Good luck Portalarium

I've seen enough exploits and bug exploiters. Ban them (you know who they are) or they will destroy your work. They are costing you clients everyday with their bullshit. Goodbye

 

So long and thanks for all the fish I guess.
I really would like to understand how a part of the community comes to this conclusion.
Or some proof.

 

I think most players (like me) probably don't have a clue as to what the OP is referring to. I don't even know what a paly bubble is (OP's sig.)

Whenever I hear about an exploit for the first time, it's when something is changed in the game to combat the exploit. It's always a change that makes the game harder and less attractive for all gamers. Like when the CP part of Brightbone Pass and the clone Superstition Canyon was flattened, removing cover for less powerful avatars. Or when they made it so you couldn't loot a chest in combat mode. For this reason alone, I wish people would stop using exploits.

 

People using exploits is just part of an early access game. It is both a good thing and a bad thing, bad for obvious reasons that we all know, but also good because it highlights things that need to be fixed and is a part of the process of finishing a game.

The big reason that it doesn't usually hurt other games is that they will wipe or reset when the game goes live or is close to going live. With SotA, instead, we are persistent long before the game is close to being finished, and so we will continue to see exploiting and things being fixed but those who take advantage of those exploits will be put ahead quite a ways (see for example some of the people running around right now with 15+ GM's lol).

The good thing though, to keep in mind, is that aside from PvP, you really aren't competing against anyone else so for the most part it doesn't really matter if someone else has exploited to get 'ahead' of you.

 

I'm with you Kara--I don't see the point in exploiting a game (or anything for that matter). Perhaps the process of discovering new exploitable processes and reporting them can give one a sense of accomplishment. But actually using an exploit? Aren't they just cheating themselves? They have presumably coughed up some real cash to play the game. And at the same time, by exploitation, they cause discontent among fellow 'honest' players. Which in turn can result in a lower population which might facilitate the eventual demise of the very game they've supported. It boggles the mind that some ego-driven folks can be so short-sighted.

Yeah, I could care less if some silly goober decides he/she is 'smarter' than the rest of us--as long as it doesn't shorten the life-span of our game by discouraging folks from playing.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

Ugh. Hate to say this. But, there needs to be another wipe. I know. Not gonna happen. But.... there needs to be another wipe.

 

Why? Connected with the topic at hand please, no moral discourse.

 

But you are and this is the problem people can not see. You are competing as the game will be balanced because those who exploit the systems and have lots of GM skills. So that 5 skull zone you now need a full party to be able to live if you don't have a ton of GM skills, that dungeon for the story will have harder mobs because people will have overpowered avatars and they say its the end dungeon so it should be hard are ruining the game for people that don't grind out and get tons of skills up to the GM level. This is part of the problem with a endless grind system that rewards people by giving them more and more power without having in place levels to create base datapoints of so much dps or armor or health.

 

Exploiters get their gains resettet.
Question is if you talk about real exploiting or a system change.
Players aren't responsible if a system is changed and everybody that comes after them get less or different stuff for the same thing.

 

If there is an exploit you should report it. Declaring that there is some exploit without giving an example or actually having proof is worthless. Not every action that gains people something quick is an exploit. Sometimes people just learn the mechanics better and are more experienced getting stuff done. Instead of crying exploit ask the players how they are doing it. If you suspect an exploit but can't figure out how they are doing it message a dev and ask them to investigate the matter. I am very sure the devs would have no problem investigating an issue. They have tracking data and know the average and peaks that are possible within the limits of the game mechanics. They almost certainly will not be able to tell you what the investigation shows as privacy protections prevent them from sharing user data outside their company. If the player gets banned then you know they were using an exploit if not that means that the devs did not find an exploit that went against their terms and conditions. Stop assuming the devs are doing nothing just because you don't get the answers you want. The company has to follow their terms and conditions and privacy laws.

 

Believe me, I love this game and have played countless hours. So, its disappointing to see players like the OP who opt to leave the game due to real exploits, perceived exploits, imbalances, bugs etc. Persistence was too early. I understand the reasoning for persistence was to get more to play the game consistently. But, character persistence was just too early. Just like putting it on Steam. Too early there too.

That is why I believe there should be another wipe. You asked. That is my answer. I'll continue to play and support the game.

 

Fair enough.

 

Of course exploiting is a bad thing for any game, and happens in every game, but at this stage in the game I'm not certain that the level of exploiting that has happened thusfar has been bad for SotA.

What I'm saying is, there hasn't been any serious gamebreakers in terms of gold or resources, and I'm guessing the OP is talking about the people who were somehow able to circumvent the need to be in multiplayer mode to earn the bonus 25% experience which doesn't have much to do with the economy.

So I would say there is at least a positive side to what's happened sofar. If there are people who have gotten away with AFK resource gathering, the amount of resources they could have gained without getting busted and banned is only enough to train a minority of individuals, who are likely now GM and able to help with the testing aspect of the game that's currently underway. And the amount of gold that could have possibly been gained without anyone getting busted is also a small amount that hasn't caused any serious economical impacts.

Of course, if anyone is exploiting, they should be banned. I'd also like to add that it would be wise to implement a captcha system. It could open randomly when you attempt to collect resources, or after every X (partially randomized) amount of gold, the captcha will prepare to open after 5-10 second of being combat free, and have it re-open after a shutdown to avoid scripting a reload for every captcha.

Captcha systems can also be non-immersion breaking, say if the window that opens wants you to select the image that ''doesn't belong.'' Something along the lines of 8 sheilds and 1 potted plant.

If a captcha system was implemented, then we would have plenty of time to put it to the test before launch, at which point they could do a mass-unbanning, with the option to erase the characters on the account if the nature of the exploiting could have affected their character development. I'm all for banning exploiters, but with a good captcha system in place and after removing all of their profits from it, I think it would be good to retain playerbase wherever possible.

Tl;dr - Ban exploiters on sight / economy is in good shape / implement captcha system / mass-unbanning at launch to retain playerbase where possible.

And I must also say that, in this type of thread, on most games I've played the posts would look a lot more like ''buhbye gibs me stuff'' but that really hasn't happened here. Instead you see how this community is generally very nice and wants to help you or at least wish you all the best. All games have bugs and exploiters, but where else you might find such a nice community I cannot say.

 

I'm sorry, I don't understand this sentence. Could you clarify please?

Yeah, this one too. What do you mean by 'base datapoints'? Do you consider SotA to be an 'endless grind'? The word 'grind' doesn't sound like much fun to me and I've never quite understood it. Does 'grinding' mean 'playing the game' ?

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

If you see exploits and those doing it and you don't give a detailed report about it with as much information as you can, including dates, times, names..then you are as much of the problem as those who exploit. The developers can't see everything, and if you don't notify them, how can you hold them responsible?

 

You are competing against people who exploit because they will have a higher level skill then you, not "real skill" but a skills in game. So these people who have exploited and gotten higher levels can kill things quicker and easier making the game no challenge for them and will complain about it being too easy so they will have to make it harder for those that high extremely high skills.

Datapoints is in regard to most games say at lvl 10 you have so many hp, you do avg dps with a weapon of that level, so much are and so much damage mitigation. That is the base datapoint of LVL 10, they modify this via classes by making you have more armor/mitigation but less dps or more dps and less of the other stats. This doesn't work well with a classless system as I might walk in full plate with using high end spells and my strength is high so my avatar can tank better as he deals out damage higher then someone who wears light armor because their skill isn't as high in the other skills that make it easy to wear heavy armor and be a spell caster. This is compounded in the fact that as a mage I have to raise skills in multiple skill trees to be able to damage mobs and have multiple decks setup. I can't use fire tree against fire elementals or earth tree against earth elementals. This is not an issue with other MMOs as when you level you get multiple types of damage based spells. But a sword user doesn't have this issue a mage does. These are datapoints to balance the game against and if they make high end zones balanced for people with lots of GM skills then if you don't have lots of GM skills you will never be able to do those zones because your not high enough of a level.

As for the endless grind, what are you doing to get exp? Killing things endlessly to get exp to grind out the skills you need to move to the higher zone as only 1 of the main quest lines is in and it does not progress well in regards to how much skill and damage you need to do to go to the next stage. This game only has a grind right now as there is no "end game" for killing things, its mainly about collecting items to make things and grinding out to make things and grinding out to level skills or spending RL money to put items in your virtual doll house. So how is this game anything but a grind right now?

 

I personally wanted persistence delayed because I foresaw this coming. On the other hand, if it wasn't for going persistence, the devs may not have been able to flesh out some of the exploits that have popped up since persistence. It's difficult to say if persistence ended up being a good thing or a bad thing, but my preference would have been a 6 month delay. Either case, its all damage control going forward, and I can only hope that things don't spiral down hill quickly because of these exploits.

 

I play this game since R11 in 2014 and started every next release a new toon. I saw many bugs and how they got exploited but thats the nature of things and doesn't matter in an unfinished game. Even in finished games there are still bugs which will be exploited but, hey thats in real life the same. Some go stealing in your store and some do not. I give a damn so I do I in any computer game. It doesn't affect me when someone needs to exploit to have more fun as long it will not destroy my own playing fun. Let those guys be rich but bored because they have no more challenges. They will leave the game.

 

Lol. The Paly bubble refers, I think, to the over powered defensive spells that paladins could use in the earlier days of World of Warcraft which made them almost impossible to kill. Divine shield or divine protection from memory and it appeared as a bubble around the character.

As for the exploiters, report them to Portalarium who have shown a zero tolerance approach and moved comparatively quickly to address exploit issues, all of my current gripes are as a result of the counter action they have put in, oh and the +25% xp for PvPers, now that is irritating.

 

well best thing to do to help game and help comunety is to wen you see any one exsploting report it
trust me non of oure devs want exsplotiers is just they always find there way to games and we all just have to try get rid of them

actualy if they was to give like 10$ store credit to any one that gave info on exsploits they did not know of it would be grand and would incurage more peple to help out on it