sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
Fifteen-second window applied to inbound and outbound flights. Instant muggings no longer possible at airports. Crowd rejoice / mourn at decision. Ched hailed as genius / evil villain by many.
Torn’s script-muggers have today suffered a major setback in their ability to print money, as it appears the authorities have found a solution that will hopefully end the recent spate of instant muggings that have befallen airport passengers.
Instant Mugging
The trouble began when the Stock Market changes were pushed on the 6th of April. Because players can no longer buy or sell stocks while travelling, there is no longer a safe way to access money stored in the Cayman Islands bank. The Caymans allow players to invest an unlimited amount of money in return for (a pitiful) 0.5% interest rate. This meant that some people stored many billions here, and when this money was needed, investors would simply withdraw their cash, board a plane home, and have it safely stored in stocks before landing back in Torn.
Without the ability to secure their cash, Cayman Island investors have suffered greatly over the past two weeks. Those who use scripts and the API to detect when someone has landed were able to rinse these players for billions of dollars, as their scripts allow them toattack their victims before the player even knows they’ve landed - a delay in certain loading screens and captchas was also believed to have contributed to this issue.
Correction via Chedburn:
"The scripts in question were only 'stalking' scripts to know when people had landed. There's no knowledge of any scripts being used to make user actions (like attacking) which would be highly illegal and result in deletion."
Pictured: It's a good job we didn't push Captcha 2.0, Sexy Edition, or you guys would be f***ed.
Of course, some scripts are illegal, and anyone known to be using these should be reported to our Community Manager. But without knowing exactly which scripts are used, it is entirely possible that legal ones were used too. The situation we were left with was one where citizens could do nothing to fight back against an airport mugging, and many were forced to suck up a 10% tax that had been applied to their savings without their knowledge.
Nevertheless, Torn’s recent spate of impossibly fast muggings appears to have been remedied through the help of the world’s second-oldest profession, Bureaucracy. While prostitution is of course the oldest pastime, the position of bureaucrat was a close second, as who better to organize a herd of streetwalkers than a nerd with a biro and a notepad.
The Solution
The Torn City Times has noticed that those who use the Airport are now emerging roughly fifteen seconds later than expected. We do not know why this is happening, but we presume some sort of “procedure” is taking place, be that clerical, political, physical or lubrical. Citizens who land in foreign countries are also subject to a fifteen-second delay, and it appears that this is how the insta-muggers are being thwarted. Chedburn's latest patch notes refer to these fifteen seconds as a "grace period", and if you think that's funny, then you are 100% right. Who tf is Grace anyway?
To clarify how the grace period works, for fifteen seconds after a player has landed they cannot be attacked, and nor can they attack anyone else. This means that those who use scripts to track players and subsequently attack them instantly (without using a script) upon landing may no longer do so. As a member of the committee, I can confirm that a range of possible solutions was considered, including an outreach program where we would ask the muggers to pretty please politely stop.
After much deliberation, the grace period was deemed to be the fairest to both victim and mugger, while also having the lowest impact on other areas of Torn, and as such avoiding any unwanted side-effects. While it is still possible to mug players who have flown back from abroad, muggers will now have to hope that their victim loses track of time if they are to be successful.
Pictured: This woman overslept her fifteen-second window and lost $320 million to a flight mugger because she was up all night watching Kata's ASMR videos.
The Discourse
The discussion over this issue has become heated of late, with some citizens calling for all scripts and the API to be banned. The authorities have pointed out that this isn’t possible, as a ban on the API and legal scripts would simply serve to create a vacuum where illegal scripts are able to thrive.
Torn can control the API and therefore what legal scripts can do, to an extent, but we cannot control what we can’t see. It’s like when people say we should ban pugs when all this would do is lead to a cruel yet sexy underground pug trade out of sight and reach of the law.
Pictured: Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Father’s excellent post in GD describes how the API and scripts can be used to help muggers, but also explains why making changes to them would ruin many other parts of Torn gameplay, including Chaining and Warring. You may have missed this thread because useful posts like this don’t get upvotes, whereas angry ones do. You people sure do love your drama.
Before the introduction of the fifteen-second delay was even released, some Torn citizens decided to dust off their pitchforks and form a mob. Many of these players soon realized that their pitchforks were entirely dust-free, having already been raised in response to Stocks 3.0, the Medical Revamp, and the creation of the European Super League - we weren’t even responsible for that last one.
Funnily enough, people are angry with the ESL for the same reason they’re angry about all this, as the spirit of competition is lost if you make things too safe. In this instance, it was perfectly understandable for players to be concerned when certain muggers had a 100% chance of success. However, it must be obvious by now that the Committee and Chedburn will always take their time in coming up with the right solution to avoid affecting other parts of the game unnecessarily.
captainhahnsolo’s subscriber cancellation thread was started on the 17th, and changes to Torn are always pushed on Tuesdays, with today being the 20th. I would politely suggest that you at least give us time to do our job before telling us we haven’t done it.
Torn is Farmville Now
Of course, some people will complain that this change makes Torn too safe, and that mugging has now been nerfed. That isn’t true in the slightest. Players could not use scripting to track Cayman investors until two weeks ago, and now they still can, but without expecting a 100% outcome every time. This is the crux of this issue. We all want Torn to be exciting, and according to Chedburn’s poll from November, two-thirds of you want it to be more hardcore. But what exactly does hardcore mean?
Pictured: Once you’ve googled hardcore, wipe your browser history and give it some thought. I’m talking to you, Bling_Bling.
Obviously, there is a fine line between what constitutes a hardcore experience, and what is simply unfair unenjoyable gameplay. That being said, there is a culture of entitlement that exists in gaming and the wider world today, and Torn will never pander to those who want to earn things without hard work. But it was clear to all concerned that the guaranteed ability to take money from another player who cannot do anything about it was not hardcore, as there is no excitement for the mugger who puts in zero effort or skill, and no chance of recourse for the victim. It’s running Torn on cheat mode.
The introduction of the fifteen-second delay will hopefully add some balance to the situation, while also ensuring some jeopardy remains for the muggers to exploit. If you’re too busy liking your ex’s vacation photos on Instagram to notice that you landed in Torn half an hour ago with $2 billion on hand, tough s**t my friend. And if your mug profits have been severely dented by the introduction of this delay, pull your finger out and do some more detective work. I’m sure you’ll find some willing suckers somewhere in Torn. Have you tried offering yourself up as a wallet inspector?
Pictured: Sadly, I believe this would genuinely work with some people.
I do have some sympathy with the many genuine muggers out there who don't use scripts. These players merely sit on someone's profile and wait for someone to leave the airport, before pouncing and relieving them of their cash. It is sad that it's now much harder for legitimate muggers to take on travellers, but as I mentioned earlier, it simply wasn't right that a few scripters were able to extract cash with a 100% success rate.
And to be fair, muggers have only been able to use these legal scripts to gain ridiculous profits since people started pulling vast amounts out of the Caymans. It's not as if we've stopped them doing something they've been doing for years, it's only been a couple of weeks. The Cayman investors were undeniably naive to think nobody would mug them, and their punishments were well deserved and quite funny. But I'd hope that there's still some way of relieving a few investors over at George Town in the small window between withdrawal and their flight home.
Do Your Part
Now that we've done our bit, isn’t it about time some vigilante justice was handed out? As CRLF’s forum post demonstrates, the likes of Pops, Jia, and Loliet_almighty did rather well out of this scheme, earning over $75 billion between them in less than a fortnight. And you thought the European Super League were a bunch of greedy c**ts! Sorry, I will stop mentioning that eventually.
Hopslam’s call-to-arms for action against Pops and the rest has had little response so far, and this disappoints me greatly. It seems many people are willing to cancel subscriptions and post an angry wall of text demanding action, but when it comes to doing something while a solution is being built, they’d rather protect their cushy existence and skulk off into the shadows.
Yes, this situation was an oversight that needed addressing, but now it’s time for you to take action too. I say rise up and show these muggers that exploits will not be tolerated. I say arm yourself and your faction to the teeth, and show these muggers that you aren't their b***h.
Because Duke has already begun.
Tl;dr: It is no longer possible to be attacked or attack someone fifteen seconds after landing.
Instant Mugging
The trouble began when the Stock Market changes were pushed on the 6th of April. Because players can no longer buy or sell stocks while travelling, there is no longer a safe way to access money stored in the Cayman Islands bank. The Caymans allow players to invest an unlimited amount of money in return for (a pitiful) 0.5% interest rate. This meant that some people stored many billions here, and when this money was needed, investors would simply withdraw their cash, board a plane home, and have it safely stored in stocks before landing back in Torn.
Without the ability to secure their cash, Cayman Island investors have suffered greatly over the past two weeks. Those who use scripts and the API to detect when someone has landed were able to rinse these players for billions of dollars, as their scripts allow them to
Correction via Chedburn:
"The scripts in question were only 'stalking' scripts to know when people had landed. There's no knowledge of any scripts being used to make user actions (like attacking) which would be highly illegal and result in deletion."
Pictured: It's a good job we didn't push Captcha 2.0, Sexy Edition, or you guys would be f***ed.
Of course, some scripts are illegal, and anyone known to be using these should be reported to our Community Manager. But without knowing exactly which scripts are used, it is entirely possible that legal ones were used too. The situation we were left with was one where citizens could do nothing to fight back against an airport mugging, and many were forced to suck up a 10% tax that had been applied to their savings without their knowledge.
Nevertheless, Torn’s recent spate of impossibly fast muggings appears to have been remedied through the help of the world’s second-oldest profession, Bureaucracy. While prostitution is of course the oldest pastime, the position of bureaucrat was a close second, as who better to organize a herd of streetwalkers than a nerd with a biro and a notepad.
The Solution
The Torn City Times has noticed that those who use the Airport are now emerging roughly fifteen seconds later than expected. We do not know why this is happening, but we presume some sort of “procedure” is taking place, be that clerical, political, physical or lubrical. Citizens who land in foreign countries are also subject to a fifteen-second delay, and it appears that this is how the insta-muggers are being thwarted. Chedburn's latest patch notes refer to these fifteen seconds as a "grace period", and if you think that's funny, then you are 100% right. Who tf is Grace anyway?
To clarify how the grace period works, for fifteen seconds after a player has landed they cannot be attacked, and nor can they attack anyone else. This means that those who use scripts to track players and subsequently attack them instantly (without using a script) upon landing may no longer do so. As a member of the committee, I can confirm that a range of possible solutions was considered, including an outreach program where we would ask the muggers to pretty please politely stop.
After much deliberation, the grace period was deemed to be the fairest to both victim and mugger, while also having the lowest impact on other areas of Torn, and as such avoiding any unwanted side-effects. While it is still possible to mug players who have flown back from abroad, muggers will now have to hope that their victim loses track of time if they are to be successful.
Pictured: This woman overslept her fifteen-second window and lost $320 million to a flight mugger because she was up all night watching Kata's ASMR videos.
The Discourse
The discussion over this issue has become heated of late, with some citizens calling for all scripts and the API to be banned. The authorities have pointed out that this isn’t possible, as a ban on the API and legal scripts would simply serve to create a vacuum where illegal scripts are able to thrive.
Torn can control the API and therefore what legal scripts can do, to an extent, but we cannot control what we can’t see. It’s like when people say we should ban pugs when all this would do is lead to a cruel yet sexy underground pug trade out of sight and reach of the law.
Pictured: Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Father’s excellent post in GD describes how the API and scripts can be used to help muggers, but also explains why making changes to them would ruin many other parts of Torn gameplay, including Chaining and Warring. You may have missed this thread because useful posts like this don’t get upvotes, whereas angry ones do. You people sure do love your drama.
Before the introduction of the fifteen-second delay was even released, some Torn citizens decided to dust off their pitchforks and form a mob. Many of these players soon realized that their pitchforks were entirely dust-free, having already been raised in response to Stocks 3.0, the Medical Revamp, and the creation of the European Super League - we weren’t even responsible for that last one.
Funnily enough, people are angry with the ESL for the same reason they’re angry about all this, as the spirit of competition is lost if you make things too safe. In this instance, it was perfectly understandable for players to be concerned when certain muggers had a 100% chance of success. However, it must be obvious by now that the Committee and Chedburn will always take their time in coming up with the right solution to avoid affecting other parts of the game unnecessarily.
captainhahnsolo’s subscriber cancellation thread was started on the 17th, and changes to Torn are always pushed on Tuesdays, with today being the 20th. I would politely suggest that you at least give us time to do our job before telling us we haven’t done it.
Torn is Farmville Now
Of course, some people will complain that this change makes Torn too safe, and that mugging has now been nerfed. That isn’t true in the slightest. Players could not use scripting to track Cayman investors until two weeks ago, and now they still can, but without expecting a 100% outcome every time. This is the crux of this issue. We all want Torn to be exciting, and according to Chedburn’s poll from November, two-thirds of you want it to be more hardcore. But what exactly does hardcore mean?
Pictured: Once you’ve googled hardcore, wipe your browser history and give it some thought. I’m talking to you, Bling_Bling.
Obviously, there is a fine line between what constitutes a hardcore experience, and what is simply unfair unenjoyable gameplay. That being said, there is a culture of entitlement that exists in gaming and the wider world today, and Torn will never pander to those who want to earn things without hard work. But it was clear to all concerned that the guaranteed ability to take money from another player who cannot do anything about it was not hardcore, as there is no excitement for the mugger who puts in zero effort or skill, and no chance of recourse for the victim. It’s running Torn on cheat mode.
The introduction of the fifteen-second delay will hopefully add some balance to the situation, while also ensuring some jeopardy remains for the muggers to exploit. If you’re too busy liking your ex’s vacation photos on Instagram to notice that you landed in Torn half an hour ago with $2 billion on hand, tough s**t my friend. And if your mug profits have been severely dented by the introduction of this delay, pull your finger out and do some more detective work. I’m sure you’ll find some willing suckers somewhere in Torn. Have you tried offering yourself up as a wallet inspector?
Pictured: Sadly, I believe this would genuinely work with some people.
I do have some sympathy with the many genuine muggers out there who don't use scripts. These players merely sit on someone's profile and wait for someone to leave the airport, before pouncing and relieving them of their cash. It is sad that it's now much harder for legitimate muggers to take on travellers, but as I mentioned earlier, it simply wasn't right that a few scripters were able to extract cash with a 100% success rate.
And to be fair, muggers have only been able to use these legal scripts to gain ridiculous profits since people started pulling vast amounts out of the Caymans. It's not as if we've stopped them doing something they've been doing for years, it's only been a couple of weeks. The Cayman investors were undeniably naive to think nobody would mug them, and their punishments were well deserved and quite funny. But I'd hope that there's still some way of relieving a few investors over at George Town in the small window between withdrawal and their flight home.
Do Your Part
Now that we've done our bit, isn’t it about time some vigilante justice was handed out? As CRLF’s forum post demonstrates, the likes of Pops, Jia, and Loliet_almighty did rather well out of this scheme, earning over $75 billion between them in less than a fortnight. And you thought the European Super League were a bunch of greedy c**ts! Sorry, I will stop mentioning that eventually.
Hopslam’s call-to-arms for action against Pops and the rest has had little response so far, and this disappoints me greatly. It seems many people are willing to cancel subscriptions and post an angry wall of text demanding action, but when it comes to doing something while a solution is being built, they’d rather protect their cushy existence and skulk off into the shadows.
Yes, this situation was an oversight that needed addressing, but now it’s time for you to take action too. I say rise up and show these muggers that exploits will not be tolerated. I say arm yourself and your faction to the teeth, and show these muggers that you aren't their b***h.
Because Duke has already begun.
Tl;dr: It is no longer possible to be attacked or attack someone fifteen seconds after landing.
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