That is a really cool idea.

Why don't they just perma-ban?  It's not like they haven't before.

AtomicMew wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 2:38am:


Word is that Turbine didn't know about it for quite a while, and they don't want to ban 800+ accounts permanently. Too much of a hit on their bottom line.

They've seldom permabanned more than 3 or 4 people at a time, and especially since the Mabar debacle they hesitate more with the hammer.

Last big permabannings were the SOS window-farmers, and that nearly killed raiding and high level play on the server (think it was Ghallandra but probably wrong) for a good month.

whothefuckami wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 2:44am:
It wouldn't hurt their bottom lines at all, it would help.  Half of the people who'd be perma-banned are too addicted to quit and would just end up buying whole new accounts.  The other half would leave, and that would reduce server load. 

Quote:

Someone told me a story that a long, long time ago, there was a widespread dupe hack/exploit that resulted in a mass of perma-bans.  Of course I wasn't around then, so I don't know if that's accurate.

I certainly hope you're right. 

Probably still will have been worth it for them though; the loot boxes from CL20 challenges have been nerfed down to being only level 16 drops, so you can't even farm for +3 unbound tomes through the challenges legitimately anymore.

whothefuckami wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 2:44am:


I magine if they took some of their *ill* gotten gains? lol, that would be kinda funny,some might be thinking like this "I brought tons of LDS, reds, greensteel blanks, epic scrolls of the ah and got all my alts to the plat cap, I don't give a rats ass if they bann me for 2 weeks or a month it was worth it, I can have a break from the game adn come back and enjoy my loot. 2 weeks pass, they log in, fuck!!! all my plats gone!!! WTF!!!!! Some of my LDS, REDS and SCROLLS are missing!!!!!! RAGE!!!!!

Then turbine blames it on some bug with using the exploit it would be priceless. And I think it would be more effective in stoping people exploiting stuff like this in the future. Oh i might get banned for a few days or weeks? meh... that doesnt scare me.......... but risk losing my shinies? ZOMG!!!!!!! . It would also lead a lot of people who exploited  to rage quit though lolz.

Flav wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 5:56am:


Yes I missed that one.
And no, I wasn't whining.
I don't need Tubine charity to get crappy loot, I can farm it on my own.

And in general, you Flav, can kiss my shiny, white, hairy ass.

AtomicMew wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 3:24am:


Perma banning even 500 people would really hurt turbines bottom line. if these folks were vip they could easily get charges reversed on their credit cards. In fact if they recently bought turbine points this too could be reversed.

Dont forget with so many games, either just released, or out in the near future, there would be little reason to come back to an ancient game that has lag issues with a paltry 10,000 concurrent users online.

as so many folks liked to point out in the past. this is a co-op game, not pvp. the gear/plat another player has does not effect you.

the fact is just like in real life, cheaters win more, the nice guy finishes last, and crime does pay.

Deathdefy wrote on Nov 15^th, 2011 at 3:58am:


This is the irritating part.

Who gives a flying fuck if people exploit the mechanic?  It's always going to happen as there are many who play this game with the intent to find them.  It will continue because put simply, Turbine has no balls. 

Someone exploits a mechanic and gets a butt ton of high end tomes/plat/hearts/whatever else.  They get a ban of whatever length.  They come back and alll that shit they got is still there waiting to be used.  That's the actual problem.  And in my time playing I've come to realize that Turbine won't take the profits of exploiting away because they are afraid of losing customers.  The reward for exploiting far outweighs the consequences.  It's that simple...

So what I am saying is why get bent about the exploits?  As I see it there isn't a point in it.  Now getting bent due to having opportunities for getting some of the same rewards legitimately nerfed - Now you're talking!


And before you wonder, no.  I haven't even done any of the challenges yet.  I actually wonder if it will be even maginally worthwhile after they nerfed the chests to high hell.  It's punitive fucking punishment that wasn't deserved for most people that play this game.  And that is what I find to be irritating.

Only way to fix this is give me ill gotten gains

this reminds me of a pm conversation I had with Eladrin some years back about the bank exploit that allowed people to take drop on quest exit items out of quests.

I had reported as an exploit and even had a shroud axe that had dropped to the ground and showed a GM. Basically the only way to keep these items was to put it in the bank when you logged out otherwise it would drop to the ground. And the main reason I reported it was because people were throwing them up on the auction house and newbs were grabbing them up and then losing them when they logged out.
Anyway I was describing to Eladrin how it was done and he was angry that people were taking advantage of others, and obviously he has no say in banning etc, and quiet frankly I think the actual exploit didn't upset so much as what people were doing with the auction.

So he was going to see if he could make the axes in people banks become

-non bankable
-non droppable
-non sellable
-non auctionable
-weigh 100000000pds

that way if someone who was banking them pulled it out of the bank they would be stuck with perm encumbrance.
He got shot down though.

It's funny.  Eladrin beingQuote:


This doesn't surprise me in the least.  Just look at the time line...this exploit was reported on Lam but Turbine goes live without fixing it.  I imagine the thought process went something along the lines of what harm can it do if players dupe a few chests.  It'll be slow and tedious anyway.  Update goes live.  The players in the know test to see if it's fixed.  It's not.  Players figure out Level 25 challenges drop chests that can spawn unbound +3 tomes and immediately start clicking away.  People figure out combining this bug with the good old bank glitch makes it run at super speed. Initial dupers go, HOLY SHIT and start telling friends and guildies that you can get between 2 and 5 +3 tomes an hour and plat cap at least twice.  This group starts to plat cap across their accounts so they beginning emptying the AH just to make more space to dupe.  Word spreads.  By Friday, it's fairly well known.  By Sunday, thousands are involved the AH is empty and people are buying LDS for 1.5 million just because Plat is worthless and they are making it back in minutes.  Even people who don't know about the bug know something is up because of the rampant inflation.  Just like Dowsing Rods at no point was any emergency fix or shutdown put in place.  It was left there and reached a point where even people who normal don't get involved in exploits felt they had no choice but to do it because the economy would be so fucked afterwards that they wouldn't be able to function normally otherwise.  I firmly believe if this was just plat and items and not +3 tomes the new DDO Store darling we wouldn't have even seen the hotfix on Monday they would have waited till Wednesday or Thursday.

This isn't the first or even the third time something like this has happened yet there are no steps in place to cut off an issue of this nature.  The tools that are available to address real time game management issues are pathetic at best.

Every time these issues occur it's those who chose not to play who end up being punished.

This was so f'n easy.  I put it in my bank, I click it, I get items and I keep the chest, Eureaka!  It's like finding 100 bucks in the street.  How does this shit slip through?  This one I will lay on QA because this was something that should have been in the test plan.

D&D is a game for exploiters.   Essentially, it about exploiting flaws in the GM campaign to find creative ways to master encounters.  It's out-thinking the GM.  How can anyone be shocked when players do find that hole or that trick to beat the system?  Turbine doesn't even make it hard to out-think them anymore.  E-Chrono was abandonable for almost a year so you could bypass the raid timer an issue that has cropped up numerous times in the past.  If players test for it every time a raid is released why isn't Turbine testing for it?

It's the same shit different day.