GC FORUM Galactic Conquest
Sign in
Back to the Game
Forum Index General Discussion So, what is abuse?

So, what is abuse?

Started by Deiloche · 23/02/2010 · 03:21 AM · 142 replies · 6 reads
D DeilocheOP
There has been a lot of controversy caused lately by MK`s use of the UW function. Much of this has been saying that this is abuse of the UW function. This brings up the question of what "is" abuse. Several things that COULD be argued as abuse:

A-Buying out the food market by going far over the limit and simply burning food
B-Buying out any market and burning resources
C-Buying out a market when resetting just to burn your credits and similarly impact the market
D-Hoarding/buying up minerals to prevent opposition from having the minerals to fight a UW, or fight at all
E-Buying a huge number of resources not because you need them but because you can and have nothing else to do
F-Holding on to a UW well past it`s natural expiry time and not due to inactivity


NONE of this is currently labeled abuse. Of them all, I consider A to be by far the worst, and yet it is the most acceptable. I guess not everybody plays tax empires that have to VM for six months of a paid because their empire cannot play, not because there isn`t enough agriculture production but because empires artificially inflate the market price to screw taxers. Specifically virals. :P

So, here`s the question: What do the masses think is abuse?

Notes from my end:
-For F, I hope to ask Stephen whether or not this is meant to be a part of the game. If it`s not, then we need to make publicly visible rules stating that it isn`t, adding constraints and potential fallout.
-I am working on a proposal to stop A entirely, and to limit E (which only affects RT).
-D is completely legitimate and frankly there`s absolutely no way to stop it.
-B is a set containing A, so my plans for A include B.
-C cannot really be stopped, though it would be faced with the same restrictions as B.
D devorock
thats why when i post goods under market i say so in chat..if everyone knows can`t be arranged
BadWolf
seems i wasn`t too clear and caused a fair bit of confusion this will be cleared up whenever we have time to make the detailed rules thread which will be made asap..
I ImaVirusOhNoz
i bought some mins at 100 one time twas awesome :D i got all but 1 min :(
G GradualIncline
I was suspended for transferring goods over the market during an UW end of October, and they were not posted at 0, so if it`s not illegal, I`m a little upset. I was under the impression that a market transfer was arranging with another player about the posting of materials on the market far below the average price, not technically 0. I`m not sure posting CGs at 2 as opposed to 4 is that big of a transfer, now selling minerals at 100 as opposed to 1000 is a pretty big transfer.

Actually, once I was told why I was suspended, I was glad about it, first time I knew of where the rule was enforced.
I ImaKillYa
so what about the empires and taxers who bu out the food market with intent to keep themselves stocked than so ud be watching EVERY high population taxer buying out the foodmarket becuase they HAVE to >.> or maybe they do it once a week to keep them going the whole week >.> ya have to think about that
D devorock
honestly i feel there should be more ways to help your fed mates .. theres lil stratagy other then for stack info and high pr hits as they are...more interaction between the fed mates like maybe a big penallty fed market?
L Loof
a transfer*
L Loof
i suppose it`s me you are calling a hypocrit? because i`ve bought cheap food and reposted for more, to earn credits? i`ve never once said that could be cheating in any way, im not feeding anyone cash, im trying to prevent it lol.

What i think is cheating is as pete saying buying high and reposting low, you have no advantage of that yourself unless you know allies are proffiting directly from it, what i would consider and transfer according to the Rules.
P PistolPete
I just dont see what it adds to the game when you buy out the market. To take the example you are commenting on aacra, when you bought out the market food prices had been varying between 10-11-12 for a couple of days. Then you bought it all up to 30 i think, and reposted it all at 10 again.

All that can happen by this stunt is that you most likely will feed some races that are supposed to be hard to play with billions that will take weeks or months to produce. This is destroying the gameplay.
A Aacra
Everyone has an equal chance to buy food off the market, it is not like the low priced food is placed from person a`s food stores directly into person b`s, the market is open to all equally. If you dont like other people getting cheap food, check the market more often and get it yourself.... As for if this is legal or not it is a big connundrum, and cant really be solved to make everyone happy. As a food producer i get to see the names of the people who buy food in quantities that far exceed their storage capacity (obviously playing the market), and a few of the people complaining on this thread are being big hipocrits. you know who you are, lol... I will exclude gradual from those people as i truely believe his food buy outs are in the interested of server stability and a level playing field for taxers, who, like last summer couldnt play for 3 month straight.
V VALJA
IF it`s going to ever happen... my first vote is to change the "10x rule" for enslavement... :P
S ScarletTears
This game has seen a lot of changes more recently, honestly what needs to be done and we`ve discussed it before is that we need to re-write the rule book and post examples of what is breaking the rule and what isn`t....we also need a strict guide of repercussions for those who break the rules. so basically a new improved updated rule book, and a general list of punishment for those who would break them.

we also should include ethical guidelines, and make sure to put that they are not rules, and they don`t have to be adhered to but it would be preferred if they were. Because all of the things being argued about here are more a matter of ethics. perhaps even reward those who adhere strictly with some very minor reward and when a complaint has been filed about a player that reward could be removed.

Guides, story, ship descriptions, missions....pretty much everything needs to be re-written we know.
R RipVanWingnut
yeah, I was kind of surprised by the tone of your post. Most of the small group of players still here on GC also contribute what they can to help with updates.
P PistolPete
What Bobby asks is exactly my concern.

We just need clear rules. And if it is fully legal to have a friend that post at lower price for you, like Islander mentioned he has, then everyone else should be able to do that too. I`ve never done anything like that, because i believed it was not legal. But since there are great advantages by doing it, I would, if it is legal.

Your answers so far tells me that this is legal behaviour.
T Tribaltea
Im gamestotal admin,
Badwolf has been working very hard for updates for gc events and even inclusion in chat quiz.
He is slightly more patient than me but im here to help him improve gc.
R RipVanWingnut
/me pokes qwerty with a stick. your still alive old mate?!?
R RipVanWingnut
still have no idea who you are. I was actually seriously wondering. you come from UC?
Q qwerty360
all of the market manipulations listed in the original post are ligitimate, regardless of how they damage the game. I would agree that storage limits etc should be manipulated to discorage continual clearance of market goods, however (especially during UW`s) it should be possible to tactically buy out the market for a short period as a form of economic warfare.

Most of the market issues are being magnified by the lack of players resulting in most of the wealth on a server being in the hands of relativly few players meaning they can afford to continually buy up the market.

Historias definatly need adjusting as it is unfair for players on slow for example to lose weeks of turns in an outright historia attack, although it should be possible to wipe out 2-3 days worth of turns possibly (take a player out of a UW with artis seems an apropriate tactic). The biggest problem is that the affect of historias is magnified on slower servers. Without getting stephen to change the code to allow balancing for each server (which would be hard) this probably cant be corrected.
B bobbysindustrialpat
Badwolf I don`t see the distinction between posting stuff @0 for someone to buy, and posting stuff @halfprice.

Islander said he gets his friends to post food at a price he can afford to buy so that he can still play when food prices are high. I`ve always thought posting well below market prices specifically for a mate to buy is a transfer.

Can you just clarify please: Posting 1bil cgs @0 for my guard mate is illegal, but posting 1bil cgs for him @2 is legal. Even though I`m free to do it twice which would result in the same amount of cash in his back pocket? In fact I can do it again and again and `transfer` as much of my profits to him as I like, so long as it`s not posted @0? What`s the limit of a discount I can offer? 99%?

I understand your point that it`s hard to enforce, I just want to be absolutely clear on the rules so that everyone has a level playing field.

P.S. Sorry Deil if this is a bit of a hijack!
T Tribaltea
@ RipVanWingnut im sorry if not wearing an A before refresh didnt enlighten you.
clear rules will be drafted up soon so nobody will have any excuse and if you have tears afterwards its simple dont cheat
Page 5 of 8

Reply

You must sign in before you can reply.
Sign in to the game and come back — the forum uses your game account.