evilbry

 

create a ticket, then wait for response....

I think it's not a hard thing to do....

No Buffs are "Missing". This is just intentional misrepresentation to try garner the attention of the Cows.

I personally thought that all the buffs and the placement of these buffs for all the 50 levels had been mapped out in the very beginning.

 

So i diligently went at it composing full bore.  I sunk a lot of gold, stamina and my time into composing.  Level by level unlocking something new.  As i reached every new level i would look in anticipation what would be new in the next level, and reporting it back to my fellow guildies.

 

Up until level 20 i was not disappointed, even though the progress was so slow there was a gold pot at the end of the rainbow and I could see that it was all worth it.

 

But level 21 came.... nothing.... 22...... nothing....... by level 30 i had given up hope.  I realised the cows had let us down.

The cows have let no one down. there's a saying about when someone assumes, this is very true here.

When you got to the mid 20's in levels it was pretty clear that there were no new skills added to composing, It was your choice and your choice alone to keep advancing. By doing so you have gained access to skills at levels that few others in the game would have access to.

the hard luck story which is portrayed is a long way from the truth.

I have asked many many many times for new composing buffs.  At one point we are told they are looking it..... then told in april it would be 2 more weeks... then again soon..... Then I'm told by others supposely in the "know" that the cows have no intention of introducing new buffs till next year or the year after....  lol ..  people wont be playing this game the year after if the players are continually mislead !!

Conjecture is not a good look. It's pretty safe to say that only the cows know when they may want to release new buffs. The response at the moment though would most likely be akin to the question "how long is a piece of string?"

Patiently, like a fool, I continue to play this game, but for how long im not sure.

Threats of leaving will not swing HCS into action.

People stop playing all the time, for a number of different reasons. Other new players pick the game up.

Now to address the issue at hand:

People in here have posted they want new buffs but have given very little for HCS to work with. When adding new buffs, HCS will also want to address the limited number of skills that pass level 300, thus using crystalline, Super elite frags which for the most part are gathering dust.

So people want new buffs, Make constructive suggestions of the buffs they want added. The level they want them added and the max level of the buff.

for example;

Overkill add at composing level 25 starting skill 150 going to a max of 500. each level increases the skill by 25.

Also keep in mind when you are suggesting skills, other areas of the game which could be detrimentally impacted by new potions. If a part of the game will adversely suffer HCS will be less inclined to go with the suggestion.

Serious questions for those who are tweaking their browser addon settings to retain helper functionality.

- What will you do, if your computer gets compromised due to a security breach which the later version of the Greasemonkey addon fixes?

- what if this results in the loss of important documents?

- Who will you blame?

- What if it costs you a couple hundred dollars or more to just get the computer running again?

- who covers those costs?

There's so much blind trust that what you do to keep a third party script running, will be safe. You are putting yourself and any others who may use your computer at risk by doing so.

As Yuuzhan has been running Helper, I would strongly suggest people encourage him to update the code to be compliant with Greasemonkey 2.0.

Either that or encourage the cows to implement the features of helper so it's no longer required and thus a risk for those using it.

Auto-opening still spams the log-files...

Is there anyway to build in an option to dissable them?

Or is there allready and I just don´t see it?

 

Here´s what I´m talking about:

 

12.07.2014 09:55    You gained 4 x Common Fragments by auto-opening the Fragment Stash dropped by 'Demonic Pinata (Global)'.

 

And now try to find a pm in this^^

If only there was a button to show PM's on the log page..

Oh wait. THERE IS!!!!

Remember that using out-dated software or plugins can be a security issue.

 

For example, in the release notes for Greasemonkey 2.0 (the one you guys are downgrading from), it says: 

"For stability, reliability, and security the privileged sandbox has been updated to match the new changes to unsafeWindow for the Add-on SDK."

Looking at the rest of the release notes, this is specifically why the FSH isn't working with GM 2.0 ("these changes will break some scripts. These scripts will need to be updated to work correctly again.").

So, We can blame the cows?

wonder when people are going to start blaming HCS.

No issues with my helper.

I would hope that Hoof is comfortable with the reassignment of FSH ownership.

I do have a concern though:

 I want to learn Javascript and need a project to keep me focused on learning it.

I really don't feel that the person running FSH should be a person who "wants to learn" javascript. With the significant amount of users who are currently using the script, if it's not an very well versed coder, this could go very very badly. example if changes are made which break functionality, this impacts a LOT of active players. HCS's bottom line.

With the script also being referenced by HCS in game under resources, there needs to also be assurances that updates will be safe and not disrupt gameplay for the users. Players blindly trust that the code will be safe. There have been examples of scripts in FS where the code shown was different to what was installed from svn. And even saying that, how many users of FSH will be able to decipher the code? Not many.

HCS has so much on the line, if someone starts tweaking the public version of code with material for personal gain it's their [HCS's] name that gets tarnished.

In fact, this could end up driving players away if FSH is not handled in a professional manner.

This further reinforces the fact that HCS should step in, and implement some of the most used features, to render the need for FSH redundant.

Maybe a way forward to stopping scripting would be ...

 

(if it's possible - I don't know if it is ?)

 

the players browser is checked to see if they are using Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey or any other "scripting" add-ons and, if so, block access at that point.

 

I know it's possible for a website to easily determine which browser and which version a client is using, but can this be checked for / detected ?

 

If so, wouldn't this make scripting impossible - or, at the very least, much harder ?

 

Course, I could be asking for something impossible here LOL.

IF it was possible to easily detect where grease/tampermonkey were installed, there would be a lot of web based games terminating accounts, such as in the game exampled by jshep earlier.

With that said, HCS has somewhat dug themselves into quite the hole here.

- HCS have backed and supported FSH for a long time. When FSH was thriving, there were regular updates from an active team. Those regular updates would often mean that any custom modifications need to be readded (and perhaps recoded) as often as an update was pushed out. Back in the day when tangtop was the driving force, we would get updates a couple of times a week. These regular updates would have kept on top of most custom modifications.

- With HCS supporting the script for so long we have a significant portion of the playerbase now using it. As a result if it breaks from an HCS update, all hell breaks loose (just look at the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the AH update went live).

So again we ask ourselves, what can HCS do?

- They could slightly change the web content of their pages to render FSH unusable, but at the risk of frustrating the players who have come to rely on it, it could be a bad business decision.

The problem with that though is coding something server side is a lot harder than coding something client side. The bugs, if any, will have the potential to be a lot more significant. FSH, which is client side, if there are bugs, a feature won't work. This for the most part^[1] won't consume FSP(into a black hole), waste stamina or destroy items.

As a result coding FSH into backend code, will require a lot of regression testing. This takes time and resource(staff), and it's why "just because the code is there in FSH, we can't put it into game code" and "It's not a 5 minute job" are voiced when people suggest making it game code.

I personally think the implementation of FSH into game code and then fudging with the html code to break FSH (and other potential scripts) is a positive way forward, and for the many players who for whatever reason haven't used helper will get an enhanced gaming experience.

HCS don't feel it has a valuable effort:gain ratio, that's their call. If they see a lot of people would like FSH features implemented in game, it could well lead to being reconsidered.

From a developer perspective, I personally would like to see FSH implemented into game code, simply because of the performance improvements there would be. Some of the FSH features use significant amounts of bandwidth and make a lot of page calls which are not needed. 

[1] Yes I know that we should never underestimate the stupidity of an end user. There are ways within helper to destroy gear etc but it does have warnings in place. Warnings won't stop everyone.

some food for thought. (though some examples will come from my line of work as a developer)

A script, by broad definition, is a mechanism to reduce keystrokes or other manual tasks.

some examples,

- to periodically check to see if a state has changed, think along the lines of is there more or less gold in my bank (or a nefarious version, has a titan moved it's location)

- to update or modify a value/entry, such as to perform a bank deposit. (or to move to a square with a titan on it)

- to perform a common task to reduce the time/effort involved, such as how FSH allows you to extract all of a resource (or to attack a titan with a set time delay).

Detecting scripts is not always going to be easy.

lets look at some of the ways a script can be detected.

- The script performs an action many times in a short period in a regular pattern.

- The script creates a large load (resource wise) on the system.

- The script is used excessively to the point it's obvious it's being used.

- The script is not coded well and causes regular/unique errors that can be picked up by the devs.

- The Devs get their hands on the script.

The thing is though, when a script is created, usually, the person creating it is careful. A script can have variation between actions so it's not carried out with the same time delays. It can vary actions inbetween tasks, so as not to follow the same routine each time.

It then comes down to the cows to try to determine which is human input vs which is scripted.

Can scripts be eliminated?

Not really. even moving from a browser based interface to an application, would just change the way and tools that scripters interface with the program.

What can HCS do?

Realistically they are doing more or less everything they can at the moment. The only real way to stop a script from being used, is to remove it's profit source or it's advantage.

There's been some examples of this with changes that have been done in the past. If there's nothing to be gained from running the nefarious scripts, then there's no reason to run them. Just keep in mind, that some changes may make the game a little less user friendly, to stop some of the scripts.

If there's some form of scripting you believe is occurring, raise a support ticket with what information you can.

At the end of the day, HCS is just a small indie company, who do a pretty good job for their size. Many people are used to the big behemoths in the entertainment industry who throw masses of resources and can make significant changes much quicker.

The problem with mercs, is they are counter productive generally when put up against Counter attack. 

Using a group you don't get Counter Attack. So the mercs will usually lower your stats.

While I don't think CA should work with groups, something does need to bring value back to the neglected mercs.

word around the office is that it will be June 31st

Ha! Coming from the guy who caused one of these freakin stupid xp events, I scoff at thee bry, SCOFF!!

My bad, shall we gather the angry mob again?

It will be interesting to see just how much stam people sink into this global event, with so much conjecture of an XP event on the horizon.

I personally would like to see something else mid year, however it's much easier for the cows to flick a switch than it is to come up with something new, fun and unique.

after many novels I am simply going to pose a couple of RHETORICAL questions to the OP.

1) Will this change bring more players to the game?

and

2) Who is this change really geared at?

Keeping in mind these questions are rhetorical, I can honestly not see anything positive coming from the the suggestions offered , therefore I obviously do not support them.

A lot of posters think they have all the answers yet they haven't walked in the other parties shoes. Something else to ponder on.

I am not going to try to 'debate' the matter either, as it's nothing more than a spherical sharp tugging motion thread now.

My idea was :-

 

Just before announcing an event, the game takes a snapshot of every active (say 30 days) players current stamina.

 

Then, the tiers are calculated in relation to that captured figure - that way, players with massive stamina banks need to get more kills / tier than those with minimal stamina banks. Yes, I know that this "penalises" those players (like myself, I may add) who have upgraded their stamina considerably (albeit not by some folks standards) but this "penalty" would JUST apply to global events, no other facet of the game - so, in all other areas of the game, the stamina banks would still be a big asset.

 

So, to extend the idea ...

 

Let's assume a player has 100k (for ease of calculation) current stamina just before an event is launched. The event would work on a "sacrifice" of 50% stamina to get the best awards.

 

For Bronze Tier the player would need to expend 10% of their base stamina killing critters (so, 10K)

For Silver Tier the player would need to expend 20% of their base stamina killing critters (so 20K)

For Gold Tier the player would need to expend 30% of their base stamina killing critters (so 30K)

For Crystal Tier the player would need to expend 40% of their base stamina killing critters (so 40K)

For Ruby Tier the player would need to expend 50% of their base stamina killing critters (so 50K)

 

Obviously, a few factors would need to be considered :-

 

1. The actual kill counts would need calculating

2. MUCH bigger global doublers would need to be made available beforehand

3. Absolutely NO warning/indication (or regularity) of an event be given so as to prevent players dumping stam just beforehand.

 

I'm sure this idea could be further "fleshed out"

 

(also has the flame retardant clothing on .... )

As a player who has been in every top 100 of every global. If this was implemented, I simply wouldn't participate in globals. I highly suspect I wouldn't be the only big stam bank who wouldn't.