Players Claiming they get preferential treatment

[MiladySkye]

There's also no process for removing a ban, so you can't expedite something that doesn't exist. Once an account is permanently banned, that's it. It is never going to be unbanned. The only people who know if an account is banned are the admin who banned it (which in 99% of cases is me, so I get a kick out of hearing about my corrupt underlings who take bribes!) and the player(s) with the login details to the account.

Best reply ever You really went above and beyond the call of duty on this thread by taking the time and patience to reply as much as you have. well done

On that note of buying card points? Yes I have heard that same rumor and yes was from a friend who knew a guy (Russian) who could do this for him thru pay pal . I look at it this way, players know that I buy lots of crowns from Firefly when I play so when I hear of alternative methods of acquiring crowns/cards/card points I just assume they are trying to take my money and get me banned. So I have never nor will ever try such a offer if not offered by Firefly themselves

All those too good to be true offers smell of scam to me, oh and I will also mention that I have never seen any actual proof either of these claims. Brings me back to the posts you see from time to time about being able to transfer gold between players as a good idea. At least Firefly never traveled down that road, Thankyou

Yes it would perhaps be the best reply ever . . . if it were true. I've asked around and turns out there is a process for appealing bans etc, which many have used . . . therefore it can be expedited.

https://prntscr.com/ik6x0h

Don't p1ss down my back and tell me it's raining.

[Greyson-Mactire]

"We've always dealt the same way with cheater, hackers, and exploiters, the account is permanently banned. I'm not sure what stricter measures you think would be more effective?"

https://imgur.com/a/col22

Also considering this guy can basically pull armies out of his hat, I don't think it's a stretch for them if they wanted to, to pull crowns out of no where and then offer to sell their services. I mean that one guy who goes by Manfred did it on multiple games for 20 years making REAL money off it.

That is a load of dung I'm on Global conflict 3 and the botter there who sent attacks out as a bumpkin under peace to nearly half the server is still well and active on that world. You guys just rolled back the server and swept the forum topic that brought this to light under the rug probably because players were clapping them on, which in all honesty they should at this point. You guys have made no effort over the years what so ever to deal with alt account epidemic that's plagued this game from the start. It's so easy to cheat on this game it's laughable, simply use a free VPN and make dozens of alts and build them up enough to use armies and trade back and forth from one and other... It's gross and then there's the people who use custom scripts to get all the benefits of premium and then some... It took you guys near a year for Biotot to slip on on World 6 and for you to finally ban him. If you're going to leave him there so that he can do it all over again just so he finds these flaws, you guys should really think about hiring them instead of using them as a free resource while players are disrupted there in the process. Bad ethics. The least you could do is set up a small group of mods and ask them to go to the most popular free to use VPN sites and gather the IPs they use and put those on the ban list and compensate those mods with cardpacks/points, at least then you'd be trying. Better yet, why is there not a system in place to detect accounts that have shifted over to multiple IPs in a short amount of time... say within two weeks.

[Priest Guardian]

no game is immune to cheaters. all you need to do is look at the countless cheat videos on the web for any game your playing. All games have them

including SHK's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em1apelerVE (however this video seems a couple years out dated). Its not hard to find such things on the web now a days if that's the market you wish to deal in

But with cheaters come scams and the risk of having your game account banned forever . So I say this, cheaters will always be that and take the risks associated with such behavior.

So my third hand information that I received was that once you contact the player via email and pay him through pay pal you must then give him your login information to SHK's so he can open the game in your account . (that right there screams ALERT to me as giving someone you account information to any game is a no no for me)

Once he logs in with your account he runs a program like the one on youtube with your account to acquire the card points for you. Done deal

Sounds sketchy to me and I hope no one tries this as I certainly do NOT recommend such a thing

I only hope bringing some light to the possibility of it can fix the situation

[DekeYoungAtlanta]

Scammer could take your real money, then log in with your credentials (should you be stupid enough to give them out) and use a stolen credit card number to buy crowns (which would look legit to Firefly.)

Then the scammer buys card packs and swaps the cards for card points.

This might give the illusion of adding card points to your account.

It would be difficult for a credit card company to track charges on a virtual item that does not actually have to be shipped, delivered, etc.

Just a theory. Having spent many years watching Gold Traders in World of Warcraft, I know that many shady things are possible, and they do not always present in the indirect, multiple step process that occurs behind the scene.

- Deke

[Danso]

The green name indicates a board moderator, yes. They do not have any special powers on any game world as a result of this.

In the past, when we had volunteer moderators, they had the ability to mute disruptive players or remove offensive posts. While this was helpful during the Alpha and Beta when we had less Support staff, for a variety of reasons, it is no longer needed.

Any player who claims they can find something out or get a ban lifted or get someone banned because they have some sort of "special relationship" with the administrators or developers is lying to you. Any player who tells you they have some advantageous power on the game worlds that you do not, is lying to you.

Sorry... i cant believe what you have written... The game doesnt need Support staff anymore? Are you kidding me?
Since there isnt any support staff anymore on german worlds or only Arakgon, the worlds consits out of hate.
Many insults in the forums, in chats or messages.
Years ago, the staff did something against it. Cleared village names, cleared the forum, etc.
and now?
Absolutly nothing happens!! NOTHING!
Dont you care about the german worlds or what?

I thought that Arakgon can do more and is able to do more. I am totaly disappointed... thats the correct way to lose players and throw one of the best online games away.
Please stop that MethaMorph project and use your capacity for Stronghold Kingdoms. You have created one of the best games ever, but you are litterly going to smash it against the wall. In a few years you can close the servers for this game. Please... start changing something! Show your community that we are more worth than money for you!!!

"While this was helpful during the Alpha and Beta when we had less Support staff, for a variety of reasons, it is no longer needed.".... ridiculous...

[JustAnotherFarmer]

A real honest answer to things like the russian selling 80k cps for 100 euros is hard to give as this would really make a lot of players quit if it was admitted. It was still the case, dunno if it is still, but on Gc1 i saw the accounts with 400k cps which those guys did buy that way. It also was available for anyone on the server besides russians who played no role on that stage anymore. So in the end no one cared as everyone had that source available. Never saw people instant carding as much as on that world and i know those guys well enough to say they didn't buy crowns for 5k bucks xD for having friends in the admin team i don't have any proof. Only know that from german guys like disco_stu and some on the german worlds too who had people banned and unbanned faster than the usual procedure takes. While still that was the right decision then not like hey i cheat and they will unban me xD back in earlier beta some extreme carder friends of mine also were allowed to buy back there accounts for a not meaningful price after about a month of ban time. There were some strange things that happened, but besides the card point thing all way in the past and never heard of it again. Maybe also cause those players already quit and the links to the admin team are gone. Btw I'm not even saying any of this was bad in a way that it effected the server by any means. Cheats bots and alts are part of this you can outplay all that. Only thing that influenced the server really was that guy on Gc1 who had hundred captains in his armies and hacked xD but he got rolled back. On the new Era worlds I didn't see anything besides scout and trade bots and such are harmless

[JustAnotherFarmer]

And danso the German worlds are * dead xD

[WinNytHepOOh89]

I think we can agree that every player with some experience knows at least one other player that aquired hacked CP. It became a phenomenon nearly as widely used as alt accounts and everyone knows it. Just FF denies. I would like to share with you the response I got from FF when I inquired about the issue:

"Thanks for expressing your concerns. We do indeed have robust systems to audit card points and crowns and have found no evidence to support this rumor which has been frequently repeated and reported.

Stronghold Kingdoms is a highly competitive game where players frequently use misinformation, deception, and outright lies to confuse their enemies. This rumor is among the most common tactics that players use when they want their enemies to believe that they are invincible and to demoralize their opponents. As you have seen, this can have a powerful impact, even if there is no truth to it. If you choose to believe the players spreading these rumors then they have already won without using a single card or sending a single attack, hence this is a frequent tactic employed by players against other players who they consider to be gullible or easily intimidated.

Any person offering to sell your crowns or card points is trying to scam you and potentially steal your personal information. Crowns can only be purchased from Firefly Studios. There is no possible way for cards, crowns, or cardpoints to be added to an account by an employee without a supervisor's express permission and any such actions are logged. No Firefly employees are actively playing any live game server. Any person claiming to be a Firefly employee should be reported to Support.

We're sorry to hear that you were upset by this rumor and hope that you continue to enjoy Stronghold Kingdoms."

[WinNytHepOOh89]

My personal thought about it: I think FF are well aware of CP hacking being possible, just they can't admit it. If they would say it is happening, they would have to explain why nothing is being done against it. They have no reliable way to detect it or even prevent it. Or no intention to do it, even if they could. Propably many players that buy hacked CP also buy premium, the typical whale category of players in P2W games that pay higher amounts of money without problem to get the advantage they want. 100, 200, 300 dollars? No problem. So banning those might mean they stop playing in a whole, making FF lose out on money massively. When you ignore a hack for too long, things spread so much that you can't bann the involved hackers anymore without killing half of your paying player base.

Without doubt fighting hacks is an endless and tough struggle, something that requires money invested into this game that will give less and less revenue each passing year. I can't even blame FF for giving up about it and deciding against investing the needed work into it to stop it. But denying that hacking CP is possible is a joke. No system is ever 100% safe against hacks. This story of players bragging about using hacks to appear stronger, without actually using hacks, is a joke. Everyone knows people who bought hacked CP, who are friendly and have no reason to lie. And there never has been a good player in a FPS game that would say his K/D is so good because he uses aimbot, without actually doing it. Even this story about people getting scammed when they try to buy a hack is a joke. Just because there are scammers who take money for not executing a hack, it doesn't mean that there aren't other people who DO execute the hack, and with that propably do way better, as their contact will be used multiple times by same people, as well as recommendations will be done and bring new customers. So really FF is telling to us as players that we are telling complete tales to each other. That's just the cherry on top of a game that has been corrupted by alt accounts and other stuff from beginning on.

I was close to taking money myself, buying hacked CP and recording the whole process, just to show it to FF. I decided against it, because I don't think it's the lack of proof that is leading to this bad situation here, where a development studio stands in complete opposition towards their own players. I'll take the money and spend it on games instead where honest customers aren't outgunned by hackers and taken as fools.

[Priest Guardian]

"Any person offering to sell your crowns or card points is trying to scam you and potentially steal your personal information. Crowns can only be purchased from Firefly Studios. There is no possible way for cards, crowns, or cardpoints to be added to an account by an employee without a supervisor's express permission and any such actions are logged. No Firefly employees are actively playing any live game server. Any person claiming to be a Firefly employee should be reported to Support. "

Truth!

Been playing this game almost a decade now. Purchased crowns from Firefly a couple time and money well spent for the entertainment I got out of it. Heard lots of rumors about hacks and scams over the years and countless times how the game is dead

Yet here we are still playing

So called claims of bots/scams/hacks do not bother me or effect my play. I still love the game and enjoy playing. I still meet new friends and could care less what others are doing, it does not change how I play or what I achieve. There are times that we must all admit some players are just better than us. I know I have encountered them and defeat is part of the game. Playing with friends and enjoying the game for the strategic / political game it is matters most to me..

There is no second place , only Winning and Learning