Community Forum

I’m using the console and there’s definitely a bot on chris sale all star card that is not being stopped by any restrictions. Putting in lowest sell bid results in near instant undercut by 1. Doesn’t matter what the new bid is or if it’s stupid low. Undercut by 1. However things were set up the last day they were going well imo. I wouldn’t change anything back except not giving restrictions to pack openings and the selling of the pack contents. I noticed some new fans in the comments the last day or so but not too many voices from the past. For me, when then game is working well and I’m not running into problems, I don’t take the time to go on the forums... I think things are headed in the right direction.

Also - meant to say that from pov using console, the market is functioning better then ever. I know the majority of users aren’t weird hyper app users like most in this forum, but I imagine the common user will be very pleased to interact with the market right now if they haven’t been permanently turned off to it from trying in the past.

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS first off - the actions taken in the last week ARE making a huge difference. The majority of the feedback I’m reading is that even when running into unwarranted restrictions, it’s undeniable that bots have been severely crippled. If you guys want to hire that guy who can make the insta-filter, that sounds pretty sweet, but if we are all going to continue in reality, I think a few tweaks to the way things are atm would be beneficial.
I still think a majority of the bad actors can be denied access by restricting the app to legit devices operated by a human. Personally, I’m not sure how that’s done but I imagine there are ways to identify incoming connections as virtual machines or behind VPNs or connections using IMEI against known blacklists. Before thinking of all the things that could change that would suit me personally, I think the restrictions coming on just from navigation the app is too sensitive right now. I understand that loading a page or refreshing a page are all things requiring calls to the api, but those actions should not carry the same weight towards restriction as placing or deleting bids. IMO. I’ve also read some people say they have been restricted in the middle of opening packs and selling the content, that doesn’t seem right. I don’t use the app to open packs myself, but I think people that do open packs in the app, should have an exemption towards restrictions when opening packs and listing the content… in fact, to sum up my current thoughts, navigating the app shouldn’t count towards restrict able behavior. And opening packs and selling that contents should be exempt as well.

BUT - the market has integrity at the moment and that is a big deal.

I have used ps5 in the last couple hours and the marketplace has been smooth sailing from there. I did the use app on iOS for a couple minutes and ran into being restricted pretty quickly. Recently when triggering the restriction error with a cooldown period, I was still able to see the buy/sell page of all items. I never saw a timer or notification of a time limit, just a red pop up saying your account is restricted. I just got that error now, but I was not able to view the buy/sell page of items. It seemed similar to the time I was restricted for a week where I couldn’t view details of items, like trends or completed transactions. After a few minutes I tried again and it worked. From being around the forum for a little, I got the sense that the time I was restricted that I obviously triggered some kind of automated restriction that existed on a level beyond the app. If that makes sense. Like, it seemed like my account was restricted and not being able to use the app was part of that. I think here you’re saying there are restrictions within the app that limit accounts’ interactions with the app. But when people have been restricted for a couple days or longer, I think there is some kind of restriction put in place that is not triggered by the app… does that make sense?

Anyways, for now. On console the marketplace itself seems wonderful. On iOS, I did run into a restriction quickly. I’m sure I’ll run into plenty more. Which is not ideal, but if there’s no bots to compete with, I can get used to the idea of putting in a bid and leaving it.

Diamond dynasty is offline for console the last 45 minutes. The app isn’t the source of the problem. There is nothing to connect with when the game is not working. I’m sure the app will work as soon as the game is reachable again.

Did they push the wrong button?

@VOReason1976_XBL bro, I get it. You’re irritated. I’m sure I’ve replied to you more than once about having the same experience a few weeks ago. I filed a ticket that did not get responded to for a week. When it was replied to, the restriction was already gone. I did not gain any insight on why it happened to me and it was a very upsetting experience. I’m so Sorry you’re going through it atm. But Like I tell my kids, you’re just going to have to have some patients now and that’s all you can do - and there’s nothing I can do either. You’re jumping into every thread trying to make it about your problem. It totally sucks this happened to you. Sucks it happened to me. Sucks when it happens to anybody that doesn’t deserve it. But dude, don’t hijack and derail every thread on the forum, especially ones where there’s actually some interaction with someone who might be able to help with problems that affect more than just you. I don’t mean to be rude, but come on now. I’ve seen tons of folks reply to you that you’re just going to need to be patient and use the console for the marketplace in the meantime. That’s it. Period. The end. I hope it gets resolved for you quickly!

The console does not have restrictions afaik.. at least I have not run into any.

You guys will do what you’re going to do, but before adding more restrictions on normal users, I’d love to see how the marketplace operates if the api refused connections coming from emulators and virtual machines. I’d think there’s more than a couple of ways to identify and block without negatively impacting any legit actors.

I think the initial results from the rate limiting have revealed how heavy the bot activity has been. I know I’m not the only one that appreciates the effort being put into combatting the problem and restoring the integrity of the marketplace.

Wade Boggs st Patrick day card as well. I assume the same bot. 1020pm pt. This is the first time since rate limiting was added that I’ve run into a bot that is able to keep bidding and removing bids far past what should get rate limited… The bots won’t chase below 35k Stubs. The card should have been able to sell higher now but all bids that would be profitable are undercut.

Not sure if these will get followed up on or help - adam Dunn st Patrick card right now 1015pm pt. I have been able to make new bids and remove so bots run into rate limit timeout but this bot is able to continue bidding and erasing.

@SDS_JoeK_PSN Yes, the console marketplace is very slow atm. After entering a bid, there’s a second or 2 where the screen is frozen before registering what you just did, then another few moments to refresh the listings screen before you can select buy/sell or back out of the card. Pulling up card info (triangle) has a longer lag than usual. Also pulling up a card to buy or sell had a longer lag then usual. Theres also a noticeable lag when changing pages with L2/R2, as well as a lag scrolling through listings.

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS thanks for checking in. Couple of thoughts… don’t mean to sound like I’m telling you guys what to do, I’m just thinking out loud about what I’d maybe try to do… identify some accounts using bots, from incoming traffic data, find similarities and trends. Is that account focused on 1 item or is it spread across a few? Are they all or mostly using emulator software? Block access from emulators. Are they using vpn? Block vpns. Maybe you serve a captcha after every 10 bids or deleting bids. I know there’s times I can be using the market on the app for 30 min or maybe more, but maybe if an account is making however many transactions in an hour, the account gets restricted/time out for an hour.

Anyways, just typed out and posting while I had a minute.

I hate playing online and only do when there’s no other way to get a reward I want. Pretty much every ranked game I’ve ever played is like moonshot event - against me. I do enjoy online when I’m matched with someone that doesn’t crush me, but that’s rare. Literally dozens of reasons I prefer offline. I enjoy playing offline and it would be awesome if at least one of the settings included cpu that throws hittable pitches more often. I can appreciate the way the game is, but sometimes, when I play video games, I just want to push the buttons and hit things. Not exercise patience.

There’s definitely some bots back. They don’t react as quickly and are clearly slowed down to avoid restriction pauses. Same behavior with outbidding/undercutting then deleting their bids if you delete yours. I have only noticed them on a few items today. I have not noticed any items that had 100s of buy/sells a minute since Saturday. Clearly a result of limiting bids over time - bravo. Even the greediest of flippers should be able to still accomplish their goals with the limits now in place - as long as there is no competing with bots. This weekend definetly showed there is enough of everything on the marketplace to go around when the bots aren’t sucking everything up. The restriction timeout was a big blow to the bots but you gotta tighten the noose and keep up the fight! Perhaps the next step would be some kind of throttle for the amount of bids for specific items over time. Whatever the next step is, I’m going to get back to playing the game and leave that stuff to you. You can do it!

So…I think the last several hours on the market place have been great. Easily the best it’s been all year. The limited amount of transactions on the app is kinda weird but I’d rather be making a couple of orders successfully instead of dozens in hopes of beating bots. I’d much rather be playing the baseball part of the game instead of the market to get stubs for cards and today is the first time I can realistically see how making a few strategic orders here and there can allow for that. I think all the bots have made a lot of people here borderline insane and thet any haters of these new limitations/restrictions will come around. I’m happy to say for the first time this year that I’m not pissed with sds. Today… thanks and good job!

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS Thank you for getting into this! Everyone here is rooting for you!

The market is usable right now. Lots of cards that have been controlled by bots are winnable at the moment. You can see the effect that bots have had on them. Night and day. Prices have been more or less locked on what the bots parameters are. IF and when the market is functioning this way, imo there is no need to feel like you need to buy and sell things in bulk. Real talk though, the thought to grab what you can while bots are disabled/slow is there.

The reality has been, the market is basically controlled by bots. If you want to flip cards, you’re going to be competing with bots. But if you try to compete with the bots, you will get restricted on the app. Lose/lose situation.

Lots of players, including myself have been caught up in account restrictions, which sucks. But if the bots can be sidelined more often like they are right now, I’d think players wouldn’t interact with the market in ways that resemble bots…

The problem with any new content being added is that it’s being added to the same broken game. Ok, so the game works, most of the time. But it is super F’d. The fact that all these broken things remain while new things get added speaks volumes. Not to mention there’s a 50/50 chance anything added will just add to the list of broken problems that will never be fixed. Arguing over programs needing online play or not just seems so besides the point when the core game needs so much fixing.

Some cards have bots around the clock. Since this last update it seems like they take a break after beating/undercutting you twice. The brief pause has allowed me to win a couple bids on active cards, but equipment and slower moving cards are still impossible to hold a position on unless you refresh listings 24/7. This is probably a result of “marketing throttling” the App Store lists as the main change for the newest app version. Not sure if that’s saying the quiet part out loud but it doesn’t sound like an upgrade. Kinda sounds like a downgrade.

Aye. Players fighting and arguing in the community forum over this is unfortunate. Anyone that comes to this forum with a restricted account should be able to see past threads where people had accounts restricted, how they had to file support tickets, and how long it took to get a reply (Longgggg). SDS has replied to some of those threads even explaining that you should put in a ticket if you think your account was wrongfully restricted.

So if you’re reading this because your account got restricted, I can tell you it happened to me. I filed a ticket. It took 6 days for the restrictions to be lifted. I got a generic reply that was not insightful. Flipping cards in the marketplace is totally allowed and the app exists to help do that. So blaming people for their accounts getting restricted for using the app as intended is not cool.

The whole situation is lame. It’s like athletes are all drug tested even though most don’t use drugs or never will. But then someone gets a false positive result and gets banned. Then everyone is like that person must be on drugs because they are too fast or playing too well. Lame. Ultimately, it’s upto SDS to deal with the bots and it shouldn’t be an issue that players should have to be discussing like this is the forums.