They'll already have a good idea of who exploited and how much especially with some of them livestreaming their exploiting, right now though they have to consider damage control as well as punishment.
This, but one of the very big problems with this situation is alot of the exploiters have laundered their ill gotten gains, and made it very difficult to track. So yes, one of their accounts may get banned, but given that this is a f2p game, it's sounding like alot of the exploiters set up mule accounts to make a complicated trail. The fact that Cryptic gave about 12 hours notice on the downtime didn't help, that made the exploiters aware that they needed to close up shop and start covering their tracks.
The game does not need to do a full wipe or a rollback.
We (accounts,characters, etc...) reside on a database. It is easy to develop a query that looks for key indicators. Then the records (accounts, characters, etc...) can be modified as needed. They can rollback, wipe, delete, update what ever records they choose.
That's why they're looking inside the account logs, searching for acts against ToS and similar ones...
I will not be surprised if actual offenders have action taken against them, with no effort made to rollback ill-gotten gains. That might turn out to be the least painful, least resource-intensive option.
Fare you well
Let your life proceed by its own designs
Nothing to tell
Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine ...
This, but one of the very big problems with this situation is alot of the exploiters have laundered their ill gotten gains, and made it very difficult to track. So yes, one of their accounts may get banned, but given that this is a f2p game, it's sounding like alot of the exploiters set up mule accounts to make a complicated trail. The fact that Cryptic gave about 12 hours notice on the downtime didn't help, that made the exploiters aware that they needed to close up shop and start covering their tracks.
Exploiters/offenders can't do anything about their account logs, the trails to their illicit acts still there.
Exploiters/offenders can't do anything about their account logs, the trails to their illicit acts still there.
That's not what I'm saying. I should've gone into more detail, but it's kind of hard to sum up quickly. They could launder the AD through the AH, and when they're buying items from Accounts with low amounts of AD, it'll be hard to discern whether it's an honest player selling something, or a mule account. I know they can't hide their logs, but they can split up their fortune and still get away with an account or 2 with a good chunk of AD on each. A couple live streamers were talking about it, and I'm sure alot of the people who were mimicking said live streamers followed suit
That's not what I'm saying. I should've gone into more detail, but it's kind of hard to sum up quickly. They could launder the AD through the AH, and when they're buying items from Accounts with low amounts of AD, it'll be hard to discern whether it's an honest player selling something, or a mule account. I know they can't hide their logs, but they can split up their fortune and still get away with an account or 2 with a good chunk of AD on each. A couple live streamers were talking about it, and I'm sure alot of the people who were mimicking said live streamers followed suit
That's why i do not support exploiters like Kripp "doushebag". People like him should be banned from all launched MMO for ruining honest players games.
That's why i do not support exploiters like Kripp "doushebag". People like him should be banned from all launched MMO for ruining honest players games.
I concur. Exploiters are bad enough, but when you detail everything so many more people follow suit, you're pretty much intentionally destroying a game
I concur. Exploiters are bad enough, but when you detail everything so many more people follow suit, you're pretty much intentionally destroying a game
Agreed, it doesn't matter how much you're claiming to be helping the game, publicly showing exploits, especially in video form, always results in more people using the exploit.
If you want to livestream an exploit to show Cryptic how it's done, set it up as a private stream. Anything else is just being a troll.
It should be a public witch trial otherwise nothing will stop the continued exploiters from doing their thing.
And nothing would drive legitimate players away faster than the fear that if they accidently use an exploit, that they'll be publicly humiliated in front of everyone.
Like I said earlier in the thread, Cryptic needs to do Damage Control and do it correctly.
That's not what I'm saying. I should've gone into more detail, but it's kind of hard to sum up quickly. They could launder the AD through the AH, and when they're buying items from Accounts with low amounts of AD, it'll be hard to discern whether it's an honest player selling something, or a mule account. I know they can't hide their logs, but they can split up their fortune and still get away with an account or 2 with a good chunk of AD on each. A couple live streamers were talking about it, and I'm sure alot of the people who were mimicking said live streamers followed suit
How many mule accounts can you make? And if they have moved more than a few items to a mule account it will be obvious. Same thing with AD - if they bought worthless items with their main account for huge sums of AD it again will be easy to track down. If they bought hundreds of items for lower amounts of money from the same seller again it is obvious.
If Cryptic wanted to track down and ban the major exploiters it wouldn't be difficult, as most of the searching could be programmed. You would only need a real person to review the amount of AD/items going in and out of accounts and if it is ridiculous take action. Thing is I don't see Cryptic bothering to even do this.
Agreed, it doesn't matter how much you're claiming to be helping the game, publicly showing exploits, especially in video form, always results in more people using the exploit.
If you want to livestream an exploit to show Cryptic how it's done, set it up as a private stream. Anything else is just being a troll.
And nothing would drive legitimate players away faster than the fear that if they accidently use an exploit, that they'll be publicly humiliated in front of everyone.
Like I said earlier in the thread, Cryptic needs to do Damage Control and do it correctly.
You can accidentally execute a exploit, we can forgive that and your name shouldn't be mentioned, but if you keep executing it, you should be ashamed and the community should know the type of people you are
In fact I disagree with this PWE naming and shaming politics. People should know about dishonest ones who they can lead with someday
Doesn't work as sadly people will just abuse the system. I like to think (perhaps incorrectly) that PWE does actually bother to check up on the info on the more game-wreaking name and shame threads, but their policy of removing such threads is sensible. (And I am a pretty harsh critic of most of Cryptic's recent decisions.)
So OP ... which murderers got sentenced last week, how about how many police reports were filed in your area for assault ... how about larceny?
What you don't know? So those crappy policemen must be doing nothing but eating donuts rights?
The next thing you know, you'll be talking about Hitler and <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> comparisons. I'm not Hitler .. WHY CANT I PLAY THIS GAME!!
How many mule accounts can you make? And if they have moved more than a few items to a mule account it will be obvious. Same thing with AD - if they bought worthless items with their main account for huge sums of AD it again will be easy to track down. If they bought hundreds of items for lower amounts of money from the same seller again it is obvious.
If Cryptic wanted to track down and ban the major exploiters it wouldn't be difficult, as most of the searching could be programmed. You would only need a real person to review the amount of AD/items going in and out of accounts and if it is ridiculous take action. Thing is I don't see Cryptic bothering to even do this.
I'm not sure how many mule accounts you can make, I wasn't one of the exploiters, just been following what's going on as closely as I can. I'd assume you could probably make as many accounts as you want, as long as you feel like continuing to make dummy email addresses. And it's not too easy to track down if they sell random drop items on the ah from their dummy, and purchase them with the rich account. There's not a guaranteed way to know for sure that the seller was involved or not. It's just a VERY complicated mess. I'm sure they've tried to solve it in their other games, but the exploits usually leave a lasting impression on the economy. That's why I'd really like them to do a wipe while it's feasible. If they take months to route it out and the game is still shaken by this, wipes won't be an option.
Unless the game is already set up with the right logging AND the right log parsing tools on the server end to make tracking the 'offenders' down easy then the perps will most likely get away with the crime.
PWE will wait a few days after they fix the exploit and see if the economy of the game settles down. If the churn dies down and supply/demand resumes where it was then they will do nothing. Of course the people who went from Gearscore 5000 to 11k+ by doing this will retain all their stuff and still be at the top of the economic food chain able to more easily farm items to sell etc, but the broad impact will not appear to be an issue anymore.
Unless the game is already set up with the right logging AND the right log parsing tools on the server end to make tracking the 'offenders' down easy then the perps will most likely get away with the crime.
They were able to track the average Dilithium income of people on STO, I think they have the tools to track this stuff down if they want.
I'm not sure how many mule accounts you can make, I wasn't one of the exploiters, just been following what's going on as closely as I can. I'd assume you could probably make as many accounts as you want, as long as you feel like continuing to make dummy email addresses. And it's not too easy to track down if they sell random drop items on the ah from their dummy, and purchase them with the rich account. There's not a guaranteed way to know for sure that the seller was involved or not. It's just a VERY complicated mess. I'm sure they've tried to solve it in their other games, but the exploits usually leave a lasting impression on the economy. That's why I'd really like them to do a wipe while it's feasible. If they take months to route it out and the game is still shaken by this, wipes won't be an option.
Consider the time and effort it takes to set up a dummy account and then put items up on the AH from said account. Then you have the main account buying useless items for huge sums of money. Pretty easy to check as every trade on the AH should be logged unless Cryptic is utterly incompetent (oh oh!). If someone is buying a low level gear for 100-1000 times its worth it will be utterly obvious. If they buy several items from the AH at 10 times their worth from the same person that will again be utterly obvious. So it is not an issue of whether Cryptic can track the exploiters down - it is almost certain they can. It is more whether they can be bothered to set up an automated tracking system or have some poor intern do it manually.
Sadly, I don't think they will bother and I certainly don't think they will be willing to suffer the incredibly bad short-term publicity if they do a server wipe.
0
bladeviseMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 21Arc User
Unless the game is already set up with the right logging AND the right log parsing tools on the server end to make tracking the 'offenders' down easy then the perps will most likely get away with the crime.
Yeah, there is no way that the players that listed 20+ purple level 60 items on the auction house yesterday would be suspicious!
I mean, without special logging AND parsing tools to TRACK them DOWN!
..but wait, the ability to read the name of the seller may work!
*Desperately tries to add more DUHHH sauce..*
No no Forum peeps say we needs more parsing and tracking tooools!
*chimp raises hand and points to @mega5pl0it shown as seller of 32 purple level 60 items listed yesterday*
You dirty monkey bastage! *looks sadly at empty Duhh sauce bottle*
Ok so yeah, probably wouldn't be that hard at all for the worst of the exploiters to be found....
Yeah, there is no way that the players that listed 20+ purple level 60 items on the auction house yesterday would be suspicious!
I mean, without special logging AND parsing tools to TRACK them DOWN!
..or wait, the ability to read the name of the seller may work...
People shouldn't be allowed to create a number of accounts greater than the (current number of classes in the game / 2) rounded up. Everyone have rights to have a character from each class, but if a person have more than 3 accounts, Cryptic should investigate. You can cap this using MAC address...Yes you can insert/change another network card or buy another system, but you gain a free headache too...
People shouldn't be allowed to create a number of accounts greater than the (current number of classes in the game / 2) rounded up. Everyone have the right to have a toon from each class, but if a person have more than 3 accounts, Cryptic should investigate. You can cap this using MAC address...Yes you can insert/change your network card or buy another system, but you gain a free headache too...
Alot of games don't do that though, and I think if Cryptic had their way they'd cap you at 1 account, so people wouldn't work their way around buying character slots
0
bladeviseMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 21Arc User
People shouldn't be allowed to create a number of accounts greater than the (current number of classes in the game / 2) rounded up. Everyone have rights to have a character from each class, but if a person have more than 3 accounts, Cryptic should investigate. You can cap this using MAC address...Yes you can insert/change another network card or buy another system, but you gain a free headache too...
..Sentence structure suggests alien or possibly synthetic hybrid organism, RED ALERT!
People shouldn't be allowed to create a number of accounts greater than the (current number of classes in the game / 2) rounded up. Everyone have rights to have a character from each class, but if a person have more than 3 accounts, Cryptic should investigate. You can cap this using MAC address...Yes you can insert/change another network card or buy another system, but you gain a free headache too...
Do you know how quick and easy it is to spoof a mac address? It can be done in seconds.
Comments
That's why they're looking inside the account logs, searching for acts against ToS and similar ones...
Let your life proceed by its own designs
Nothing to tell
Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine ...
Exploiters/offenders can't do anything about their account logs, the trails to their illicit acts still there.
That's why i do not support exploiters like Kripp "doushebag". People like him should be banned from all launched MMO for ruining honest players games.
I concur. Exploiters are bad enough, but when you detail everything so many more people follow suit, you're pretty much intentionally destroying a game
It should be a public witch trial otherwise nothing will stop the continued exploiters from doing their thing.
Agreed, it doesn't matter how much you're claiming to be helping the game, publicly showing exploits, especially in video form, always results in more people using the exploit.
If you want to livestream an exploit to show Cryptic how it's done, set it up as a private stream. Anything else is just being a troll.
And nothing would drive legitimate players away faster than the fear that if they accidently use an exploit, that they'll be publicly humiliated in front of everyone.
Like I said earlier in the thread, Cryptic needs to do Damage Control and do it correctly.
In fact I disagree with this PWE naming and shaming politics. People should know about dishonest ones who they can lead with someday
How many mule accounts can you make? And if they have moved more than a few items to a mule account it will be obvious. Same thing with AD - if they bought worthless items with their main account for huge sums of AD it again will be easy to track down. If they bought hundreds of items for lower amounts of money from the same seller again it is obvious.
If Cryptic wanted to track down and ban the major exploiters it wouldn't be difficult, as most of the searching could be programmed. You would only need a real person to review the amount of AD/items going in and out of accounts and if it is ridiculous take action. Thing is I don't see Cryptic bothering to even do this.
That "naming & shaming politics" is part of the rules for every MMO forum of which I'm aware.
Let your life proceed by its own designs
Nothing to tell
Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine ...
You can accidentally execute a exploit, we can forgive that and your name shouldn't be mentioned, but if you keep executing it, you should be ashamed and the community should know the type of people you are
Doesn't work as sadly people will just abuse the system. I like to think (perhaps incorrectly) that PWE does actually bother to check up on the info on the more game-wreaking name and shame threads, but their policy of removing such threads is sensible. (And I am a pretty harsh critic of most of Cryptic's recent decisions.)
The Naming and Shaming Policy isn't put in place to protect the guilty, it's put in place to stop people from posting stuff like -
My bad
I know there's a lot of MMO who adopt this rule
The next thing you know, you'll be talking about Hitler and <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> comparisons. I'm not Hitler .. WHY CANT I PLAY THIS GAME!!
PWE will wait a few days after they fix the exploit and see if the economy of the game settles down. If the churn dies down and supply/demand resumes where it was then they will do nothing. Of course the people who went from Gearscore 5000 to 11k+ by doing this will retain all their stuff and still be at the top of the economic food chain able to more easily farm items to sell etc, but the broad impact will not appear to be an issue anymore.
They were able to track the average Dilithium income of people on STO, I think they have the tools to track this stuff down if they want.
Consider the time and effort it takes to set up a dummy account and then put items up on the AH from said account. Then you have the main account buying useless items for huge sums of money. Pretty easy to check as every trade on the AH should be logged unless Cryptic is utterly incompetent (oh oh!). If someone is buying a low level gear for 100-1000 times its worth it will be utterly obvious. If they buy several items from the AH at 10 times their worth from the same person that will again be utterly obvious. So it is not an issue of whether Cryptic can track the exploiters down - it is almost certain they can. It is more whether they can be bothered to set up an automated tracking system or have some poor intern do it manually.
Sadly, I don't think they will bother and I certainly don't think they will be willing to suffer the incredibly bad short-term publicity if they do a server wipe.
Yeah, there is no way that the players that listed 20+ purple level 60 items on the auction house yesterday would be suspicious!
I mean, without special logging AND parsing tools to TRACK them DOWN!
..but wait, the ability to read the name of the seller may work!
*Desperately tries to add more DUHHH sauce..*
No no Forum peeps say we needs more parsing and tracking tooools!
*chimp raises hand and points to @mega5pl0it shown as seller of 32 purple level 60 items listed yesterday*
You dirty monkey bastage! *looks sadly at empty Duhh sauce bottle*
Ok so yeah, probably wouldn't be that hard at all for the worst of the exploiters to be found....
You might be on to something here.
Given the run of exploit after exploit and the lackluster response of the developers, I have to assume you are being ironic........
..Sentence structure suggests alien or possibly synthetic hybrid organism, RED ALERT!
Do you know how quick and easy it is to spoof a mac address? It can be done in seconds.