On the alt protection

[Morvis]

[ibelimb]

I'm not too sure what Mit can _really_ do about this. I have a laptop and could technically play on that with an alt, it would never trigger the detection if it is based on the PC name like I have heard. Or I could spin up 20 virtual machines all of which would bypass detection. At what point do we reach the point of diminishing returns?

Cheaters will always find a way.

[VDZ]

if it is based on the PC name like I have heard

Exceedingly unlikely. A long time ago people on different PCs on but with the same name were flagged as multis; I doubt Mit has worsened the system since then. It probably checks by IP, Steam ID and some machine-unique characteristic like network card MAC address.

Cheaters will always find a way.

This, however, I do agree with. If I wanted to I could create alts that on a technological level are indistinguishable from real new players.

I think that rather than a better crackdown on alts, we need game mechanics that aren't as dependent on player influx, less pure per-player restrictions and less benefits for simply existing (starter money, welfare, wages) to make alts less effective and reduce the impact of pure player influx (rather than actual player activity) on the economy.

[Morvis]

MightySheep specifically said he changed his personal computer account name to make multis. I cut that part out so it's not just blatantly advertised when i put the line up in the discord for all to see. As unlikely as you think, it is part the AT/TU/Whatever uses the same account scheme ID creating process.

[Mit]

There's a lot to all this.
There's much I don't want to talk about on the public-ish forums and there's various bits we still need to work out.

As has been recognised, this area is a pretty fundamental one, particularly given the current setup. The current setup is - somewhat deliberately - lax in this area. (As an example, prior to this revision, barter didnt have a give cash option. Of course that was just a minor inconvenience and in the old days players used to get round it by trading valuable items or property between alts/multis for low prices, and sometimes we'd detect those at Mod level.. but yeh, cheaters will always find a way).
I know this kind of abuse can sometimes take out much of the incentive in playing the world properly, and apologise for that.

It is high on my list to address, but it will take some time and, as discussed, may involve some fundamental changes to the way the game works. Its possible a reset or new world will be required before we get to grips with it, and then some people who have been abusing the system may end up losing out.

Right now, however, I've got so many other things to look at and fix that I will be concentrating on those first.