This is a very sad day for me, and in fact the IAmPicard tool helped breathe life back into the game for me. I went from a f2p player who was barely playing the game (maybe logging in once/twice a day to collect my daily rewards) to actually checking in on the game multiple times a day and regularly buying/using dilithium.
I mostly used the 'Needed Equipment' and 'Mission' functions (and occasionally looked at the 'Voyage' function so that I had some good suggestions of which personnel to pull out of cryo to optimize said voyages.)
With the end of this tool, I'm probably going to be going back to not spending much time/money on this game anymore.
Ultimately, I came here to say that this was an awesome tool and that increased my enjoyment and engagement in the game, and I will miss IAmPicard.
Thanks IAMPICARD for your many months of hard work for a community of people who have ultimately let you down. One of the saddest part is that reading some of the most negative comments it is clear the writers have not even read the information your provided with the tool on how it worked and your communications with DB.
I think that the overall saddest part though is that despite your tool being used by thousands of STT players, encouraging many of them to play when they would have given up, there has been no comment from Disruptor Beam.
Surely it would not have interfered with your assessment of IAP to have provided a few comments to correct some of the more ill informed negative comments and abuse of the author? For example that he had corresponded with you during development to ensure it did not conflict with terms of use. Confirming that the post and link about the tool had been left on the forums to show your consent rather than your ignorance. Then maybe there could have been discussion without abuse. @Shan
Yes, DB. An official word from you could have possibly prevented real world actions (him being threatened, doxxed & who knows what else). You seem perfectly capable of coming to a decision & taking action when it's in your interest (case in point, the Cadet adwarp bug) but then there are those times that you just don't seem to care.
[DCC] bebe
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
If it’s true that people used Iampicard to cheat, that is justification in itself for removing the program.
DB didn't remove IAP, the author did because he was getting harassed, threatened, & worse.
[DCC] bebe
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
If it’s true that people used Iampicard to cheat, that is justification in itself for removing the program.
There was no way to cheat via the tool that I was aware of
And if there was, would you want people to post it on a forum so others could take advantage, or to tell DB so they could try to evaluate the situation and take steps to solve the problem.
If it’s true that people used Iampicard to cheat, that is justification in itself for removing the program.
There was no way to cheat via the tool that I was aware of
And if there was, would you want people to post it on a forum so others could take advantage, or to tell DB so they could try to evaluate the situation and take steps to solve the problem.
If there was an exploit it would have been widely known.
And a word on the people using it to cheat: the people doing that would have forked the application on Github & modified it. They likely still have their source code, and will continue to use it to cheat. Shutting down IAP, while understandable due to the abuse aimed at the author, does not fix the issue that there are players who will continue to cheat on this game.
A sad morning for me. I checked the game to collect my voyage and shuttles. Run a couple cadets and arenas then went to my browser to start a new voyage check out the “needed equipment” so I could decide what to farm. And what did I find but a message saying IAmPicard has been removed. It will be missed, I doubt DB will ever ad the automation to voyages but a better interface to know what equipment is needed would be very helpful.
I have been playing since early 2016 and I only discovered this tool yesterday...I am shocked to hear that the creator has been vocally attacked. In this day and age we should all be more mindful of what we say and how we treat each other.
In this sense, I want to join the other reasonable voices here. Je suis Picard
Losing the app is disappointing, but nothing compared to how I feel about the members of this community who took it upon themselves to prosecute this campaign against IAmPicard and went so far as to dox and attack its creator. That behavior is unacceptable in any context, and damn sure in the context of playing a damn game.
There was no malicious intent behind the app. It was devised as a supplement to spare players the tedium of developing and maintaining their own meticulous spreadsheets in order to make better informed game playing decisions. That's it. Judas priest on a pony, the most scandalous thing it did was spare users sitting through a few seconds of animations in the Gauntlet. Oh, the injustice!
And, yes, shame on DB for remaining so silent. This was not a small thing tucked inside a thread on page 7. This has all played out over myriad threads for months now. Any public statement made needs to go beyond "Doxxing and abusing is against TOS, please don't do it". And if the IAP creator sees fit to report any of the people who did these things, I expect DB to take appropriate action. I wholeheartedly support the banning and closing of accounts of any such participants.
(And, no, I don't include in that players who only raised questions about the app or voiced apprehensions about how it might be exploited, etc. That's not the same as sending vicious private messages, let alone doxxing.)
This is my first time ever posting on the forums, but my appreciation for the IAmPicard tool and all the time and work the creator put into it just couldn't go without saying. I am truly saddened by this turn of events that have now caused such a wonderful tool that made the game better for so many of us to now be gone. That a community based on Star Trek which is based on acceptance could do this is appalling to me.
The IAmPicard tool helped make the game worth playing for me, and without it my remaining days playing STT are numbered. For however much longer I am in the game, I too will show my support of the creator's hard work and fly the [IAP] tag.
Thank you again from a loyal user of the now missed IAmPicard tool. LLAP
I used the tool sparingly, because I mostly play on my phone and the interface was... not ideal. But I learned things from it, particularly about voyage crew selection, that have helped me even though I didn’t use it much.
The abuse its creator received is unacceptable and should draw bans.
My fear — justified or not — is that with Tekman no longer working on it, the work of updating it will pass entirely on to those who know how to exploit it to cheat. And I doubt that game updates will deter them — if one community dev could keep up with the client updates, there are certainly others that can.
All of which — DB’s silence on the matter, which led to the dev’s doxxing and mistreatment; their weak and inconsistent response to cheaters; the existence within the community of those who used the tactics of personal destruction against someone who was just trying to make the game better — leads me to the resolution that I will no longer spend money on the game, and will probably soon stop altogether. I’m going hard in the paint on the current event, but it will be the last time I do that.
I strongly recommend the owner of iampicard to open up a case with the cyber-crimes division of the police of where he/she is located and damn well expect DB supply any information they have on the perpetrators of the illegal activities of threats and abuse, and the despicable behaviour of doxing.
Thank you for your contribution to our community and I will sorely miss the app.
Typical "Internet Hard-Man" behaviour at its worst. The creator of iampicard did nothing wrong here. A lot of hard work spent trying to help others has been thrown in the trash now because of a few cowards who wouldn't threaten or intimidate in person...
I had heard of the app some time ago, but ironically only tried it for the first time two days ago. The suggestions it made for populating Voyage crews and Gauntlet were very handy as it condensed and compiled the stats into one source. It didn't run the game for me, nor did it give me an advantage in this event, so it came as quite a surprise when it was all gone this morning.
If it were in breach of TOS, I'm fairly sure that DB would have stamped on it a long time ago, so what it all boils down to, from my personal perspective, is this...
A number of self entitled 'people' have decided that they don't like iampicard and from their own anonymous little part of the internet, have launched attacks on this poor guy, to the point where he's given up fighting the abuse and has decided to take the whole thing offline.
Now maybe I'm getting too old for all this pathetic Internet bravado or maybe it's just offending my sense of decency, but old-fashioned or not, one of the things that always attracted me to the whole ethos of Star Trek was the concept of inclusion and fair play and treating people properly. It's something that, right or wrong, I put a lot of stock in... And all this just feels wrong.
Well, something that was made to help and assist people in exploring this game has now been lost.
Well done. You don't deserve to play a game like this.
Thank you @TekmanRO for all you've done. I am glad I was able to contribute some small amount via Patreon while iampicard lasted. It was worth so much to me. I used it every day, and I will miss it.
In addition to my post in the other thread: @Shan DB is awfully quiet. If something like this happens on the doorsteps of your game, at least make a clear statement. Maybe I missed something, in that case I stand corrected.
Thank you for your hard work. I appreciated it immensely. It will be missed.
Don't sweat the exploiters. They come in all shapes, sizes and systems. Remember them, but don't waste much time on them.
Get some legal advice on being dox'd and threatened, especially if it exposed you to risk or financial damage (real or potential). Reddit.com/r/legaladvice
DB reach out to this person and have a conversation. Work something out.
Put your paetron back up for a few more days. Perhaps some of us regret not donating.
Unfortunately the Github repository has been removed too, which makes it harder to adapt the tool for new client versions (the commit history is gone too). I re-uploaded both his repos at I Am Picard tool and API description and am trying to find out how to upgrade the tool when a new version comes out. This is not my area of expertise (I'm more of a C++ / Java developer) so I'm not sure how long that will take.
Once again, DB takes a game I used to enjoy playing, makes it more mediocre with every update, and then takes away a really helpful tool that helped those of us who can't spend (waste?) tons of money on a game. Meanwhile, whales keep on being whales, cheaters keep cheating through numerous other means, and the rest of us will just sit around falling further and further behind in events.
Even with the hundreds of crew I've immortalized through grinding my way through this game, I find myself falling further and further behind with every update. I can't even break the 350k mark in some events anymore.
Tough to get enough chrons...getting enough honor to get the fourth copy of a super rare is a real pain the a**, and forget about saving up 50k for a fifth legendary. DB can't even be decent enough to offer the potential of receiving five copies of a legendary over the course of a month long event.
I don't mine doing the work to earn it, but now, unless you're willing to waste **tsk tsk** tons of money on this game, there's no real path forward. Honestly, I stick around, at this point, for my fleet, which is an amazing group of fun and honest players. Let's hope that's enough...we know DB doesn't care.
And shame on those pathetic people who threatened the creator of iampicard...so tough behind your keyboards.
Comments
I mostly used the 'Needed Equipment' and 'Mission' functions (and occasionally looked at the 'Voyage' function so that I had some good suggestions of which personnel to pull out of cryo to optimize said voyages.)
With the end of this tool, I'm probably going to be going back to not spending much time/money on this game anymore.
Ultimately, I came here to say that this was an awesome tool and that increased my enjoyment and engagement in the game, and I will miss IAmPicard.
Yes, DB. An official word from you could have possibly prevented real world actions (him being threatened, doxxed & who knows what else). You seem perfectly capable of coming to a decision & taking action when it's in your interest (case in point, the Cadet adwarp bug) but then there are those times that you just don't seem to care.
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
In your support, since DB has done nothing to protect you - STT is now deleted from my phone.
The only way I can play it is through Steam and I rarely use Steam.
STT was my only game on the phone and it is my only game on Steam.
There was no way to cheat via the tool that I was aware of
DB didn't remove IAP, the author did because he was getting harassed, threatened, & worse.
Privileged to be Admiral of the Great Fleet
Dilithium Causes Cancer, maxed Starbase level 134
Featuring photonic flee free holodecks and
All you can drink Neelix's Even Better Than Coffee Substitute!
And if there was, would you want people to post it on a forum so others could take advantage, or to tell DB so they could try to evaluate the situation and take steps to solve the problem.
[SJ] Yorkster [DB:DB] [IAP]
If there was an exploit it would have been widely known.
Not to steal from a very well-known internet campaign, but suitably germane.... "Je suis Picard!!"
And a word on the people using it to cheat: the people doing that would have forked the application on Github & modified it. They likely still have their source code, and will continue to use it to cheat. Shutting down IAP, while understandable due to the abuse aimed at the author, does not fix the issue that there are players who will continue to cheat on this game.
"We Are Picard" also occured to me...
The internet is a cold harsh place
IAmPicard, you will be missed, LLAP
Perfect. Done.
In this sense, I want to join the other reasonable voices here. Je suis Picard
"Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" is clearly what it should be
There was no malicious intent behind the app. It was devised as a supplement to spare players the tedium of developing and maintaining their own meticulous spreadsheets in order to make better informed game playing decisions. That's it. Judas priest on a pony, the most scandalous thing it did was spare users sitting through a few seconds of animations in the Gauntlet. Oh, the injustice!
And, yes, shame on DB for remaining so silent. This was not a small thing tucked inside a thread on page 7. This has all played out over myriad threads for months now. Any public statement made needs to go beyond "Doxxing and abusing is against TOS, please don't do it". And if the IAP creator sees fit to report any of the people who did these things, I expect DB to take appropriate action. I wholeheartedly support the banning and closing of accounts of any such participants.
(And, no, I don't include in that players who only raised questions about the app or voiced apprehensions about how it might be exploited, etc. That's not the same as sending vicious private messages, let alone doxxing.)
The IAmPicard tool helped make the game worth playing for me, and without it my remaining days playing STT are numbered. For however much longer I am in the game, I too will show my support of the creator's hard work and fly the [IAP] tag.
Thank you again from a loyal user of the now missed IAmPicard tool. LLAP
The abuse its creator received is unacceptable and should draw bans.
My fear — justified or not — is that with Tekman no longer working on it, the work of updating it will pass entirely on to those who know how to exploit it to cheat. And I doubt that game updates will deter them — if one community dev could keep up with the client updates, there are certainly others that can.
All of which — DB’s silence on the matter, which led to the dev’s doxxing and mistreatment; their weak and inconsistent response to cheaters; the existence within the community of those who used the tactics of personal destruction against someone who was just trying to make the game better — leads me to the resolution that I will no longer spend money on the game, and will probably soon stop altogether. I’m going hard in the paint on the current event, but it will be the last time I do that.
Bad situation all around.
Thank you for your contribution to our community and I will sorely miss the app.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
Typical "Internet Hard-Man" behaviour at its worst. The creator of iampicard did nothing wrong here. A lot of hard work spent trying to help others has been thrown in the trash now because of a few cowards who wouldn't threaten or intimidate in person...
I had heard of the app some time ago, but ironically only tried it for the first time two days ago. The suggestions it made for populating Voyage crews and Gauntlet were very handy as it condensed and compiled the stats into one source. It didn't run the game for me, nor did it give me an advantage in this event, so it came as quite a surprise when it was all gone this morning.
If it were in breach of TOS, I'm fairly sure that DB would have stamped on it a long time ago, so what it all boils down to, from my personal perspective, is this...
A number of self entitled 'people' have decided that they don't like iampicard and from their own anonymous little part of the internet, have launched attacks on this poor guy, to the point where he's given up fighting the abuse and has decided to take the whole thing offline.
Now maybe I'm getting too old for all this pathetic Internet bravado or maybe it's just offending my sense of decency, but old-fashioned or not, one of the things that always attracted me to the whole ethos of Star Trek was the concept of inclusion and fair play and treating people properly. It's something that, right or wrong, I put a lot of stock in... And all this just feels wrong.
Well, something that was made to help and assist people in exploring this game has now been lost.
Well done. You don't deserve to play a game like this.
Your tool was a great help to a huge number of people and your work will be missed. Best of luck for your future endeavours.
Live long and prosper.
Yes, do do that.
Even with the hundreds of crew I've immortalized through grinding my way through this game, I find myself falling further and further behind with every update. I can't even break the 350k mark in some events anymore.
Tough to get enough chrons...getting enough honor to get the fourth copy of a super rare is a real pain the a**, and forget about saving up 50k for a fifth legendary. DB can't even be decent enough to offer the potential of receiving five copies of a legendary over the course of a month long event.
I don't mine doing the work to earn it, but now, unless you're willing to waste **tsk tsk** tons of money on this game, there's no real path forward. Honestly, I stick around, at this point, for my fleet, which is an amazing group of fun and honest players. Let's hope that's enough...we know DB doesn't care.
And shame on those pathetic people who threatened the creator of iampicard...so tough behind your keyboards.