Spam Depot Pest

[SwingFish]

it appears there are 2 types of Spam depots

• corp/ingame advertising
• referal link spam

the first ones are somewhat of a pest, but at least there is “some” reason why those exist.
the other group are referal link spammers, i would more categorize as a pandemic,
i have destroyed a few of them and found out some things while doing it.

it appears those Referal link spammers are not a individual but multiple people, as they employ different ways of placing them and have different skills in doing so.

they just seem to copy&paste the same text from each other and change the referal link.
that fact alone puts those individuals on a new level of low in humanity my opinion.

however there seems to be some communication between this people, as i pointed this out to one of them in a eve mail, after generating some salt with another one.
on the next day the one i salted changed the text on the boxes,
so i guess this is some sort of external source/website/group that does coordinate those people.

so the big question now is, why they do this? is there some IRL financial incentive to do it?

one of those spammers (is very mad at me) because i start to destroy depots that were re-deployed by her, her not existing knowledge about game mechanics led to the assumption that i’m cheating in some way.

this was extremely funny, plus she usually has bad luck that i’m around when they being replaced, so i start to shoot them while they are deploying… her counter to this is to deploy like 10 depots in a row, i do shoot down about half of them before they can deploy, then she packs up the ones left over, leaves 1 behind.

the determination on making sure those boxes stay in space is quite strong, this leads me to assume there is a IRL Financial incentive to it, does anyone have an idea ?

[Syzygium]

Don’t think there is an RL financial motivation behind it, it’s for the ‘free SP’.

The more important question is: Why do these things still have a reinforce mode? Probably less then 1% of all dropped Depots are really used for storing items over a longer time.

All the others are used for inspace refitting (which doesn’t need a RF timer) or space ads (which are a pest).

So, the best way to stop this stupid depot spam is to simply remove the RF timer or at least require some fuel for that ability.

[Aisha_Katalen]

@SwingFish

so the big question now is, why they do this? is there some IRL financial incentive to do it?

If someone who used your referral goes omega for the first time then you get 14 days of omega yourself, and a bunch of other goodies than have in game value and can be sold. If they buy Plex for the first time you also get a bunch of goodies with in game value that can be sold. There are also milestones for having “recruited” different numbers of pilots that way, and those rewards can get a tad silly.

So actually, there is even more “reason” compared to the corp recruiting ones.

Also: thank you for your service.

[Eloken_Toralen]

@Syzygium

Why do these things still have a reinforce mode?

Mobiles Depots and Mobile Tractor units should either both have a reinforcement timer, or neither should.

[SwingFish]

@Aisha_Katalen

There are also milestones for having “recruited” different numbers of pilots that way, and those rewards can get a tad silly.

i guess that explains why they are mostly “new” players that do this.
so they can restart on the perks and ingame trade them …

but the determination is quite high, thats why i’m suspecting there is something else making them work so hard.

not to mention the cost of those depots, i killed like 700 so far (100% spam) … there seems to be unlimited supply

[Aisha_Katalen]

@SwingFish

i guess that explains why they are mostly “new” players that do this.

Nah it’s alts. The link they use is for their main (null) accounts but it’s done by their high sec alts. Just think about how “some null alliances” farm/bot their way forward in null, in FW and pretty much everywhere else, they also do it with this.

[SwingFish]

@Aisha_Katalen

Nah it’s alts. The link they use is for their main (null) accounts but it’s done by their high sec alts.

i did check on that, the links are all different, also the players placing the depots are clearly different individuals, thats why i suspected there is maybe some external organisation (like a website or a group or whatever) … since they are extremly terminated, but some of them are not very smart doing it, while others are quite sophisticated.

some of them even place depots in the same system with exactly the same text (just a different link)

i sent a eve mail to one of them … mentioned that, and on the very next day … my local spammer uses a different text … so they are clearly connected in some way, just not clear how yet.

[Aisha_Katalen]

@SwingFish

so they are clearly connected in some way

@Aisha_Katalen

some null alliances

That’s why. They’re different players who all got told by the same people/person what to do, how to do it and where to do it. Just like how a whole bunch of people from “some null alliances” are all farming FW, in the same way doing the same thing. They didn’t figure that out themselves, they got taught/told/explained what and how to do it.

[SwingFish]

guess they have some quotas to meet then haha … since they trying WAAAAAY too hard …
which is of course more content for us … especially as some of them are extremely predictable, or even re-deploying reinforced depots which can just be immediately taken out.

most use a small set of locations … so its usually just a race on taking the shields faster than they can deploy … which isn;t too difficult in a bomber.

[Syzygium]

@Eloken_Toralen

Mobiles Depots and Mobile Tractor units should either both have a reinforcement timer, or neither should.

Tbh I think both shouldn’t. I see no real use for the RF ability of mobile depots when roaming around in space, despite making it annoying for someone who wants to remove them, because he needs to attack two times and the owner can just scoop it anytime between the timers anyway (which is also bad design). From any angle, the mechanic is not very well made and doesn’t really benefit the game because it leads to depotspam that is really hard to remove.

Also making Depots killable on first strike would probably lead to more attacks on them if found in space, this leading to more suspects and this leading to more opportunities for PvP.

[SwingFish]

@Syzygium

leading to more suspects and this leading to more opportunities for PvP.

quite sure thats not the ccase, i killed over 700 depots and got aggro doing it twice,
once by a noob that was barely able to pilot the ship (i did not even schoot back and casually left) and another time by a SC player that was passing by and i was far enough from the gate so he could warp to the wreck of the depot which i just created (which gave me plenty of time to cloak and slide off)

also with that logic reinforcing cycles doubles the number of suspects created as well as you have to shoot them twice.

[Aisha_Katalen]

If it becomes easier to destroy them then more people will start doing it, which will attract people going for people who are doing it.

[SwingFish]

okay thats a good argument.

[Syzygium]

@Aisha_Katalen

If it becomes easier to destroy them then more people will start doing it, which will attract people going for people who are doing it.

This. Atm no PvPer (at least no one I know of) will waste his time roaming HS waiting for someone getting suspect to hunt him. I don’t doubt they exist, but thats rarely a hand full. So the amount of people willing to engage suspects is close to zero. There are just too few of them.

In my opinion, a lot more things in HS should give suspect timer, basically anything that is aimed at unmanned (non-piloted) assets. Like shooting wrecks (no idea what CONCORD has to do with that…), shooting unmanned ships, containers. Even offline POS.

But also ship/cargo-scanning someone, what is more “suspicious” and probably the preparation of an assault than inspecting someones ship for valuable goods or weaknesses? I mean, if you would find someone sneaking around your car, using a device scanning for the trunk or filming the interior and the keylocks - what is more suspicious than that? I’d call the police, you can be sure of that.

Then again, remote-supporting people that get an aggro-timer while the effect is active. RemoteSebos for example should make the supporter suspect at least if the supported ship shoots someone with their effect active.

Both things would open up huge opportunities to actively hunt highsec campers and their scouts and supporters. They could keep doing it, but they would need to take measures for their escape if they get caught. Thats the kind of HighSec PvP many people wish for, an active hunt, not this passive “find a target of value and blow it up in 20 seconds, then pay back your secstatus”.

[Chad_Frostpacker]

Shooting Yellow Cargo Wrecks Should Trigger Suspect Only!

Remove the Criminal flag from shooting yellow loot in HS.

[Uriel_the_Flame]

@Chad_Frostpacker

Remove the Criminal flag from shooting yellow loot

Not entirely sure if your idol Aiko would be happy to learn about you suggesting that as then anyone could deny the loot from the gankers without risking a criminal flag (plus ship destruction) and killright in the process.

[Syzygium]

@Uriel_the_Flame

Not entirely sure if your idol Aiko would be happy to learn about you suggesting that as then anyone could deny the loot from the gankers without risking a criminal flag (plus ship destruction) and killright in the process.

Hear hear, the best PvPers in HighSec surely would think that getting Suspect (so anyone can freely agress you) would be absolutely enough. Not?

[Uriel_the_Flame]

With a long range sniper people could snipe the wreck of a ganked ship (freighter, marauder, whatever) in a few volleys then warp away and unless the gankers specifically prepare for such probably would lose out on a lot of wealth (and even if they do probably still would).

Whether that’s a good thing or not is anyone’s own interpretation.

[Syzygium]

Hasn’t CCP adapted the wrecks health to that of the ship (roughly)? So when it comes to a freighter or Marauder, the “antigankers” would need quite a fleet to do that. And at this point I think it’s just fair that the gankers would have to prepare countermeasures.

[Uriel_the_Flame]

No personal experience nor knowledge about the subject so you have to research that or test it out. But as I wrote such things come down to personal interpretation.

I’m sure the gankers would be dissatisfied. And whether that’s good or bad is also a personal preference.

Personally your argument if based on facts then is valid, it could be a valid play-counterplay between gankers and anti-gankers.

Similar to how the wasteful mining crystals are meant to be a counter-play against mining ops in the form of ore denial against one’s enemies.