Tactical Cheating

I am getting royally fed-up , as I'm sure we all are, of people either activating tactics just before a zerg arrives or, as I saw today, activating an EWP while the enemy zerg is literally standing on it ready. Now either of these can be ascribed to new players experimenting or panicking but honestly I think at least 50% of the time it's deliberate cheating (today's EWP murder bomb was pulled by a character with a German name ... and we're facing two German servers so while not 100% it's looking quite likely). I'm not pointing fingers here, I don't doubt there's bad apples from every server (even Piken Square) doing this and I think we need some safeguards to try to prevent it happening.

If you're in the mood for suggestions, how about making tactics unusable by transferred accounts for two weeks after transfer? Locking tactics away from free accounts? Or even putting tactics activation on a WvW skill tree? Frankly any measure to prevent either accidental or deliberate misuse of tactics would be welcome at this point.

Maybe needing a certain rank before you can activate? That way ppl can just roll new accounts (via f2p) and just be able to troll

I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

@DemonSeed.3528 said:I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

but if you require a rank 500-1000 to activate public tactics you make sure is not an alt account. At least they will have had put some hours into it and know the community they are trolling.

@anduriell.6280 said:

@DemonSeed.3528 said:I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

True, but have you seen those dedicated trolls? They travel far and wide to do what they love doing lol.

@DemonSeed.3528 said:

True, but have you seen those dedicated trolls? They travel far and wide to do what they love doing lol.

I would like to test their dedication though, make it as hard as possible for them ... get rid of the casual trolls.

I still would like them to implement something I suggested a long time ago:

** Nickname has pulled EWP@location_Map EWP_link

And have this broadcasted into /t. At the very least it can alert people to individuals who keep doing it and proceed to take tactics off public activation as long as they are around. This also helps with newer people or people who aren't fast or adept at pasting the ewp link into /t and waste precious time needed to load into the map. Imo, the added 10s to ewp time was not enough of a fix since it still sends people to spawn, it needs a guaranteed teleport unless the objective flipped and then it will send them to spawn.

This topic has come up numerous times and Anet just plain doesnt give a kitten. Misuse of tactics/supplies and spying in TS or Discord is a normal part of WvW as far as they are concerned.

Had someone trolling tactics and supply on a server I was on a while back. I am talking 6+ hours a day, non stopped, every BL and EBG. Would pull every tactic and drain every bit of supply, even build siege outside of towers because it was siege capped. Reported them, along with many other people, sent in videos of them doing it, called them out in team chat and they respond and ADMIT to doing it to troll and tank the server in chat....Sent in to anet......2 weeks later they are still at it, same account. When you talked to them, they would scream in team chat for anet to ban them, over and over again in a mocking way, probably because this was not the first time they have done it and they knew nothing would happen to them, it was a higher rank account, with 4 legendary that I could see, so not a new troll account for sure.

By the second week, we probably had half the normal players in wvw because of one person, nothing was defendable, as everything was siege capped or no supply, we capped stuff back at night, as when I would log in before work we had most of our stuff back and full supply, from what other guild members told me, about two hours after I go to work, this person would show up, and would stay at it till well after I got off work.

@TinkTinkPOOF.9201 said:Had someone trolling tactics and supply on a server I was on a while back. I am talking 6+ hours a day, non stopped, every BL and EBG. Would pull every tactic and drain every bit of supply, even build siege outside of towers because it was siege capped. Reported them, along with many other people, sent in videos of them doing it, called them out in team chat and they respond and ADMIT to doing it to troll and tank the server in chat....Sent in to anet......2 weeks later they are still at it, same account. When you talked to them, they would scream in team chat for anet to ban them, over and over again in a mocking way, probably because this was not the first time they have done it and they knew nothing would happen to them, it was a higher rank account, with 4 legendary that I could see, so not a new troll account for sure.

By the second week, we probably had half the normal players in wvw because of one person, nothing was defendable, as everything was siege capped or no supply, we capped stuff back at night, as when I would log in before work we had most of our stuff back and full supply, from what other guild members told me, about two hours after I go to work, this person would show up, and would stay at it till well after I got off work.

I think I know who you speak of. Is that asura back already? Thought he was missing in like last 1-2 weeks.

there is nothing wrong with activating a public tactivatorAlso a-net will not do anything about it , they are ignorant

This topic has been beat in to the ground for years. Of the last 3 months of matchups, Mag is still the worst offender. X and his super ktrain blob, facing outnumbered maps all morning, yet still trolls the tactics 1 minute before his ktrain flips everything. It's sad and pathetic, but Anet doesn't care.

@anduriell.6280 said:

@DemonSeed.3528 said:I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

My alt account is over rank 2000.

Could'nt they just make it so the guilds that claim the places choose who can use them instead of linking them to a rank? Not saying they make it so you have to be in that guild to use them since they may not always be on. Dunno just a thought.

@Celsith.2753 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@DemonSeed.3528 said:I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

DEPLOY THE AIR BOATS

Tactics are like siege. They're not supposed to stop a zerg. They're supposed to slow it down.

In the case of a EWP, it's a little different. Still, you should confirm the status of the objective before taking it. A lot of people use EWP's improperly by pulling them after a zerg is already on top of it, as you've stated, but it isn't often a troll. Just a new player, or an ignorant one. Trolls usually pull them at random.

Regardless, they're fine as is. Players need to stop relying on walls, upgrades and siege and start playing the game. 5 might not be able to wipe 50 but you'd be surprised the kind of damage you can cause them if you play strategically. I do it by myself all the time and I see other small co-ordinated groups doing it better as well. Outnumbered does not = helpless.

Also, letting trolls bother you is the surest way to make them do it more. "Don't feed the trolls."

@"Cyfur.3281" said:Could'nt they just make it so the guilds that claim the places choose who can use them instead of linking them to a rank? Not saying they make it so you have to be in that guild to use them since they may not always be on. Dunno just a thought.

You kind of answered your own question. If they link it to the guild that claimed the keep, what happens when nobody from the guild is online or on that map? Then nobody can activate it.

The only real fix to this is:1- Pulling Tactics requires WvW skill points, as suggested by the OP. This prevents brand new players from "oh what does this do"2- If a player transfers servers, they cannot activate tactics until the next server re-link (3 months?)

@shortcake.8659 said:

@Celsith.2753 said:

@anduriell.6280 said:

@DemonSeed.3528 said:I don't think f2p is the issue as long as alt accounts can be made with legit accounts too.

Don't forget to release the CHILLING FROG.

Anyway I see the thinking behind putting a level cap on pulling tactics, it's just not going to stop established alts from carrying on if theyre so inclined. And in the meantime it alienates new players trying wvw, who are basically told theyre none people til they rank up. Not a good introduction.

Sure it's annoying when a tactic is on cooldown but to say it makes all your things undefendable is a bit dramatic. Pre-hot these things didnt exist you know. The best way to deal with it is to just learn to defend actively and use them as a tool to supplement that if theyre available. Stop using them as crutches :/ And never cry about it in chat, you arent going to make the troll stop by doing that, youre just encouraging them to continue.

put tactics far from supplies.

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Cyfur.3281" said:Could'nt they just make it so the guilds that claim the places choose who can use them instead of linking them to a rank? Not saying they make it so you have to be in that guild to use them since they may not always be on. Dunno just a thought.

Yea, I was mostly just putting the idea out there. I was thinking more along the lines of giving the guilds more control through maybe a list of accepted ppl to pull for the base even if the person isnt in the guild. So basically they could add as many ppl they feel are trustworthy as they wanted. I kinda feel like that seems better than locking out because of level, especially since they are gonna be shifting WvW to be more guild oriented instead of server anyways. If they make it level based a person that is in the guild even who is under that level would'nt be able to pull even if they were told to. Sorry about the wall of text lol.

Another way to limit this say on EWP. Structure not contested? Can't pull EWP then. That alone would keep 90% of the EWP spamming out.

Banners? Put a player ICD (15mins) on how often you can pick one up, so even if the troll pulls the banner tactic, they can't destroy it and it's there for someone else to pick up and use. And by the time their ICD is back up, that way they can only troll one tactic at a time.

Chilling fog, or air defense etc? Require there to be enemy inside the structure.

Invulnerable Fortifications? Require the structure to be taking siege dmg in the last 5mins or so.

I mean just spit balling here, not perfect, but it's something, and doesn't lock out people from learning and enjoying all of wvw until they hit a given rank.

Actually if you add f.e. only a few people to use the tactics what happens if they are offline like in the night/ early morning. We also have some people pulling tactics but often it are new players that dont know what it is. There are only a few server when the ewp was pulled you know there might be a blob coming.The idwa with ewp/ invul only when infight or fog when enemys inside would be nice. Or sup drop only when the sups would fit in and it is not full already. We have many new players that dont get into ts especially after the last wxp event so many newbies. Maybe there should be a warning message for the first 3 times or so when someone pull a tactic? So it just happens by unexperented players?

Im from dzago and i have newer heard that someone says oh ive pulled the tactics from them. Only thing ive heard was that soneone checked of big queues the enemy has

@TinkTinkPOOF.9201 said:Another way to limit this say on EWP. Structure not contested? Can't pull EWP then. That alone would keep 90% of the EWP spamming out.Chilling fog, or air defense etc? Require there to be enemy inside the structure.Invulnerable Fortifications? Require the structure to be taking siege dmg in the last 5mins or so.All reasonable suggestions. For me personally I would like chiling fog or air defense only pulled when enemies breach inner, but it's fine as long as only enemies are inside. I hope your suggestions are considered by Anet.

@metalTiffy.7106 said:Or sup drop only when the sups would fit in and it is not full already.

I thought this was how it normally works from before to prevent pulls to waste it? Try pulling it when there is less than 80 supps from full. If it's not implemented that is weird because over the last two years I always remembered it didn't let you pull if it would go over cap, like you had 1090/1100. Maybe I remembered wrongly. If it doesn't work like that they should put it in.

@Rayya.2591 said:there is nothing wrong with activating a public tactivatorAlso a-net will not do anything about it , they are ignorant

Found the spy

A simple fix is to only have guild members of the same guild who deployed the tactics/claimed the objective be able to activate them (since the guilds that claim the objective is more likely to be online then the guilds that do not). Another rule is to only have Veteran's and above be able to activate tactics. After Level 100 WvW you are guaranteed to not pull them on accident since you have enough experience to not do something stupid. As for preventing deliberate pre-pulls/cheat spy pulls, that is hard to prevent, but I would like to suggest these things to everyone to increase their situational awareness so as to not have to always rely on the deployable tactics:

• Keep scouting, reporting zerg information and whereabouts. When you scout Zerg call on the /team chat so that you can increase the likelihood and number of respondents.
• If you are a commander, please prioritize defending higher objectives as opposed to lower tiered ones. I.E. defend your T3 tower, instead of a 0 tier SMC, that SMC can be taken again later, while you don't have to wait for 100+ yaks to get another T3 tower.
• Do not give in to personal revenge against someone who kills you over and over, you will be a useless ally when numbers are needed for bigger fights. I mean that if you roam for revenge when you could be joining a team-battle for a critical objective, it would not help the team.
• Play in groups when roaming, only solo when you can last a long time in fights, the longer you last a fight the more likely an ally will be in an area to notice the duel and help you out (this goes both ways for friends and enemies).

I'm not an expert in WvW but these are basics that can help out the team win rounds and have you relaxed and satisfied to enjoy the game type!