There is another easy way around the review system; the mission itself does not automatically tell you where to go to start it, meaning the author has to do that himself in the mission text. Some people actually forget to do it and get complaints from people who couldnt do their mission.
What this means is someone could create an exploit mission, get 5 buddies(or heck, free alts) to play it, and keep the starting location secret. Then they could run that mission as many times as they(and whatever select group of friends they told) wanted and no one could ever report it because no one would even know it was an exploit mission if they couldnt play it.
..someone could create an exploit mission, get 5 buddies(or heck, free alts) to play it, and keep the starting location secret. Then they could run that mission as many times as they(and whatever select group of friends they told) wanted and no one could ever report it because no one would even know it was an exploit mission if they couldnt play it.
But all quests should have to go up for review. Its the "job" of the reviewers to figure out if a quest is an exploit. How does this evade the review process?
Most people do not have Static IP Addresses and in fact they cost extra money to have. IP Addresses are leased by the modem from the ISP every time the modem is turned off and on although they do tend to remain the same since it will automatically try to renew your last IP rather than taking another. IP Addresses do provide some general information but companies could ban an IP address for Rule Breaker A and end up 2 weeks later perm banning a new player who has never even went to the website before.
Not sure what Country you're lumping into as "most," however all Comcast Broadband users in the USA have static IP addresses. You have to request to have it changed and pay a small service fee. Or, you have to wait for it to be randomly selected to be changed through their own system, which can take months. I inquired about this with them not too long ago. Each Comcast user gets assigned their own IP address based upon the account, which is then assigned to the modem. This is why when you get a new modem, you have to call them up and have them "activate" it, which is them reassigning your IP address to your new modem and removing it from your old modem.
My IP address has not changed in quite some time even after numerous modem reboots.
Many companies actively block known proxy addresses. Companies can also block a computer specifically by their Mac Address, unless they are going through a router, then they'd see the router's mac address and be able to block that.
I happen to know those ways... because of my years of IT experience in the real world. However, attempts need to be made to eliminate the majority of exploiters. Doing nothing is not a solution. After Cryptic's best efforts, it comes down to the review process. A good review process will always nuke their quests. Coming back 5, 6, 7 times will not change the rules in their favor
There's a lot to respond to and little time to do so so for now I'm only going to talk technical limitations.
There is no reliable way to ban/limit any person's power based on any computer they are using.
Most people do not have Static IP Addresses and in fact they cost extra money to have. IP Addresses are leased by the modem from the ISP every time the modem is turned off and on although they do tend to remain the same since it will automatically try to renew your last IP rather than taking another. IP Addresses do provide some general information but companies could ban an IP address for Rule Breaker A and end up 2 weeks later perm banning a new player who has never even went to the website before.
IP Addresses are by far the worst way to deal with tracing issues because it is so often changed even without consent. If a person wanted to dupe the system even if they had a static IP all they would have to do is use an internet proxy in order to mask their real IP Address. It's something a ten year old could do.
And like me I am sure you're saying it makes no sense to not has some definitive way of identifying each individual computer which is why computer manufacturers came up with the "MAC Address."
This was designed to be a sort of internet serial number sort of like a car's vin number but they became just as easily masked by various programs that it's also considered completely unviable. They are good to form private groups of "in crowds" sort of like a home networking system but they suffer the same lack of security that IP's do.
Sadly there is no way to ban any individual computer in a free to play game.
Long story short Andre, I truly wish it was possible to punish specific computers but it just doesn't work.
Without going to specifics for security and proprietary and respect for not doing it if you're on the other side of them reasons, Cryptic is pretty good when it comes to stopping this. Some things were mentioned as to what can and cannot work, and Cryptic knows this and has a team of people looking for certain signs and triggers. If you never hear of exploiters removed, they're doing their job.
There is another easy way around the review system; the mission itself does not automatically tell you where to go to start it, meaning the author has to do that himself in the mission text. Some people actually forget to do it and get complaints from people who couldnt do their mission.
What this means is someone could create an exploit mission, get 5 buddies(or heck, free alts) to play it, and keep the starting location secret. Then they could run that mission as many times as they(and whatever select group of friends they told) wanted and no one could ever report it because no one would even know it was an exploit mission if they couldnt play it.
An interesting idea, as wrong as it is. I didn't think of that putting a quest starting point trigger in a way that "minimizes" it on the game field.
However, the weay the foundry works and shows it will work in NWO, it will be posted on "boards" and if enough people see it and note the "exploit" mentioned (assuming it is for the sake of the post,) it will be like the others.
Now, if there were ways to make "private missions," then we have the problem you mention, but so far, the Foundry is for public release only and shows that way and is always listed globally on a foundry search in regards to accessible missions.
Of course, having it with a mundane name and mundane description and minimized quest start location would make it possible to do that (even at a cost of being caught doing the hiding in plain sight thing,) so it comes down to risk being caught vs reward for repeat missions. A simple solution is to cap the daily times any mission could be done until it's a new day (and Cryptic sets a 20 hour countdown timer from an event's first completion in regards to real time what it considers a "day.")
"Neverwinter appears to be an ambitious departure for Cryptic Studios, with regards to its setting and combat model. The scenario editor is not however new to the developer, as they have something similar for all of their previous MMO titles, so to see its presence in Neverwinter comes as little surprise. This does mean of course that they know how to manage and police user created content, as it could be argued that people will create scenarios simply to exploit the system. It is unlikely that Cryptic Studios will hold much quarter to such actions"
Posted 27 Aug 2012 09:00 by Chris O'Regan
0
iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
"Neverwinter appears to be an ambitious departure for Cryptic Studios, with regards to its setting and combat model. The scenario editor is not however new to the developer, as they have something similar for all of their previous MMO titles, so to see its presence in Neverwinter comes as little surprise. This does mean of course that they know how to manage and police user created content, as it could be argued that people will create scenarios simply to exploit the system. It is unlikely that Cryptic Studios will hold much quarter to such actions"
Posted 27 Aug 2012 09:00 by Chris O'Regan
Can't wait to use the FoundING they speak of, sheesh.
I attempted to make an exploit mission in the STO foundry, but i was having so much fun, it transformed into an epic dive into borg space, to kill the queen, spanning at least like 6 different maps, and muliple branching dialogs... so lol.. i fail at exploiting.
An interesting idea, as wrong as it is. I didn't think of that putting a quest starting point trigger in a way that "minimizes" it on the game field.
However, the weay the foundry works and shows it will work in NWO, it will be posted on "boards" and if enough people see it and note the "exploit" mentioned (assuming it is for the sake of the post,) it will be like the others.
Now, if there were ways to make "private missions," then we have the problem you mention, but so far, the Foundry is for public release only and shows that way and is always listed globally on a foundry search in regards to accessible missions.
Of course, having it with a mundane name and mundane description and minimized quest start location would make it possible to do that (even at a cost of being caught doing the hiding in plain sight thing,) so it comes down to risk being caught vs reward for repeat missions. A simple solution is to cap the daily times any mission could be done until it's a new day (and Cryptic sets a 20 hour countdown timer from an event's first completion in regards to real time what it considers a "day.")
If you do not know where a quest starts, it is virtually impossible to find it. If someone wants to make an exploit quest and then "accidentally" forget to tell people where it starts, there will be no way for anyone(not in the know) to ever actually play it, therefore no way for anyone to ever actually report it. But yes, a cool down on specific quests would solve that problem...for that specific quest. I'm not sure what the quest limit is in NW, but in STO its 40 missions per author. If someone wants to make an account just for exploit missions and uses all of their slots for making the type of mission I described, they could do a different one every day for a month before getting back to the original again.
If you do not know where a quest starts, it is virtually impossible to find it. If someone wants to make an exploit quest and then "accidentally" forget to tell people where it starts, there will be no way for anyone(not in the know) to ever actually play it, therefore no way for anyone to ever actually review it.
Ingenious idea save for one little problem. If the reviewers can't find it, it never sees the light of day!
There is another easy way around the review system; the mission itself does not automatically tell you where to go to start it, meaning the author has to do that himself in the mission text. Some people actually forget to do it and get complaints from people who couldnt do their mission.
What this means is someone could create an exploit mission, get 5 buddies(or heck, free alts) to play it, and keep the starting location secret. Then they could run that mission as many times as they(and whatever select group of friends they told) wanted and no one could ever report it because no one would even know it was an exploit mission if they couldnt play it.
What? THEY dont get to pick the reviewers! The 5 member panel should be an independent review panel. How is the 5 member panel chosen in STO?
Anyone who signs up to be a reviewer can review any mission which is currently up for review. You can search by title or author name to find a specific one.
Anyone who signs up to be a reviewer can review any mission which is currently up for review. You can search by title or author name to find a specific one.
That can do, but the community needs an exploit tag so they can flag. If it gets flagged, it goes up for review by a select five member panel, then onto a Cryptic rep if its deemed an exploit. As for the original community reviewers who let the content slide.... they should be unable to review future content.
Reviewers need to be held accountable for allowing exploits to pass untethered.
That can do, but the community needs an exploit tag so they can flag. If it gets flagged, it goes up for review by a select five member panel, then onto a Cryptic rep if its deemed an exploit. As for the original community reviewers who let the content slide.... they should be unable to review future content.
As I said previously, if you cant actually play the missions because the author "forgot" to include the starting location, you have no way to know it is an exploit, so there is nothing to report. And people do legitimately forget to tell people where to go sometimes, so you cannot automatically assume every mission that does not tell you where to start is an exploit.
Cryptic won't shackle creators with excessive barriers designed to prevent exploits. Enemies, when killed, give the same amount of XP as they would in the real world, and drop from the same loot tables. Quests award XP based on how long the players spent playing them ? a five-minute quest only gives a fraction of how much an hour-long quest will award.
However, it only says xp and doesnt mention the other rewards. Hopefully those will scale based on time too.
As I said previously, if you cant actually play the missions because the author "forgot" to include the starting location, you have no way to know it is an exploit, so there is nothing to report. And people do legitimately forget to tell people where to go sometimes, so you cannot automatically assume every mission that does not tell you where to start is an exploit.
But but making authors post start location as a requirement to submit the quest eliminates that issue entirely. Misleading information here would be flagged in the first or 2nd review panel. Not everyone can find 10 people willing to risk getting banned over allowing exploits to pass through.
This is why allowing anybody to be a community reviewer is a bad idea. There needs to be qualifications to be a reviewer. A prize for their time and a penalty for allowing exploits to pass by.
However, it only says xp and doesnt mention the other rewards. Hopefully those will scale based on time too.
I know, but I disagree, partially. Gear shouldn't be based on time spent alone it should be based on difficulty as well.
Short quests may have far harder mobs than a longer quest for example. For example, quests that take an hour to complete because the map is huge but just contain level 5 kobalds should not contain higher xp and loot than a 30 minute quest on a smaller map that contains level 50 mobs with a level 60 dragon!
But but making authors post start location as a requirement to submit the quest eliminates that issue entirely.
Oh I agree; it would. However people have already had this discussion on STO and some have argued that they want to have private RP missions or fleet events that they do not want to be public. I dont personally buy that, but it is one line of reasoning.
Oh I agree; it would. However people have already had this discussion on STO and some have argued that they want to have private RP missions or fleet events that they do not want to be public. I dont personally buy that, but it is one line of reasoning.
No. Private quests should not be allowed. Its a small price to pay in return for eliminating an entire black market of exploitation, which is exactly what will occur if private quests are allowed.
I even like the idea of private quests, but you know what, once they are public, you can simply run the content you created with just your private company anyway. So, that argument doesn't fly with me.
After further contemplation, a better selection process for community volunteers is imperative to preserve the integrity of the Foundry. In-game community voting and review of authors, with an ability to report known exploiters to Cryptic reps would allow the community better control over cheaters, as penalties for exploit happy reviewers should prove too timely or costly to proceed.
This wouldn't hamper any legitimate author, in fact it would spur them to create more engrossing content, while the exploit guilds/personalities get handicapped and their time wasted...
The only real restriction is the treasure chest which players can drop once into their levels, which also scales based on how long the quest takes to complete. However, creators will be able to pick specific types of items (swords, helmets, etc.), which will then automatically be fitted to the class of the player which found it. Best of all, after picking the archetype for the item, the creator can name it, and then that name will stay with the item even after the player has left the dungeon. Neverwinter doesn't try to nullify exploits altogether, because doing so would hogtie the options afforded to creators. Rather, players can only earn four hours worth of XP and loot from UGC missions in a day. It's not exploit prevention, it's exploit limitation ? and with such a large cap, it won't affect the playing habits of players who aren't trying to cheat the system.
So, only one big reward limited, and the normal loot drop percentage chance with creatures. Having the four hour cap also is some start to exploit limitations.
Foundry is still a few steps away from fully imitating the live, interactive theater of being an actual Dungeons and Dragons DM (though Zinkievich said Cryptic is trying to figure out how to make that work for the future). But with its completely open-ended systems for gameplay and narrative design, and seamless integration into the rest of Neverwinter, it's getting awfully damn close.
I happily stand corrected! Go DM narrative! Make it work!
I attempted to make an exploit mission in the STO foundry, but i was having so much fun, it transformed into an epic dive into borg space, to kill the queen, spanning at least like 6 different maps, and muliple branching dialogs... so lol.. i fail at exploiting.
I started to make a simple mission that was only going to consist of one small fight, just so that I could play that for the daily Foundry mission. Like you found however, I couldn't stop and now it has turned into the start of a multi-mission adventure that is tied to one of the planets we cannot yet go to, Betazed. So, yeah, I failed also at trying to make a simple mission. It's still in development, slowly fine-tuning everything and adding lore and stuff. I even went as far to add in lore of my own personal Fleet and created NPCs for my own characters and ships, which will play roles in future parts of the mission and later mission episodes.
It is now being designed in a similar fashion as the Featured Episodes, as a "Season" with multiple Episodes.
ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited August 2012
So much to respond to so I guess I'll try to tackle these in clumps...
Not all exploiters are smart...keep the honest payin and playin.
-Andre, Page 7, post 1
When I mentioned that IP Banning and Mac Address banning don't work it wasn't for the completely for purpose of saying that they would get around it.
In my rush to get to bed I did mention, but didn't stress enough (my appologies), that IP Banning's biggest draw back is the fact that after a guilty person is punished for their actions ultimately innocent people get hurt.
Let's even take this to the next level. I played MMO's in the past and never, not once, got an infraction put against my account. I am an honest player and *try* to be mature and respectful of other players.
Now my brother couldn't be more opposite and friends could attest to that. He goes out of his way to cheat and exploit games. Some MMO's we played together he was perm banned 5-10+ times over.
We played from the same household so we had the same IP Address (and still often do) and when we were even younger often shared computers so we had the same MAC Address.
I want players who break rules to be banned and limited from making smurfs arguably as much as you but when looking to the practicallity side of the matter it doesn't always work. Innocents shouldn't be punished for issues out of their control.
Not sure what Country you're...mac address and be able to block that.
-zebular Page 7, Post 4
I live in the New York, United States. The cable company I pay is Cablevision and it still runs on leases. It almost never changes, as I stated in my first post, but it actually did change about a month ago after a power failure that I know of due to being unable to join the minecraft server my brother hosts from his house (I pay for the cable there even though I don't live there).
The way leasing works most times you will get your old IP back because it normally tries to renew the lease. However if there are large amounts of people resetting at the same time this sometimes goes awry.
It's not often but my IP Address still does change.
Furthermore I currently live with my grandfather following my grandmother's passing (the house I actually grew up playing NWN in) and while things may have changed in the last 7-10 years I know that Comcast used to run on leases as well at least in this area.
NWN actually barred me from hosting servers for my friends/family due to having a Dynamic IP.
The only person who could was my uncle because his appartment's internet didn't work properly on a Dynamic IP. It's irrelevant to the topic so I won't post why but he was the only person who could host a NWN server because of that reason. Another friend we met while playing NWN decided he didn't like playing on anybody's servers as well and ended up having to "buy" a Static IP down in Tennessee.
As for MAC Addresses, it seems like you stated them as if I never mentioned they don't work. This article was the first I found on the matter but given a bit of time, or even resorting to checking out wikipedia you'll find MAC Addresses are not only changeable but commonly changed.
That article also states:
Most Internet subscriptions allow the customer only a single IP address. The Internet Service Provider (ISP) may assign one static (fixed) IP address to each customer. However, this approach is an inefficient use of IP addresses that are currently in short supply. The ISP more commonly issues each customer dynamic IP address that may change each time the customer connects to the Internet.
So perhaps you may be thinking you only have one IP Address while in reality you only have one IP Address at a time.
P.S. I have also never heard of any ISP blocking proxy servers. Proxy servers aren't only about hiding IP Addresses and other games I have played have even stressed that while they don't suggest using proxy servers (due to security risks) it is not a violation of their terms.
Just to quickly summarize, yes it's up to Cryptic to decide. I don't expect them to listen to my on this matter as they have employees more than qualified to already know these issues or even ways to solve them.
All I am doing is telling you all what I know on the matter. What I know from all of my experience in computers is that banning IP's and MAC Addresses isn't as reliable and effective as the average person may believe.
Don't expect to see it for the reasons I stated. I may be wrong...but we don't see IP or MAC Address bans on other MMO's for a reason.
Thus ends the giant wall of text...and dinner calls! :-D
Vote-kick is a common community driven feature of mmos that may find a home in Neverwinter. Customizing it for Neverwinter dungeon crawls and may prove fruitful to the community at large, and should work well in tandem with a more robust quest review process like the one that's in the OP.
Ways the system could possibly be implemented:
1. Party members can select Kick, and choose one of several options as a reason to vote kick. (afk/piking/offline for extended period of time [say 10 minutes or more], harassing/griefing, or trying to auto-fail party/raid).
2. When the person initiating the kick chooses the reason, the other group members confirm their agreement or disagreement and then have to answer to an "Are you sure?" option as a secondary measure to get them to read what they're responding to.
3. If the vote kick passes, it goes straight to a Cryptic moderator (or volunteer moderator) and the situation is investigated further. A moderator at this time can gauge if the kick was legitimate or not. If indeed the player is not playing appropriately, they get the appropriate punishment. If the vote-kicker is deemed as abusing the system, action can be taken against that person.
4. Players who receive more than x number of successful vote kicks for the same reason within x amount of time are unable to group for x amount of time. (duration extended each time they receive this punishment)
Now event though this can be used incorrectly (abused) as well, I'm thinking the good might outweigh the bad, by a large margin.
With potentially millions of Steam MMOers invading the game, I think Cryptic should launch Neverwinter with excellent security measures already in place, without adding them later when the "black-market" is well entrenched.
Surely someone will set up a macro to generate 5 F2P accounts to auto pass their quests for the free lootz.
I still think every quest should be held in limbo for a month before it is allowed to go live.
I agree, Cryptic's current 5 member panel process does far too little to abate exploiters. It must be improved upon before Neverwinter launches.
As for ensuring every quest be held in limbo for a month, what else can be done? One method I can think of is to employ my method, which should give both panels and the Cryptic reps ample time to review the quest.
With potentially millions of Steam MMOers invading the game, I think Cryptic should launch Neverwinter with excellent security measures already in place, without adding them later when the "black-market" is well entrenched.
What do ya'll think?
I hope nobody argue's against that one!
As for the rest of it I absolutely agree. There are other ways to handle it without a doubt but vote-kicking would be the best for in game dungeons.
In a game as complex as Neverwinter I believe there could/should be 3 systems.
1. The in game party system Andre explained.
2. A foundry mechanic which works extremely similar to the player report but should be UGC specific. Also this reporting should not be only about reporting rule breaking content but also reporting content which is over/under rewarded, has glitches for whatever reason (not necessarily rule breaking) or is in any other way broken.
3. A general reporting feature for users who are breaking the EULA inside the general area.
All three of these are too different in my opinion to be handled under one roof unless the one roof is simply a means to redirect to the appropriate selections. A report for UGC shouldn't be confined to EULA issues just as reporting shouldn't be limited to being in a party alone.
To me if reports are just that, reports, they don't tend to get the proper respect they deserve. If reports are categorized it's more likely that the player can get their "feedback" received without being considered a false report.
Comments
What this means is someone could create an exploit mission, get 5 buddies(or heck, free alts) to play it, and keep the starting location secret. Then they could run that mission as many times as they(and whatever select group of friends they told) wanted and no one could ever report it because no one would even know it was an exploit mission if they couldnt play it.
But all quests should have to go up for review. Its the "job" of the reviewers to figure out if a quest is an exploit. How does this evade the review process?
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Not sure what Country you're lumping into as "most," however all Comcast Broadband users in the USA have static IP addresses. You have to request to have it changed and pay a small service fee. Or, you have to wait for it to be randomly selected to be changed through their own system, which can take months. I inquired about this with them not too long ago. Each Comcast user gets assigned their own IP address based upon the account, which is then assigned to the modem. This is why when you get a new modem, you have to call them up and have them "activate" it, which is them reassigning your IP address to your new modem and removing it from your old modem.
My IP address has not changed in quite some time even after numerous modem reboots.
Many companies actively block known proxy addresses. Companies can also block a computer specifically by their Mac Address, unless they are going through a router, then they'd see the router's mac address and be able to block that.
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Without going to specifics for security and proprietary and respect for not doing it if you're on the other side of them reasons, Cryptic is pretty good when it comes to stopping this. Some things were mentioned as to what can and cannot work, and Cryptic knows this and has a team of people looking for certain signs and triggers. If you never hear of exploiters removed, they're doing their job.
An interesting idea, as wrong as it is. I didn't think of that putting a quest starting point trigger in a way that "minimizes" it on the game field.
However, the weay the foundry works and shows it will work in NWO, it will be posted on "boards" and if enough people see it and note the "exploit" mentioned (assuming it is for the sake of the post,) it will be like the others.
Now, if there were ways to make "private missions," then we have the problem you mention, but so far, the Foundry is for public release only and shows that way and is always listed globally on a foundry search in regards to accessible missions.
Of course, having it with a mundane name and mundane description and minimized quest start location would make it possible to do that (even at a cost of being caught doing the hiding in plain sight thing,) so it comes down to risk being caught vs reward for repeat missions. A simple solution is to cap the daily times any mission could be done until it's a new day (and Cryptic sets a 20 hour countdown timer from an event's first completion in regards to real time what it considers a "day.")
Yes
https://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168687
"Neverwinter appears to be an ambitious departure for Cryptic Studios, with regards to its setting and combat model. The scenario editor is not however new to the developer, as they have something similar for all of their previous MMO titles, so to see its presence in Neverwinter comes as little surprise. This does mean of course that they know how to manage and police user created content, as it could be argued that people will create scenarios simply to exploit the system. It is unlikely that Cryptic Studios will hold much quarter to such actions"
Posted 27 Aug 2012 09:00 by Chris O'Regan
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If you do not know where a quest starts, it is virtually impossible to find it. If someone wants to make an exploit quest and then "accidentally" forget to tell people where it starts, there will be no way for anyone(not in the know) to ever actually play it, therefore no way for anyone to ever actually report it. But yes, a cool down on specific quests would solve that problem...for that specific quest. I'm not sure what the quest limit is in NW, but in STO its 40 missions per author. If someone wants to make an account just for exploit missions and uses all of their slots for making the type of mission I described, they could do a different one every day for a month before getting back to the original again.
Ingenious idea save for one little problem. If the reviewers can't find it, it never sees the light of day!
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From my post on the last page:
What? THEY dont get to pick the reviewers! The 5 member panel should be an independent review panel. How is the 5 member panel chosen in STO?
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Anyone who signs up to be a reviewer can review any mission which is currently up for review. You can search by title or author name to find a specific one.
That can do, but the community needs an exploit tag so they can flag. If it gets flagged, it goes up for review by a select five member panel, then onto a Cryptic rep if its deemed an exploit. As for the original community reviewers who let the content slide.... they should be unable to review future content.
Reviewers need to be held accountable for allowing exploits to pass untethered.
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http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/18/3251244/neverwinter-foundry-lets-you-build-anything-from-pvp-to-text
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As I said previously, if you cant actually play the missions because the author "forgot" to include the starting location, you have no way to know it is an exploit, so there is nothing to report. And people do legitimately forget to tell people where to go sometimes, so you cannot automatically assume every mission that does not tell you where to start is an exploit.
This sounds really good:
However, it only says xp and doesnt mention the other rewards. Hopefully those will scale based on time too.
But but making authors post start location as a requirement to submit the quest eliminates that issue entirely. Misleading information here would be flagged in the first or 2nd review panel. Not everyone can find 10 people willing to risk getting banned over allowing exploits to pass through.
This is why allowing anybody to be a community reviewer is a bad idea. There needs to be qualifications to be a reviewer. A prize for their time and a penalty for allowing exploits to pass by.
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I know, but I disagree, partially. Gear shouldn't be based on time spent alone it should be based on difficulty as well.
Short quests may have far harder mobs than a longer quest for example. For example, quests that take an hour to complete because the map is huge but just contain level 5 kobalds should not contain higher xp and loot than a 30 minute quest on a smaller map that contains level 50 mobs with a level 60 dragon!
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Oh I agree; it would. However people have already had this discussion on STO and some have argued that they want to have private RP missions or fleet events that they do not want to be public. I dont personally buy that, but it is one line of reasoning.
No. Private quests should not be allowed. Its a small price to pay in return for eliminating an entire black market of exploitation, which is exactly what will occur if private quests are allowed.
I even like the idea of private quests, but you know what, once they are public, you can simply run the content you created with just your private company anyway. So, that argument doesn't fly with me.
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This wouldn't hamper any legitimate author, in fact it would spur them to create more engrossing content, while the exploit guilds/personalities get handicapped and their time wasted...
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So, only one big reward limited, and the normal loot drop percentage chance with creatures. Having the four hour cap also is some start to exploit limitations.
I happily stand corrected! Go DM narrative! Make it work!
I started to make a simple mission that was only going to consist of one small fight, just so that I could play that for the daily Foundry mission. Like you found however, I couldn't stop and now it has turned into the start of a multi-mission adventure that is tied to one of the planets we cannot yet go to, Betazed. So, yeah, I failed also at trying to make a simple mission. It's still in development, slowly fine-tuning everything and adding lore and stuff. I even went as far to add in lore of my own personal Fleet and created NPCs for my own characters and ships, which will play roles in future parts of the mission and later mission episodes.
It is now being designed in a similar fashion as the Featured Episodes, as a "Season" with multiple Episodes.
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When I mentioned that IP Banning and Mac Address banning don't work it wasn't for the completely for purpose of saying that they would get around it.
In my rush to get to bed I did mention, but didn't stress enough (my appologies), that IP Banning's biggest draw back is the fact that after a guilty person is punished for their actions ultimately innocent people get hurt.
Let's even take this to the next level. I played MMO's in the past and never, not once, got an infraction put against my account. I am an honest player and *try* to be mature and respectful of other players.
Now my brother couldn't be more opposite and friends could attest to that. He goes out of his way to cheat and exploit games. Some MMO's we played together he was perm banned 5-10+ times over.
We played from the same household so we had the same IP Address (and still often do) and when we were even younger often shared computers so we had the same MAC Address.
I want players who break rules to be banned and limited from making smurfs arguably as much as you but when looking to the practicallity side of the matter it doesn't always work. Innocents shouldn't be punished for issues out of their control.
I live in the New York, United States. The cable company I pay is Cablevision and it still runs on leases. It almost never changes, as I stated in my first post, but it actually did change about a month ago after a power failure that I know of due to being unable to join the minecraft server my brother hosts from his house (I pay for the cable there even though I don't live there).
The way leasing works most times you will get your old IP back because it normally tries to renew the lease. However if there are large amounts of people resetting at the same time this sometimes goes awry.
It's not often but my IP Address still does change.
Furthermore I currently live with my grandfather following my grandmother's passing (the house I actually grew up playing NWN in) and while things may have changed in the last 7-10 years I know that Comcast used to run on leases as well at least in this area.
NWN actually barred me from hosting servers for my friends/family due to having a Dynamic IP.
The only person who could was my uncle because his appartment's internet didn't work properly on a Dynamic IP. It's irrelevant to the topic so I won't post why but he was the only person who could host a NWN server because of that reason. Another friend we met while playing NWN decided he didn't like playing on anybody's servers as well and ended up having to "buy" a Static IP down in Tennessee.
As for MAC Addresses, it seems like you stated them as if I never mentioned they don't work. This article was the first I found on the matter but given a bit of time, or even resorting to checking out wikipedia you'll find MAC Addresses are not only changeable but commonly changed.
That article also states:
So perhaps you may be thinking you only have one IP Address while in reality you only have one IP Address at a time.
P.S. I have also never heard of any ISP blocking proxy servers. Proxy servers aren't only about hiding IP Addresses and other games I have played have even stressed that while they don't suggest using proxy servers (due to security risks) it is not a violation of their terms.
Just to quickly summarize, yes it's up to Cryptic to decide. I don't expect them to listen to my on this matter as they have employees more than qualified to already know these issues or even ways to solve them.
All I am doing is telling you all what I know on the matter. What I know from all of my experience in computers is that banning IP's and MAC Addresses isn't as reliable and effective as the average person may believe.
Don't expect to see it for the reasons I stated. I may be wrong...but we don't see IP or MAC Address bans on other MMO's for a reason.
Thus ends the giant wall of text...and dinner calls! :-D
Ways the system could possibly be implemented:
1. Party members can select Kick, and choose one of several options as a reason to vote kick. (afk/piking/offline for extended period of time [say 10 minutes or more], harassing/griefing, or trying to auto-fail party/raid).
2. When the person initiating the kick chooses the reason, the other group members confirm their agreement or disagreement and then have to answer to an "Are you sure?" option as a secondary measure to get them to read what they're responding to.
3. If the vote kick passes, it goes straight to a Cryptic moderator (or volunteer moderator) and the situation is investigated further. A moderator at this time can gauge if the kick was legitimate or not. If indeed the player is not playing appropriately, they get the appropriate punishment. If the vote-kicker is deemed as abusing the system, action can be taken against that person.
4. Players who receive more than x number of successful vote kicks for the same reason within x amount of time are unable to group for x amount of time. (duration extended each time they receive this punishment)
Now event though this can be used incorrectly (abused) as well, I'm thinking the good might outweigh the bad, by a large margin.
With potentially millions of Steam MMOers invading the game, I think Cryptic should launch Neverwinter with excellent security measures already in place, without adding them later when the "black-market" is well entrenched.
What do ya'll think?
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Surely someone will set up a macro to generate 5 F2P accounts to auto pass their quests for the free lootz.
I still think every quest should be held in limbo for a month before it is allowed to go live.
I agree, Cryptic's current 5 member panel process does far too little to abate exploiters. It must be improved upon before Neverwinter launches.
As for ensuring every quest be held in limbo for a month, what else can be done? One method I can think of is to employ my method, which should give both panels and the Cryptic reps ample time to review the quest.
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I hope nobody argue's against that one!
As for the rest of it I absolutely agree. There are other ways to handle it without a doubt but vote-kicking would be the best for in game dungeons.
In a game as complex as Neverwinter I believe there could/should be 3 systems.
1. The in game party system Andre explained.
2. A foundry mechanic which works extremely similar to the player report but should be UGC specific. Also this reporting should not be only about reporting rule breaking content but also reporting content which is over/under rewarded, has glitches for whatever reason (not necessarily rule breaking) or is in any other way broken.
3. A general reporting feature for users who are breaking the EULA inside the general area.
All three of these are too different in my opinion to be handled under one roof unless the one roof is simply a means to redirect to the appropriate selections. A report for UGC shouldn't be confined to EULA issues just as reporting shouldn't be limited to being in a party alone.
To me if reports are just that, reports, they don't tend to get the proper respect they deserve. If reports are categorized it's more likely that the player can get their "feedback" received without being considered a false report.