The greatest issue in here is that Utopian players have, at best, a very relaxed attitude towards cheaters. I mean, c'mon! Half this forum is filled with known traders, x-loggers et al., whom as blatant cheaters (Hi, Catwalk!) should be deleted.... but they're not.

People also fail to report cheaters ingame, most of the time. Kings asking newbies to relinquish their accounts should be reported, but if you do that you lose a team player - so cheating is, in a way, encouraged by the very way Utopia is played, and the way it's meant to be played. Most new players don't know they can report cheaters, too. Add to this that detecting cheating out of your KD is pretty hard, and you're wound up with a situation just like this one: Cheaters are famous players, instead of getting treated like the scum they are.

Now, while all the solutions proposed by the threadmaker have the best of intentions, they're clearly and obviously wrong. I don't play from a static IP - I don't even always play from the same country! And I have never, ever cheated. So forth with the other suggestions. What I think it's needed here is a change of attitude from us, the player community, towards known cheaters. We need to let newbs know that they can report fellow cheating KDmates, and the assurance that this is the best for the KD - though this, arguably, is pretty hard to implement. It's hard to lose a player nowadays.

We also need ways to protect new people from being bullied into surrendering their account info. Having an static e-mail (or two, in case of emergencies) is a great idea, that curtails traders from landing into an account, without being as radical, or taking down innocent people. I also suggest here a way to let the Utopian Lords protect new players from their own KD, in some sort of "Report bully" (please, think of a better name) option - not only protecting those provinces, but eventually punishing the aggressive provinces. Yeah, they might leave, but does this game need people who don't let other people play? And this would not only solve this problem, but also the issue of having new players leaving the game inmediatly, just because their KD doesn't like them. Is this unfair for top KDs, who'll be forced to train a new guy instead of getting an experienced player? Yeah, whatever - but it's Utopian spirit, so tough luck. And it sure beats reshuffling, right?

And also, a swifter response from the "Report Cheaters" utility is needed. Out of the three or so times I've used it, only once I got a reply, and it just consisted of "it appears that the message (on the KD forum) was deleted" (I reported my KD because he asked for accounts to trade). While I realize Blake is only human, and I appreciate that I got an answer, it would be much better if players - specially new players, who don't access these forums - knew they're being heard, even if it's just a retarded complaint (Like "omg xlogger" because you did 20 attacks in two hours - hey, it happens). And it would be nice for Swirve, or OMAC, or whoever is responsible, to keep a tab on KDs that get reported too often, even if accusations are false - because, y'know, maybe it's not that they're false, but only that there are no proofs. And I'm not talking about punishing anybody in here until there are, actually, some proofs - but y'know, keep an eye on suspicious guys.

And finally, either a more conservative approach to threads that approve of trading, or (what would be better, imho) a stance on this grave issue. And us all understanding that trading IS cheating, as far as things are nowadays, and treating it as such.

That's it.