Yekaterina

His name is spelled reza-math and we should call him reza-shah (king reza)

Even though he is often rude, he is actually a lot more hospitable than some other people. If you play well with him, he will treat you like a friend, ignoring who you are. Such was the case with trinitrophenol and Reyhan. Furthermore, he keeps everything in the hosted and doesn't harass you or people you know afterwards. He also never asked me for personal information. Much appreciated.

@LetswaveaBook I am glad that you shared your experiences with the lobby. When I joined in A23, the lobby was very welcoming to me as well, even though I was very cosmic compared to most other players, but they still let me play in their TGs. The problem only took a turn in late A24- early A25 when the family smurfs appeared. Note: I was not one of them. Some family smurfs even offered me their password because they think my trolling skill is superior, but I declined because I didn't like their username choice xD I did social experiments with trinitrophenol, Roshan9 and Reyhan where I tried to play like I did in A23 and climb up the ranks slowly. But no, when I play 1v1s, specs come in and call me cosmic when I make a mistake, then smurf if I do something well. When I join TGs I say very clearly that I might be underrated, they say ok, but in game, as soon as I rush or push they call me smurf. If I come to their support too slowly they ask to ban me for being cosmic. In that lucky case they were right, but what if Roshan and Reyhan were genuine new players? How would they feel? The only reason why some players hate smurfs is because they can no longer cheat by predicting playstyles if they don't know who the dude behind the keyboard is.

I and whoever agrees with me, during the Hilary-trinity term break Of course you can reach 1500 by playing 1v1s, not hard, but: 1. Some TG hosts: hey, you only played 10 games, even though you are 1500+, 10 is too small a sample size, so I don't know you, hence I will ban you because I think you are smurf. 2. If an AI expert comes, then it means they will have to decimate 10 or 20 noobs to get that rating. It wasn't fun for the 20 noobs. 3. Takes a long time to find 20 1v1 games... Yes of course. That is why I have changed the exam to be OPTIONAL! It is a quick way to prove yourself to TG hosts. Is this what you mean?

Well yes but no... Please don't track my IP Also, what if I change it with a VPN? Again, TG hosts can reject noobs from their games

Exactly, so it is optional. Consider the grade as an entry condition to TGs and not casual part of the lobby. What I want is for both new and old players to see a friendly lobby instead of one with hosts who only says 'I don't know you' then kick A guy with 200 IQ has pointed out to me why some people are extremely against changing nicknames: if you change the nickname, they can't predict your strategy (all they know is your skill level but they don't know whether you are boomer or rusher). In which case they can't just exploit your habits, instead, they have to scout you. Now, in my opinion, scouting your enemy is the correct play, instead of saying: "Oh, @Dizaka is next to me so he will rush me with merc sword cav. Yekaterina is his pocket and she will definitely boom." Prediction by player name is never the correct mindset because anyone can change their strategy at any time. If they do, it is even more unacceptable to say "oh, berhudar must have hacked her account" just because I rushed with mass cavalry in a game even though I normally boom.

Great idea! We don't need anyone to review noob games; their score says everything. We can prevent them from changing game settings so that there is 0 chance of cheating. Now, if you are hosting an OP TG, you only let people with OP badge in (reasonable). This OP badge is only obtained by good performance in the test, which is optional. So, if a new player who is good comes along, you can just tell them to do the test, instead of saying 'I don't know you' and kicking them. It really hurts people's feelings and they have no obligation to be 'known' to you. Similarly, if a smurf nubs on purpose - they get certified noob badge and OP TGs will kick them out. City builders will get the cosmic badge and they can be left in peace to build their cities. Noob TGs don't really need balance because new players improve very very quickly (especially after reading my guide )compared to OP players, and frankly, most noobs don't really care about balance. when it comes to smurfing in a 1v1... if you see their noob badge you probably should refuse to play with them. If you feel bad then maybe unrated.

@Gurken Khan I like your suggestion; not letting them into the lobby because of nubness doesn't help with player base. So perhaps we can make the exam optional; you can either join bare-handed and take a tour, or, you can get yourself an initial rating. Then the TG hosts can decide to kick those who didn't get a high enough score in the test

Yes yes many men pretend to be female on the internet and you never know. I wouldn't be mad if you assumed I am a man. However, I would be very mad at you if you keep harassing my friends by asking them what my gender really is and ask for proofs that I am a girl. Well, no one will ever have any solid evidence of my gender because I have 3 principles when online: 1. No posting nudes 2. No face reveal 3. No ID card/ bank account/ passport information

btw today a player called Sarah T came on and met me. She complained that everywhere she goes, people harass her and interrogate her whether she is me. This is unacceptable; you don't harass innocent people for my problems. If you got a problem with me then take it to me; send a message on forum or ask me to a 1v1 duel. You can even publically shame me on the forum if necessary. However, harassing any of my innocent friends is absolutely unacceptable! Nor does it solve your problem! Don't vent your obsession problems on innocent people just because you are too scared of me! @user1 pls don't ban random innocent people just because someone claimed they are my smurf account. Smurf speculators are rarely right. Just because you saw a feminine account name, doesn't mean it's definitely my smurf account. It's very likely that they are just a new player, although not necessarily female. defenderbenny

They are lucky to not get a quadruple rush. If a 4v1 rush comes then even if you are 4808 player you have 0 chance. Imagine 20 cavs running around your base since minute 3.

Please explain. Smurfs get low rating on purpose and get low rating as they wish. Now, when they want to join a TG, the host will assume they are noob kick them, because you can't tell them apart from genuine noobs since they all have low score on their exam. So I don't think smurfs can cause damage to TGs if the host does not let them in. They can still create 40 smurf accounts, but none of them would have any significant effect on anyone.

Playing a game called Megaglest gave me an idea to fix the rating arguments, smurfing, hostility against unknown / new players: Before a new player joins the multiplayer lobby, they are recommended to complete an entrance exam. This is a game where they have to fight against some AIs, and the player's initial rating will depend on how well they did in the exam. We can use their military score in the test game as a main reference, then set some 'grades' like an exam. Furthermore, we can add a time limit of 40 minutes or 1 hour to keep the exam fair for all candidates. Grading/scoring system: Fail: player got killed by the AIs before time was up (rating <900, city builder) Weak pass: player was able to survive against the AIs until the end of the test, but did not kill any of the opponents. (900-1100) Strong pass: The player defeated some AI opponents but did not eradicate everything before the time limit. (1100-1300)? Excellent: the player had very strong eco, destroyed all of the AIs very swiftly (long before the time limit) and defended against their harassments. Very high KD. (1400+) The time it took for the player to complete the test, the KD ratio, economy growth rate, military score and idle time should all be taken into account when calculating the exact ratings, but the grades should give you a rough idea of what level someone is at. Then each player shall have their exam score in their profile. It is very difficult to have a fluke or underperform in such an exam. We can even add a re-sit feature if they exam went badly for whatever reason. How it helps: Genuine noobs can be identified from their score; those who are really not ready will be blocked from the lobby. Naturally good players or AI experts can have a good head start and gain a respectable grade without having to torture other noobs in rated 1v1s or mess up a few TGs. This idea will prevent smurfing, in the following ways: 1. Smurfs have to beat this AI game for every new account they make, which is a hassle and a lot of time and effort, so most people wouldn't bother. 2. If they are determined to make another account, then their real skill will be reflected in the result of the entrance exam. 3. If someone tries to pretend to be a noob... well, it is quite difficult because we have build orders in our muscle memory already... Also, if they want low points then they have to sit there and play as noob as they can for 1 hour without failing the exam. I don't think the smurfs in 0ad have enough patience to do this. At least I don't. Now it is perfectly reasonable for hosts to kick noobs from TGs as well, so no chance of smurfing. As for the details of the exam, I would recommend a custom made map with both navy and land features that allows both their naval and land battle skills to be assessed. Then, give the player a population cap of 300? In terms of the AIs I think 1 defensive, 1 balanced and 1 aggressive would be a good combination. Of course, this is to be discussed further. @seeh you played megaglest before, can you give me more insight into their test, or any other ideas? @Stan` @user1do you think this is acceptable? @Gurken Khan @KKaslana @wowgetoffyourcellphone I need you to suggest how difficult the exam should be and how to set it up since you are AI experts Any thoughts on this, balancing advisors / OP TG players? @LetswaveaBook @BreakfastBurrito_007 @Player of 0AD @ValihrAnt @smiley @Dizaka @Jofursloft @vinme @JC (naval supremacist) @alre @Emperior @Wendy22

@LetswaveaBook I would imagine that in your early days in the lobby you were accused of smurfing a lot? In A24, while we waited for players to arrive, the hottest topic of discussion was which smurf is behind LetswaveaBook. The majority of players thought that you were stockfish. Even if they don't say it to your face, I have seen many such discussions back then. @KKaslana @Gurken Khan If you 3 ever come to lobby I bet you will be showered with smurf accusations. Why? Because a lot of players just can't accept an unrated player being better than them. These TG kids automatically assume anyone they don't "know" to be cosmic, and if you are not cosmic, then you must be a smurf. Their ego is so big that they can't accept the remote possibility of someone improving faster than them or an experienced AI player or an veteran returning that they didn't know about. The next thing that happens is they report you to the clueless user1 then he bans you. Gurken Khan the reason why I used you as an example is I know you are a very good AI player who has never been to the lobby; I don't intend to threaten you or discourage you from joining us, in fact, I would sincerely welcome you (Herzlich Willkommen) you my TGs. But, I am just giving you a warning to expect people to be very rude to you, including people who you thought were your friends. If you ever decide to come to the lobby, I will try to defend you from these smurf speculators. It would be appreciated if you can write an account on your experience as a new player in the lobby. I know you are sarcastic, and this is unacceptable because this is a game for people to enjoy, not a forced labour camp where everyone play 1v1 to farm some virtual ratings 24/7. No one can force anyone else to join a game, not to mention whether there is a suitable 1v1 match for them in the lobby. Except that in A25 the lobby is very unfriendly. Instead of accepting the possibility that someone is underrated, they just label you with smurf and then you get banned soon.

If you are 1900+ and an unrated player suddenly start pursuing you for a 1v1 game then you know it's either a smurf or a fast-learning cosmic. In either case you shouldn't do rated with them.

1400+ players don't try to farm points from cosmic noobs, because it's simply not fun. You can't get too much rating gain by beating a 1100... So in reality it very very rarely happened. The only time when I agreed to play rated with a 1200 on a smurf account was when he begged me for a 1v1. I warned him that I am good but he said that he was very confident and was ready to lose, so I agreed. If you observe me carefully I don't really like to do rated 1v1 on smurf account. As for playing with pro players, most of their games are unrated anyways...

Nowadays I use my main account and this funny thing happens: <host> suggest balance! <player1> Yekaterina is no more than 1400 <player2> no, she is 1700+ <player3> she 1600 <Yekaterina> kids, as you can see the number says 1546 <Everyone> Rating is never accurate! You smurf! The biggest problem is that ratings mean nothing these days. Just compare reza-math (primary account) or Father to FUBAR. So you can't compare players just by numbers and it becomes more of a knowing-the-player identification. So, if you create a second account and say clearly who you are then it's fine imo. About 1.5 years ago I was banned from the lobby for no obvious reason (maybe I was too cosmic) and I came back with a second account called Yekaterina a few months later. Now I don't remember what the first ever account was called and it doesn't matter anymore.

Iberian fire cavs cause more balancing problems than smurfs. I think we need to agree on why creating a second account is bad. Here is a list of reasons: 1. You can pretend to be noob and ruin a TG can't think of anymore sorry...

What shall we use as BGM? Het Wilhelmus will be a good one because it fits your lyrics well and is not copyrighted

How? What tools? So far I have not been banned for making more than 1 forum accounts, and I don't want to be banned of course. I haven't done anything bad with the additional accounts. I just gave them to different people. It is even easier to make smurf forum accounts than smurf accounts in game: VPN, privacy browser (e.g. duckduckgo, TOR), tempmail. You can't even ban by hardware ID or IP address. Also, reading the forum doesn't need good connection so using a VPN is perfectly ok. Similarly, you can spam smurf accounts in discord, instagram, gmail, outlook...

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Why are we allowed to create 2 forum accounts and not 2 game accounts? Surely someone who wants trouble will create another forum account after first one is banned and there is 0 way of telling who is who

imo what makes the game unpleasant is rudeness smurf speculation increases paranoia as well -> everyone think each other is smurf and are motivated to create smurf accounts themselves or be rude to suspected smurfs. Also hosts become very unfriendly to new players. today, some people thought that I am berhudar's smurf just because I cav rushed everyone in the opposite team and normally I don't do that. This simple case shows you how much paranoia there is and people need to relax! So what if there is 1 smurf? Just play better than them! Think: when has vali or borg ever complained about smurfs? The correct play is to become a better player yourself instead of wasting effort on harassing and interrogating anyone you don't know.

You have more than 1 account but we still welcome you! I demand a clarification: smurf != second accounts. Some people have to create another account because they forgot password or their previous accout has some issues. They don't intend to smurf or troll. For example, if I create an account Yekaterina2 (for whatever reason), am I smurf? You can immediately tell who I am and I am not attempting to hide my identity. It's just that for whatever reason I can't use my previous account anymore. Similarly, we have names like: ValihrSVN Stickfish felxfelx burhudar (he has other accounts but he is not trying to hide here because he actually forgot password) christoffel-symbol1 christoffel-symbol2 .... christoffel-symbol6 (by this point he had ragequit already) StanlySweet , Stan` Hamdich vs hamdich So, do you have to ban all these as well? Most new users can't be bothered to post on the forum then wait for a few days for someone to solve their problem; the easiest way is to create another account. A smurf becomes a known player within 3 TGs so really; we don't care unless you try to troll us. But of course, not all hosts are as hospitable as I am The reason why many advanced smurfs exist in 0ad is because we are mostly very smart and tech-savvy people. We can study lobby authentication mechanisms and hence deduce ways to create new smurf accounts then bypass their checks or ban.

Kebab Sandwich Naan Bread outside, inside is your favourite kebab with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, yoghurt sauce and maybe some chili if you are into spicy food.