Put an end to automated jewel accrual

[rasqual]

As I key this in, I'm automatically accumulating jewels.

Here's an easy way to kill this. Never accept the same corner points from the same account for the same city. That way zoomed-in snapshots, which would be the same each time around on an iterating tour, would only work the first time.

Another way to do this might be to leverage Google's databases. Although it's a bit absurd to think of building armies this way, I can't imagine why you couldn't search, on the server side, for hot dog stands around the world, and send people to these, randomly. Why should the "jewels" be only in the cities of interest for conquest?

Come to think of it, building armies from hot dog stands isn't much odder than doing so with 5 jewels. ;-)

Seriously, just send us all to some random business, national park, or whatever, culled from Google's locals. Until Google doesn't like server-side heavy traffic, I suppose.

[cheakerdoodels]

Didnt you read the first post.

"If you come across a bug or a glitch, please report it to us right away. If you discover a way to cheat the system, please don't exploit it. Let us know about it, we will fix the hole, and we will give you a nice number of jewels in return. If you are caught exploiting a glitch for your own gain, you will be banned from the game."

So no cheating.

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by cheakerdoodels

Never accept the same corner points from the same account for the same city.

I knew this would potentially be a problem, but hadn't considered that solution. I'll get that implemented shortly.

[freakybarry]

rasqual, quite exploiting it!!

storming about liek that kills the fun for the rest of us...

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by freakybarry

rasqual, quite exploiting it!!

Agreed. Thank you for pointing out the hole, as well as posting a great way to fix it, but please don't take advantage of these things when you find them.

That being said, the patch is in place, so it SHOULD be fixed. Let me know what you find.

[rasqual]

LOL

I'm hoping the sysop will be a bit tolerant of "demonstrative" exploitation here and there -- at least, when a user takes pains to mention the method first. ;-)

I'm curious what people actually DO to accrue jewels. Frantically click about? What? There's something frightfully boring about clicking about a few cities. Either that or frightfully frantic. ;-)

I'll be trying to exploit the system, still, but I'll be communicating as I go. I promise to lay off the frenetic conquering.

Hint: Link a web query in Excel, then code for detecting when you don't occupy a city. Do a lookup on the ID of the city to form a get method equivalent of the post method currently in use (or code for the post), and take n + 20% armies into battle -- programmatically. If you refresh your query every five minutes, you'd basically be re-conquering lost territory automatically, perpetually.

Am *I* going to do that? Don't have time. But if I had an obsession with a favorite city . . . .

Say, OK -- here's a feature request. How about a way for us to introduce our OWN favorite cities. We get to come in with strength -- let's say we introduce a city and that automatically entitles us to occupy it from the get-go with some proportion of armies statistically related to the average number of armies per user somehow jiggered with our own overall standing minus the hypotenuse of something or other . . .

Seriously. The Mongols didn't get sysoped into existence, they just came over the mountains and everyone said "whoa!" ;-D

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by rasqual

I'm hoping the sysop will be a bit tolerant of "demonstrative" exploitation here and there -- at least, when a user takes pains to mention the method first.

Not only will I be tolerant of it, I encourage it (to some degree). I'd rather have someone like you find a new exploit (and report it) than have some random user find one and just start quietly raking in the jewels.

I'm curious what people actually DO to accrue jewels. Frantically click about? What? There's something frightfully boring about clicking about a few cities.

The script should be telling you where to go next. Just keep flying around to each city that it tells you to fly to. I agree that it's rather boring. I'm hoping to add some other resource-gathering options in the near future.

I'll be trying to exploit the system, still, but I'll be communicating as I go.

Perfect.

I promise to lay off the frenetic conquering.

Please.

... Am *I* going to do that? Don't have time. But if I had an obsession with a favorite city . . . .

Any thoughts on how I could prevent that from happening?

Say, OK -- here's a feature request. How about a way for us to introduce our OWN favorite cities.

Given the whole "value" system, I'm fine with adding any new city to the world. Really, the only restriction I have is that I don't want to have city polygons overlapping, so it can't be too close to a big city. If you want one, just start a thread with your request.

Thanks,
Mickey

[Appletom]

I'm with rasqual - it is much more fun to figure out how to cheat than it is to actually play the game :-)

Right now I have placed three placemarks at 50~60 miles above each city, then I am running a tour. Granted if my next jewel is in Tulsa and Tulsa is 20 cities down on the list, it will be awhile before the next jewel is found, but it seems to collect jewels slowly but steadily. (three placemarks are needed to get around the "It appears you are using a script, please move a little bit so we know you are a human" notice.)

The next hack I want to try is replacing the GEHwar - Jewel Hunting! kmz file with one that places about 1,000 jewels in a single area - then I will create another kmz that moves a couple of feet and loop that file on a tour. That could collect about thirty jewels a minute.

Since GEHwar is still in a beta stage, I vote that cheaters be allowed to collect jewels, buy armies, take over the world, then announce the method they used to do it - IMHO, much more fun that actually playing the game. Once Mickey fixes it, we can try again.

My method mentioned in the second paragraph has stopped working while I was typing :-(

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Appletom

The next hack I want to try is replacing the GEHwar - Jewel Hunting! kmz file with one that places about 1,000 jewels in a single area - then I will create another kmz that moves a couple of feet and loop that file on a tour. That could collect about thirty jewels a minute.

I'd be very curious as to how you could "place jewels" on the map in a way that our system would give you credit for them. I'd be quite impressed. See what you can do!

[Appletom]

Originally Posted by Mickey

I'd be very curious as to how you could "place jewels" on the map in a way that our system would give you credit for them. I'd be quite impressed. See what you can do!

I just discovered that the kmz file contacts the Mother Ship (http://www.googleearthhacks.com/war645887939/) each time and it is the Mother Ship, not the kmz file, that is in charge of hatching jewels.

This one will take quite a bit of pondering. But gosh, this is so much more fun than work - which I had better get back to NOW if I want to keep my business open and profitable. Here is my mantra for the day:

I do not have time for GEarth...
I do not have time for GEH...
I do not have time for GEHwar.

I do not have time for GEarth...
I do not have time for GEH...
I do not have time for GEHwar.

I do not have time for GEarth...
I do not have time for GEH...
I do not have time for GEHwar.

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Appletom

I just discovered that the kmz file contacts the Mother Ship (http://www.googleearthhacks.com/war645887939/) each time and it is the Mother Ship, not the kmz file, that is in charge of hatching jewels.

I'll give a hint to help you out, as I'm sure someone will figure it out eventually.

The long number in the URL is your "security token", which you can reset inside the game. It's simply how I know who you are, so when GE tells me where you are, I can reference that number and tell who you are.

I still don't think that will help you hack it, but that's the basics.

[RevDanCatt]

Here's an easy way to kill this. Never accept the same corner points from the same account for the same city. That way zoomed-in snapshots, which would be the same each time around on an iterating tour, would only work the first time.

Well you can get round that by making a snapshot for each location, saving the KML file. Looking at it, and then writing some code to write out the file but slightly randomizing the snapshot lat/long settings. Setting up a network link to load in the file locally and then doing a tour over that file.

That would be very hard to programically check for, as you wouldn't be able to tell the differance between automation and manual clicking.

I'm using a more streamlined version of that at the moment (Mickey you'll see it in your log files) and putting all the troops on London, ultimatly doomed as it costs 50 Jewels to put 10 armies in and only 40 to kill them, overall a loosing battle.

But more fun that invading everywhere else, offers more of a challenge for other people to take it down and besides I want to see how tall I can get the cuboid over London, before I get them all taken off me

Micky I have an idea which may help, I'll email you about it.

Dan

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by RevDanCatt

Well you can get round that by making a snapshot for each location, saving the KML file. Looking at it, and then writing some code to write out the file but slightly randomizing the snapshot lat/long settings. Setting up a network link to load in the file locally and then doing a tour over that file.

They key is that you'll constantly have to update that file as new cities are added to the map. In addition, the script will get less and less effective, as it will have less chance of finding the correct city quickly and will have to fly to more "incorrect" cities first. I'm trying to make it where simply doing the work yourself is a much better use of time, but I'd love to hear about any automated techniques you come up with.

That would be very hard to programically check for, as you wouldn't be able to tell the differance between automation and manual clicking.

Very true.

But more fun that invading everywhere else, offers more of a challenge for other people to take it down and besides I want to see how tall I can get the cuboid over London, before I get them all taken off me

I just noticed the HUGE cube over there. Very nice.