Comments on: PackRat: the Dev terms http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/ Different thoughts by different people Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:18:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Textual Reflexions » PackRat script: version 1.1 “The Server Relief” http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34337 Textual Reflexions » PackRat script: version 1.1 “The Server Relief” Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:01:25 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34337 [...] I mentioned in my previous post the PackRat servers are undergoing a great strain due to the number of people playing the game and [...] [...] I mentioned in my previous post the PackRat servers are undergoing a great strain due to the number of people playing the game and [...]

]]> By: Stacey http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34336 Stacey Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:11:50 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34336 And yes,unfortunately, you do need more than 20k credits in this game if you have any hope in getting any of the rarer retired cards. They sell for way more than 20k if you can find someone to sell them to you. And yes,unfortunately, you do need more than 20k credits in this game if you have any hope in getting any of the rarer retired cards. They sell for way more than 20k if you can find someone to sell them to you.

]]> By: Stacey http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34335 Stacey Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:06:23 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34335 I HATE the changes. First, new cards (or cards used in a recently announced recipe) only stay in the market for 10 seconds. That fact is what makes people, using the script or often otherwise, tax the servers. The stalking feature hasn't been working for me for a week. So, I manually refresh the market every 10 seconds. You have to in order to get a chance for the card. That is what taxes the servers, not the script. Without the script you still have to refresh every 10 seconds. If you have to confirm your purchase, you've lost the item as that 10 seconds is probably gone. You are fixing a symptom, not the actual problem. I HATE the changes. First, new cards (or cards used in a recently announced recipe) only stay in the market for 10 seconds. That fact is what makes people, using the script or often otherwise, tax the servers. The stalking feature hasn’t been working for me for a week. So, I manually refresh the market every 10 seconds. You have to in order to get a chance for the card. That is what taxes the servers, not the script. Without the script you still have to refresh every 10 seconds.

If you have to confirm your purchase, you’ve lost the item as that 10 seconds is probably gone.

You are fixing a symptom, not the actual problem.

]]> By: Piotr P. Karwasz http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34334 Piotr P. Karwasz Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:51:15 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34334 <strong>About the stalking limit</strong>: Putting some limit on the frequency of market refreshing should be a good idea. I think about 30 seconds would be ok and allow to buy only one new card of each card every 24 hours automatically (the others will need confirmation). <strong>About the browsing limits</strong>: Delays below 1 second should not be allowed and if you are inactive for more than 2 hours the script will switch to an idle speed of at least 10 seconds between refreshes. <strong>About the deal with the Devs</strong>: Off course everyone can modify the script to lift the limits. But not everyone knows how (e.g. to make stalking work again it is enough to replace 5 occurrences of the word 'buy' with 'purchase', though no one said it yet). I don't want to change things for most of the scripts users, only for those who are too greedy. The Devs can easily add captchas to their application and modify the game every day to break the script, but they prefer not to bother the users and find an agreement first. They also can mess with your account, e.g. disconnect you from the Rats. The reason they didn't do it to you is that they can not at the moment identify the script users. They disconnected my account (since they know my name :-) ) from the Rats about two weeks ago, but since I am not a PackRat addict, I don't care and it only pushed me to update the script more often. Now they decided to find an agreement and I want to see where will it go. About the stalking limit: Putting some limit on the frequency of market refreshing should be a good idea. I think about 30 seconds would be ok and allow to buy only one new card of each card every 24 hours automatically (the others will need confirmation).

About the browsing limits: Delays below 1 second should not be allowed and if you are inactive for more than 2 hours the script will switch to an idle speed of at least 10 seconds between refreshes.

About the deal with the Devs: Off course everyone can modify the script to lift the limits. But not everyone knows how (e.g. to make stalking work again it is enough to replace 5 occurrences of the word ‘buy’ with ‘purchase’, though no one said it yet). I don’t want to change things for most of the scripts users, only for those who are too greedy.

The Devs can easily add captchas to their application and modify the game every day to break the script, but they prefer not to bother the users and find an agreement first. They also can mess with your account, e.g. disconnect you from the Rats. The reason they didn’t do it to you is that they can not at the moment identify the script users.

They disconnected my account (since they know my name :-) ) from the Rats about two weeks ago, but since I am not a PackRat addict, I don’t care and it only pushed me to update the script more often. Now they decided to find an agreement and I want to see where will it go.

]]> By: Drama http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34333 Drama Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:20:28 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34333 Has there been any decisions if the market stalking aspect will be fixed anytime soon? And if not on this end, then is someone else writing one that WILL work? I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Has there been any decisions if the market stalking aspect will be fixed anytime soon? And if not on this end, then is someone else writing one that WILL work? I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.

]]> By: jd http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34332 jd Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:17:51 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34332 Anything the script does to be "nicer" to the devs can and will be bypassed and so it will be useless. Personally, my browsing time is 5 to 10 seconds. Anything less and Firefox v3.0 will freeze within a couple of minutes. If the devs want to limit the credits, limit it at the pack level, not the script level. This would also help bring down the price of cards in the trading boards since people will be less willing to pay 10-20k for a card if 20k is the limit of their credits. Also, if I'm personally stalking a market I will refresh it every couple of seconds some times, so I'm actually faster than the script. I'll even sometimes load up multiple tabs and switch between them quickly (hit refresh and go to next tab while that one loads, hit refresh on that tab and go to next tab...). So, if I'm stalking a market, I'll burden the server more than the script will. Most of the problems though, come from the players egos. They NEED to be first to finish a set or get a card (how many posts do we see in the boards of "#xx of card-something-or-other"?). Wait a few weeks and the pop ups will be in the rats and the cards won't disappear quickly in the markets. Have some patience people. I think the devs need to reconsider some aspects of the game to reduce the allure of trading cards for huge sums of credits. Anything the script does to be “nicer” to the devs can and will be bypassed and so it will be useless.

Personally, my browsing time is 5 to 10 seconds. Anything less and Firefox v3.0 will freeze within a couple of minutes.

If the devs want to limit the credits, limit it at the pack level, not the script level. This would also help bring down the price of cards in the trading boards since people will be less willing to pay 10-20k for a card if 20k is the limit of their credits.

Also, if I’m personally stalking a market I will refresh it every couple of seconds some times, so I’m actually faster than the script. I’ll even sometimes load up multiple tabs and switch between them quickly (hit refresh and go to next tab while that one loads, hit refresh on that tab and go to next tab…). So, if I’m stalking a market, I’ll burden the server more than the script will.

Most of the problems though, come from the players egos. They NEED to be first to finish a set or get a card (how many posts do we see in the boards of “#xx of card-something-or-other”?). Wait a few weeks and the pop ups will be in the rats and the cards won’t disappear quickly in the markets. Have some patience people.

I think the devs need to reconsider some aspects of the game to reduce the allure of trading cards for huge sums of credits.

]]> By: Auntie http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34331 Auntie Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:26:57 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34331 I like the unattended time limit. I mean let's face it, the game is meant for human interaction after all, not for our PC's to play for us. As for the token limit.... what is the point? If we are on a page, we would be grabbing them anyway... why are we limiting them to 20k? For the new cards, there is a limit to the cards. We are just as unlikely to get one of the cards as someone else. Instead of making it so we have to manually confirm purchase of new cards - why not make the market stalking time limit minimum longer then now? Now we can set it all the way down to zero, which really gets us nowhere... but set the minimum so it cannot go below a certain number..... I like the unattended time limit. I mean let’s face it, the game is meant for human interaction after all, not for our PC’s to play for us.

As for the token limit…. what is the point? If we are on a page, we would be grabbing them anyway… why are we limiting them to 20k?

For the new cards, there is a limit to the cards. We are just as unlikely to get one of the cards as someone else. Instead of making it so we have to manually confirm purchase of new cards – why not make the market stalking time limit minimum longer then now? Now we can set it all the way down to zero, which really gets us nowhere… but set the minimum so it cannot go below a certain number…..

]]> By: CDog http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34330 CDog Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:57:36 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34330 What are the Devs possessing? Devs, not Dev's. Augh that irritates me! And trust me, if you ever want to "buy" a good retired card it costs far more than 20k... What are the Devs possessing? Devs, not Dev’s. Augh that irritates me!

And trust me, if you ever want to “buy” a good retired card it costs far more than 20k…

]]> By: ? http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34329 ? Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:42:06 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34329 "Anonymous" captcha's can be bypassed ;) “Anonymous” captcha’s can be bypassed ;)

]]> By: Anonymous http://karwasz.org/blog/2008/09/16/packrat-the-dev-terms/#comment-34328 Anonymous Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:31:30 +0000 http://karwasz.org/blog/?p=161#comment-34328 The problem about putting artificial limitations or slow-down limits in the script is that anyone can just edit that part in the script. Or someone will make and publish a new script. The only way to correctly fix this is to fix the way the game works? Or maybe they can add a turing test to make using a script not worth it, like asking a captah thing every 5 minutes. lol. The problem about putting artificial limitations or slow-down limits in the script is that anyone can just edit that part in the script. Or someone will make and publish a new script. The only way to correctly fix this is to fix the way the game works? Or maybe they can add a turing test to make using a script not worth it, like asking a captah thing every 5 minutes. lol.

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