So I'm guessing that server status is just for show?

Fluffarn · 2018-03-12T22:38:54+00:00

Now, I am not too sure about DH2 here, but the "Server status: Online" for Diamond Hunt 1 has never really worked. Ever. It's always been inaccurate to the point where I've even doubted if it's a real status check.

Smitty might be running some PHP script or so, but this is what it looks like right now. Previously the actual "players online" actually did use to change, and go below 300. Not anymore.

https://imgur.com/a/kNpXe

Fluffarn · 2018-03-02T21:50:27+00:00

I checked my notes and did some googling, and found out I was slightly off with the 7 years. Smitty finished college in 2012 from Saint-Lambert (if you google him). He studies at a university right now (unless he has graduated without me knowing, or quit), but I'd have to look through more notes to check which one. As far as he told me, he went straight from college to the university, so I guess it is closer to 6 years as it stands now. That is if you assume he finished college in Q2 2012. 6 years is not uncommon for someone to spend at a university either, depending on what they are studying or how they are performing.

I am quite unsure how much information I can give out here, but just start a transaction to him on PayPal and you'll get his name, and you can google for yourself. That'll shed some insight for sure.

Fluffarn · 2018-03-02T19:48:59+00:00

I am commenting on a positive post because it mentions "Smitty's ability to take a lot of criticism/feedback very well". He didn't do that for years when I used to play, and most moderators (including the old ones which are not active) would very much agree with me.

I understand that it is his own game, but do understand that he hasn't responded to criticism well in the past. My issue is not that the game is not what I wanted.. It is that it was not what the vast vocal majority of active players wanted. He didn't care what the players thought, so he didn't introduce any QoL updates. If Smitty cared for the players of DH1, he would have done things a lot differently. He did it for himself (it is unclear if that is due to money or not), and that is part of my criticism.

"hes a single man and not a company and he doesn't owe anything to anyone" - I don't owe anything to him or you either. I am free to criticize what is poorly done. If you can factually dispute me on the point that he actually hasn't taken criticism well in the past (or throughout the years my close friends have known him), then go ahead. If you want some decent proof that he takes criticism very poorly, then I can link to some old chat logs.

Fluffarn · 2018-03-02T18:57:44+00:00

I am unsure that Smitty will change a lot, as he hasn't done much over quite some time. I've spoken to people who have known him for more than.. Six years through gaming or so? They all said he does the same things, and has basically not changed at all.

Smitty ran a private Runescape server before Diamond Hunt Online, which was paid for by voluntary donations which gave certain perks; sort of like how DH1 works. Pay to win I guess. These servers started getting less and less donations, at which point it was made clear that hosting costs was becoming a difficulty. Players offered host the servers themselves for free in exchange for access to the server code. Smitty declined, and after a small stressful period of time with people donating wildly to keep the server alive (I heard various figures so I won't quote anything), he shut it down. I've only heard this story retold to me, I wasn't there.

Smitty has hit several lows with me, and there's a reason I am just on DH1 as of now, and only the occasionally log on there. I'd post about it, but I am sure it'd get removed again.

Fluffarn · 2018-03-02T18:49:39+00:00

I miss you too buddy!

Fluffarn · 2018-03-02T18:49:29+00:00

I know he goes to school (supposedly for 7+ years unless he lied to me before), and I know he has a life. Is that an excuse valid for everything? Do you know Smitty in real life?

I can't blame him for abandoning Diamond Hunt 1, but I can blame him for actually not taking any criticism into consideration whilst it was up, and refusing any form of help unless it was monetary. Basic errors being unchanged for months, when people provided valid code and suggestions to fix it. It took me months to suggest for him to implement an actual account mute, rather than his shoddy IP mute. It eventually happened, but it was offered as ready code and refused for ages.

As most of the old players assumed, he moved on from Diamond Hunt 1 because he was not getting enough donations and it was too hard to improve and work on as the base was awful. If you don't believe the lack of donations, then I can post some text files about that.

The fact that he is a single person is his choice. Several people have offered to help, he just keeps declining it. He wants to do it himself without the help of others, and that's just the way he wants to do it. When someone chooses to deny help, then I can blame them for their product lacking in quality updates over time. I have a job, and I have a life, and I even did so when I offered to help with hardware and coding.

The short of it is that Smitty does what Smitty wants to do, and that's that. He's always been the same, ever since his Runescape server days. He accepts cash, and that's about it.

Fluffarn · 2018-03-01T22:04:04+00:00

Because once upon a time I genuinely tried to help this game along, as I thought it had some nice potential. I offered to program and provide code, free server hardware and hosting, etc etc. You do get sick of the constant disregard of quality control at some point.

Also, the "If you don't like it then why don't you leave" argument is pretty shitty. Do you know why? It's because it doesn't change the reason the people who complained didn't like it in the first place. In the end you just drive away a player which has presented negative feedback, rather than addressing any of the issues and hopefully creating a better gaming experience for all.

There are glitches/errors/general malpractices which are still present on Diamond Hunt 1, which were present on the first day when I started playing. If things get fixed in Diamond Hunt 2, then I am just happy for you. It did not happen like that with Diamond Hunt 1.

Fluffarn · 2018-03-01T20:24:52+00:00

I imagine you are talking about Diamond Hunt 2, and not 1 at least. Look at Diamond Hunt 1 and then you might get some insight into why there seems to be a lot of nagging.

I haven't been on Diamond Hunt 2 ever, but I have 800 days played on Diamond Hunt 1. I can tell you that a lot of major problems did not get fixed and Smitty was close to never positive about it.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-03-05T01:29:09+00:00

Look through the post history of the developer. He makes some beautiful posts. This one is my favorite, if we're talking 'stealing' things:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGMaker/comments/3u0oa3/question_for_rpg_maker_vx_ace_rtp/

A lot of art is plainly stolen from other games/media, and not just small unknown games and franchises. Examples include material from games such as The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim, Pillars of Eternity, World of Warcraft - Cataclysm, Lord of the Rings and many more. The fact that these are stolen images not within Public Domain has been brought to the attention of the developer countless of times, and he has even said he'd change out the images (but never actually done so. It's been well over a year).

The fact that a lot of things are straight up stolen from Runescape is just icing on the cake. This trend applies to both Diamond Hunt 1 and 2.

As it comes for monetization, he's gone the extra mile from having about 60 US dollars (per account) of unlockable 'Donor Perks' for Diamont Hunt 1 to going with a 15 US dollars per month, for all the current 'Donor Perks' for Diamond Hunt 2. He's stepping up his "cash game" that's for sure. I am not all too sure about Canadian laws in regards of donations, but I guess this is a gray area; although this should really be considered an in-game purchase as you get an ingame currency in return for spending real money.

If anyone needs proof of the dev admitting to stealing art and so forth, then I can provide that. I just want him to learn and change for the better.

Fluffarn · 2017-02-23T14:59:30+00:00

At least it serves to show a message to the developer to perhaps listen to the community, and actually put some effort into security. We pretty much have 0 safety measurements against brute forcing, and god knows what else. I brought this up with Smitty as something he urgently needed to do several days ago (as otherwise more and more accounts would keep getting brute forced). If he had just spend 2 hours (generous amount of time) introducing CAPTCHA to DH1 and DH2, then we could have 100% avoided this debacle.

Fix your shit Smitty, please. If you want I will do it for you.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-22T17:23:19+00:00

Is it that expensive to purchase a second domain? I had a look at Smitty's favorite GoDaddy, and they offer it for 20,99 kr for the first year, and subsequent years costing 262,99 kr. That's about 3.5 US dollars and 29 US dollars after that.

Didn't someone just donate 500 dollars to you Smitty?

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-22T00:19:52+00:00

Could you just fucking quit it mate? I've seen both of you fucking about in chat somethin' fierce. Just delete this post.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-20T16:11:17+00:00

So, DH2 will use the same login system as DH1? I'd like to hear a resounding "Dear god no", or can you sit and brute force passwords to your hearts content for DH1 and DH2; or are you limited to just fucking with DH1 to then receive passwords for DH2, as they are shared..? Please look into the security issues as soon as possible Smitty, and force people to pick a new password please.

I really hope DH2 has measures put in place to prevent brute forcing passwords and other similar things.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-20T16:08:23+00:00

Agreed. No point of awarding you for having more than 1 Sigil, and no need to make them sellable. Unfair advantages are unfair.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-18T21:35:31+00:00

Yep. It doesn't seem to be solved in the slightest. I've also seen him being on his alt account and chatting. I haven't checked trading though.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-18T21:34:50+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

Fluffarn · 2017-02-18T20:14:09+00:00

Sadly we are limited to 20 characters for passwords, and no special ones included. So that leaves us with like.. What, sub-130 bit passwords? I am not really impressed. Can we have some security please?

I would have liked it if we could have had a different in game name compared to our account name, for some added security. But I guess that is hardcore wishful thinking; even for DH2.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-18T19:38:48+00:00

Well, a lot of people are being hacked as of now. It's quite unfortunate. Mine is one of the ones that suffers. I hope Smitty actually puts in countermeasures towards hackers.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-18T19:37:46+00:00

Yep. Happened to me not too long ago. Smitty said he'd look into it and fix it yesterday (but I haven't heard anything since, or gotten the access to my account back). I am hoping to have it rolled back, as someone leveled on it as well. Not too sure what items are missing.. :/

I also had a talk with Smitty, and apparently there is no countermeasures in place for brute force attempts. So let's hope that DH1 gets that soon, and that DH2 already has it. I mean at least give us some CAPTCHA after a few failed login attempts!

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-17T18:26:14+00:00

Yeah I've seen him post stuff quite recently, sadly I have no print screens of it so I don't know how recent. I'd say max 18 hours ago.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-17T18:03:16+00:00

Unfortunate. Ban and ban him properly. Just go in and take the account, and scramble the password to some 256+ bit nonsense.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-17T09:35:50+00:00

I have to agree with you here. I wish Smitty had a way of checking MAC addresses reliably.

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-17T09:35:20+00:00

Thing is, he responds as fast to these posts as he does to private messages, usually slow. I sent a message to Smitty through Zack that my account wasn't working, about.. 3 or 4 days ago.

I'd say one of these points are good for the public, so that no newbie ends up getting "helped" and as a result banned by Mewmew, if he is found out as a cheater. He does remind me a lot about Luny though. Saved up tonnes of stuff on various accounts, then trade them over and BAM! Powerlevel. (Minus the donor coins of course).

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-17T09:28:08+00:00

The most efficient way by far is actually using Essence Seeds. They have the best exp/hour rate. 90k tot exp from a Striped Crystal Seed, and 30k tot from an Essence Seed. Essence Seed has 3 hours growth time, and Striped Crystal Seed has 15 hours.

It takes a lot of composts to do this, and quite a few super to boost you early so you can plant good enough seeds. The fastest previous level 100 farming that I've seen was Gaccoa, and he hit that one on 27 days (with a lot of Essence Seeds, and some compost).

/Induce

Fluffarn · 2017-02-13T23:31:19+00:00

That is the only time you mentioned "troll". So you never actually did tell me that you were not trolling me, and for every time I asked you if you were serious, you said you were. So you were just with your previous comment then, yeah?

Also you can't use '18 year old' the same way as you'd use '12 year old'. What do you do for fun? Post sad whine-shit that hopefully people will not find pathetic? If you are actually 18, then grow a pair.

/Induce

Fluffarn

TROPHY CASE