What is cloning and why is it considered cheating?
There are two acts which are referred to as cloning.
The first is siring other vampires without actually inviting additional players, by simply signing up several vampires oneself, or getting one friend to sign up several vampires. If one does this for the blood bonus, this is cloning, and will be penalised.
The other form of cloning is when a single player controls several vampires, and uses them as a team in any way. "Acting as a team" includes, but is not limited to, occupying a square to capacity, pooling resources, ganging up on other players and 'combined robbing' (where if one vampire finds a rich target for thievery, the clones also immediately rob the same target).
Clones (multiple vampires controlled by a single player) are allowed, provided they do not act as a team.
The penalties for disallowed cloning activities vary based on the severity of the offense and how clearly the evidence points to clones being in use. If the evidence strongly indicates clones then all of the vampires involved will be deleted. Deleted vampires can each be reinstated for 10 donation credits (more if they have been caught cheating before), but will still lose, at an absolute minimum, any items, blood or coin gained from the cloning activities.
Note, if several people are playing from the same computer they may be detected as clones, thus it is best if players sharing a computer also avoid acting as a team.
Additional note - some players in clans have expressed concern over having a 'banker vampire' or treasurer in their clan, and whether this will be considered cloning. The answer can be extrapolated from the above - provided none of the vampires giving money to the banker vampire, or receiving money from it, are on the same computer as it, it is okay. One exception - if the clan contains clones of another player, all of whom give money to the banker, that is cheating on the part of the player with the clones, and the banker may lose the exact amount of coin given to them by the clones (since those coins shouldn't have existed). The banker will not be additionally penalised, as they are not responsible for other players' cheating.
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