TC3 testing results - anti bot measures

[Guest]

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Cap is back, havent been able to earn anything for two days.

Spent:
7k on custom uploads

Current balance: 143

Chalkboards with max logic and max people: 1
Robot factory level 10: 1 per robot


Service lot: closed, can't even earn 400 to hire the repairman

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My friend earned 800-900 just today at the factory, and has steadily been earning since they relaxed the cap last weekend, so far she's at between 8k-9k. When did you spend the 7k in uploading custom content, and how long did it take you to earn that 7k? I wonder if it could be that it takes a little while for your pool to be replenished, or you could have a bug.....or, is this a free player account? Maybe they relaxed the cap for paid accounts and not for free ones? That actually makes the most sense since what they want is players who are not paying for the game to do so through the ATM. When things return back to normal for me I've got two accounts I can test this on.....one free and one paid and I'll run testing on both of them. The more I think about it the more I realize that's what they might have done.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

Cap is back, havent been able to earn anything for two days.

Spent:
7k on custom uploads

Current balance: 143

Chalkboards with max logic and max people: 1
Robot factory level 10: 1 per robot


Service lot: closed, can't even earn 400 to hire the repairman

[/ QUOTE ]
My friend earned 800-900 just today at the factory, and has steadily been earning since they relaxed the cap last weekend, so far she's at between 8k-9k. When did you spend the 7k in uploading custom content, and how long did it take you to earn that 7k? I wonder if it could be that it takes a little while for your pool to be replenished, or you could have a bug.....or, is this a free player account? Maybe they relaxed the cap for paid accounts and not for free ones? That actually makes the most sense since what they want is players who are not paying for the game to do so through the ATM. When things return back to normal for me I've got two accounts I can test this on.....one free and one paid and I'll run testing on both of them. The more I think about it the more I realize that's what they might have done.



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Good questions, I was spending that during the time that the cap was taking hold. I was working in the factory and one person I was working with was already getting 1 per robot. She owns a shop and spends every penny on new stock, I was saving so didn't at that time spend anything and I was getting the full amount.


Then I spent 7k on custom content and now i'm back to zero earnings

Ok doing the math re cash back: which is what this is all about, bots do not affect an imaginary economy at all as people like to think they do unless it is imposed by the company that runs the game:

you pay $10 per month
lets be generous and say EA will give back $1 to you, so your subscription is only $9:

Thats $0.29 per day on average

which is 32 simoleans a day
224 a week

if cash back is implemented then this is where it will end

 

[DGLita]

Im still testing the cap in TC3, my balance now is $9953 and ive just finished a shift at the bot factory. On 1 round it said I had earned $180 and I got $187, on another round it said $192 and I got $199

The only money I have spent since making this sim was approx $50 that I put in tip jars. There was one guy at the factory who said he was only getting between $3 and $5 per round. He had spent all his money at a store (so that doesnt help him) and all he has now is about $25. I asked him how much money he had before he spent it and he said $1000, so that doesnt sound right, so im not sure if he was making it up or not

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Im still testing the cap in TC3, my balance now is $9953 and ive just finished a shift at the bot factory. On 1 round it said I had earned $180 and I got $187, on another round it said $192 and I got $199

The only money I have spent since making this sim was approx $50 that I put in tip jars. There was one guy at the factory who said he was only getting between $3 and $5 per round. He had spent all his money at a store (so that doesnt help him) and all he has now is about $25. I asked him how much money he had before he spent it and he said $1000, so that doesnt sound right, so im not sure if he was making it up or not

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Yep the current system seems to award 1 simolean per robot completed on top of the advertised earnings. Over time the bonus decreases and then once the bonus is gone the wages crash.

 

[DGLita]

My balance had hit $13165 when i noticed i was making just $1 from boards instead of the expected $50.

I then bought a property for £5370, then went back to making boards and was making the correct amount again. so from this we can see that the cap is around $10k to $13k.

I say $10k to $13k because I was on about $3k when they 'relaxed' the limit, so it might not have taken into account the 3k I already had. But at least we know now where the limit is at the moment.

Stupidly, I bought my property (cost $5370) before i tested whether the job track woudl still pay out despite hitting the cap. So now I have to earn that money back again to test that out..duh..

BTW this is a free account I am testing this on

 

[Guest]

Ok from only have 100 simoleans I stayed logged off. Login once a day, do one chalkboard see it's still only 1 with maxed logic and log off again.

Today I do the same and chalkboards are paying the full amount suddenly. This could be the weekly increment. Wednesdays seems to be the start of the week around here

So I'm going to continue earning with no spending at shops, just tipping and see when it crashes again.

 

[Guest]

so yeah, i noticed the caps were back..logged in today with a money balance of $2464, went to work....earned money for 2 rounds, then last 2 rounds i only earned $1, which left me with a total of $3226. I don't understand..there were no updates this week..so why the caps back?

 

[DGLita]

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so yeah, i noticed the caps were back..logged in today with a money balance of $2464, went to work....earned money for 2 rounds, then last 2 rounds i only earned $1, which left me with a total of $3226. I don't understand..there were no updates this week..so why the caps back?

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The problem is that you have probably spent money in a store, this does not replenish your earnings pool.

The cap is around 10k to 13k as my testing has proved this week. I have been careful to only spend money that goes directly back to EA and I am still earning even tho my balance is now $16,927.

The reason I have been able to earn over the cap limit is because I made 2 stupid mistakes (stupid as in my intended gameplay plan) well maybe not entirely stupid. I will explain.

When my balance reached approx $13,165 I found I could not longer earn more than $1 on a board. I then spent about $5800 on a property and immediately I could then earn the correct amount on boards and job track. I then made a bad decision by making the house residential, as i should have made it a store to test if buying new stock direct from EA released any of the earnings pool.

So i then brought in another sim who had money on her, transferred the property to the new sim and got the new sim to hand back the 5800 that i paid for the property. I then went and bought another property for 5800. This meant that I had then spent 2 lots of 5800 to EA buying 2 properties.

Remember, the 5800 given to me by the other sim does not add or subtract from the earnings pool, but having spent 2 lots of 5800 buying properties DOES credit the pool, releasing potentially 11,600 that I could then go and earn again.

However having tested this for almost 2 weeks now, and seeing the impact of the $3k limit pool and the 'relaxed' 10k/13k limit pool, I have come to the conclusion that it makes little difference and that EA need to do their sums again.

The bottom line is, this simply isnt going to work. It doesnt matter whether the pool is 3k or 10k, once you hit that limit, you will NOT earn any more until you spend money back to EA, <font color="red"> and that means anything you spend in a store will not help you earn anymore money </font> It has to be spent directly back to EA, which includes buying a property, expanding a property, building a house. Now all these things will help you go out and earn again, but what happens once you have your size 8 lot with your nicely designed and decorated house.

You want to buy stuff to put in it. Which means going to a store.

And herein lies the problem. Up till now you have earned and spent directly back to EA buying expanding and building your property , and each of these actions have allowed you to go out and earn more money. But once your house is completed, you need to furnish it.

Lets say you have just finished building your house and you have spent every last simolean you had. You go out and earn more money until you hit your cap again. Lets be generous and say the cap is $13k, so you have $13k to spend.

You go buy beds furniture cooking stuff and so on until you have spent your money. But 13k doesnt go that far and you are still short of putting the objects in your house you need, such as money items, or skill items.

None of the money you have spent at the stores you visited credit anything back into your earnings pool. You have a half finished house, no money and because your earnings pool hasnt been credited you now CANNOT earn any more money until next week when EA will credit your pool with 500.

And thats it, all you can earn from now on is 500 per week. All your hard work earning money to build your house, all the time you spent doing it, and now you come to a stand still.

So what can you do? Well in TC3 there is a workround, you make new free accounts, you send your new free accounts sims to get a little bit of skilll, and then get them earning money for you. Hit the earnings cap on that one? No prob, make another.

In fact, why not make a few free accounts now and get them skilling while your main sim is out earning money. By the time your main account cannot earn anymore money your additional free accouns will be nicely skilled up to take over the earnings, freeing up your main sim to go and have a party

Im pretty sure this NOT what EA are trying to achieve, and this is why that HAVE TO RETHINK this whole mad idea

 

[Guest]

Great post DGLita, and well done with your tests.
I had an idea that only money that goes back to EA would contribute to our pools.
If they allowed items purchased from stores including CC it opens the door to a get around.
They may hike the 500 weekly credit up to 1000, but I can't see them going any higher than that.
So I to see real problems with the system they have come up with as you have pointed out.
I think the devs have it in their heads that they cannot stop botters.
I also think they have woken up that even without botting there are ways that people could take advantage of the cash out feature when it comes in.
Having said that though, I do feel that if they did stop botting, they could raise the weekly credit a fair bit higher and take only a small loss on people sitting at there computer doing bot like activities.
After all who will sit at their computer to make say 50 cents an hour.
So they could let us continue to make atleast 500 an hour instead of a week.
If botting did continue though, that 50 cents an hour could be done multiple times, in the hundreds by one person, so botting still remains the main problem.
If they do introduce their system into EALand even with slightly raised pool and weekly contribution, the restrictions on the abilities to furnish our houses will take a lot away from the game.
This is something I think the devs need to put a lot more thought into as it could ruin the game.

 

[Guest]

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After all who will sit at their computer to make say 50 cents an hour.

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I imagine a lot of people would. The first group that springs to mind is children that do not have another earning capacity.

The second group would be anyone who has the average work day free to play (and there are plenty of those). That would amount to $1,000 a year with an investment of $120 for the account. Better than a savings account

Lastly checkout the minimum wage in some countries. Those under $2,000 per anum and that 50 cents is pretty close to what some people actually earn in real life. Admittedly access to computers and the internet is going to be less prevalent.

On a related note a whole country was blacklisted in another game that is free to play with cash in and cash out.