Popular Post Norval of Whidbey Posted April 15, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted April 15, 2021 (edited) Myself and several other members (like @Pailin and @RagnarDanneskjold) of my alliance (The Knights Radiant) suspect that many fake nations have been created for the Swords of Sanghelios (SoS) alliance (formerly named Arsenal) in the last month controlled by one or two players perhaps using masked ip's or something else to hide this. Many of these newly created nations just sit and block good raiding targets without attacking. My mentor says this all looks very fishy and I should file a ticket. The evidence for this is complicated but I will try to explain: 1) If you klick on the alliance page and filter by date created and descending you will see there have been over 60 NEW nations created in the last month that have joined SoS. There are many more not on the list who are "applying" that have been newly formed as well. There hasn't been an active ad campaign for this alliance (and I've been on a lot in the last month) and most other alliances don't have this many brand new players suddenly joining their alliance. My alliance (the #2) alliance has had only 13 new people join in that time period. Most just joining our alliance don't almost immediately attack people either. Also, If you look at the graph for this SoS alliance there is a huge uptick. 2) Many of the newly created nations know exactly who to target almost immediately (nations that have had good raid results,). Some within minutes. Some even before they apply to join SoS (or formerly Arsenal). This is too coordinated and not the behavior of random independent newbies just learning the game. Here is some proof of the fact that these new nations suddenly know who to attack and the targets are top raid producing nations (scroll through their nation activity history and see when formed etc): https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=289093 (this one attacked people i've raided within 3 minutes of applying to sos/arsenal) https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=297290 https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=298570 https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=297902 https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=289075 (this one waited a day to join but knew within 13minutes of applying which countries to attack) There are many more. Here are some that just sit and block spaces without attacking (notice also they know who to attack very early in their formation unlike most newbies) : https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=289093&display=war https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=292988&display=war https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=285279&display=war Recently, they have gotten a bit more clever and had some nations pretend to apply to another alliance but quit them and soon attack still when they shouldn't really know who to attack for example: https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=296914 Some wait a day or so to join SoS and attack but it's still fishy that so many newbies are doing this and following a similar pattern for just this one alliance. In our alliance it takes people a while to learn the ropes. Of course, there's a chance that some of these are actually independent players but the odds of so many nations exhibiting the same behaviors and all applying to SoS seem pretty....odd! Also, given the recent news about a possible spy ring with multi's some of whom have been connected to SoS, the evidence above seems worth looking into. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Edited April 15, 2021 by Norval of Whidbey 9 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadenStar10 Posted April 15, 2021 Share Posted April 15, 2021 (edited) I dont know, could just be a good recruit bot, but take my upvote. Edited April 15, 2021 by JadenStar10 1 1 Coal Duke (Imperator Emeritus) of The Coal Mines Diety Emeritus of The Immortals, Patres Conscripti (President Emeritus) of the Independent Republic of Orange Nations, Lieutenant Emeritus of Black Skies, Imperator Emeritus of the Valyrian Freehold, Imperator Emeritus of the Divine Phoenix, Prefect Emeritus of Carthago, Regent Emeritus of the New Polar Order Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norval of Whidbey Posted April 15, 2021 Author Share Posted April 15, 2021 2 hours ago, JadenStar10 said: I dont know, could just be a good recruit bot, but take my upvote. Thanks. But, does the "good recruit bot" somehow have a coordinated list of nations in the recruitment advert for the applicants to hit right away, in some cases even before they join? . It's really fishy that these new nations suddenly know who to attack. Most newbies don't. To me that's the strongest evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Schmo Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 People using VPNs to cheat at a browser game. SMH. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norval of Whidbey Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 (edited) @Alex I know you might think these may all "check out" as seeming to have real email addresses but people can fake that. What you guys seem to be missing is how coordinated these things are. How is it possible for all these new nations who join SoS to already know who to attack? These are not independent NEW people run by unique individuals for each nation. Edited April 20, 2021 by Norval of Whidbey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnar-Danneskjold Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 (edited) I would just like to second Norval's case here. The alliance as a whole has a few things that are so outside the realm of normal I can't help but be suspicious. The alliance score as a whole has almost tripled in a month, and new nations have joined at a pretty ridiculous clip. They haven't been advertising, and neither I nor anyone else I know received recruitment messages from them when we joined. I've only been playing for a couple months now, but it does seem far from normal when a smaller alliance recruits at a rate that dwarfs the rate that other actively recruiting alliances have. Norval also notes a few other things that members of the alliance do that are atypical, following certain people's raid targets, members start raiding the same people just before joining the alliance, etc. All in all, I think it would be unreasonable to not be at least somewhat suspicious, and I really think this deserves at least a little investigation. Edited April 18, 2021 by Ragnar-Danneskjold 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pailin Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 After looking through the SOS alliance I find them suspicious because comparatively with most alliances these guys seem to have to most applicants and most of these applicants are either active or offline for a week or so and most of these people are all newbies created in a few days or so. This can essentially justify the case they might be using bots to exponentially increase their member numbers and score and as you can see on their alliance they have essentially added a 50k score to themselves in the past month with most of their members being newbies. Honestly, I think it's quite unreasonable to see that newbies that were created in a day or so that are a part of SOS or just applicants immediately target raid targets and usually just block them without winning the raid. Also as well essentially as I've been looking through Norval's war activity it can be easily seen that many times that SOS newly made members immediately jump on Targets Norval is on. Following what Ragnar and Norval said I agree when they said this deserves some investigation if they are truly using bots. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Alex Posted April 19, 2021 Administrators Share Posted April 19, 2021 22 hours ago, Pailin said: this deserves some investigation if they are truly using bots. I've been looking into it, but I don't see any real evidence that anyone is using scripts here. And what purpose would there be to "block" raid targets? Just because you are not seeing them advertise in the game does not mean that they are not advertising, nor does it mean they are fake players. Numerous groups of players have joined Politics & War throughout the years who have moved over from outside communities. If they have some other community it would make sense that they are both doing more than the average player and joining an alliance without being recruited. The level of sophistication that these "bots" would have to have just to block some of your raid targets would be extraordinary. It just doesn't add up. Have you talked to anyone in this alliance to ask about where their new players are coming from? Perhaps just a single conversation could shed some light and clear things up for you. 1 4 Is there a bug? Report It | Not understanding game mechanics? Ask About It | Got a good idea? Suggest ItForums Rules | Game Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norval of Whidbey Posted April 19, 2021 Author Share Posted April 19, 2021 @Alex I don't necessarily think they are bots/scripts although some friends in my alliance do. I think it's a few people creating many nations and using fake addresses. They do it so the alliance can be more powerful, the extra nations bring in more money, and they will have more troops to fight with especially later when it comes to wars. Anyway, I'm not going to waste any more of your time. Thanks for listening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dyana Posted April 20, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted April 20, 2021 (edited) Hello @Alex I am the leader of SoS. I would love to explain this, all our members are legit and have discord accounts you may visit our server and check it yourself. We recently merged with another alliance The Jedi Order which gave us a score boost. About that raiding thing, when someone applys to join our alliance. We have a policy that we don't accept them unless they have 5 offensive raids that's a requirement to make sure they are quality players. I have been playing for almost 2 years now and i have founded multiple successful alliances so I know how to grow the alliance. You may check our member they are obviously legit lol 😆 Let me know if you need any more info. Edited April 20, 2021 by Dyana 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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