Cheat scripts for Linden Realms

[Lexia Moonstone]

I've been playing Linden Realms since it came out, I think it's a really important place for new SL residents to make some L$ to help develop their avatar so that they might stay a bit longer and hopefully get into SL, even Rodvick is concerned about new resident retention. 

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/rodvik-linden-asks-a-question/td-p/1581831

For new residents it's all so a place where there is actually some thing to do.  But there are many people now using scripts to cheat, I'm not talking about fly over ride or click to teleport both which are built in to most viewers, but scripts that scan for crystals (by object or script name likely) and then move the avatar from crystal to crystal so fast that they can clear a sim of all its crystals in seconds.

Linden Labs has done nothing to stop these people, ARs are ignored.  I don't have a premium account so have no way to submit a ticket and Rodvick had stopped responding to the link above before I saw it.  I Think this is a real issue that is extremely frustrating to many people special new residents who are just likely to give up on SL all together. 

May be some one has a better suggestion on how to deal with this, but if LL won't or can't do anything about it,  if some were to make an open source free script that allowed every one to cheat on equal terms them may be LL would have to do some thing about it, or it would at least making cheating not profitable any more for those who are ruining it for ever one else.  Like I said may be some one that knows more about script and how SL works will have a better idea of how to deal with this.

 

 

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement.

[Lexia Moonstone]

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Linden-Realms-Frequently-Asked-Questions/ta-p/1057471

"You will be teleported automatically out of Linden Realms if you perform an action not intended to occur within the experience.  Linden Realms requires the Linden Realms HUD, along with flight and teleport being disabled. If the HUD is detached, or if your avatar manages to teleport or fly within Linden Realms, the region will automatically teleport you to your home. This is done to ensure that the Linden Realms experience continues to operate within the intended design."

"How do I report griefing/camping/cheating?

Linden Realms is subject to the same rules, regulations, and guidelines as the rest of Second Life.  In the Second Life Viewer, choose Help > Report Abuse to report abuse."

I think that the scripts used by cheater far exceed the intended rules against teleport or flight, in addition many of the scripted cheaters tend to camp for hours, possibly using bots for it too.  Just like griefing this is an other negative for SL for attracting new users. 

2 or 3 people with the same tools in the same sim would make it all most useless to even try to use them any more.  I hope Linden Realms doesn't get closed down, It's really the only way for new residents to get some spending L$ , the idea of giving out the cheat tool is hoping that LL would finally do some thing about it. It's very clear from Rodvicks comments, that one of the biggest problems SL faces is keeping new residents. Every RL friend that I've tried to get in to SL left due to greifing, getting tired of that...

 

 

 

[Darkie Minotaur]

Where is the scripting related issue? You should move this discussion into General.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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Lexia Moonstone wrote:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Linden-Realms-Frequently-Asked-Questions/ta-p/1057471

"

You will be teleported 

automatically

 

out of Linden Realms if you perform an action not intended to occur within the experience. 

Linden Realms requires the Linden Realms HUD, along with flight and teleport being disabled. If the HUD is detached, or if your avatar manages to teleport or fly within Linden Realms, the region will automatically teleport you to your home. This is done to ensure that the Linden Realms experience continues to operate within the intended design."

"How do I report griefing/camping/cheating?

Linden Realms is subject to the same rules, regulations, and guidelines as the rest of Second Life.  In the Second Life Viewer, choose

Help > Report Abuse

to report abuse."

I think that the scripts used by cheater far exceed the intended rules against teleport or flight, in addition many of the scripted cheaters tend to camp for hours, possibly using bots for it too.  Just like griefing this is an other negative for SL for attracting new users. 

2 or 3 people with the same tools in the same sim would make it all most useless to even try to use them any more.  I hope Linden Realms doesn't get closed down, It's really the only way for new residents to get some spending L$ , the idea of giving out the cheat tool is hoping that LL would finally do some thing about it. It's very clear from Rodvicks comments, that one of the biggest problems SL faces is keeping new residents. Every RL friend that I've tried to get in to SL left due to greifing, getting tired of that...

 

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The functions the scripts used to locate things are common functions that are used for a lot of legitimate purposes, so they could not disable those functions.  Besides, some viewers have an object search function, which isn't a cheat script at all.   Since Linden Realms is subject to the same rules, regulations, and guidelines as the rest of Second Life that means the TOS and Official Policies, none of which prohibit the use of scripts to find things.  There is no such thing as intended rules only written ones when it comes to AR's.

As far as any RL friends of yours leaving because of griefing,  I rarely run into it because I avoid places where most of the griefing goes on.  If I had friends coming to SL I would rent a cheap skybox for them to share that has a security system.  I've seen furnished skyboxes with security systems for less than 100L a week.  I would meet them the first time they came into SL and take them there immediately.  A safe place to call home where they can make mistakes changing clothes in privacy, learn how to sit and move about with confidence without fear or ridicule and retreat quickly to if they are griefed or harassed could make all the difference in the world. It could also be a place where they all hang out together once in a while to share what they have learned or just for fun.   They could use it until they learn the ropes (with your assistance) and hopefully get their own place once they've had time to adjust.

 

[Qwalyphi Korpov]

The resident who provided the previous content, if any, has replaced it with this generic statement.

[Lexia Moonstone]

---

Qwalyphi Korpov wrote:

I think they'd like to think they've evolved second life beyond that stage now.

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Read Rodvicks comment here, his second comment sure makes it sound like Linden Realms was made to give new resident some thing to do in addition to being just a test for new tools.  Any way not trying to argue with you,  just thought his comments give a good idea of what stage the CEO thinks SL is at. 

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/73965-if-you-were-linden-3.html#post1583234

 

[MystoryTimedancer]

Hi!

I joined Second Life back in January, after becoming very discouraged with the Sims franchise; after playing it for well over 7 years.

I have quit playing the Sims altogether, at the top of the game. I was one of the most highly decorated builders in the Sims community.

I basically followed Rodvik over here. He was what made the Sims special, and when he left, so did the fun.

I now have 3 premium accounts in SL, and pay each one on an annual basis, in real money. I also pay tier amounting to approx. $33.00 per month for properties I own. My current entertainment budget is about $100 USD per month, and I now spend most of it here on SL.

I love it here! I love creating & making things here!

I do also run the crystals in LR for the purposes of raising extra Lindies, mostly for texture uploads, and a few other treats.

Since I have joined, I have watched the situation degrade in LR to the point of LR becoming pointless.

I consider LR not as an entitlement, but more of a privilege.

Companies form policies based on projected routines.

Maybe, the original projections were to entice newcomers to become use to the virtual economy, and entice them to become more committed, like I have.

Maybe it was intended to help teach younger members how to work & earn, so they can buy themselves nice things.

Linden Labs is a for profit enterprise, after all. They only get to stay in business as long as they show a real profit, and continue making real money.

I doubt they expected some users to start several basic accounts, and use scripts to overide the restrictions in LR. To dominate entire sims for hours, even days, and gather massive amounts of crystals. Then maybe some of them are cashing those ill gotten gains into real cash on the Lind-Ex, or just depositing it into their Paypal accounts, and buying themselves other video games, MP3 players, etc. off of eBay.

The current policy is = No rezzing, No pushing, & No flying. The new overides are something most likely not forseen, and it is obvious that new policies have to be put into place. Which in turn, will be meaningless, if not enforced.

Either that, or there will come that inevitable day, at a LL staff meeting, when the actual numbers of what is being taken out of their real cash profits by these miscreant activities. Once realized, there will be some kind of action, ranging from new fair polices that are made & enforced; or the complete shutdown of LR.

If they are at least not spending their money inworld, they are hurting the inworld economy. Products are not being bought, and rents are not being paid.

I make it a practice to help newcomers that I find lost in LR. I remember how rough it was for me when I started. I show them around, & even have a welcome folder that shows good places for freebies, a changing tent that I made, and some other things to get them started.

Right now, I have to say I am doing far less of that, because newcomers are so quickly discouraged, that I hardly see any of them in LR anymore. What I see is about a hundred veterans, using several different Alts & advanced technologies taking everything, and leaving nothing for others.

Since I do things on an annual basis, and pay into my USD account monthes, even maybe a year in advance; I am now reviewing what my committments for next year will be. I am projecting cutbacks. I also see that there are many others in SL doing the same.

I am only one user, and it looks like Linden Labs is only going to get about $72.00 USD from me in 2013, instead of $1200.00+.

A very wise SL friend told me when I just joined = "Are you a Maker, or a Taker?"

I am dedicated to help LL improve SL to the best of my abilities. I have become a Maker, I own 3 stores now, all with my own products. I also contribute actual money to the cause.

But, a company that allows such kinds of activities to continue & degrade, is symtomatic of other flaws I may not be aware of yet; and this does not inspire confidence.

Thank You for reading this.

 

[Qie Niangao]

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But, a company that allows such kinds of activities to continue & degrade, is symtomatic of other flaws I may not be aware of yet; and this does not inspire confidence. 

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I think the flaw, if it is that, underlying those symptoms is a limited attention span. Linden Realms was on the radar for a while, did whatever it did for retaining new users and refining new features (e.g., Pathfinding), and then was left in place, and everybody involved in developing it shuttled off to work on the Next Big Thing.

I suspect LR was never all that effective at retaining new users--no step-function rise in concurrency--so it's not getting any attention now. Even if all crystals were gathered the instant they rez, the amount of L$s the whole thing can possibly mint is too low to justify shutting down the regions altogether, and certainly wouldn't fund an ongoing, escalating war of technical countermeasures to control exploits. So I'd guess, for the foreseeable future, it is what it is.

[Maryanne Solo]

LL can only try and do helpful things for SL'ers.

Can't fault them for trying to be nice about these things.

[Sharon Ariantho]

The cheating is rampant in Linden Realms, as stated by others above. And worse, the solution appears easy to me. A simple script that determines the velocity of agents on the sim can spot the cheating hud activity easily. Once detected, the agents UUID would be recorded in a list and if their velocity exceeds a normal value within a short time, they are automatically ejected. I have actually written this script and tested on my own parcel. I have suggested this type of solution to the governance team with no response.There is a group Linden Realms (unofficial) wherein residents are letting other residents know about the cheaters and we can get several abuse reports sent against the worst offenders. It is frustrating when we see the same cheating bots return again and again, but there does appear to be a slow attrition of cheating bots on the realms. I cannot understand the reluctance of governance team to address this cheating issue. There is NO other online game that allows rampant cheating with no consequences.

[161488303349]

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Sharon Ariantho wrote:

The cheating is rampant in Linden Realms, as stated by others above. And worse, the solution appears easy to me. A simple script that determines the velocity of agents on the sim can spot the cheating hud activity easily. Once detected, the agents UUID would be recorded in a list and if their velocity exceeds a normal value within a short time, they are automatically ejected. I have actually written this script and tested on my own parcel. I have suggested this type of solution to the governance team with no response.There is a group Linden Realms (unofficial) wherein residents are letting other residents know about the cheaters and we can get several abuse reports sent against the worst offenders. It is frustrating when we see the same cheating bots return again and again, but there does appear to be a slow attrition of cheating bots on the realms. I cannot understand the reluctance of governance team to address this cheating issue. There is NO other online game that allows rampant cheating with no consequences.

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Linden Realms is a test environment for the new experience permissions. linden been quite clear about that. to get a lot of testers linden have been paying l$. a side benefit for linden is that it also helps newbies get some little amounts of l$ when they first start. but that is a side benefit and is incidental to the Realms main purpose

Linden Realms was never made to be a regular source of income for anyone. is a test. one part of testing is to put the sims under load pressure. allowing scripts does that

if you cant beat them. join them

linden will let us know when they got enough script test data. they will turn scripts off

and they will only do that when they work out how they can code it to allow scripts on temp-attach objects (like the game hud) and disallow scripts in normal attachments

 

[161488303349]

ps

ok

if you going to make/file an Abuse Report then dont say in the report that you dont think is fair that someone else is getting more l$ off the game than you are

bc that falls under resident to resident dispute

linden cant do anything about this kind of worded abuse report bc it falls outside their ToS actionables

linden are bound to follow their own ToS. if they act on this kinda complaint worded in this way (is unfair someone got more money than me off the game) then they would also have to act against people who got better computers hardware internet connection as well. bc those people can go faster than a person on a slower computer. and by the same rule then thats unfair as well

so

file the Abuse Report under: Disturbing the Peace > Unfair use of region resources

Linden Realms crystals are region resources made available for the enjoyment and use of all residents. using a bot or scripted agent to unfairly use region resources (crystals) is a ToS violation and is actionable

 

 

[Seth Ock]

I'd like to have tools to frustrate the cheaters. A gun, for example, that tags the HUD of a flying avatar such that rock monsters attack them more aggressively (i.e. from a longer distance, leaping at them, and/or faster.) This would make playing fields inhabited by cheaters easier for non-cheaters since the rock monsters would be preoccupied.

 

Voting could be abused by groups of cheaters, but I've never seen more than one or two cheaters in a sim at a time, so as long a non-cheaters outnumber the rest, it might be reliable for players to vote on whether another player is cheating, and those flagged as cheaters then have a tougher time against Realm hazards.

 

Today I saw someone using an auto-collector get stuck trying to collect a crystal lodged in one of those inconvenient locations that are normally irretrievable. While he kept thudding his avatar against a tree with no results, I collected all the orange and yellow crystals around him and had time to stop and type "Ha ha ha" before he could free himself. It occurs to me that a clever Linden might be able to use such placements as "traps" ... crystals that players can't see because they're lodged under terrain, but scripts can't discriminate against, forcing cheaters to waste time on resources that are irrelevant.