Having now run several store cards, both permits and fronts, I have a couple of observations.

1. Store setup scripts.

There are clearly people running scripts, or something similar, to start a store on a spot.  They sit right on top of your store, for hours.  One time, I came to my store and there was a lvl 16 player sitting on it.  I came back 2 hours later, and the same player was sitting there.  My store front was going to expire, so I had to attempt a reset.  Quickly typing and clicking, with at most a 2 second window, yet they grabbed the spot.  Clearly some kind of automation was running.  WHICH IS A CLEAR VIOLATION of the TOS.

Now, server side, this is easy to detect.  The player in question would have had thousands of store attempt failures in a row, at a very high rate.  Very easy to detect.

I am quite willing to challenge my typing/clicking speed against another human.  However, against a program that is a waste of time.

2. Meso seller spammers

These are the little nubs that sit in FM1, CH1, and spam out "mesos for sale here".  With a web site.

These again are easy to automate detection of, and nuke.  Geez, they say the website name in the spam.  Mention that a few times, and BAM.  I know that in the end it isn't that simple, however, it takes a reasonably small amount of effort to continually update this.

Get rid of the meso sellers, and you remove one of the main forces behind hacking.

3. FM Mafia

FM King ends up with all the stores in FM1, CH1.  Hmm.  Having gotten a spot in there after a server reset, keeping that spot was impossible.  Script runners are behind anyone who is not "FM King".   This makes anyone with the FMKing tag suspect as being part of an organized violation of the TOS.

As well, I have heard rumours of threats to kick people out of their spots.  Mass defames, organized KS, etc.  Have not experienced that yet, and will not take kindly to such abuse.  Again, another violation of the TOS.   (Harrassment.)

 

You aren't allowed to say a couple of websites which sell mesoes in the pq patch, but evidentally not all of the websites were blocked. Oh well, in a couple of more patches Nexon will probably block more. However, it'll be hard to block them forever, since they can just make a new website. Also, you can't ban the players-it takes about five seconds to make a new character. Last, who listens to them?

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1.  Doesn't have to be a/c there.  It doesn't take 2 seconds to press enter on your title when you see the store go down.  Also consider copy / pasting your title.  Your down time should be less than a second.  (Although that's plently of time to lose a spot to anyone ready.)

2.  Watch their names, every few hours / days the names change.  lol

3.  I use a VIP store permit and I don't close if anyone is there.  In cases of rm 1 ch 1 door I've left my store up for days.  But we must not be in the same world because WallStreet guild thinks they own the market in my world.  Also ksing has never been a problem, they don't know who my main is; I keep my main(s) and my store(s) very seperate.  You can beat a/c out, but you have to have two computers at your disposal and be fast.  I've purchased spots and kept them with known ac'ers spotting them - got about a 65% win & 35% loss ratio right now.  I've also changed a store under an a/c'er once or twice when my items were practly gone.  Also in my world I would say about 95% of a/c'ers are gone now.  I don't know if they are too low lvl, banned, or what, but the market has been fairly clean for several weeks.

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Oh, I have my title in copy/paste.

 But humans are unable to sit and watch a screen, unchanging, for hours, then react instantly.   But computer programs do that easily.

As for the meso spammers, actually, if you take out their players quickly, they cannot get a new player to the FM instantly.  Now, I do see them sitting in Perion, with the obviously bad name, waiting for the current one to be banned.  But if the lifetime of a spammer is measured in minutes or seconds, they can't make new ones fast enough.

The meso for dollars types are the root of much of the problems.  Once you can convert mesos to real world money, the behaviours change radically.  People will do things for money that are amazing.

It is interesting that the exchange rate went from $1 to 10M mesos down to nearly 1$ to 1M mesos ever since the mass bot ban.  Someone is having trouble making enough mesos to sell.

And, this relates back to the FM mafias.  I am sure there are people in there who are "clean".  But the meso sellers have to convert their drops to mesos somewhere.  And FM1 CH1 is the prime location for it.

Well there are indeed people botting to get spots. To be 100% honest so far I havent seen an FMKing doing that...but ive seen a couple FMPolice doing that and its pretty much obvious....last week when I closed down my shop (there was another character behind me) I tried to reopen it...as fast as I could but obviously I failed. Lets ignore that this dude was behind me for 3+ hours and that he was there watching the screen and managed to get my spot....why 5 hours later...he was still there without having opened the store yet....I did check out of curiosity every 30-40mins..in the end it took him a bit less than 6 hours to open the store.

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Regarding the ability to instantly take a spot without a/c by standing there for 3+ hours:

The easy way is two computers right next to each other.  You play on one and have your store on the other.  While you play you are watching your store.  As soon as a spot opens up you pray your poor little char doesn't die and grab it with your store.  If you know what time one refreshed the day before it's even easier because you can stand right behind it title ready.  As soon as it goes down hit enter with one hand and resume play or take your char to a safe place.  (Of course not all - or even as many as half - are obtained this way, but it's completely possible.)

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NxJoe has said that these meso farmers/fraud shops are taking up about half of all their resources. Which is a bit hard to believe as nothing seems to be done about those FM spammers in FM 1 and now FM2. I see the same people spamming 24/7 for days without getting banned.

How hard is it for a GM to check the FM every hour and ban them? Or GM's to go through every map every hour or 2. With GM powers I could cycle through probably 100s of maps checking for hackers every hour(with more GMs they could cover more and faster). It isnt hard to catch hacker, really it isnt. Yet hackers are in the same spots for days.

For a company that makes something like $20million a month you'd think they could employ a few people to do basic things.

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XBowmen: Nexon Hates Us.

75% the DPS of Bowmasters yet Marksman are supposed to be stronger. :(

FMKing does NOT USE HACKS to get the spots that we have. We use something called PLAYING WITH A CONTROLLER (PS2 controller)

Don't get mad just because we own you and you can't get a spot.

FMKing FOR THE M**** F****ING WIN!!!!!!

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ign
DrRusty - lvl 15x Bishop
MrLifeStyles - lvl 13x Shadower
Brawlas- lvl 14x Buccaneer

We dont have any of those fm mafias in mardia, not since the last time I played anyway. I could care less who is selling the item in fm, as long as I need it, and I like the price. As for the spot thing, alot of people would kill for fm 1, I often set up in 6-8, and my stuff still sells. I dont like the spammers cuz if i want to price check with my guild, and im in fm 1, I cant hear my guild. Its worse when 2 sites have spam wars, and there are much roflcakes when one site clearly has a higher price, but still spams against the other. I use fm just to make some extra cash, it can make maple miserable if you get locked into the politics of it.

They are using auto clickers and macro programs to steal your spot. I can sit with two computers side by side and still be beat by these hackers with their hacks. These guys openly admit they are using auto clickers in their hacks as evidenced by having looting keys... This is the Windian (F)Market guild:

 

 There are a few solutions I have in mind if a programmer would choose to think about them and they are:

#1 A time limit for not moving a set distance in the FM. You don't move for 2 minutes your booted to the lobby ( or somewhere in the dungeon to die :) )

#2 A set of turning numbers that are pulled from the server and must be matched on the store setup screen. This must be server sided or the hackers will simply unrandomize them and evade it if client sided. There must also be a time limit of 30 seconds to open your store or the turning number must become invalid. Other wise they will use pixel detection to set up to that point and engage the instant you close your shop.

 #3 A lvl limit in the first few shops, like the character setting up the shop must be lvl 100 or above in room 1, etc. Go from there.

I dont know how feasible this would be but how about make it so you cant have a shop in the same FM for more than 24 hours in a week. This would stop the same people monopolizing spots and give eveyone a chance to get FM1 and force people to use the other FMs.

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XBowmen: Nexon Hates Us.

75% the DPS of Bowmasters yet Marksman are supposed to be stronger. :(

These fm hacker have dozens of accounts, its the auto clickers / macros that have to be stopped.

Mesos reset......Just do it get rid of the Meso farmers who have billions of mesos that were hacked....And end all this.....Now there's the whole NeoShop thingy........I believe Nexon should implement something to prevent the stores from being open nonstop.....like a 15 hour time limit on them..once they are up you have to relog in and wait several minutes before you can restart the shop. That way everyone gets a chance to sell.

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Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

They do - mushies and teddies etc have to be reopened every 24 hours.  VIP & reg stores are good until your computer crashes - but you have to have a good connection.  Notice how many VIP & reg stores are in good rooms.  In my world it's usually the two spots by the door where you can't open a mushie or teddy (and my store and my husband's store - whever there spots are - which is sometimes one of those door spots).

Also with regular and VIP stores before the mush store people would sell spots all the time so it was easy to get one and spots were reasonably priced.  Now people don't sell spots and when they do they are sky high.  (The price of the mush store - you can't get a good spot for under 2m because no one is ever selling now.)

All they really need to do is prevent a/c.  I'm cool with competing with people who can watch two computers and such.  But If they limited the open store feature to maybe 10-15 times a minnute, that would kill the a/c.  You don't need to open your store 10-15 times a minnute to buy a spot, get a spot when your friend closes, transfer a spot, or anything.  Yet that would end all a/c'ers in the FM because the 10-15 tries in a minnute is not enough to garentee them spots.  Just change the responce so that after 10-15 tries it says you cannot open your store again for x seconds instead of giving the title box.

And I don't see any difference between botting with a controler and using a/c.  I hope they kill them all. 

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