TC Bulletin and Policy Change 10/18/09

[Valkyra]

Originally Posted by Joshino

I did it for teh lulz.

ANIMATION MODE ON

[mikegti]

Not how i wanted my first post to go but, my god, are some of you thick or what??
Do you really not understand why the dev team have deceided to go this route with regards to trying to make sure, when suncrusher comes, we all have the best experience possible? I've not heard of this Ashur, or the other one (don't know name. It's NOT important) and i don't care who they are. Do you really think the team would jeopordise years of work just to let a 'friend' hack? No, anyone with any sense wouldn't come up with a 'yes' to that question. They've said the exploitation team will work be on a seperate server... so why are some people here throwing hissy fits there game being ruined if the're not even on the same server?!?!. So what if they changed the policy? They've announced it. They've explained why they did it and the benefits we'll get from it. But some people can't/don't seem to see that.
The sky is falling and i hope it hits you on the ass!

[Uli]

Originally Posted by mikegti

Not how i wanted my first post to go but, my god, are some of you thick or what??
Do you really not understand why the dev team have deceided to go this route with regards to trying to make sure, when suncrusher comes, we all have the best experience possible? I've not heard of this Ashur, or the other one (don't know name. It's NOT important) and i don't care who they are. Do you really think the team would jeopordise years of work just to let a 'friend' hack? No, anyone with any sense wouldn't come up with a 'yes' to that question. They've said the exploitation team will work be on a seperate server... so why are some people here throwing hissy fits there game being ruined if the're not even on the same server?!?!. So what if they changed the policy? They've announced it. They've explained why they did it and the benefits we'll get from it. But some people can't/don't seem to see that.
The sky is falling and i hope it hits you on the ass!

Welcome, sorry you joined at a pretty bad time, give it a week or so and everything should hopefully clear up

[DraGa]

Sig Time!!!

[corbaer]

Gonna repost some stuff I posted before the Zero-Tolerance was put into effect:

A big part of getting to a playable, persistent, stable, reliable, amazing pre-cu experience is the process of beating the hell out of it while we go. If the speed hackers that have been caught were actually doing it for the good of the project, then they would have coordinated it with GMs and QA and it would have been a very good thing - this is not the case to my knowledge, but even though the intents were for personal advancement, they did do something that is very good for the long, medium and short term health of the project. They forced the staff and developers to keep working on the tools necessary to stand alongside the actual server, because without them... no pre-cu server will be worth playing.

Improving the anti-exploitation mechanisms now and throughout further development of the game, regardless of what inconveniences it causes for all concerned, is a very important part of what needs to be done... and something that the testing base should be willing to accommodate.

Right now while the staff is growing, and learning the best ways to work together as a team to administrate a server, and some of the devs are busy on a major restructure is as decent a time as ever to start thinking about methodologies and processes to control and deal with exploitation and hacks. It may even prove advantageous, because if they discover something underlying that can be done now in the code, it may be able to be worked into the object restructure now, instead of later when it is done and mountains of new code/features have been built on top of it.


...

I'm sorry that a number of you are dismayed, upset, pissed, frustrated and/or depressed. There's obviously been a lot of turmoil around this situation, and how it has been handled since the debacle began...

The bottom line for me is... stfu and lets get back to what matters - finishing this project and making it as rock-solid as it can be. The journey is full of bumps, as are all of them. Get over it, or stay at home.

[nabyroth]

It may help preventing/fixing exploits in long term, yes but again that doesn't explain why they can use speedhack/teleport/godknowswhat to some place that takes 10 mins to walk for 'regular' ones.

While we are all experiencing rubberbanding because of speed hackers it's really smart to allow some "cool enough to be hacker" people to use speed hacking.

Reading announcement made me remember a Glengarry Glen Ross scene Al Pacino was taunting Kevin Spacey about "being nephew" but since i need to obey the rules unlike some "chosen ones" i can't post a video link or whole rant here because it contains some bad words. If someone that has a "nephew" status who is "leet enough to be allowed to officially hack" can post i'll be glad.

And supporting this, is even worse.

Test Server eh? So why other people not "testing" that "nephew" status instead of walking/rubberbanding/walking/rubberbanding moonwalk situation? Haven't people reported bugs, exploits other than this 'ace squad'?

Seperating your testers/players by officially allowing some of them to do hacking after announcing "Zero-Tolerance" is also ironic and a bad move.

[frankensteined]

As a new member of the community, and having listened to people I played on Bria with (known for its hacking and exploiters), as well as having read over a dozen pages in this thread, I can see the value in both sides of the argument.

The community needs to put down the hatchet of divisiveness and come together on this. Corbaer makes a good point; this is not the final product. This is the testing phase. Yes, even the testing phase needs principles that people like DraGa and others have said, but let's be realistic about this.

They are developing this game FOR US, free of charge, on THEIR time. Whether we like it or not, we're going to have to bend with the wind like the reed, or break and die. Yes, what happened was probably (I state this inconclusively because I don't know all the facts, but get the gist) ridiculous and unacceptable, but the attitudes of some of the community members in response to this dilemma have been equally atrocious.

Think on this: In the end, when the final edition goes live and there are no more server wipes and your earnings, status, ranks and housing are permanent and you're thankful to the dev team for what they've done, and griefers and exploiters are chucked out on their arses, will you remember this whole debacle?

I'd venture to say you won't; you'll be too busy enjoying that TK/Doc, or your Def Stacked Fencer template with that cool stun baton. Or maybe your Medic/Swordsman def stacker with that 900 max PH?

My point is that the actions of BOTH parties concerned will determine where and how well this project goes. Don't undermine it by harboring grudges. That got us nowhere with SOE and now look! SWG is hemmorhaging a slow, painful, agonising death while I have to sit by and watch my toon of 5+ years wither because of an horrible mistake that was not addressed.

At least this team is addressing your concerns. At least they're communicating with you. Why don't you show some decency and understanding and put forth an atmosphere of solidarity and back this project to see the dreams of the COMMUNITY AND THE DEV TEAM come to fruition?

/OffSoapBox

-Thom

[VideoGameNerd777]

I agree.

However, I do see why the dev team may have decided on this. This is my opinion, not official information, but I think perhaps the devs are now working with the hackers because they can't stop them. It's a "if you can't beat them, join them" situations in my opinion. This probably isn't the case, but it's what I see it as somewhat.

However, offering rewards such as staff positions to hackers is not a good idea. If a hacker had the skill to edit scripts in the game and succeed at it as a normal player, there's no telling what he could do to the game if he had a position of authority.




Also, speaking of the previous post, I'd say I agree also. "Divide and conquer is a good saying. Unite and lead is a better one."

[corbaer]

NOT A STAFF POSITION!!!!!!!!

Stop spreading mis-information.

[torbjorn]

Originally Posted by Kyle

With this announcement, we are officially organizing the Exploitation Team as a part of our Quality Assurance team. They will have the sole purpose of uncovering exploits and being a point of contact for community members that do find exploits. More information will be released on this team in the coming weeks.

Originally Posted by corbaer

NOT A STAFF POSITION!!!!!!!!

Stop spreading mis-information.

It is a staff position. QA is staff right? How could they be part of QA and not be staff. In essence he is staff as he has immunity to being banned.

I heard ashur got re-banned anyways. Regardless, I am all for exploitation team, but not with known hackers and cheaters. Those aren't the guys you get to test how hack proof or exploit proof your game is. You get a whole different group of people for that kinda thing.

[corbaer]

Originally Posted by torbjorn

It is a staff position. QA is staff right? How could they be part of QA and not be staff. In essence he is staff as he has immunity to being banned.

Originally Posted by Kyle

It is more like an unofficial volunteer position.

It's just like the volunteer helpers who are constantly trying to help you in support... we work with GMs, and the Exploit Team will be volunteers working with QA's.

Please read the information posted before spreading and backing up mis-information.

[karnax]

I read the start of this thread shortly after it went up and initially I was in agreement with the majority with the wtf this is crazy reaction but I thought better of posting at the time because I figured there was obviously more to it than I knew. As the hours go by more comes out and frankly I feel like I know even less. I'm sure essentially that this was all brought about with the best of intentions but it just wasn't thought through and discussed as it should have been. Maybe there's positives to having sploiters working on the exploit team if it's done right I dunno. But it's not a switch you can just flick three days after sending a zero-tolerance message to everyone. That's madness.

I've read so much in this topic where somebody's said a load of stuff and not substatiated it in the slightest and then somebody laps it up and it spirals out of control over the following pages, just tiny little comments "I heard this" and "Apparently that." I just wish some people would just chill out a bit and be a bit more constructive but I understand the frustration ofc. Seeings I wouldn't be much help myself I'm just gonna stay out of it and hope this all dies down soon so those involved can find some resolution and move forward from from this.

Cartoon was awesome lol

[faceman7381]

Originally Posted by Timbab

That would make sense if they were HACKERS and not SCRIPT KIDDIES.

I am going to post this again because people CAN NOT seem to read what Timbab and a couple of others (Uli etc) have been saying ALL ALONG.

These people in question were NOT HACKERS! They were using a script cheat.

Would it make sense to higher someone who was HACKING the emu to prevent future hacks? YES!

Were these people hacking? NO! They were using a script to cheat!

So, does it make you question some of the staffs' motives......

That is for you to decide. But again, these people WERE NOT hackers!

Again, I commend Timbab and Uli for attempting to point this out and like Timbab has said, for those of us who have been around here awhile, Timbab has stated the TRUTH even when it wasn't popular and risked his status with this project.

If you are flamming Timbab and Uli for stating the TRUTH, (that these are script guys and NOT hackers), then you need to go back and reread this thread.

[Bostwain]

Originally Posted by VideoGameNerd777

So basically, you're encouraging people to find and exploit glitches for unfair player advantages, and to add insult to injury, they're given a position on an "Exploitation Team" and are basically given the "OK" to hack and exploit all they want as long as they report what they find?

Basically, you're saying, "Hey, go out and ruin the game for others and hack to make them lose. We'll reward you for it."

How about instead of authorizing hacking you just look for the exploits yourselves?

Also, why are you just going back on the "Zero-Tolerance" rule for hacking? It was made 3 days ago, and already you're taking the damn thing back?

This is a test server, the bugs/exploits/hacks need to be discovered, but they need to be reported, I understand what kyle means by find them and report them. But that means exactly that, you find them and report them and dont take advantage of them, or else be banned.

[Bostwain]

Originally Posted by valkyra

animation mode on

AHHAHAHAHHAhahhahahaHAHAHAHHHAHAhaha