@molinillo , those are very easy cases, i think
it's the grey that worries me... players that rely on good timing (but bad luck with the anti-timer) and so may cancel attacks but then resend with imp move and don't cancel, hcs/ attacks that get pulled when players come online or start spelling, etc.
The big spammers could be easily pointed out - uncertain cases would need more analysis, chances are high players wouldn’t risk spam strategies if they would risk ban and there were records.
When you ask someone to prove they got spammed and get 10 reports do you believe them? How long time does it take to find all reports, check how many were against same city, whether it was HC and followed by real attack... players and support have same tool as
@Baudin Toolan posted. I dont’t think the manpower is missing.
cancel/resend technique means you send big attacks, max 5 attempts are followed by a successful or failed attack so that can be more than for a player who uses anchors / improved speed only
flash attackers use small attacks (multiple attacks from same city) most often and let them run longer than few seconds to make sure it alerts the defender but they cancel to avoid any loss
probably only attacks cancelled after 10sec should be counted as ‘cancelled’ and attacks cancelled within 10sec shouldn’t even notify that way timing attempts wouldn’t create a bad record or annoying notifications before the command is final
Worst case scenario is failed timing after more attempts, but then most likely the records would also show successful attacks against same target, therefore Support could assume the purpose was not spam. Lot depends on the ratio of total number of attacks vs. cancelled attacks (guidelines should be set what is abuse).
For example I often look for lightship nukes that have few seconds longer travel time than CS.
I send and cancel these minimum 2 attacks until my CS lands same second like LS nuke. Sometimes I can reach 10 attempts (or that’s when I give it a break). All attacks are big. I assume after X attempts this technique can be tagged unfair and called flash attack since the defender has no chance for bireme frontsnipe and it can get really annoying to trigger the alarm so many times for perfection.
cancelled HCs even if small attacks are sent against different cities, aren’t repeated
support could see how many targets were involved and whether there was repetition on an unwanted level by using filters (attacks against same player or same city)
As for the maths the example was about a 24 hour period.
33 attacks per city max, so player had to send more farming waves, or more flash waves (repeated attacks without final command). I assumed they send 25 farming attacks per city 4 times a day to the same targets (have a farm list and minimum 167 harpies built per city to be able to attack with 5 harpies), while the flash attacker can build only 25 units per city for the same.