He's Asian, which means he has mad computer h4x0rz skyllz.

I found his profile... 3 wins and, uh, what was it... 55ish defeats, with zero wins??? Something is fishy here...

3 survives*

It looks like he's started a number of games that haven't actually begun yet, but that don't appear on the Joinable Games link. My best guess is that he probably creates password-protected games, then enters some game that he knows he will lose quickly and then the system returns his points to 100. Afterward, when nobody joins the game he created, he will have his entire starting bet returned to him.

Would that be sufficient to artificially inflate someone's point status by such a large amount so quickly?

If you assumed that he bet all his points minus 2 or 3 (or even 1!) to take over a country in CD that has been dislodged and about to lose in a few hours, it could take him just 13 games to accrue 1287 (13 * 99, assuming maximum gain of 100 points minus 1 for the bet). If he was particularly lucky and games with hopeless CD countries were abundant enough, I figure it would take the better part of 2 weeks. (Anywhere between 3 to 5 Diplomatic years in the game alealeale is playing with him). I have assumed that a Diplomatic year can take 3 to 5 days to last depending on whether retreats are needed.

i takes games civil disorders use start 100 point. lose each game win 100 points. open private games no one plays regain points. will accumulate 10,000 point by the end of month ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

feckless clod teach me how do this.

i plan set up 100,000 pot winner take all game by this week. anyone interest?

winner become qing shi hwang champions of worlds!

Okay, at the post can we SERIOUSLY change the point system? I understand the idea of the point system was not to truly judge skill, but when it is this easy to accumulate points without even playing in games? Why do you "win" 100 points when you lose a game? It doesn't make any sense in any logic, whatsoever.

Oh noes! I have become death. :(
I was only trying to warn you all that this would happen....

you is true idiot.

i takes games civil disorders use start 100 point until me 0 point.

however lose 1 game points reset 100 points.

i open private games with passwords with 100 point.

no account join and i take back 100 point later. before 100 point get back lose another games reset 100 point.

next time open 200 point private game. now i open 1500 point private game. next week open 10,000 point private game.

i is genius. you people no brain think.

no need be rait. use me method all get 10000 point. my program gets most point. me win.

ha ha me wins another 100 point

Qing, we really don't care to hear you gibber is terrible English, nor do we care that you will soon have 10000 points, because you have proven that points are meaningless. What do you plan to do with them, buy a car? Guess what, you can't! Now, let's talk about a real point system.

i assumes "we really don't care to hear you gibber is terrible English" is good english usages?

I believe the terrible English is a ploy. Qing Shi Hwang isn't nearly as stupid as he appears to be. Nobody is.

I think it was a lot quicker and easier for me to remove those 1400 points than it was for him to collect them :-|

I'll fix this bug soon, this isn't a problem with the points system itself. It'll also be simple to check the amount people have against the amount they've won and determine who has cheated the system (assuming this wasn't a one off), and reduce the appropriate amount of points from cheaters' accounts

Glad to hear it. However, anybody who's ever been bumped to 100 points while >1 point was still in play can be said to have cheated the system, albeit inadvertently. I don't think that makes us all cheats.... it's just an inevitable result of the bug. You'll probably find that some people still have a high points total from winning/surviving games that they'd never otherwise have been able to play, and that others will be going into minus figures.... until bumped back to 100, of course....

Everyone knew how to do this.

Awesome, that idiot got his points jacked.

A-MAZING.

Haha idoit...

But serious, as soon as Feckless posted a step-by-step guide on how to do this it was bound to happen. I'm sure it was still happening, but the person had to at least be clever enough to figure it out on his own.

He's still got 210 points invested in password protected games that no-one knows the password to. One of those games is called "don't join".

I deliberately left out the the detail about creating password protected games, but it wasn't hard to work out. I worked it out, and I'm a feckless clod....

Good eye, alealeale.

It's not the fault of the point system, just the fault of the current method of reimbursement. I think a simple modification to that will solve the problem.

It would work without password protected games as well, that simply makes it less obvious.

And I'm with Ghostmaker, this isn't especially complicated.

ps way to go Kestas!
that should be quite discouraging for those who think they can accumilate massive amounts of point by this process

I'm not sure how to tackle password protected games actually, whether or not they should be allowed to trade points. For games among friends where everyone puts in 100 it seems bad, but for private games where people just want to have a game involving certain people I don't see why not.
It'd be annoying for mods to need to watch for exploitative games on a case by case basis

Well, I think these ones are rather obvious, because they don't start.
A little check that a player has less than 100 points _total_ before paying them back would solve this issue.
As for modorating, before players could do any real damage I'm sure they would be found. Very few people put in enough time to do a "decent" job on it, and if they do yes it would be very hard to catch, but still could be and would take so long for them that when they were caught (which would happen) they'd not have enough time to do it again.
Also, there are enough people who watch their ranking and what goes on around them to catch anyone who's jumping across suspiciously.

......too bad Qing...you messed up!
next time don't be so obvious.

Kestas, since you were so fast in removing Qing from the Hall of Fame, do you mind looking at (RTC) Lt. Crackers too? I think this is the fifth time someone's mentioned this cheater... Please...

referring to Feckless Clod about his theory of the intelligence of homo sapiens and the general appearance of the being.
People aren't as stupid as they look. They are even more stupid than they look.
(unless they aren't stupid...which is not natural)

It's all relative. As mammals go, humans are actually pretty smart. If you're even slightly above average intelligence, then most people will appear to be at least slightly stupid from your perspective, but that doesn't mean that they are.

They're all completely nuts, though....

technically you dont even need to be above average to think people are less intelligent than you. you only need to exist in a community where you only are exposed to people that are usually less intelligent than you. Essentially, you can be stupid compared to the whole, yet intelligent compared to the subset. This also works the other way, so that a smart person compared against the whole seems seems stupid compared to the intelligent subset that they are compared against.

the basic rule is intelligence is attribute that is measured by its relation to the group it is compared against.

Qing, as well as others who wish to pursue his path, is comparatively stupid because he fails to realize that points are meaningless seperate from a players win and loss percentages. Additionally, as we have talked about ad nauseum, it causes inflation and no real change in rank, only temporary flux.

oh, and kestas is awesome for his quick action against ne'er-do-well.

I was aware of this bug, and was surprised no one had used it. I just assumed that it was an honors-system kind of thing and kept playing. Glad it's getting fixed!

yeah i have to say Qing, a 78% defeated record is .....quite possibly the WORSE on this site.
enjoy your dip points Mr 78%

it's very easy to solve this all without a complex system. just give players a button named reset to default which resets you to 100 points after checking to make sure that you are below 100

Alternatively, you could just keep track of a hidden variable that adds your visible points to the bet you've invested in all your games, and wait until that total gets to zero before doing the reset.

I just won a game for 472 points, and made the hall of fame. I'm not bragging, I just thought I'd complain before anyone else does....

just after the game ended I assassinated you and took your place as ruler of the world. then bought an assassin proof car to drive to my assassin proof house and make love to my not assassin wife

I win!!!

How come I'm still posting, then?

Supporting Turkey to Naples would have been a better idea....

you are his ghost.

I tried that, but turkey was pretty far up your ass.

QSH has his 210 points back. If you want a realistic Hall of Fame, someone should do the maths and dock my points too, before I catch up with Lt. Crackers.

No offence here, but Qing Shi Hwang or whatever his name is is a complete moron who can't even play this game.
Let him use the system as much as he likes, I have been in a game with him, he is a useless player so let him have his moment of 'brilliance' by cheating at a game he cannot play properly....dunno who else is effected by this, just let him get his points then delete his account....
He gains nothing, we don't get bothered at all.

Idiots are just idiots basically.

yes Qing Shi Hwang, if you start any new games please post the link here . We would all love a bit of easy meat to practice some different tactics without any danger of actually losing.

Qing Shi Hwang as England.
London move to North Sea.
Edinburgh move to North Sea.
Liverpool move to Edinburgh.
Then he says, shit. I must have made the wrong orders.
It turned out that his banker bribed the units with those cheated points.