Sol Powerplay Update

[JR250]

I see Sol was fixed, though not sure if that was all Archer's work as they were pretty hard at it.

But my (annoying) Grom neighbors in V886 Centauri still have an foreign, cheated by, and forced Power presence that's not them. Grom needs this system back, as much as I hate saying that. Ill gotten gains are worthless yet ALD continues to dump merits in there right now like it's honestly theirs. Zero shame.

The same goes for Fong Wang, and Nuenets, two systems near my faction space that were hard-fought between Winters and Alliance, now stolen by ALD. Fix this, please.

 

[Danieros]

Greetings commanders,

We have been closely monitoring the Powerplay situation in Sol and a number of other affected systems. We are aware of a recent increase in undermining scores impacting the powerplay status of those systems, and have taken action to address the situation.

To prevent further impact, we have temporarily disabled system score and merit gain from the on foot transfer power data activity until a permanent fix is in place. On the next Thursday maintenance (19th June), we will return the systems to their appropriate state. Please note that the galaxy map panel for the affected systems will also return to normal at this time.

Any news on this? Is there a list of which systems were supposed to be changed outside of normal powerplay flow? It seems that all that happened on this maintenance is a Sol Fortified -> Max Stronghold change.

 

[Meaty McMeatshield]

So, by returning "the systems to their appropriate state", apparently that meant deleting my tens of thousands of points of data I had accumulated for days and turned in for which I got zero rewards? Not a happy customer. Seems like the least you could do is return the data.

 

[skittlekiller]

When can we expect all systems with known uses of this exploit to be fixed?

• HIP 97950
• Fong Wang
• V886 Centauri
• Nuenets
• Bhil Mina
• Skeggiko O
• Lu Yupik
• Alpha Centauri

When can we expect powerplay transfer data to be available again?

 

[Morbad]

I think it would be useful for the community if Frontier confirmed if this was some in-game exploit achievable by just playing the game, botting/multiboxing or just straight up cheating through third party software.

Exploiting bugs for an advantage is straight-up cheating.

One of the frustrating parts about powerplay/BGS cheating is that if it's done in Solo or PG, you can never tell exactly what people are doing and who's doing it. There's always plausible deniability in some way or another.

Could easily be concealed in Open as well. Client doesn't need to be connected to anything other than Frontier's servers, in any mode. It's almost certainly against a strict interpretation of the ToS to manipulate encounters in Open by blocking connections outside of the client, but it's also utterly impossible to enforce. Achieving the same effect through in-game blocking is barely more difficult.

Regardless, players shouldn't need to see exactly what's going on for them to have confidence in the game. It's Frontier's job to identify patterns, make corrections, and if rules were violated, take steps to deter future violations.

The same argument could be used to permanently disable bounty hunting as a merit source for reinforcement/acquisition. That might be rather unpopular with the majority of players who are doing it non-exploitatively too.

(We all know Frontier are never going to fix it being AFKable)

I remember my March 2015 bug report on afkable bounty/bond hunting...among a dozen other things that I though must have been unintended exploits in need of fixes around the same time.

All working as intended, evidently.

It also depends what balance point Frontier actually want.

The one that costs the fewest developer-hours.

So, by returning "the systems to their appropriate state", apparently that meant deleting my tens of thousands of points of data I had accumulated for days and turned in for which I got zero rewards? Not a happy customer. Seems like the least you could do is return the data.

The least they can do is nothing.

 

[angusmadmac1]

Deleted

 

[Cheese Helmet]

Was merits for data turned back on?

 

[DIngBatDave]

Was merits for data turned back on?

DOn't think so mate. just the Sol system was returned to a previous state or some such. Looks like merits for data are off until a major update to remove the exploit. Not a thursday maintenance. So it could be a long time.

 

[Meaty McMeatshield]

Wow, after reading through the rest of this thread, I am amazed and disgusted by how many exploits and cheats there are that I wasn't aware of. And I'm frustrated that my data that I turned in after days of work (all reinforcement data, so not related to undermining anyway) was deleted when it/I had nothing to do with any of this. I'm thinking I'm pretty much done with powerplay. This isn't fun anymore.

 

[DIngBatDave]

Wow, after reading through the rest of this thread, I am amazed and disgusted by how many exploits and cheats there are that I wasn't aware of. And I'm frustrated that my data that I turned in after days of work (all reinforcement data, so not related to undermining anyway) was deleted when it/I had nothing to do with any of this. I'm thinking I'm pretty much done with powerplay. This isn't fun anymore.

there's not as many exploits as you think mate. Seems to have been a small player group. or perhaps a few individuals. What you have it a metric tonne of annoyed people with lavish conspiracy theories and zero evidence. FDev will know exactly what went on and indeed who was doing it. We probably will never hear too much detail of what happens only be told an update to fixe such and such. Which is annoying because it allows the vitriol and tinfoil hat theories to perpetuate.

 

[Meaty McMeatshield]

DOn't think so mate. just the Sol system was returned to a previous state or some such. Looks like merits for data are off until a major update to remove the exploit. Not a thursday maintenance. So it could be a long time.

Something's going on, because the system I was trying to reinforce before the freeze now shows undermining and reinforcement points.

 

[CMDR Rulon]

Cool, just weeks into trying out out Powerplay gameplay and half the tasks I'm given can't be completed, two weeks in a row now. 80-100LY from Sol by the way; this feels like a sledge hammer solution with no return to "normal" play in sight.

 

[Meaty McMeatshield]

Something's going on, because the system I was trying to reinforce before the freeze now shows undermining and reinforcement points.

N/M, I just now turned in data and got no merits for it, so must still be off.

 

[DIngBatDave]

Something's going on, because the system I was trying to reinforce before the freeze now shows undermining and reinforcement points.

Ye, well there are still all the other activities. just settlement data doesn't work for now. Or how ever long it takes for them to patch the exploit i guess. but there's still all the other activities available.

 

[Meaty McMeatshield]

N/M, I just now turned in data and got no merits for it, so must still be off.

Update, someone is really undermining my system hard, taking advantage of the fact that FDev has tied my hands and held up my data which would have been more than enough to counter him but I can't do anything about it. This really really sucks. Weeks of work down the drain not. I'm done with power play.

 

[Nathan84]

You know, turning of Control Points for Power Data until a fix is one thing, turning Merits off for them is another (and imho more debatable) but not being able to complete Data weekly assignments when you can't reroll them ? Come on.

Maybe removing those assignments from the pool is too much work but at the VERY least make a clear announcement somewhere so we don't waste data/time trying to complete them.

 

[JTX]

Is there any update as to when FDev will be letting us do on-foot transfer power data activity again?

 

[LightCC]

Greetings commanders,

We have been closely monitoring the Powerplay situation in Sol and a number of other affected systems. We are aware of a recent increase in undermining scores impacting the powerplay status of those systems, and have taken action to address the situation.

To prevent further impact, we have temporarily disabled system score and merit gain from the on foot transfer power data activity until a permanent fix is in place. On the next Thursday maintenance (19th June), we will return the systems to their appropriate state. Please note that the galaxy map panel for the affected systems will also return to normal at this time.

Please consider the following partial reenablements as a quick step:

• Stop or greatly reduce the CONTROL POINTS (set to 10% or 20% of normal?) for turning PP Data in, but allow us to still receive the MERITS
• Only limit merits (or just control points) to a particular type of system (undermining?)

 

[vanFace]

Is there any update as to when FDev will be letting us do on-foot transfer power data activity again?

No, I don't think so. If you go by the example of escape pods, say fare well to power data having any value but mere credits.

 

[skittlekiller]

Greetings commanders,

We have been closely monitoring the Powerplay situation in Sol and a number of other affected systems. We are aware of a recent increase in undermining scores impacting the powerplay status of those systems, and have taken action to address the situation.

To prevent further impact, we have temporarily disabled system score and merit gain from the on foot transfer power data activity until a permanent fix is in place. On the next Thursday maintenance (19th June), we will return the systems to their appropriate state. Please note that the galaxy map panel for the affected systems will also return to normal at this time.

Can we please get an update on the status of this. I understand fixing the cheat, and undoing the state of systems is complicated, but since the original posted timeline has passed can you please tell us if you are still working on it, or if only Sol is going to be fixed?