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You all created new game/forum content!! Woot! Resubbing xD

Well Bones, in case you resub welcome back ;).

Anyway I tend to disagree to you. Maybe cheating during mektoub races was less popular on Leanon - I don't say it did not happen at all, but I am fairly sure that our notorious winners of such contests like Triplex, Darlarian, Slashor, Klayton to name a few definitely did not cheat, it would have been beneath their dignity to "win" by such cheap methods.

I tend to agree to Meggy that widespread cheating is disappointing. And boasting about cheating for "ethical motives" is in no way better.

One should take in consideration that there are honest players who want to have fun but also enjoy a contest comparing their abilities to those of other honest players. For them such practices are frustrating. Similarly frustrating are they for the developers and event guides who put a lot of their free time into designing and setting up such an event.

In my opinion the disciplinaries about such abuse should be strengthened.

1. Any cheating, even be it pretending "ethical motives" of exposing "unethical" cheaters should be categorically forbidden.
2. Everybody detecting a vulnerability allowing unfair shortcuts should be obliged to report it to a CSR or Event Manager immediately.
3. Tests for such vulns should only be admissible with prior consent of a CSR or EM, such a test race would have to be aborted before the finishing waypoint.
4. Every offender should be added to a black list excluding him or her from every contest of that kind for at least one year. Further punishments like loss of levels or equipment may be considered.

Yes, normally is it required of bug testers to do their work by using a completely clean user/persona/login etc. Also, they are usually required to not affect real people (e.g. you NEVER prove a Facebook bug by posting on a random stranger's wall).

However, in Ryzom it is impossible to respect the first part of the proposition. Certain actions are NOT possible for a level 1 character, or level 10, or level 100. Proving bugs in a race that requires a trek through level 200+ regions requires using a very high level character. This can't be helped. Therefore, one should not be punished for using their real character when demonstrating a bug.

However, what CAN be done correctly is the second part - in this case, one should not influence the race results by allowing their "bug testing" to enter the final standings. It is bad enough to have K cheaters in the top, no need for K+1, even if that +1 was done in good faith.

Haha! Funny event! The winner is the one who has the most powerful computer and the best Internet connection. The winner in this race, nothing to be proud of. All pompous words about its exclusivity deserve contempt.

Aruno, I politely tend to disagree. Only when your computer is fairly weak, movements will be slowed down, which, unfortunately, is a property of Ryzom, but a reasonable one. I do not have such troubles on my 5 years old i5 with 4GB RAM and also not on my over 6 years old Latitude E6500, granted both were not top boxes at their time but strong enough. I compared movement times (running and riding) of both these boxes to my 1yr old i7/16GB RAM, and did not find any difference, while movement on my 7yr old Portege notebook is considerably slower. I think it is a boon that Ryzom is playable even on very old and very small boxes, but that comes with the price that running speed may be somewhat slowed down by lack of CPU performance. You cannot blame that to the races.

Network latency if not resulting in massive rubberbanding should not slow you down, normally, as far as I know. It might limit your reaction on agro and therefore your chances of success, sure. But I fail to see a way to avoid that. With many network troubles every networked game is hard to play.

Anyway, everybody with an average box and network connection should be able to run the race and to achieve a decent rank when striving to do so. Maybe it won't suffice for victory, but unless the situation (small old box, bad connection) is really bad, the chances are relatively equally distributed.

Cheating is something different and allows the perpetrator to achieve results which are absolutely out of reach for honest competitors. That was what the thread was about, and this issue is a serious one. That it is not possible to create absolutely equal chances may be sad, but I fail to see a way to change that. But cheaters are destroying the contest, and that is not acceptable under my opinion.

I throughly enjoyed this race. :)

I had a good time doing it. My original time was 2h 41m. I got that time down to 1h 32m. Granted that's not like the top times. But considering I have wifi from my neighbor about a block away I am happy with that time.

All the time I was racing I kept thinking what route are they taking? How are they making the time so fast? Are they really quick at the waypoints?

I can see where I might have saved 10 to 15 minutes by not having to stand until the waypoint registered. So I am not ashamed of my time. I feel as though my time with a better internet connection would have been about 1h 20m. That's in the ballpark of what the other runners were doing.

I personally couldn't figure out a way that someone could cheat in the race. Really... Death Spawn and 7 meks?

I learned a lot from this race. It gave me more confidence in my ability. Probably, helped improve my ability. Congratulations to all the winners.

Nehrie

Daomei, in turn, and I hasten to disagree with you:) Because my statement is based on experience. I have i5-2310 , 8Gb RAM, Linux. But, before I used to have cable Internet 100MB/s and now am using DSL modem. So the big difference in running speed on the Atys . My result in the race I think would be 1 hour 9 minutes with cable Internet:) Hardware certainly has less influence on it than the Internet. But affected too, for example my laptop Packard bell ENLG71BM-P75M, Windows 8.1, mobile connection to the Internet via 3g. The running speed is much worse than from a stationary computer. And starting a second client, that is alt, is a complete disgrace and the brakes, despite the reduction in the quality of graphics. On the stationary computer I can run with the viola without any problems, because it is also a good video card GeForce GTX 550 Ti. And recently on a track we had a guy from Crimea. He has 2 nuclear Celeron, and probably bad Internet. He was behind us very far, in the end we lost it:) the next day he stopped playing in the Ryzom:( Such a difference in speed depending on the Internet and the computer I noticed different players over the 2 years of playing in the Ryzom.

Aruno, with all due respect, Hardware or internet conections has nothing to do with a topic about intentional cheating.

Lag, hardware limitations have no bearing on this peticular situation.

The use of different alts and mektubs in the race in my opinion is a big fraud.

Fatecity, I'm not accused of fraud when I told about the impact of hardware on the race. I'm talking about the essence of this event with such options, who have a brain, to understand this. It is pointless to compete with those who has the best hardware. I liked the race, I saw my opportunity, I just was irritated by this tiny map, which is not seen in what place are the flags.

Fatecity, the subject is "Mek Race" in the first place, so I do not consider it inappropriate to bring up other aspects such as Aruno did mention.

I agree with him concerning cheating, that is completely intolerable and undignified.

Beyond that aspect, the question is indeed of interest whether, and how, differences in computer and network performance can be balanced, or if they can at all.

Aruno's observations contradict mine, and are very interesting. As soon as I have the time for, I consider a series of measurements which, though, can only compare DSL at two different locations, WiFi over DSL router, and 3G WiFi over mobile hotspot - more variants are not at hand for me :). My idea is a 200-500m distance without obstacles or agro somewhere to be run with and without mount to get an idea about the differences. It may take a while until I have the results.

Given the results point to significant differences, the idea would be that before starting a race, the comparative speed of competitors could be measured, and a handicap added to those with outstandingly fast speed. This could only be done within a certain range, old computers with their CPU bound delay or those with a very bad network connection had to live with (not a good solution yet I don't see better). Of course, one should not run additional clients on the same box during a race because the effects on movement speed might be hard to predict.

I haven't used the Alt in the race:)

of course you have not. no more words needed

It's my understanding what is at issue here is several people used meks, death spawns and alts to finish the race faster.

There is no rule against that. So, it's not cheating if there is no rule against it.

I think what might be needed here are two races. One race that any death of you or your mek results in abandoning the race as well as the other rules.

The other race No-Holds-Barred. Death spawn, alts, multiple mounts, speed eggs whatever lol I would love to watch this race lol

I can see the possibility of other races as well for players 125 and under maybe an easier course.

Obviously the people who used meks, death spawns and alts had a good time. I think that's what the game is about. Trying to have some fun. I bet those guys did have some fun too. lol Man, way to go Beeficus. 2 hours to set it up. And who was the first one who thought of it!?

I can see the fun of challenging our/your wits against the rules that exist and working a way around them.

But I who could not hope to do that had a throughly good time with the race. Trying not to die. Trying not to let my mek die. Finding the fastest way without speed. No teleporting. It was a good challenge for me.

I hope two races will be considered. As well as maybe a monthly race :) That could be fun too :)

Nehrie

Nehrie, it was a mounted race for Jena's Sake! Simply because there is not a rule for every single possible scenario does not mean that clearly wrong things are allowed...