Explorer thoughts on RNG exploit

[-VR- pipestein]

So I have been lurking in DD and reading some of the outrage about the engineer exploit. I was curious what the thoughts were on this subject by some of the hardcore explorers in the game.

Edit: I should probably state my own opinion. Personally I can't get hot and bothered enough to really care. That is me though.

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Speaking as an Explorer, I agree with you. Even if an Explorer got his FSD God-range this way, I couldn't care less... well a tiny bit of jealousie, for not having that FSD

But as said, this is only when talking as an Explorer. As a normal Player, I can only join the uproar in DD. And eager to see what FD will do about this.

++++edit++++++

When you see this, well, even as an Explorer, you may get a Little grumpy, at least: http://imgur.com/a/eIVbr

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

As an explorer I don't care the only grade 5 of significant importance is the fsd which the materials are not bad to find, yeah grade one is easier but menu glitching 100 rolls or just rolling 100 grade 5 rolls I know which will be less frustrating

all my other mods are relatively low grades or again ok to find materials for,
DD grade 5 I never bothered with and can see how a glitch would be useful here but again I don't care I'm happy with my ship with grade 3 clean drives, I don't need grade 5 to explore

for pvp this is an unfair advantage to those using the glitch though but I don't PVp so again I don't care, one could argue money glitches and mission stacking also offer unfair advantages, but the whole rng and those with more time have better engineering ships creates unbalanced PVp anyway it's not like sailing at the olympics where everyone is in identical boats and skill wins the day.

In ed the person with the most time spent engineering has better odds before the battle even starts

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

With some common sense, you can play in open with very low risk, so I really don't care too - but I do hope that exploiters will be punished.

 

[goemon]

currently on the hunt of upping my DBE above 60 ly jumprange with 2 srv equipped, shield and still boostable... we are talking about ~ +1,3 ly max jumprange difference between a god roll, which you might need anything between 1 and 500 rolls for, and a very good roll, which you will need 1-20 rolls for...

and yes, i have a good sample of rolls already from this week (~100), and overall 600 G5 upgrades.

this difference hardly matters in exploration, not even for record breaking attempts. ah, and getting other better G5 rolls for other moduls on my DBE would add <0,1 ly jumprange.

that said, i do hope FDEV removes any moduls gained through this exploit from the game, beside other consequences they might draw. nobody who has used that exploit could have any doubt about whether it was an exploit or not.
___

@friedenreich xante ... oh well. well done for spotting and reporting, i have two similar tickets on exploits still in game since 2.1., but at least nothing as severe.

 

[marx]

Personally, I see it as proof that I was right to say that secondary effects should go, or at least they shouldn't be able to influence the primary effects. It's just bad design that gives too much importance to the RNG.
Then there's the fact that there were apparently plenty of people who would risk getting their accounts banned just to go a couple of percentages beyond what should be the limit. Well, congratulations.

As for people reporting the exploit to FD earlier: let's not forget though that it's not like they can publicly acknowledge it before there's a fix, unless it becomes widely known through other players. Looking at the timeline of events, assuming that the screenshots are genuine, it was reported less than a month before the 2.3 beta. There should have been a fix there, but there wasn't. It probably wasn't a priority, because there were more serious things to fix, and as far as exploits go, as established above this one doesn't give a huge increase above what's possible through normal gameplay. In this regard, I'd say that the various money-making things that have been persistent (Ceos, Robigo, Quince, et cetera) were actually worse. The difference between them was that they were plainly evident and didn't require looking to break the game, or triggering them by rare accident.

If I were a designer for the game, I'd suggest rebalancing the blueprints to include what could before be gained through secondary effects, and then remove secondary effects from rolls, or at least exclude the ones that would modify the primary effects further. For example, raise the maximum possible optimal mass for G5 FSD mods to +58%, and introduce the max fuel per jump to the primary effects too. That way, there'd be no need to change existing mods on players' ships, and you'd get a more intuitive system that also relies somewhat less on RNG.
But hey, I'm not working for FD.

Oh, and goemon: if there's proof that somebody used the exploit, there should be no need to remove their modules because they'll get banned anyway.

 

[goemon]

Oh, and goemon: if there's proof that somebody used the exploit, there should be no need to remove their modules because they'll get banned anyway.

... if it isn't a temporary ban only. forced clear save would be another option.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

I'll echo the thoughts of the above posters in that I do hope FDev take these exploits seriously and do something to fix them but I'm not terribly fussed as they don't really affect me. I'm happy with the amount of engineering I do as I don't do combat competitively enough to require that much of an edge. I'd also say that the Quince-type exploits have done more damage to the game by being far more common and easily accessible.

 

[newman1702]

Personally I can't get hot and bothered enough to really care. That is me though.

Why post a thread about it, then? There's so much threads discussing this to death, I honestly fail to see the point of someone who doesn't care about this to start yet another one. Since it is here, though, I'll just briefly say, it's a bug that allows the exploit, fix said bug, and be done with it. Punishing players for taking advantage of a mistake Frontier have made in order to circumvent the mind numbingly dull "gameplay" associated with collecting enough mats is not something I'd call a particularly wise course of action. Plug the hole and move on.

Why don't you tell us how your long trip is going, instead? I'd rather hear about that

... if it isn't a temporary ban only. forced clear save would be another option.

Sure. don't forget to flog them as well. Overreact much?

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

To be honest mate I avoid DD now like a weekend dose of the clap. Full of over emotive tools spouting nonsense usually. I'm with the majority here: I couldn't care less.

 

[goemon]

Sure. don't forget to flog them as well. Overreact much?

i think you misunderstood.

me: "i do hope FDEV removes any moduls gained through this exploit from the game"
marx: "there should be no need to remove their modules because they'll get banned anyway."
me: "... if it isn't a temporary ban only. forced clear save would be another option."

context rocks!

 

[newman1702]

i think you misunderstood.

me: "i do hope FDEV removes any moduls gained through this exploit from the game"
marx: "there should be no need to remove their modules because they'll get banned anyway."
me: "... if it isn't a temporary ban only. forced clear save would be another option."

context rocks!

Forced clear save would be an over-the-top punishment for this, only slightly less over the top than permabans. You advocated it as an option if people just get temp banned. That's the context. And what I'm saying is, wiping someone's account over this is unnecessary and potentially damaging to FDev themselves.

 

[goemon]

Forced clear save would be an over-the-top punishment for this, only slightly less over the top than permabans. You advocated it as an option if people just get temp banned. That's the context. And what I'm saying is, wiping someone's account over this is unnecessary and potentially damaging to FDev themselves.

fully with you.

i don't advocate this, i advocate to get the modules out of the game. temporary bans won't do this. if non-temporary bans or forced clear save are too much of a punishment, the moduls have to leave in another way. that's all.

 

[newman1702]

fully with you.

i don't advocate this, i advocate to get the modules out of the game. temporary bans won't do this. if non-temporary bans or forced clear save are too much of a punishment, the moduls have to leave in another way. that's all.

Gotcha. Ball's in Frontier's court, anyway

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

Dann, its fixed!
I dont read the DD forum,
and heared of this the first time now...

I had exploited my azz off would I have knew it

 

[Jackie Silver]

What is (or was) this exploit?

 

[Major Klutz]

Honestly, none of this affects me at all. I don't PvP so any advantage someone else has is no disadvantage to me.
If I had known about this so called exploit, I might have taken advantage of it myself. You can't blame someone for doing something that the game allows to happen.
FD can't remove the modules or punish the players because there is no way to know if a module was obtained legitimately or not. And in any case they were obtained in a way that the game allowed.

That said, I never agreed with engineered modules surviving ship destruction. I would prefer if engineering was much easier (slider system), cost only money, and mods were lost on ship destruction.
That would eventually weed out the existing modules and a simpler engineering system would make it possible for anyone to get the same advantages at the cost of the same disadvantages.

I don't like the idea of a time sink simply for the sake of a time sink. It's better if players can spend their time on the aspects that they enjoy.
Nobody enjoys gathering materials at the whim of the RNG only to have those materials flushed down the toilet at the whim of the RNG.
If engineering only cost money, anyone could gather that money doing the parts of the game that they enjoy.

After all, IMO the game does need another money sink. What is there to spend your billions on after you already own every ship? Fuel and maintenance don't cost nearly enough to make a difference after you have a few hundred mil.
I currently have no motivation to do missions or earn money since what I have now will last me indefinitely at the rate I'm spending.

 

[duckofdeath]

My opinion:
Frontier Developments is a joke. I've asked them for a refund over their lack of ability to deal with cheaters in the game.
This exploit and countless others has been public knowledge, to Frontier Developments as well. For reasons only known to the weak handful of "decision makers" at Frontier, nothing serious is done about it. No bans, no fixes, no nothing.

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

What is (or was) this exploit?

If I understand correctly you could roll G5 mods with G1 Mats...
Ingame since 4 month, public since 2.5days and now fixed...
(Just had a peek in the DD forum, please correctly me if I got it wrong)

 

[Redfox]

I'll just add it to the list of things that I just heared/read about, don't impact me and have ppl ruin their own gameplay with.

I'll 'work' hard (some say grind) for 10 rolls, get 90% and be proud much rather than cheat, get 99.9% and permanently feel miserable using that stat (although I guess that last part doesn't apply to ppl using those exploits in the first place).