The Castle Doctrine Forums

Back to the original topic: I actually had something very weird happen two weeks ago, once Harris got rich; I got a $200 bounty! That means that somebody who had been alive since before bounties had been made $100 had come and died in my house. I was pretty surprised to see that.

This is the greatest.

It's like watching a gun fight.... but one guy doesn't realize his gun ran out of bullets...

AMWhy wrote:

Dual accounts need to be stopped.  They are stifling the game.

Please read to the end before posting your reply: A lot is covered in this post.

I hate to write this post as I love this game and the forum as well.  The members of the forum are always helpful and, aside from the odd Russian invasion, the conduct on the forum is excellent!
I, personally, have only been affected once by dual account cheaters, and that was a few weeks ago.  However, I feel strongly enough that the problem of dual accounts and how they are discussed on this forum has to be addressed.

As one of the majority of players with only one account, my enjoyment of this game was diminished by a dual account user CHEATING their way to my vault.  I am still playing as I believe I am good enough to prevail despite the cheaters.  From the low number of houses available now, compared to steam launch, many other players have quit.  This trend will continue and the user-base will fail to grow as long as cheating with two accounts remains a viable option.

Furthermore, the rot of cheating has spread over to this forum.

Crazyace
LordofHam
Storm
JoyofTrapping
Epfel
TheRealCheese
Blip
Xandalis
Gyuri
Colorfusion
MMaster
Iceman

The listed forum members, including many respected and popular posters, are all advocates of dual accounts.  All of them have refuted claims that dual accounts are any advantage over single accounts.  Every time a player complains about dual accounts, these forum members reply in kind belittling the problem as nothing.  I suspect that every one of them has two accounts.

Now let's look at this further:

Cheating:
Some forum users have claimed that using a second account for gain in ways that a single account couldn't be used is not cheating unless Jason says it is.  Clearly this is a childish suggestion. We each have a sense of morality and know that every time we use our second account to refinance our main, we are cheating.  We justify it as just saving a little time as we could have waited for a fresh 2k 0:0 house to show up and get back in the game anyway.  While that is true, it's still cheating. You are removing the time constraint from that part of the game for your advantage.

Dual account users:
The forum members above may have dual accounts, but that doesn't in itself make them cheaters. It is, of course, how the second account is used that determines whether a player is cheating or not. If the dual account user has never used that second account to deposit 2k of tools into their main then they haven't cheated.  Anything else and they have.  While a minor way, it still affects the balance of the game and gives that player an unfair advantage.  However, this way of cheating doesn't affect other players directly: It only aids the cheater themselves.

Bad Dual account users:
The biggest problem is dual account users who cheat in ways that directly affect other players.  I'm specifically talking about players who use their alt account to explore with 2k of tools on any house without consequence.  Then, if they find the vault, commit suicide in that house before returning with their main account to sweep the vault.  It is this that is killing the game.

Excuses:
The forum members above have excused this heinous crime as 'perhaps coincidence'.  If this were true, then Castle Doctrine must be the most serendipitous game in history.
The form members excuse the crime as 'perhaps two brothers'.  More possible, yet still cheating (using two accounts for gain one account couldn't) and also very unlikely.  Unless those brothers were specifically working together (when, from the experience of having three brothers myself, they would more likely be competing to make the best house), the precision and speed with which these robberies are committed suggest that it is a single player doing the crime.
The forum members also say it is our fault that we were robbed like that!  Our house was too easy to rob.  Insulting!  Just because the forum members have been playing the game for longer, that doesn't mean they know more than every other player out there.  I wonder how far up the rankings these forum members would get without two accounts.

"You should make your house 2k safe," they say.  Once you have a house that can't easily be robbed, it is easy to make these claims.  However, as it costs 2k minimum to decent house, you need to either rob others or wait before you can afford such a house.

The reality is that there is no such thing as a 2k safe house: Every unbroken house can be solved for nothing.  The likelihood of that happening is what is important. I created a cheap house that, by luck alone, only one in 1024 people would get through.  With some luck, one 2k robber got close enough to see the vault.  The next robber in brought exactly 2 water and 2 wire cutters into a house he had never set foot in before and correctly risked his account and completed a magic dance to reach the vault.  All to successfully rob 4k.  The robber himself had a 35k house.

Jason:
What is actually making things worse is that Jason has not frowned upon dual account users.  Perhaps this is a throw back to when the community for the game was smaller.  What this is doing is stagnating the game.  While the chills have made some difference, dual accounts still cause major problems.  Until this is acknowledged as a problem, the userbase will continue to shrink.

The player base:
There are the old players, the forum kings who have two accounts and can do anything they want.  There are the new steam users who threw their money at the game to become the best. Then there are the honest players who play the game as was originally intended with just one account.  Finally there are the newest players, those just starting out for whom the learning curve will be the steepest.  As time goes on, the new players will dry up, the single account players will quit, and the new dual account players will merge with the older players into one group.  The game will revert to pre-steam days and never grow.

Solutions:
*First, the problem of dual accounts MUST be seen as a problem that needs solving by Jason.  Until he acknowledges it and asks for help, things will not get better.

*Second, dual accounts should NOT be banned.  I am NOT calling for a ban on dual account ownership.  Dual accounts IS a way to support Jason and can allow you to both build a house and go robbing without consequences.

*Third many forum users have already written many solutions to the problem of dual accounts.  Just search 'dual accounts' for a list of forum threads where the issue is discussed.  The simplest solution is to have one account per IP address, but this causes obvious problems where two brothers genuinely both have an account.  The best solution would be a complaint system and monitoring system.  If a player suspects multi-account cheating, they report the two player names.  Jason (or staff) check the player names and if they share an IP address, they are punished (banned / suspended... another discussion).  Obviously this also has problems as it would mean Jason would need to spend money or time monitoring this.

Finally:
I return to the forum members listed in this thread. While what I have written is harsh on you, and some of you will feel victimised (perhaps because you have just one account or you haven't abused your second account) and to those of you I am sorry.  However, I would like you all to think about the possible ways you could exploit your second account.  YOU need to acknowledge that they can be used to exploit the game.  Perhaps then, something will actually be done that could save this game.

Are you really going to make me do that to every post?