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Summary
The Merc of Mikunn were founded on game launch with the purpose of bug reporting on the back-ground simulation (BGS), the crowning achievement perhaps being the first BGS guide which opened the black box which was the BGS at the time.
That guide is now stickied in the forum here. We did this to make the game better for everyone and level the playing field between those who knew, and those who did not. It is time once again to level the playing field and release a secret that we have been sitting on for a long time.
It is not so secret anymore, but many still do not know, and it is being used against groups extensively. With this knowledge (1) you will know how the BGS fundamentally works, (2) you will be able to create your own exploits, (3) past exploits and how they ended up existing will make sense to you. So without further ado….
BGS: The Skeleton Key
The BGS is operated by transaction and not by value. Value is the ten million in bounties you spent all day collecting.
Transaction is the one time you turn it in.
Frontier once posted this chart:
Note collecting bounties is +2 and murder is -5. How much value of bounty is +2? One million? Two million? Neither. The reason why the action above only says “2” is because its only assigned to the transaction and not the value.
This means that 2 million bounties turned in at once equals 2 points, and 200,000 bounties done ten times (also a total of two million) will generate twenty points. Same bounty value, but a factor of ten difference in BGS change.
Similarly killing a couple of ships in a warzone and then turning it in is far more efficient. I could kill a couple ships in the war zone and turn in 11 times (11 transactions) and beat ten players fighting against me who play all day and turn in once (ten transactions).
You can apply this to every BGS action in game. There you go, you probably are thinking of new exploits already. Think up an action in game, now think of how to break it down in transactions. Use the chart above to calculate how many points you get.
Past Exploits
Remember the trade exploit where players would sell one item at a time at a loss to nuke a faction down? That was because multiple transactions were made for each sale. Value doesnt matter, transaction did.
Why is system authority so effective vs other bgs actions? Every time you murder someone it instantly creates a transaction, vs bounty hunting where you turn in all at once.
But wait! These exploits still exist. The way the game works hasn’t changed. It’s still transactional – Frontier simply uses thresholds where a minimum amount must be turned in to count. So turning in one item at a time might not work… but several may, or a minimum value may, or jumping out of the instance and doing it again may. Once the threshold is identified, you know how much you need to do to be more efficient than any other group and spam it.
Similarly people can still kill system authority and jump out before the response timer ends and jump back in.
Dear God Why???
I don’t know for sure, but before we call anyone stupid for a horrible implementation, my guess is that the purpose was to allow anyone, be they in a sidewinder or an anaconda, to have an effect on the game and “blaze their own trail”. Problem is, as we discover the thresholds and frontier patches them higher and higher, the threshold will become out of range of the sidewinder, but still provide an exploitative spamable transaction giving the worst of both worlds.
Only Frontier can really say why.
Solution
Get rid of the transactional nature of the BGS and make it by value, value not necessarily being credits.
As long as the BGS is transactional exists, my group can find an exploit. Any patch or threshold to hide it, my group will find a way around. And once we do, we will have a leg up on any group in efficiency, often by a factor of ten or more. My group is defensive and tries to help other groups get involved positively in the BGS. That is our purpose.
Other groups aren’t necessarily like that, and can also figure it out. In fact, they already have. I am aware of it being extensively used to troll groups and the BGS has mostly devolved into offensive exploits vs defensive exploits. Some do not know and get outright destroyed.
I’m sorry I sat on it this long, but I hope everyone understands why we did. And now that many groups know it has become unfair for those who don’t. I hope this levels the playing field, and
generates the discussion needed to prompt change. Please complain, but be nice. The purpose here is not to bash Frontier, but make the game better.
My greatest fear here is that Frontier patches out the defensive transaction exploits, and leaves offensive transactions like kill system authority. Please, for the love of Braben, do not.
Please distribute to your BGS gurus to contribute to the discussion. This is needed for a fix and I plan on presenting this to Frontier.
With the best of intentions,
Walt Kerman and the Mercs
Merc Discord:
https://discord.gg/Hx5eW8s
Part of another group? Discord for diplomats:
https://discord.gg/aukqKNE
EDIT:
Some people think that this design choice does not result in exploits.
Exploit: In video games, an exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system, rates, hit boxes, speed or level design etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers.
The designers did not intend for you to be selling goods one at a time to bomb a stations faction owner to zero influence. Its a design flaw that creates what are, by definition, exploits. I understand why the design was chosen. It doesn't make these techniques that result from it any less of an exploit.
