New bot farms?

[PerkyCox]

Those farm come from dd, is not my facebook friends and many people don't know this kind of farm, they only buy it what they need, it is a pitfall of all players!!!

Nick has said that merely BUYING from a bot farm won't get an honest player banned, but FOLLOWING them will.

Players used to follow bots because from time to time the bots would sell their accumulated tools from all the wheating to their master farm, which collected the tools to sell for real money on the black market. Several players got lucky with that tactic, and got banned during The Great Bot Ban.

So my understanding of Nick's advice is DON'T FOLLOW that great source of cheap and plentiful wheat, but DO BUY wheat by the ton without fear from any farm you find in the paper - bot or not.

PS -- I am seeing blended farms now with some bot characteristics and also some human characteristics: human photo avatars with sequential farm names, decors arranged beautifully with clumped idle machines, even rows of berry bushes and fruit trees arranged carefully around hungry animals in pens that are stacked on top of each other so 5 animals look like 1, in neighborhoods named A Neighborhood, whose hoodmates are A101, A102, A103, etc. - some of these neighbors are even in the derby (rookie league).

Endless adaptations == a HUGE CHALLENGE for SC.

[Ewefunny]

I had been sending screenshots of suspicious farms almost every time I used the daily dirt until I got this strange reply from supercell

"Hello Farmer,
Thank you for writing to us with the screen shot of suspicious farms.

I certainly understand you must be concerned to know if your farm will be in trouble if you trade with bot accounts or the farm which looks suspicious. I would be glad to help you with that. I would suggest you not to trade with the accounts which look suspicious and sell more upgrade or expansion items to play your farm safe. We appreciate players who play a fair game.

If you continue to trade with the accounts which looks suspicious, please not that you will put your farm in a fix and will be unable to access it permanently. I suggest you to play a fair game to avoid such instance in the future. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you need help with anything else in the game. As always, we're just a message away.
Have a Hay-ppy Day!"

To me it sounded like they didn't really want help and even a little threatening, so I quit sending screenshots and reporting bot farms. I never traded with these farms nor did I follow them.

[LetTheMusicPlay]

I had been sending screenshots of suspicious farms almost every time I used the daily dirt until I got this strange reply from supercell

"Hello Farmer,
Thank you for writing to us with the screen shot of suspicious farms.

I certainly understand you must be concerned to know if your farm will be in trouble if you trade with bot accounts or the farm which looks suspicious. I would be glad to help you with that. I would suggest you not to trade with the accounts which look suspicious and sell more upgrade or expansion items to play your farm safe. We appreciate players who play a fair game.

If you continue to trade with the accounts which looks suspicious, please not that you will put your farm in a fix and will be unable to access it permanently. I suggest you to play a fair game to avoid such instance in the future. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you need help with anything else in the game. As always, we're just a message away.
Have a Hay-ppy Day!"

To me it sounded like they didn't really want help and even a little threatening, so I quit sending screenshots and reporting bot farms. I never traded with these farms nor did I follow them.

That's an awful response from Support. Either that Support rep genuinely misunderstood the purpose of your message, or they couldn't be bothered to paraphrase from the appropriate response script.

[Jerhunter44]

I had been sending screenshots of suspicious farms almost every time I used the daily dirt until I got this strange reply from supercell

"Hello Farmer,
Thank you for writing to us with the screen shot of suspicious farms.

I certainly understand you must be concerned to know if your farm will be in trouble if you trade with bot accounts or the farm which looks suspicious. I would be glad to help you with that. I would suggest you not to trade with the accounts which look suspicious and sell more upgrade or expansion items to play your farm safe. We appreciate players who play a fair game.

If you continue to trade with the accounts which looks suspicious, please not that you will put your farm in a fix and will be unable to access it permanently. I suggest you to play a fair game to avoid such instance in the future. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you need help with anything else in the game. As always, we're just a message away.
Have a Hay-ppy Day!"

To me it sounded like they didn't really want help and even a little threatening, so I quit sending screenshots and reporting bot farms. I never traded with these farms nor did I follow them.

Wow, that does sound pretty harsh. Threatening a permanent ban when all you're doing is reporting potential bots? Behaviour like this discourages people from being helpful, it's sad to see.

Maybe clarify that you never traded with those accounts, you merely viewed their farms and found them suspicious?

[LynnK2015]

I had been sending screenshots of suspicious farms almost every time I used the daily dirt until I got this strange reply from supercell

"Hello Farmer,
Thank you for writing to us with the screen shot of suspicious farms.

I certainly understand you must be concerned to know if your farm will be in trouble if you trade with bot accounts or the farm which looks suspicious. I would be glad to help you with that. I would suggest you not to trade with the accounts which look suspicious and sell more upgrade or expansion items to play your farm safe. We appreciate players who play a fair game.

If you continue to trade with the accounts which looks suspicious, please not that you will put your farm in a fix and will be unable to access it permanently. I suggest you to play a fair game to avoid such instance in the future. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if you need help with anything else in the game. As always, we're just a message away.
Have a Hay-ppy Day!"

To me it sounded like they didn't really want help and even a little threatening, so I quit sending screenshots and reporting bot farms. I never traded with these farms nor did I follow them.

Holy Cow! I hope Nick sees your post and follow up with Support.

Support was threatening you with a permanent ban for trading with bot farms and accusing you of not playing fairly when all you did was to send screen shots of suspicious farms.

Something is terribly amiss.

EDIT: I tried to alert Nick by using PM, but he isn't accepting PM's.

[Haystacker]

SC should invest in hiring a few people whose sole responsibility is to spot and eliminate these bots. Lock them up in a room like jurors and don't let them out until a "verdict" is reached. I've never played a game where bots are so prevelant and players are constantly on guard and fearful of being banned. At the end of the day, it's SC's responsibility to detect and eliminate these bots, not the players. They have the resources to clean up the mess, mind as well make good use of it.

[PerkyCox]

SC should invest in hiring a few people who's sole responsibility is to spot and eliminate these bots. Lock them up in a room like jurors and don't let them out until a "verdict" is reached. I've never played a game where bots are so prevelant and players are constantly on guard and fearful of being banned. At the end of the day, it's SC's responsibility to detect and eliminate these bots, not the players. They have the resources to clean up the mess, mind as well make good use of it.

I think you would need a Army of someones -- and with bots adapting at the rate they are, this would be a staffing and training nightmare.

I still think that the way to eliminate bots from the game is to destroy the market for their black-market wares.

One way may be to change the number of spots per upgrade from 50 spots after 1000 to 75 after 2500, 100 after 5000, and 150 after 7500.

Another wY may be to change the drop rate for EMs, making them more plentiful. I say this as someone who enjoys that EM hunt , and the delicious thrill of wheating up that last plank or bolt needed for what seems like FOREVER - WOO HOOO!!

These ideas will help more players expand their barns and silos faster, which should reduce hoarding of expansion materials, making more available in game, and curbing the temptation to buy from the black market.

Some bots were in the business of selling farms, which is when we saw all the different farms with all the machines and other areas (fishing, town, derby) wrapped up like presents. I have not seen such farms lately, so I wonder if this market has been changed or destroyed -- or is it still active, but with the farms being marketed to sellers without the joy of opening all those presents?

What is the primary product the bots sell? Is it farms or gold or EMs -- or all of the above? Therein lies the keys to their markets, and strategies to disrupt those markets should flow from there.

[PerkyCox]

Holy Cow! I hope Nick sees your post and follow up with Support.

Support was threatening you with a permanent ban for trading with bot farms and accusing you of not playing fairly when all you did was to send screen shots of suspicious farms.

Something is terribly amiss.

EDIT: I tried to alert Nick by using PM, but he isn't accepting PM's.

I'm pretty sure someone will be by --

[Haystacker]

I think you would need a Army of someones -- and with bots adapting at the rate they are, this would be a staffing and training nightmare.

I still think that the way to eliminate bots from the game is to destroy the market for their black-market wares.

One way may be to change the number of spots per upgrade from 50 spots after 1000 to 75 after 2500, 100 after 5000, and 150 after 7500.

Another wY may be to change the drop rate for EMs, making them more plentiful. I say this as someone who enjoys that EM hunt , and the delicious thrill of wheating up that last plank or bolt needed for what seems like FOREVER - WOO HOOO!!

These ideas will help more players expand their barns and silos faster, which should reduce hoarding of expansion materials, making more available in game, and curbing the temptation to buy from the black market.

Some bots were in the business of selling farms, which is when we saw all the different farms with all the machines and other areas (fishing, town, derby) wrapped up like presents. I have not seen such farms lately, so I wonder if this market has been changed or destroyed -- or is it still active, but with the farms being marketed to sellers without the joy of opening all those presents?

What is the primary product the bots sell? Is it farms or gold or EMs -- or all of the above? Therein lies the keys to their markets, and strategies to disrupt those markets should flow from there.

Honestly, I don't find these bots to be that big a deal. Yea, they're in the DD selling wheat but in no way are they affecting my gameplay. I probably bought a bunch of wheat from a lot of them since all I'm looking for are cheaply priced wheat. Nick reassured us that buying from a bot farm will not get us banned so I keep buying away. Even before the last bot sweep, I was a frequent shopper at these farms. The hysteria is coming from players not knowing whether certain interactions with these bot farms will get them in trouble. As long as u play game the right way and know u have done nothing wrong, these bots, as annoying as they are, shouldn't be a concern for players.

SC will eventually catch up to these bots but it might be a while before they do. SC eliminated them once before, I'm sure they can do it again. If not, hire an army

[Plummy]

I'm aware of how the screenshot and reporting works. I'm not sure how inclined I am to quit playing and do this 10 times a day. 😳

I think was more interested in knowing if other players were starting to see the 10 corn for 2 coins on a farm with no name song.

Now see, you bring up an ingenious point about eliminating them that I should have thought of myself!

Definately wheat for 2 coin that may be an indicator, Plummy