FD - Fix the Credits Hack PLS!

[popuptoaster]

They still might have - fact is it's been found now.

I don't condone hacking/cheating myself but right now it doesn't matter too much as long as the players are being sensible about it. Sitting outside the station blowing everyone up "because they can" doesn't help, but then again, FD want people to do everything and anything now in Alpha. <shrug>

I also expect in Beta people to still clown around but as time progresses so will the builds and (hopefully) FD start to put in-game measures to deal with the nuisances.

it doesn't matter if you are not effected by it, but i have had a whole days progress reset THREE times directly down to hackers actions and I'm not alone.

I have said it before and ill say it again, it does not matter that its an alpha and not a full game, the idea is to test the mechanisms FD have put in for trading, combat and progression to the bigger ships and its pretty much ALL being stopped by hackers jumping way ahead.

How would you feel if you had been waiting for a game for 10+ years, finding out its coming, scraping together enough cash to buy a x52 pro and then again enough to get early access and help the game get made.

Then, finally when you get your chance to see whats on offer, you put in ten hours off effort only to be sent back to a stock starter ship and the starting credits and then have that that happen to you the next day you can play AND the next day as well.

the hackers can jump in to any ship they want, because i want to test how the game is supposed to progress i cant even get out of the stock ship, this evening so far i have got up to buying an extra burst laser and have about 5k creds in the bank.

But already on the forums we are being warned away from a system where there are hackers running fully tooled up Anacondas and killing other players, what happens when the players stop going there? Are they going to come out looking for us?

Life isnt fair, this is an unfinished alpha, but there are some people on this planet so powerless and sick of their own sad real life lives they are happy to pay a large chunk of money out, ruin another human beings experiences and then make themselves feel better by "helping" FD "test" the game.

 

[Jenner]

Life isnt fair, this is an unfinished alpha, but there are some people on this planet so powerless and sick of their own sad real life lives they are happy to pay a large chunk of money out, ruin another human beings experiences and then make themselves feel better by "helping" FD "test" the game.

I'm sorry you've had a rough time of it in Alpha 4. I can only say that it sounds to me like the real issue here is behavioral rather than technical.

What I mean is, hacking the game in and of itself is not ruining anyone's experience. Being a poor sportsman in the game, though, can test a player's patience for sure. Thing is, you can be a 'griefer' with or without credit cheats. Of course combining the two creates a bigger monster, I agree.

 

[Luniticisi]

The only thing this thread is leaning me towards is cheating and griefing ..that's sad but true .. I would have thought that most people would have wanted this sort of cheating curbed early on, I was wrong ... instead all I see is a lot of people telling me that it was NECESSARY to cheat to test the game properly. which is obviously a load of rubbish .. but those that cheat (yes, even in a testing phase) can't help themselves .. it is fine to find an exploit, send a ticket to FD and move on .. but that isn't the case..

So I am seriously considering spending my time in Beta, cheating with the rest of them and griefing everyone to "Test" the game .. follow the crowd ... isn't that some kind of rule?

 

[Theaghan Black]

Grinding in Alpha without hacking:
- many hours spend trading (a repetitive system);
- few hours testing the new ships;
- no hack is found;
Result at the release:
- you have a perfect trading system;
- the anaconda/lakon can explode around you;
- guys start hacking after the release;

Game ruined.

Hacking in Alpha:
- few or no hours in trading (but many other players are testing it enough, since not everyone can hack a game);
- many hours in bigger ships so bugs are found out;
- hack is revealed to the Devs;
Result at the release:
- Trading system works with some rare exceptions;
- the anaconda/lakon are affidable;
- hack is fixed;

We have a good all-round game.

IMO the prices change according to trading, not buying ships so people hacking for credits are not influencing the market.

 

[Luniticisi]

Grinding in Alpha without hacking:
- many hours spend trading (a repetitive system);
- few hours in testing the new ships;
- no hack is found;
Result at the release:
- you have a perfect trading system;
- the anaconda/lakon can explode around you;
- guys start hacking during after the release;

Game ruined.

Hacking in Alpha:
- few or no hours in trading (but many other players are testing it enough, since not everyone can hack a game);
- many hours in bigger ships so bugs are found out;
- hack is revealed to the Devs;
Result at the release:
- Trading system works with some rare exceptions;
- the anaconda/lakon are affidable;
- hack is fixed;

We have a good all-round game.

IMO the prices change according to trading, not buying ships so people hacking for credits are not influencing the market.

I have no problem with hacks being found, but for people to use them for their own gain is wrong ... let's see how fair it is when I attack everyone who thinks it's good to cheat in the game, constantly .. for "testing" purposes .. now obviously I am not going to do that but I am tempted ...ohhh I'm tempted

*Edit* - Also -

many hours spend trading (a repetitive system)

--- have you played an Elite game ?

IMO the prices change according to trading, not buying ships so people hacking for credits are not influencing the market.

What about the free credit's people can spend on cargo, surely that is going to affect the markets !

 

[Iain M Norman]

All alpha 4 behaviours: players, testers, hackers alike are useful to FD. Even people who haven't submitted a single ticket are still contributing just by using the alpha client and generating statistics.

Yes even people who have cheated for "their own gain".

If it was any different FD would step in and say something.

 

[popuptoaster]

IMO the prices change according to trading, not buying ships so people hacking for credits are not influencing the market.

<comment removed > what do you think happens to prices when some players have 1000creds to spend and 4 tons of cargo space to fill, but other players have billions and can shift 400tons at a time?

It took me about 3 hours to get enough credits to buy ONE soil enrichment machine, Cmdr hackalot comes in with his Lakon buys up almost all the remaining stock driving the buy price UP and then sells it where it's most profitable driving the price DOWN.

Even if i dont get killed by a hacker or a CTD I can now no longer make cash as fast as I otherwise would have been able to.

The hackers ARE distroting large areas of the game and pretty much killing all normal testing.

In one run he has killed a trade route i worked out would bring in about 1k profit per ton and i hadn't even earned enough creds to fill my hold with that product yet.

 

[Jorlin]

I will definitely try to hack when beta starts.
First, i'll try something i spotted in alpha 1.1 and see if it is already fixed (unlimited multicannon clips anyone?). I'm quite sure it is fixed because of multiplayer mechanics, but it will take a while till i can verify it, since i won't be able to afford multicannons in the beginning
At the moment i'm only allowed to open tickets regarding installation issues.

I'm not good at messing with game data and memory...but this one i got done in less than ten minutes. Still no luck with invulnarable hull though.

 

[Adept]

Should be ok with the scale of the game and they will not all be making the same trades at the same times. Even the biggest playable ship should not be able to distort markets. If a hundred players grouped together then perhaps but i am not worried.

Actually it's been speculated and hinted that the actions of the players will be emphasized and exaggerated to quite a large degree, so that our little space trucks will actually effect the prices. The amounts of material being traded are also quite low, if one considers that these things are supposed to be on a planetary scale.

 

[Herik]

I quoted you. You said the hackers were cheating. However, given that this is a test and not the actual game, cheating isn't really a valid concept.
By all means, have fun while testing. Accusing people who use hacks of doing it solely/mainly to further their own character is an unfounded assumption. It's also totally illogical because why would people be interested in furthering their characters when all progress is to be imminently wiped?

I'm sorry this is my belief; these people just don't care what they're doing to others, and they don't care if it is illogical. They're into only what they can get out of it for themselves. This 'multiple testing of the same exploit' is ***hat behavior. Its not testing.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

In one run he has killed a trade route i worked out would bring in about 1k profit per ton and i hadn't even earned enough creds to fill my hold with that product yet.

The game will be wiped regularly in alpha and beta phases. Yes, a trade route may be "killed" but only until the next wipe. Buy something else and trade that - your in-game progress during this phase means nothing other than helping Frontier find bugs.

 

[Luniticisi]

The game will be wiped regularly in alpha and beta phases. Yes, a trade route may be "killed" but only until the next wipe. Buy something else and trade that - your in-game progress during this phase means nothing other than helping Frontier find bugs.

But what about the Credit cheaters who can get back to where they were by cheating the system and giving themselves enough credits to get their old ship/load-out's back ... that isn't a problem? ... a wipe is not going to stop people flying exactly the same ship that they had before the wipe if this continues ... fix the damn thing

 

[Thorn Black]

Im sorry i dont want to see hackers in beta, i dont care how ridiculous explanation they will give. Hacking is hacking, destroys other fun for which they pay, i dont want this game to be hackers only zone.

Im assuming frontier will come up with something here, if someone will still be using hacks after beta starts, just ban please. let the hacker feel the same pain as others feel, its only fair.

You want help, ok ... send info, make a ticket and so on, but immediatelly stop overusing that exploit / hack for yourself or even worse give it to others. Thats fair.

I dont care that you dont like to farm for hours for something, its a slow based experience on the beggining, thats the point of the entire game! Dont like it ? Dont play it!

 

[Herik]

That's the way I want it too. I like a game that seems to go on forever. Whats a grind for others, many times is not for me. Elite I never found a grind. This version I can tell will intrigue me no end.

 

[Luniticisi]

Im sorry i dont want to see hackers in beta, i dont care how ridiculous explanation they will give. Hacking is hacking, destroys other fun for which they pay, i dont want this game to be hackers only zone.

Im assuming frontier will come up with something here, if someone will still be using hacks after beta starts, just ban please. let the hacker feel the same pain as others feel, its only fair.

You want help, ok ... send info, make a ticket and so on, but immediatelly stop overusing that exploit / hack for yourself or even worse give it to others. Thats fair.

I dont care that you dont like to farm for hours for something, its a slow based experience on the beggining, thats the point of the entire game! Dont like it ? Dont play it!

I agree with what you are saying, as you can probably tell from my posts ... but banning people for this is a step too far ... fixing the problem is a better solution

 

[popuptoaster]

The game will be wiped regularly in alpha and beta phases. Yes, a trade route may be "killed" but only until the next wipe. Buy something else and trade that - your in-game progress during this phase means nothing other than helping Frontier find bugs.

That is the stock answer of the people not effected by the issues and not reading the posts, well look I'll say it in big words.

We can't test the trade system if it is being artificially screwed up by hackers, it's not about progression or wipes, it's about not being able to test how the markets are going to work when hacking isn't possible

Jesus Christ how often does it have to e said before it penetrates some peoples heads.

The hackers should be hacking, and reporting the hacks and then looking for new hacks, instead, what is happening is the hacks are being spread by PM or Googled and people are using them to play the game, distorting just about every aspect of it from a testing perspective.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Testing the economy algorithm with small units won't give a fair test - at some point many people legitimately will own Lacons and if the economy moves as much as it does (from reading about it - I have not "tested" A4.x yet) then that implies the economy is too fragile. This requires people to try to break it - large units of trade lots of time. You in a sidewinder are not going to affect things that much.

Re hacking - If FD were that bothered about the hacking they would do something - look at how fast they moved with the cannister problem. Most likely they are working on things in the background and will release a patch "soon"

 

[Jenner]

Jesus Christ how often does it have to e said before it penetrates some peoples heads.

Wow. Ok then.

 

[Solace]

Real pity what this is doing to the community at the moment. So many threads related to hacking. Would FD be able to give some idea of what they're thinking right now?

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

I agree with what you are saying, as you can probably tell from my posts ... but banning people for this is a step too far ... fixing the problem is a better solution

I agree - since FD said "go for it" then it would be a bit rude to ban people