Money exploit: Confession Window

[Raa]

In my opinion, the exploit should be explained in the forum.  If I understand correctly and PlaneShift will be down until the exploit is no longer available, there is no possibility that anyone will be able to use it when the server comes back up.  Thusly an explanation of how it was done will allow those who didn't realize they were doing and/or how they did it to confess their mistake and be exonerated.  It may be clear who abused it to become rich; The logs see all.  But what if I have done it accidentally and wasn't aware of it?

 

I think it would be easy to tell if you were cheating or not.

[One and only tanner]

i woudent i could have 50K trias more than i did a few minuets before and not notise

[burkey2k]

   The way this is being handled it seems quite obvious that it's very very hard to find all the people exploiting this, that would be the only reason to open this 'confessional'. If it were easy for you to identify them all, you would just punish them all, not open this 'Honesty Box'.


   So, basically, the purpose of this can only be to make it easier to find the guilty parties, and avoid a long process of what I can imagine is a  lengthy trawl through a s*** load of data....Or could it be that you're just trying to scare out people you know you won't be able to find? But I'm sure this isn't it...

   
   Then why such a short time period to confess? Since the percentage of people who will see this during your 24hr period will not be a considerable one, if not tiny (Not too sure of the daily traffic on the forum, but from my experience, not a lot of people check it every day, not to mention the fact that you haven't exactly made a PS wide announcement of this, I'd be pissed if I just went to 'Roleplay Events' and didn't check 'General Discussion' today...) 

   So hopefully the server downtime is purely to fix the bug in the system, as the only other reason I can see that you would put down the server is to stop the guilty ppl from covering their tracks, which would mean there is a possibility of getting away with it...


   And the only other reason I can see that you would put down the server is to stop the guilty people from covering their tracks...which would mean there is a possibility of getting away with it. That would also mean a possibly extended period of downtime, and to be honest I wouldn't mind too much if everyone was just put back to 0, it's going to happen anyway.



*And if you're having trouble, I recommend calling in Tom Selleck, 'cos Magnum P.I got s*** done  *

[orino]

not really.. Most exploits are found by accident.. so if you had 10 people "ACCIDENTLY" did the exploit and not notice the change.. because they were not looking for it.. so then sooner or later you get someone who noticed it.. but instead of reporting it he/she tells people and then you get real EXPLOITERS come in and use it to take advantage .. and i agree with tanner i wouldn't notice 50k extra in my coffers. so i think you should disclose the exploit.. if it to be fixed then i doesn't matter.. but this way people could think back to some actions they may have taken to see if anything looks suspicious..

[thazmaps]

This is reminding me of a time long ago when i was little and my sisters broke something and I got a  beating for it...........

Morale of the story,

why punish those who didnt do anything wrong

[vedrit]

   The way this is being handled it seems quite obvious that it's very very hard to find all the people exploiting this, that would be the only reason to open this 'confessional'. If it were easy for you to identify them all, you would just punish them all, not open this 'Honesty Box'.

If they were having problems finding guilty people, then it would be much easyer to just clear the DB, i think, rahter than wait for people to raise their hands. This thread is just wanting to make things fair. If some one truly feels bad for what they did, and are willing to loose thier money they wrongfully earned, and what ever they baught with that ill-gotten money, and play with a guilt-free conscience, then this is thier oppertunity.
Personally, i wouldnt mind the DB getting wiped. I made allot of finacial mistakes, and on the wrong char. Admitadly, I would be a little irked because of all the effort i put in, but o well. I made things work out once before, I can do it again.
Unfortunatly, I know that a good amount of the players feel the complete opposite of me.

OPINION: Only wipe the DB if completly neccessary

[Meolae]

why punish those who didnt do anything wrong

Um, what are you taking about? The server is unavailable because the team is fixing this problem, not because they want to punish people. Based on what Xillix wrote, it seems the dev team knows exactly how to tell who exploited, and they're not going to play guessing games.

[thazmaps]

How is this any differnt than the other day when the monsters werent fighting back? Lots of players got rich im sure fighting ulbers and trepors that couldnt hurt them. I was fighthing rouges and rats for a long time and didnt even notice untill i engaged a trepor and wasnt killed. And that wasnt for a couple hours. [thats when i made a petition about it, but it was already being looked into] and ill admit that after I knew I couldnt get hurt i went to fight an ulber, but I didnt kill it it was more for ego purposes (i made a screenshot) and I soon gave up and left. but if this makes me a bad person then I dont think I want to play anymore becuase I didnt kill it, only engaged it to see what it was like and get a screenshot. I wouldnt willingly abuse a bug for gain its not in my ethnics to cheat at something I enjoy.

[burkey2k]

   On a little side note, it would be hilarious to see a wipe. They'd have to make swarms of rats for all the people tryin to level up again

[theirah]

aw man...thats not even funny...

[Digitalsabre]

  The way this is being handled it seems quite obvious that it's very very hard to find all the people exploiting this, that would be the only reason to open this 'confessional'. If it were easy for you to identify them all, you would just punish them all, not open this 'Honesty Box'.

The fact is stated clearly that the confessional was opened so that guilty parties could come forward and be penalized, rather than banned.  It gives folks a chance to come clean and not lose so many months and/or years of work.  The other option considered was to ban everyone who did it.  Why would they threaten banishment and then offer mercy if this were not true?

So if you're a guilty party, your options are thus:  Either you lose your scammed funds and the result of those or you risk losing everything.  I'd bet on confession.

[thazmaps]

I just feel like Im being punished when they said the server will be down till people come forward, Im a very sensitive person, my friends know the story, I wont go into it here but Im just dissapointed cause Ive been working so hard to get my armor skills up and first the npcs wouldnt hit me to raise my armor and now this.

[burkey2k]

 [/quote]

The fact is stated clearly that the confessional was opened so that guilty parties could come forward and be penalized, rather than banned.  It gives folks a chance to come clean and not lose so many months and/or years of work.  The other option considered was to ban everyone who did it.  Why would they threaten banishment and then offer mercy if this were not true?

So if you're a guilty party, your options are thus:  Either you lose your scammed funds and the result of those or you risk losing everything.  I'd bet on confession.
[/quote]



   If it's so easy to find them then why this strange 24hr threat of admitting it or getting deleted, it makes no sense at all. it would mean that most would get deleted without a chance of admitting it. Which would raise the question of what's the purpose of a confession window at all, if you know that most will not be able to confess...something to think about

[thazmaps]

I agree with that thought, its like telling a blind man to pull the blue wire on a bomb if he wants to live

[Indygo]

   So hopefully the server downtime is purely to fix the bug in the system, as the only other reason I can see that you would put down the server is to stop the guilty ppl from covering their tracks, which would mean there is a possibility of getting away with it...

I think it would only make sense to plug the hole in the boat before you bail water.  By taking the server offline is not punishing the player base, instead it is to protect it.  It is the responsible thing to do.  I myself appreciate them trying to protect the integrity of the game and the inventory of my characters by doing so 

I would also like to point out that finding an exploit is not cheating....

Actually, those that can hunt them down and find them are doing the community a great service as long as they are handling their findings responsibly.  As testers some of us are going to happen accross bugs in the game from time to time.  There is no reason to be embarassed in finding them, especially if there is a gain of some type to be made.  The right thing to do is to let a GM or Developer know through appropriate channels and move on.

Where it crosses into wrongdoing is when someone finds the bug and gains an unfair advantage by exploiting it and not notifying the PS team.  By gaining tria, stats, weapons, and the like you didn't rightly earn you have crossed the line.  By telling your friends about it and continuing to abuse it you are only making it worse. There is no good excuse for it other than laziness.  It is dishonorable and the end result will always be you lose what you gained and more, unfortunately the rest of us will suffer as well