The moment I lost a great deal of respect for GI.

[Dave]

To start with, im furious. Not because of one issue, but because of two. Lets start with the easy one which a lot of people have suffered from - Time Traveling.

Recently I havent been able to see any leaderboards for the Top 100, so today I dropped GI a support message via their website.

Their response left me dumbfounded, but as you can imagine, I have been called a Time-Traveler or in other words, a cheater.

To clear this up, I dont cheat, never have and never will. Nor do I allow talk of it on the forum and have warned a few members in the past because they were advercating cheating. I also spend money on the game. Currently around the £100 mark I would say. Ive also got into the habit recently of purchasing the £22 green triple bonus once a month.

The reason I play on my tablet is because I live in the UK, but travel to France daily to work which is +1 hour. Imagine the problems that would cause! Thats why I use my tablet which is Wi-Fi only and when im not at home the Wi-Fi is off.

The thing is, I can tell you exactly when I got the time travelling message, and that was here >> https://www.airportcitygame.com/thr...d-sunday-this-weekend.7257/page-3#post-101131

Yup, clicking on fuel during a space launch and I got the time traveller message. The one and only time I received it.

So from GI's email it says:

I'm glad to inform you that restrictions can be removed from an account in case the game is blocked for the first time. The standard procedure is that if the game gets blocked for the second time social capabilities are restricted on a permanent basis.

So what do I do now once I unlock my game? Im certainly very very wary of spending any more money incase I get falsely accused again and lose all social aspects of my game. Its left a rather sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, onto my second grip - The Mystery Bonus which was available today.

Spent my hard earned tokens buying one, only to get one that is completly and utterly worthless and pointless - Double Experience points.

Ok, Im level 50 - Theres no higher to get so experience, whether single or double is useless for me. Also, the experience for level 50+ players isnt tracking anyway since the last update, so even if I did use it, even though there would be no reason to, nothing would track!

Politely contacted GI hoping they would see the issue as I did explain it in detail, only to be advised they would pass it onto the developers and would close my ticket!

The very least they could do is return by 10 gold and 500 silver tickets.

Dont know what im more annoyed about, being called a cheat, or being mugged by the Mystery Bonus.

Sorry for the long rant, really needed to get this off my chest.

 

[Gt city]

To start with, im furious. Not because of one issue, but because of two. Lets start with the easy one which a lot of people have suffered from - Time Traveling.

Recently I havent been able to see any leaderboards for the Top 100, so today I dropped GI a support message via their website.

Their response left me dumbfounded, but as you can imagine, I have been called a Time-Traveler or in other words, a cheater.

To clear this up, I dont cheat, never have and never will. Nor do I allow talk of it on the forum and have warned a few members in the past because they were advercating cheating. I also spend money on the game. Currently around the £100 mark I would say. Ive also got into the habit recently of purchasing the £22 green triple bonus once a month.

The reason I play on my tablet is because I live in the UK, but travel to France daily to work which is +1 hour. Imagine the problems that would cause! Thats why I use my tablet which is Wi-Fi only and when im not at home the Wi-Fi is off.

The thing is, I can tell you exactly when I got the time travelling message, and that was here >> https://www.airportcitygame.com/thr...d-sunday-this-weekend.7257/page-3#post-101131

Yup, clicking on fuel during a space launch and I got the time traveller message. The one and only time I received it.

So from GI's email it says:


So what do I do now once I unlock my game? Im certainly very very wary of spending any more money incase I get falsely accused again and lose all social aspects of my game. Its left a rather sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, onto my second grip - The Mystery Bonus which was available today.

Spent my hard earned tokens buying one, only to get one that is completly and utterly worthless and pointless - Double Experience points.

Ok, Im level 50 - Theres no higher to get so experience, whether single or double is useless for me. Also, the experience for level 50+ players isnt tracking anyway since the last update, so even if I did use it, even though there would be no reason to, nothing would track!

Politely contacted GI hoping they would see the issue as I did explain it in detail, only to be advised they would pass it onto the developers and would close my ticket!

The very least they could do is return by 10 gold and 500 silver tickets.

Dont know what im more annoyed about, being called a cheat, or being mugged by the Mystery Bonus.

Sorry for the long rant, really needed to get this off my chest.

I would not loosing any words about Time Traveling message, but i hope GI will fix this soon.
I was also "wrongly accused" about that, but i was able to play the game, only Top100 did not worked, for about 1 year. Then i wrote to GI support, and got same answer message, got a code and after insert it, all works fine. Very happy about that.

I think programmers will do / should do better checking for those who really do cheating. I never did that nor do not want to do that. I want to be honest player and, since i try to support this community here, expect same from others. So hope mr. Ivan and other programmers, with full of great work, they are doing, will try to solve this in (near) future.

About the bonuses: I found out, that sometimes some offers are better to skip. Not that i would not support the game if offers are good. For instance, when Casino came out, i was able to buy one only, i did not have more gold tokens that time. But if i would knew, how valuable it is to have one, i would buy the tokens! But, to buy some bonuses, sorry, no. If i would have a chance to choose which one, yes please, but to get a random and usually, not useful, .... Nope.

@Dave i hope you will get back tokens, otherwise just play it and continue... Soon you will get more tokens again...

 

[Dave]

Thanks GT.

I think it was the part of the message that they let you off the first time, but get caught twice then say goodbye to all your social features. The worry now is that something similar will happen where I get a warning during a space launch and then ive lost probably 75% of the games features.

I understand many many people receive the time travel warning and agree to make the game fairer the coders have to try and stop it. However when innocent players that spend money on the game get caught up in it, I really think it needs looking into.

Regarding bonuses. Some are good, some are bad. I can handle that. But to give me a bonus which serves absolutely no purpose is quite insulting. Either leave that bonus out of the package or code it so anyone above level 50 wont receive it.

 

[flip123]

However when innocent players that spend money on the game get caught up in it, I really think it needs looking into.

It doesn't matter if you spend money.... the fact they call you a cheater while you aren't....

 

[Dave]

It doesn't matter if you spend money.... the fact they call you a cheater while you aren't....

I didn't mean it to come across like that. The point I was trying to make is that if someone has an "investment" in the product, why would they cheat and lose what they have spent.

Likewise, many people dont spend money, but do invest a lot of time and effort into the game.

 

[French Post]

@Dave, I relate completely to your turmoils. I live in France and I'm a flight attendant, so I cross time zones on a daily basis.
I was blocked for time travelling and, clueless and gullible me, I thought it was a game feature such as Space travel !!!
I also spend money on the game and I've told GI support that I'd rather stop playing and spending money if they're going to block me every time I fly (for real).
This time travel problem punishes the honest players as well and that's just not fair. I don't cheat, I spend €€€ on the game, yet they make me feel like a criminal... They've got to do something about this !

I hope you get you tokens back and that we can eventually be neighbors, once this issue is fixed.

Keep faith !

 

[Theo1977]

@Dave I feel you 100%. I travel frequently across the EU and the US and this is why I have been asking GI to loosen up their checks on time travelling and cheating. Especially if it involves players who regularly purchase things with real money. To be called a cheater when you are not is by far the worst. I think they need to carefully revise their check policies and most importantly, stop chasing waterfalls. If someone cheats then s/he will cheat nomatter what and will figure out a way of cheating regardless. Instead of spending all te energy and resourses in catching cheaters, they can at least try and fix some of the bugs...

 

[lfcawc]

@Dave


Keep us updated! I went months wrongly accused and sent I don't know how many tickets...all the same response, saying my actions couldn't be unblocked....never once did I time travel and having spent real money I wasn't gonna give up!

I actually spent some more money last week (I don't even think 96 greens for £7.99 is worth it either...300 greens would be more value of money but that's a side point!)
I do enjoy the game though and like the challenge even though obstacles seem to be in place that can somewhat hinder progress and frustrate but I suppose it ain't meant to be easy..that's why we keep coming back!

 

[Uncle Mans]

@Dave

I don't even pay attention to their "warning" anymore. I don't cheat either, but that seems to be their form letter response. I used to argue with them but it is useless. I think they are just reading off of a script. But I agree 100% that it makes you wonder about spending money on a game that can and might ban you for no (apparent) reason.

 

[Bali Hi]

@Dave,

I have gotten these time traveler warnings ocasionally when I load fuels during space launches (it usually happens when you click on fuel too fast), but so far I have not been blocked.

I reckon your problem is probably due to timezone changes. Is your clock is set to "Automatic date & time"? Could it be the device also resets clocks if they detect time zone change in a nearby wifi??

You should drop Free2play a note to ask him on Game Insight's progress to tackle these "false positives".

 

[Juvenal]

@Dave ,

I feel you.
Paying for some product that accuse us.
That is not right !

 

[greensmith]

@Dave
There's a reason my tag line is "If it's easy ... anybody can do it." I don't think there's anyone on the forum who has been playing AC for a while that hasn't gotten a time-traveler notice from GI. They always say it's to keep cheaters out and even the playing field ... but we play against the game, not each other. What playing field? There's just no logic to why they are doing this. Sometimes we play in spite of GI, just to see if we can progress even though they seem to throw every kind of hurdle at us.
I believe the problem lies in their decision, when creating the game, to put some of the game on our devices and some of the game -- the social aspects -- on their servers. (Most iOS/Android games live entirely on the game servers, which makes cheating -- for typical gamers -- almost impossible.) But since the basic program for AC lives on our devices, it is subject to the clock on our devices. I figured this out when I first started playing two plus years ago and I thought, "Hey, if I send a plane off on a six hour flight ... then set my device clock six hours ahead ... I can land the plane immediately ... then set my device clock back to the original time." I tried it a few times and it worked great. I made sure I was in airplane mode (no WiFi, no cellular data) when I did it so the GI servers would never know. Then I realized that time-traveling in this way made the game too easy; why play a game when you can't lose. Without a challenge, it's a waste of time. So I stopped. I haven't done it since.
Then, about 18 months ago, I flew to Boston to visit my son. I played AC in the terminals on WiFi. I played AC on the plane in airplane mode. After I arrived in Boston I played AC again ... and got the time-traveler notice. I knew how to cheat ... but didn't ... and still got the notice. I was very upset and sent an email off to GI support arguing my case. They gave me a code and I was back playing (the Top 100 portion never returned but I don't particularly care about that). Since then, I close AC completely before I start to travel and don't open it again until a few hours after I land in a new time zone -- the device clock needs time to adapt. So far, so good. But if my game ever gets zapped by GI permanently, I'm outa here. Game over! Yes, I've invested a little real money and a heck of a lot of time in it ... I love a good challenge but I'm not a masochist.
It seems the only way to change the GI time-traveler policy is from the inside. You run the web's number one Airport City player site. You know Ivan, a producer-programmer of Airport City. Perhaps it would be worth starting a personal conversation with him about this problem. It can't hurt.
Just a suggestion.
Cheers,
Tom

 

[Pavolko_Gun]

@Dave I am very sorry to hear you are going through all this crap, it happaned me once and after couple of unpleasant email exchange with GI non-existent customer care decided to give up completely. To be honest, I believe, if you are able to play this game for more than 2 years, you have the right personality they are looking for to become a SEAL. I was many time pretty close to stop, but I convinced myself to fight for a little bit longer. I am damn sure less than 5 percent of players is able to play this game for over one year. It makes even no chance to mention all the unfair changes, crappy features, bugs and not existent support. So if you overcome this you have the soul of warrior and I am proud we are in the same club. We stand till the last blood drop ...

 

[Dave]

Some great advice @greensmith , Will certainly be mulling it all over.

Thank you to everyone else for your comments. Just shows what a wide spread issue this is. Although my ban has been "unlocked" im still unable to view the leaderboards. Someone else mentioned this so seems like its also a common problem.

 

[eat007]

Some great advice @greensmith , Will certainly be mulling it all over.

Thank you to everyone else for your comments. Just shows what a wide spread issue this is. Although my ban has been "unlocked" im still unable to view the leaderboards. Someone else mentioned this so seems like its also a common problem.

I wouldn't mind about the leader boards. That's for time travelers ... Much more important is if you'll get yr tokens back.

 

[Jay J]

I am very sorry that even you, this forum's captain, is accused of false time travelling. As @greensmith and others suggested, communicating with free2play is the best option for you and the game.
I got time travelling warning pop-up messages several times while adding fuel during launches a few months ago, but I just ignored them. Luckily nothing happened afterwards.
I just hope GI & Road 404 do something soon to stop this nonsense of accusing good and honest players of cheating or blocking them, or taking away hard earned tokens.

 

[InCoNvEnIeNtE]

btw, today i got that warning when i was adding fuel in a space launch with portugal, nothing happens but ....

 

[Neil ellor]

To start with, im furious. Not because of one issue, but because of two. Lets start with the easy one which a lot of people have suffered from - Time Traveling.

Recently I havent been able to see any leaderboards for the Top 100, so today I dropped GI a support message via their website.

Their response left me dumbfounded, but as you can imagine, I have been called a Time-Traveler or in other words, a cheater.

To clear this up, I dont cheat, never have and never will. Nor do I allow talk of it on the forum and have warned a few members in the past because they were advercating cheating. I also spend money on the game. Currently around the £100 mark I would say. Ive also got into the habit recently of purchasing the £22 green triple bonus once a month.

The reason I play on my tablet is because I live in the UK, but travel to France daily to work which is +1 hour. Imagine the problems that would cause! Thats why I use my tablet which is Wi-Fi only and when im not at home the Wi-Fi is off.

The thing is, I can tell you exactly when I got the time travelling message, and that was here >> https://www.airportcitygame.com/thr...d-sunday-this-weekend.7257/page-3#post-101131

Yup, clicking on fuel during a space launch and I got the time traveller message. The one and only time I received it.

So from GI's email it says:


So what do I do now once I unlock my game? Im certainly very very wary of spending any more money incase I get falsely accused again and lose all social aspects of my game. Its left a rather sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, onto my second grip - The Mystery Bonus which was available today.

Spent my hard earned tokens buying one, only to get one that is completly and utterly worthless and pointless - Double Experience points.

Ok, Im level 50 - Theres no higher to get so experience, whether single or double is useless for me. Also, the experience for level 50+ players isnt tracking anyway since the last update, so even if I did use it, even though there would be no reason to, nothing would track!

Politely contacted GI hoping they would see the issue as I did explain it in detail, only to be advised they would pass it onto the developers and would close my ticket!

The very least they could do is return by 10 gold and 500 silver tickets.

Dont know what im more annoyed about, being called a cheat, or being mugged by the Mystery Bonus.

Sorry for the long rant, really needed to get this off my chest.

@Dave My Captain tneil game has been blocked for as long as i can remember. Spent money but only got offered a transfer to new game. Not after almost 3 years of time and effort. I am still playing and will not give up on it as long i can progress somehow.
I was wondering am I the only person left still doing this?

 

[Free2Play]

This warning during space launches doesn't do any harm, you are not actually banned - you'd have noticed it by now if you were.
I wouldn't go into detail why it's there in the first place, but it will be altered in one of the future updates, so it doesn't confuse anyone.
As always: if you see something strange, contact a support team (I know it can be tedious).

The experience bonus does what it promises. You have a 20% chance to get one, and if you don't need it at the moment it's always up to you to wait and activate it next time level cap increases if you are at the top level right now and don't need any experience points right away.

 

[Theo1977]

@Dave
There's a reason my tag line is "If it's easy ... anybody can do it." I don't think there's anyone on the forum who has been playing AC for a while that hasn't gotten a time-traveler notice from GI. They always say it's to keep cheaters out and even the playing field ... but we play against the game, not each other. What playing field? There's just no logic to why they are doing this. Sometimes we play in spite of GI, just to see if we can progress even though they seem to throw every kind of hurdle at us.
I believe the problem lies in their decision, when creating the game, to put some of the game on our devices and some of the game -- the social aspects -- on their servers. (Most iOS/Android games live entirely on the game servers, which makes cheating -- for typical gamers -- almost impossible.) But since the basic program for AC lives on our devices, it is subject to the clock on our devices. I figured this out when I first started playing two plus years ago and I thought, "Hey, if I send a plane off on a six hour flight ... then set my device clock six hours ahead ... I can land the plane immediately ... then set my device clock back to the original time." I tried it a few times and it worked great. I made sure I was in airplane mode (no WiFi, no cellular data) when I did it so the GI servers would never know. Then I realized that time-traveling in this way made the game too easy; why play a game when you can't lose. Without a challenge, it's a waste of time. So I stopped. I haven't done it since.
Then, about 18 months ago, I flew to Boston to visit my son. I played AC in the terminals on WiFi. I played AC on the plane in airplane mode. After I arrived in Boston I played AC again ... and got the time-traveler notice. I knew how to cheat ... but didn't ... and still got the notice. I was very upset and sent an email off to GI support arguing my case. They gave me a code and I was back playing (the Top 100 portion never returned but I don't particularly care about that). Since then, I close AC completely before I start to travel and don't open it again until a few hours after I land in a new time zone -- the device clock needs time to adapt. So far, so good. But if my game ever gets zapped by GI permanently, I'm outa here. Game over! Yes, I've invested a little real money and a heck of a lot of time in it ... I love a good challenge but I'm not a masochist.
It seems the only way to change the GI time-traveler policy is from the inside. You run the web's number one Airport City player site. You know Ivan, a producer-programmer of Airport City. Perhaps it would be worth starting a personal conversation with him about this problem. It can't hurt.
Just a suggestion.
Cheers,
Tom

This is precisely how I feel about this game. My knowledge and work skills enable me, if I wanted to, hack the game and cheat. What for? There's no challenge. Its not like I am playing against someone else, neither do I get money or anything from it. So if I can cheat, and basically advance at my own rate through the levels and challenges, why bother? Not to mention that with some of the bugs and the weird drop rates (150 flights to Vienna, at least 130 of them with golden dice bonus, ZERO clavichord drops Q@#%@#) make me want to cheat!

This is why I suggested to Ivan to stop being so tedious on checks about time travelers, and instead focus on those who benefit from it by chasing the top 100 spots. I play to have fun, not to compete in the top 100 lists, so if someone else cheats I could care less, his/her loss, not mine. If anything issue a warning saying that if you do it again we'll ban you from the top 100 contest, and be done with it.

This is a freaking game, not world domination.