Forever codes.
Can Niantic please please retire all the forever codes?
We are pretty darn sure cheaters are using throwaway accounts to redeem them all, refill gear and rinse and repeat over and over.
At least remove any with Level 8 gear, high-level shields etc?
Tagged:
4
Comments
You're getting disagrees, but pretty sure this is happening in my area as well.
Make account, grind to level 8, which is pretty easy to do with these apex boosts, redeem tons of gear, profit.
It sucks though, the first time you ban someone for doing this, you'll get some person crying on here about how their wifes boyfriends account was banned for no good reason and they were playing by the rules, etc. Meanwhile, it was created and made it to level 8 in a few weeks and then hasn't had much for in-game actions besides capping portals and redeeming codes.
I would say only active accounts should be allowed to redeem codes. Regardless if they are forever codes or not. That would help stop backpack accounts from redeeming codes.
The problem is, we are seeing accounts level to 8 in an hour, then vanish forever.
Meanwhile some cheaty players are throwing a hundred R8 onto portals in a day, using around 2-300X8 when they are seemingly unemployed and whining about fuel cost in a city with a single un-hackmodded level 8 portal.
They should long have run out of mules weeks ago, they are literally using 1000s of X8 a week. But no, still going strong at all hours of the day.
I'm not talking ban, just remove all the old forever codes.
What about active agents in areas that don't have access to decent farms? Let them buy gear from the store only?
I understood exactly what you were saying.
I assume any active agents would have redeemed all the codes by now.
It would impact newer players, but then, redeeming all the codes and leveling to L3 without even having to take a step out the door seems also a reason to remove them.
If this was truly happening (and it very well may be, but I don't have evidence), I would 100% not retire the codes. I would instead institute automated bans if an account gains a certain % of these items from another account more than twice. One for their own, one for a bit of leeway, but after that, "We have confirmed evidence of you multi-accounting. All accounts involved have been banned or suspended".
It's like the easiest detection routine you could make given they track all item sources, so don't remove the codes, use them as a honeypot.
Given the speed of replication in Quantums, someone with 10+ mules just churning out X8s would never run out. The average growth of an account with 1800 X8s in capsules is 18 per day. Scale that up to 10 account and they've be churning out around 180 X8s per day with zero effort, or 1260 X8s per week
I see tons of accounts level up to 8 for both factions too. Always in the same few spots. No real way to tell Niantic to look at these accounts other than they have very certain stats or whatenot. Niantic needs to step up their detection for such accounts.
But removing forever accounts hurts those agents who haven't played in a while who do come back to the game, or those getting started or even those who don't live anywhere near a L8 portal...
Why do we want to penalize legit agents because others are cheating? Shouldn't this be on Niantic to work on their algorithms some?
I haven't redeemed any forever code so far, and don't recall where to find the list. Can you remind me, please?
We all complain that there are not enough players or there is a huge amount of player churn out there. Has it occurred to you that legitimate newbie players could initially survive by using Forever Codes for a few months and learn how to start a farm by themselves afterward? The forever codes help buoy the newbies until they can learn how to stand independently and survive on the Ingress Prime playing field.
In addition, it must be nice to go outside and play in Australia, but it's difficult to play outside in the US, wherein there is an Artic Blast. Wonder if you ever played in negative 12 degrees Fahrenheit weather.
Google is your friend
With some effort I could probably make ~180 X8s per day just by drone-hacking level 8 portals once an hour. Maybe the hack rate for X8 is a little lower than that - I don't really pay attention.
Anyway, constantly having to farm capsules from 10 different accounts is not exactly zero effort. ;-)