111 replies to this topic

[TangledMantis]

TangledMantis & Propyl  

I use them interchangeably. Propyl is more of a sacrificial account, but is doing better than my main right now. -.-

[Jelooboi]

<-- Main.

Alt: ActionBastard. I use this one for extremely inebriated play, and trying out new stuff/mechs I don't really like to play normally, or trying to play on EU servers.

I also sometimes use my wife's account that she never uses anymore (She ended up not liking HAWKEN very much, to my great dismay & eternal sadness): MadamSatan. I use this one for kicks, but rarely.

I have a 2nd alt that I will never, ever divulge (unless you come to my house and get me drunk.); It only has, and will ever have, 2 mechs: Assault, and Raider. It's only friend is Scrimbot. I use this one for actual anonymity. But rarely.

(I use the term "Alt," because all of my accounts are roughly the same or close enough to the MMR of my main; That said, I do not use any of my alts as often as my main; Not that I really use my main anymore, either. I haven't actually played HAWKEN in awhile, and don't plan to again for awhile yet.)

Actionbastard? From Crayon Shin-Chan? l000000000llllL

[DeeRax]

Actionbastard? From Crayon Shin-Chan? l000000000llllL

 
Yes indeed. I think you are the first person to have ever properly recognized it.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Edited by (TDM) DeeRax, 14 March 2016 - 12:44 PM.

[Amidatelion]

 
Yes indeed. I think you are the first person to have ever properly recognized it.
CONGRATULATIONS!

 

...your name wouldn't happen to be Beau, would it.

[DeeRax]

...your name wouldn't happen to be Beau, would it.

 
Nope nope nopers.

(Part of me wanted to say yes, and then proceed to live a lie).
(Unless this is something that just went way over my head.... *whoooooosh*)

Edited by (TDM) DeeRax, 14 March 2016 - 01:26 PM.

[KarlSchlag]

Main: KarlSchlag

 

Smurfs: MIRVIN_GAYE

              Kr4ftw3rk

              _CAN_

 

I play as MIRVIN_GAYE from time to time. 

The other two smurfs are accounts at Pilot level 4 or 5 and idling in the garage for the most part.

[Erzunterweltler]

Main:

Erzunterweltler (kind of ironic, since this start as a smurf)

 

Alts:

SilpoGaming (currently used for non-meta Mechs / Mechs I cannot play well)

Silpo (used for participating in UVW)

opli2 (currently inactive)

Erzwespe (currently inactive)

 

There are also a couple of Smurfs with about 200 MMR less then my main, however, I don't use them anymore. A (nice) side-effect coming along with using Alts are hackusations from players you think they would know better. The resulting loss of credibility is important when dealing with forum members who are part of the debate around hacks & cheats, especially when they address ridiculous cheats unlikely to exist (that - according to those players - do exist without posting/linking any kind of proof or at least stating an example).

Edited by (KDR) Erzunterweltler, 22 April 2016 - 02:53 PM.

[talons1337]

Main:

<----

 

Alt:

Sergey_RUS

 

i rarely use sergey and he's only for messing about in other servers or making bad decisions with broken english

[GalaxyRadio]

Here is one, but thats not me lmao http://hawken.heroku...ser/WhinerRadio

 

Still waiting for update, dont make sense to play hawken right now

[Amidatelion]

Here is one, but thats not me lmao http://hawken.heroku...ser/WhinerRadio

 

Still waiting for update, dont make sense to play hawken right now

 

No, really?

[harmless_kittens]

How ironic that someone posted on this again.  

 

Last night a smurfy smurf joined us in my "3 Star" match.  I don't see him/her in this thread so I guess I can't give the name. Keeping in mind that my own MMR is around 1400, our MMR range for the next three matches was only 1200-1500.  No problem, right?  Well, the first match he had 19 kills and 0/1 deaths, and over 800 points.  Everyone else on both teams were below 200.  Several players left afterward (although in fairness this always happens).  2 matches later he was 18 kills and 0/1 deaths, and in the upper 700s.  No one else on either team had over 300 points.  Both of these matches ended at 40 kills with over 2 minutes left on the clock - the scores weren't even close.  So I asked him how long he had been playing, and he said that all he plays is smurfs anymore.  (At least he was honest.)  After this, I also quit.  I'm sorry, but this just soaks all the fun out of the match for me.  "3 Stars" is SUPPOSED to mean that I'll be playing with players of comparable skill level.  When that ends up being the furthest thing from the truth, I think that weaker and newer players will get very discouraged.

[Hyginos]

Before this gets too far, I'd like to throw this out again: 

 

[StubbornPuppet]

Before this gets too far, I'd like to throw this out again: 

 

 

Thank you for posting.  Very good analysis.

So, that represents about 30%.  I'd say 30% is a reasonable percentage of the time to constitute a problem.

[harmless_kittens]

Sorry.  I don't mean to imply that Smurfs shouldn't be able to do whatever they want.  They need to do what allows them to have fun.  I bear whomever that was last night no ill will.  But I play to have fun too, and getting stomped by a likely 2500+ MMR player artificially brought down to 1500, after the game makes me think that I'm entering an even match of comparable skill levels is not fun for ME - so I will leave.  I suspect (although I have no proof) that I am not alone in this feeling.  Thus I feel that if we want to keep new players, situations like we experienced last night will make them go searching for a more "balanced" game.

 

I hope that the way I play the game (badly) does not want to make people leave Hawken.  But there ARE things that other players can do that will cause that feeling.  That's the difference, in my humble opinion, between me playing the way I want to play, and uber-smurfs doing the same.

[Guns_N_Rozer]

all these kind of smurf can be stopped by doing a single thing 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we need an update , that make hawken better with lots of pilots .so no one need to creat a smurf , so lets deploy an update , yahooooooo , Gmail , Hotmail etc

[Charcoal]

Can we just put a client ID tracking number inthe client at install time.

 

- Put client ID number at install time (random # is fine)

- If multiple account play from same client install ID, default set MMR of new account to highest MMR of account that has used that client install ID

 

Profit!

 

I don't expect people to reinstall everytime just to articifially lower their MMR.

 

If multiple users use the same machine then make the client ID based off their homedir or UID or something

[Call_Me_Ishmael]

^ virtual machines

[Charcoal]

You know what, if you purchase a VM chassis that is capable of hosting a high enough performing VM to actually play Hawken AND you play at a high enough level that you can stomp, then by all means, go for it.

 

That is so far off the bell curve that it's almost irrelevant.

 

The goal isn't to make smurfing impossible, it's just to make it much less hassle to just play your main account or have the smurfs at the same MMR by default as your main account.

 

:)

Edited by Charcoal, 03 May 2016 - 02:36 PM.

[Call_Me_Ishmael]

Um. Virtualbox, my i7 and ssd are plenty fast enough, but I could go with an m.2 pci-express ddr4 box as my next gaming rig ...

If you look, I think you'll find many people have asked if Hawken could be run on Linux natively or under Wine if not on old XP...

It isn't as hard as you make it out to be to run a vm

[Call_Me_Ishmael]

On my phone so second post...

Off the bell curve. Who is our most prolific smurf/hacker? Would the perceived difficulty of vm setup dissuade her? Is she enough to be a problem?

Never rely on the complacency or Ill-education of the enemy. I bet at one time Ma Bell thought no one would ever figure out DTMF and spoofing long-distance coin drops. Or that captain midnight could take over a national satellite feed....

[Charcoal]

You know what, if you purchase a VM chassis that is capable of hosting a high enough performing VM to actually play Hawken AND you play at a high enough level that you can stomp, then by all means, go for it.

 

That is so far off the bell curve that it's almost irrelevant.

 

The goal isn't to make smurfing impossible, it's just to make it much less hassle to just play your main account or have the smurfs at the same MMR by default as your main account.

 

:)

 

 

No, I'm not making it out to be difficult, but I do believe the people that would do this are so far on the end of the bell curve that it's not worth the effort to make countermeasures for.

Ultimately, If you are willing to build out a VM infrastructure JUST so you can pub stomp semi anonymously then there's very few things that can be done due to that dedication to such an absurd mission LOL

 

Resources would be better spent on anti cheat measures and any number of other things

 

:)

Edited by Charcoal, 03 May 2016 - 03:09 PM.

[KarlSchlag]

Main:

<----

 

Alt:

Sergey_RUS

 

i rarely use sergey and he's only for messing about in other servers or making bad decisions with broken english

That's racist

[ATX22]

No, I'm not making it out to be difficult, but I do believe the people that would do this are so far on the end of the bell curve that it's not worth the effort to make countermeasures for.

Ultimately, If you are willing to build out a VM infrastructure JUST so you can pub stomp semi anonymously then there's very few things that can be done due to that dedication to such an absurd mission LOL

 

Resources would be better spent on anti cheat measures and any number of other things

 

:)

 

I doubt it would require building a VM infrastructure to counter that.  If this ID is created at install time and is stored in a file or in the registry, wouldn't it simply take a little time and an editor / regedit to modify it?  Still, if it's random at install time, what about backing up the Hawken resource files and doing a simple uninstall / re-install whenever you want the number changed?  There'd probably be an ID changing application out in no time if this became a thing.

 

Making the client ID specific to account logged into Windows... is as easy to change as Control Panels > User Accounts > Manage another account > Create a new account.  If it's store in your homedir %APPDATA%(?) > find the file, edit/delete.

[Charcoal]

Again, Time is better spent on anti cheat technology, since smurfing itself is kind of harmless except for masking true MMR

[Nightfirebolt]

I still maintain that smurfing doesn't make sense anymore. The queue can drop you into any match regardless of MMR. >.>

[Texhnolyzing]

My only two accounts: 

http://hawken.heroku...er/texhnolyzing

http://hawken.heroku.../erroradication

 

I only made a smurf to learn a mech other than SS, but in the end settled back on SS for both accounts.

Both are rank 30 with similar MMR and I've bought cosmetics on both accounts... So yeah more than most people do on their alts.

 

I'll be settled with these two accounts unless I come up with a name I really really love that I need, unless name changes are allowed :O?

 

But in most regards I'm the same as Lauren when it comes to my two accounts. Feel free to friend me in game!

[harmless_kittens]

I still maintain that smurfing doesn't make sense anymore. The queue can drop you into any match regardless of MMR. >.>

Does this work in reverse though?  If a match does not have at least 1 "Star" for me it says that it is outside my MMR range and will not allow me to join.  I know because I tried it once.  I always wondered if it worked in reverse though, such that that for a 3000 MMR player it won't let them join certain matches.

[6ixxer]

The star system works both ways, but the queue system will expand the range until it finds a server to put you in.

I use matchmaker Aus because I can't get into the 2K+ games with other Aus players, so I queue to get in and then I can be stomped as hard as I like.

This need went away with private servers but I think it is back now.

Edited by 6ixxer, 04 May 2016 - 02:31 PM.

[DemitronPrime]

I think we need to try get a bit of action back on the AUS servers 6 :P

 

I que for aus games and wait like 2-3 hours

[ATX22]

Does this work in reverse though?  If a match does not have at least 1 "Star" for me it says that it is outside my MMR range and will not allow me to join.  I know because I tried it once.  I always wondered if it worked in reverse though, such that that for a 3000 MMR player it won't let them join certain matches.

 

You may not be able to join manually, but if you queue up, it should eventually drop you into a zero star server if nothing better exists.

 

The MMR-based match making system has been a flawed system from the start.  It honestly should never have been used early on with Hawken.  In order for it to even come close to working properly it has to operate under the most ideal of conditions.  Player base too small, people actively working to lower their MMR, people creating smurf accounts, not having enough "really good players", having too many "really good players", or MMR accrual becomes squewed for users who play a certain match type a certain way.. it all breaks the system eventually.

 

Automated server queuing should have been based upon a server having connected clients and the quality of the connection to the server.  No sense of entitlement of a completely "fair" environment by skill, much lower chance of the "perfect storm" scenario happening with one or two really good players stomping new / not so great players, and unless you manually connect to a server / choose a region that you don't geographically belong to, you'll generally end up on servers that you have a better connection to.

Edited by ATX22, 04 May 2016 - 07:06 PM.

[StubbornPuppet]

The star system sucks.

 

3 stars is a very close match.  Fine.

2 stars could either be that the match is a little above your range OR a little below your range.

1 star could either be way above your range OR way below your range.

 

I don't see how that system is remotely helpful... and it's entirely confusing to newbies, who always start off thinking that a 1 star match is easier and a 3 star match is harder.  Sure, they figure out that isn't true after a while, but the rest is just too weird.

[6ixxer]

I think we need to try get a bit of action back on the AUS servers 6 :P
 
I que for aus games and wait like 2-3 hours

Add me in steam (I'm 6ixxer on steam also). Msg me via steam to get in Hawken.