader program, but the guy who made it left for Rogues, but has since left Rogues and is now MIA.

There was a very intelligent, and I believe ethical player, who put together a rudimentary database while in SAS which got much more advanced once he left. My favorite part to the database was that it could export your entire inventory into CSV or an Excel spreadsheet. I can't believe Gree won't put this together when it took this person a few hours. It had other ethical uses as well, which I tend to categorize in the "things anyone could do with Excel themselves if they didn't mind spending 100 hours to do it". And it could (and was) used to determine if people were time travelers or hackers.

4. That you "register" online to become a part of the data-reader created in SAS.

Once the player left for Rogues, everyone in SAS lost access. We also lost access to our website, many of our spreadsheets and battle data, and all kinds of stuff. I still hope at some point RG takes a look and gives us copies as I'd love to know what a ponse I was in our first battle, or how I did in the very first PVP event we won. My understanding is that everyone in Rogues was given access to it once he joined.

5. That last I heard (and I heard this very very recently), the leader of a top syndicate who are a bunch of very noisy hired killers, is still a registered user of this database.

I went on a bit of an OCD sociopathic rampage against Rogues a few months back, and bagging on the database was one of my targets. A friend in Rogues downloaded about 1600 documents which I showed to various players and syndicate leaders. I was pissed off that they had access and others did not. My goal was to get them to open it up for all of the other syndicates or shut it down completely, and the eventual result is that RG opened it up for the top 25 leaders in his leader's chatroom. Since then I heard they stopped updating it and stopped using it completely. It was suspected they just moved it somewhere new but with the creator gone and the headaches it has caused I tend to believe them.

I have always gone out of my way to not name the person who created it, even when asked point blank, because I do believe they are ethical, I loved discussing technology with them, and I always liked them.

6. A certain narcissistic, hypocritical, tiger-loving blow hard, who presents himself as holier than thou, was also a registered user of this database, first created by SAS.

I actually never had an account, I believe back then it was just open access if you had the link. I can assure you I never had a login/password since the member went Rogue.

I know that you think about me constantly. Many have commented on this seemingly explosive attraction you feel towards me. All you can think about is montecore. Always on your mind. But I want to remind you that while I am a real person at the end of this keyboard, you have fallen in love with an online persona. You don't know the real me and frankly I don't need yet another stalker trying to win my affection.

And, in case anyone else would like to change the subject, I think I'll have FISHSTICKS for dinner tonight. Look, I used ALLCAPS again.

As esteemed judge of character, and a refined palette to boot. Treat yourself to Heinz, the others are simply catsup.

[LegoCity]

1)If you still think baddad was hacked, and he didn't willingly give his UDID to Ian so Ian could collect for him or score for him, then your detective skills need work. But I will humor you and go through your points anyway.


2)Once the player left for Rogues, everyone in SAS lost access. We also lost access to our website, many of our spreadsheets and battle data, and all kinds of stuff. I still hope at some point RG takes a look and gives us copies as I'd love to know what a ponse I was in our first battle, or how I did in the very first PVP event we won. My understanding is that everyone in Rogues was given access to it once he joined.


3)I actually never had an account, I believe back then it was just open access if you had the link. I can assure you I never had a login/password since the member went Rogue.

.......

1)This is the most stupidest excuses I ever heard. If I put my wallet on the table and somebody take it; takes all the money and thats not make him a thief ?
2,3)Sorry, but I would say 'I dont think so'

You people steal/ hack whatever you name it, have guy create computer programs....are u SAS all work in CIA

[montecore]

1)This is the most stupidest excuses I ever heard. If I put my wallet on the table and somebody take it; takes all the money and thats not make him a thief ?
2,3)Sorry, but I would say 'I dont think so'

You people steal/ hack whatever you name it, have guy create computer programs....are u SAS all work in CIA

If I gave you my bank password and told you that you could use it in January, it's one thing. And if you used it in February without asking, it's fair to say it is inappropriate. But it doesn't mean you hacked anything.

You can believe what you want, but I think Matt and just about anyone in Rogues wouldn't disagree with me on points #2 or 3. They might disagree with others, but not those two.

Rogues may not even have access to some of our old spreadsheets, as access to some of it may have been taken by killshot.

[MattThomas08]

If I gave you my bank password and told you that you could use it in January, it's one thing. And if you used it in February without asking, it's fair to say it is inappropriate. But it doesn't mean you hacked anything.

You can believe what you want, but I think Matt and just about anyone in Rogues wouldn't disagree with me on points #2 or 3. They might disagree with others, but not those two.

Rogues may not even have access to some of our old spreadsheets, as access to some of it may have been taken by killshot.

I have all the data and could possibly be persuaded to pass it along. I'm a real data hoarder. You're right though, since I set up all the sheets for SAS, I took em all with me :-/.

[montecore]

I have all the data and could possibly be persuaded to pass it along. I'm a real data hoarder. You're right though, since I set up all the sheets for SAS, I took em all with me :-/.

I think providing copies of the data is the right thing to do, but you hold the documents and it's obviously your decision.