Exploiting for the win

[KIAsan]

From the OF:
Hi everyone,

We want to let you know that we have increased the frequency with which Monolith's spawn for the Sunday portion of the Event. They now show up every 45 minutes. Hopefully, this will allow for more than one crystal to be in play at a time and for all those who wish to be active participants to do so.

We on the development team have been playing this weekend and most of us had similar experiences to what I'm sure many of you did - waiting in a warpgate for a shot at getting onto a pop locked continent. All issues of circumventing population locks aside (I'll get to that below), that isn't very fun. Part of our aim is to keep PlanetSide as fun as possible (it is a game, afterall ) and hopefully more crystals leading to more fighting in more places will increase the fun factor.

Another aim is to keep things fair. Whether this is coding ways to prevent hacks and exploits or keeping weapons balanced, we strive for as fair of a playing field as we can. Unfortunately, some existing systems were a bit at odds with keeping population numbers even (like module running) for as balanced of fights for this weekend's activities as possible. While some will scream for the heads of the dirty, no good exploitiers, we have a hard time throwing the book at anyone who simply wanted a way to get in on some very intense and fun PlanetSide fighting. If anything, It strengthens our resolve to address the issues for the future. We weren't going to try and ninja in some more code to fix it this weekend, as without a proper development and testing cycle, such an action would likely have broken things more than it would have fixed things. So, hopefully everyone will find some great fighting Sunday with the increased crystals and we will be able to better address how the server handles population for the future.

From the PlanetSide Team to you, our customers, thanks for your understanding, participation and patronage.

Samhayne
PlanetSide Producer

This occured on Emerald (VS). They pulled it together and exploited the mod runner exemption to overpop locked continents by 10% or more troops than the other empires (who didn't use the exploit). Their success is noted in the current score. It was such a problem, that the devs have "fixed" it by dropping the timer to 45 minutes for the last day. However, they have already said they are not going to level the playing field. So, kudos to VS-Emerald. You saw how to exploit for the win, and it looks like you got away with it! Cheers.

[Warborn]

sup

http://img79.exs.cx/img79/3264/awesome6.jpg

edit: Oh, and apparently yesterday the VS CR5's were telling people over Global to explot that. But today they weren't. Either way, pretty unfortunate that the VS would cheat like this. Though to be fair, I did hear that the TR were exploiting their way past the shield protecting the capitol somehow. Don't know if it fixed anything, and it in no way cancels out that or the LLU bug/exploit from Forseral (VS insta-capped an LLU base), but the TR seem to be guilty of poor sportsmanship as well, just as the NC are guilty of exploiting the pop lock circumvention too from the look of it.

[Lartnev]

That's because the bug was supposedly fixed yesterday morning. What they ended up doing was http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26658

[WritheNC]

Yeah I stayed off the crystal continents during the latter half of the event last night. The lag was really, really horrible.

Even with the pop advantage half the time, the VS still have been using good strategy and forethought as for which subcaps to take. All the bases I've been at when we do there would be 6 AMS's, CE, and support in all the right places.

I hope we can at least spawn into sanc today though. Got kicked off Ishundar last night and was in limbo for 15 minutes on the spawn screen :(

[Marsupilami]

http://www3.telus.net/westside1/PlanetSide/vspopcyssor.JPG

it`s sad if they get away with it. i don`t care bout the bfr`s but the random trooper thinks"hmm, cheating weins,no punishment= might"

the vs had on almost EVERY mono cont a higher pop then the other empires despite a poplock.

EXPLOIT FOR THE BAN

[FearTheAtlas]

Yeah, they flooded the mono cont, AND the next one or two..utterly retarded. I hope they get their BFRs taken away for a week and have them fall back down from orbit smashing their sanc to shit :mad:

[Marsupilami]

yeah make VS finish 3rd, and let nc/tr duke it out

[Sentrosi]

How wonderful. Empire cheats, get the benefits, and they win.

Kudos to all VS Emerald. Now go play with yourselves on the battlefield in your BFRs.

Just fuckin' sucks. Losing more respect for this game each and every day....And yes I would feel the same way if the TR had done it. Cheaters never win, except in Planetside.

[GhostCell]

Ladies and Gentlemen, they still gotta get there 4 hacks, If NC and TR work around the clock for 2 weeks, to prevent them access to the caves :) hahahahha... NO HACKS for them.. I know its sad but think about it. If they can't get in the caves, and can't get the hacks, then for 2 weeks, they don't get bfr's, sure there'll be a few that get in and get there bfr.

But we could do it, for the next 2 weeks making that our objective would ultimatly deny them there reward.

[Majik]

Well as a VS on Emerald, unless they managed to send these globals while I was up going to the john, they didn't happen. If you look at the totals, the TR aren't winning on any server. So if saying some bullshit about the ALL the VS exploiting on emerald makes you feel better about your empire, have a ball.

[Queensidecastle]

I really really cant believe I just read that from the lead Developer.

Let me paraphrase: We as the developers and administrators, know who exploited this event, how they exploited, dont care that they exploited, and arent going to do a damn thing about it. If they go on to win the event, they will be rewarded.

[Hamma]

I dont really agree with what they did, I would have reset everyone score and fixed the exploit.

But thats just me :P

[Warborn]

Even with the pop advantage half the time, the VS still have been using good strategy and forethought as for which subcaps to take. All the bases I've been at when we do there would be 6 AMS's, CE, and support in all the right places.

I'd agree with that. A lot of the times the TR would have 90+ spots left on the next monolith continent until it all went neutral, at which point the CR5's would begin asking for support on that continent. We'd fail to get a decent foothold, and have hardly any chance at victory because of it. Conversely, the VS and sometimes NC would have the next continent filled up in very little time, and would get a whole slew of hacks going right away, while we're busy zerging on foot from a tower somewhere.

So yeah, hacks aside, I am none too impressed by the leadership of the TR on Emerald this weekend.

[MadMerco]

those globals were never sent and the exploit was fixed the next day.

The mod thing is not an exploit it is a feature put in place by the devs on purpose, just because we are using it for a different purpose than it was intended dosen't make us cheaters , assholes maybe, cheaters no.

[Warborn]

those globals were never sent and the exploit was fixed the next day.

The mod thing is not an exploit it is a feature put in place by the devs on purpose, just because we are using it for a different purpose than it was intended dosen't make us cheaters , assholes maybe, cheaters no.

If you're referring to what I said about VS CR5's telling people to exploit, yeah, they were. That's what people on the VS were saying (although they didn't do it Saturday, only Friday). Plus, the exploit was not fixed. The screenshots above showing the population distributions on the monolith continents were taken on Saturday. The VS had a large population advantage over every other Empire the entire time, even when all sides were pop locked.

As for using the modules to circumvent the pop cap, that's exactly what exploiting is. That feature was never meant to be used to give one side an unfair population advantage, and yet that's what you were using it for. Assholes is pretty much synonymous with exploiters though, so you were more or less right in labelling what your actions made you.

[KIAsan]

I don't agree with poor TR leadership on Emerald comment. I was there at the start of day 2, we had initial success. Later, we started to notice a terrible trend, we would have an excellant setup, only to watch VS flood into the continent, then overtake the population, then wipe us and the NC out. It only took this happening 3 times (and watching the total pop suddenly drop as the 4th empire went VS), before I got disgusted, our outfit got disgusted, and many in our alliance too. We all just tuned out at that point and quit caring (I know many just quit). Hell, it just wasn't fun to see that many people on TR, work together to get a plan, set it up, only to have the hoard of VS sweep in and blow it. It got to the point, that the only way for TR or NC to get a crystal, was for the other guy to hit the VS. And half the time, this didn't work either when they had anywhere from 35 - 45 percent population of a 3 WAY POP LOCK.

Now, after this crap started, everyone got discouraged and it became completely disorganized. I know of many of us who appealed the situation, with quick replies from CSR-s who agreed that it was a problem and was being looked at. The disappointment I have, is that they acknowledge the explotation, but won't even level the playing field. So, unless we also exploit, we can't win. What kind of precedent does that set? It's ok to exploit, as long as everyone else is doing it?

I'm just disappointed at SOE. If they had moved in early, they could have stopped this. But, now the results will be tainted and 2/3rds of the player base pissed off. Oh well, what can I say, it's what I have come to expect from SOE.

[Rbstr]

ANd morkov i havent seen any problems with it.

It was so cool today, on markov, we were going after Cyssor, and we grabed two subcapitols (the rest was TR) we grabed faro, and eveyone tehre grabed a lightning, talk about blitzlkrieg.

there were 25+ of and we all rolled up to gukunu at once, absolutely steemrolled the entrenched TR. The lighting 3.0 owns, i went 28-2 by using it my first two lives

[kcirreda]

Yep, get 4+ Lightnings and see wat can challenge U then. the 12 mm for AA, and the cannon for AT and AI. Just remember to use numbers for it.

As for the exploit, I didnt even nottice. I allways thought a Empire can have 40% pop of a cont MAX (if they was there and poplocked B4 another empire got there) and the 60% was divided among the other 2 empires if they got thre equally. Correct me if Iam wrong.

[Warborn]

I don't agree with poor TR leadership on Emerald comment. I was there at the start of day 2, we had initial success. Later, we started to notice a terrible trend, we would have an excellant setup, only to watch VS flood into the continent, then overtake the population, then wipe us and the NC out.

I was there for most of Saturday, and Friday. On Friday, yes, we had a few good setups. On Saturday the only good setup was on Forseral, the third or fourth monolith, where the VS somehow capped an LLU base instantaneously. Apart from that, no CR5's were making an effort to inform people of the next target, and people would only start calling for people to go to the monolith continent once it was already neutral. Many times I would run to a warpgate, see swarms of VS waiting to go in, and once I zone in, see the TR have 90+ slots left, and something like 15% population compared to 40% for the NC and similar population for the VS. We dragged our feet time after time and never even got a respectable foothold on the continents. Ceryshen, Cyssor, Solsar and others were places that I can remember vividly how the entire continent was being hacked by the NC and VS while the TR zerged from a tower somewhere.

So no, I'd say the exploiting aside, it's really not that unusual that we're doing so badly. The VS obviously wanted to win a lot more than we did.

[MrPaul]

I allways thought a Empire can have 40% pop of a cont MAX (if they was there and poplocked B4 another empire got there) and the 60% was divided among the other 2 empires if they got thre equally. Correct me if Iam wrong.
I dunno if it still is, but is used to be *just over* 50%. The Devs only ever said *just over* and didnt give an exact number for reasons I still don't get.

[Boomer]

this exploit is so easy to do.. and they didnt fix it. I used it today. It really isnt bad.

the BUG that is letting them all in is when one person leaves continent.. and people are waiting in a WG.. everyone gets in. this can mean 50 vehicles get in all of the sudden. this is part of it.. the other part is the exploit. Getting back into the continent that is locked. figure the rest out.

Anyway... stop whining.. I dont mean to praise the barneys.. but if they can do it.. you can do it too. Too bad the TR high command DOES suck. 30% of the reason the Enclave quit planetside. Otherwise.. maybe you could organize a raid and use the bug to get in. TR markov has done it with me, so has NC markov, NC emerald, and on one occasion TR emerald.

[FearTheAtlas]

The issue is that TR high-command don't feel like being bitches and using the glitch, they rather fight clean.

[KIAsan]

Hmm, correct me if I was wrong, but the TR was in second place on emerald at the end of day 2. Guess the NC sucked more?

And there were three exploits being used by VS as part of an organized effort (2 population exploits and 1 hacking exploit). The devs have already admitted they are exploits and are going to fix them later.

At this point, it's academic, since the event is over. The problem for the future is the precedent SOE set this time: If one side discover's a game flaw, that allows them a significant advantage, they should all use it (and advertise it in sanctuary). Thats because SOE won't take action against large populations. Good lesson to learn. From now on, I'm not reporting these things, I'm going to train others how to use them. First on my list, how to repair vehicles without being exposed to enemy fire. Lessons start in sanctuary for TR-E every time I'm online.

[Firefly]

Anyway... stop whining.. I dont mean to praise the barneys.. but if they can do it.. you can do it too.
I could, if I wanted to earn my battles with cheap easy kills. I neither glitch, nor exploit, nor cheat, nor spawn camp, nor weapons-spam, nor kill-whore. I fight my battles the way I want, and if my code of ethics says I don't cheat to do it, then who the hell are you to tell me what I should do?

Make no mistake about it - I don't care about being beaten. Otherwise I'd be a fourth-empire sellout. I don't mind losing, which is why I play TR exclusively. I don't mind being smeared across the field - provided it's done honorably and without a bunch of underhanded glitching, exploiting, and/or cheating. And I've got a Size Twelve steel-toed Doc Martin for the ass of anyone that thinks I used this exploit.

Too bad the TR high command DOES suck. 30% of the reason the Enclave quit planetside.
I don't give a rat's ass about Enclave. TR is not The Enclave, and The Enclave is not the only outfit in TR. Just as NC Markov is not the 666th and the 666th is not the only NC Markov outfit. Quite frankly, I'm a little irritated at having been compared to an outfit whose leadership style consists of screaming and yelling and threatening and TK'ing, and whose "major players" and personalities among the command group had personal attitudes and personalities which consisted of homophobes, racists, anti-Semites, and other assorted ignorance. I don't care what they accomplished as NC, I don't care what they accomplished as TR the two times they played. Whatever they did on the field was disgraced by their conduct off the field, as well as the other bullshit they did on the field; their attitudes toward the rest of TR pretty much meant that you either stooped to that immaturity (meaning you think "Dude Where's My Car" is an Oscar-worthy masterpiece and "American History X" is the greatest movie in the world as it represents the white struggle), or you were put off by the senior members of their command. For every guy who liked their outfit, there were five more that either remembered them as the NC's MVP *while* they were TR the first time, or they were made to suffer the idiotic antics of a bunch of sophomoric juveniles.

I scoff at the notion of TR's "High Command". There are several distinct camps within the TR upper-CR levels, as near as I can determine (no offense to anyone who does or does not fit into one of these three groups, except maybe the first one). You follow one of three philosophies - one, you're a 15-year old dipship wanna-be Rambo who couldn't lead an army of ants and feels the need to make retarded calls with a platoon of fellow retards at your side backing you up (aka the /global gang-up)... two, you're in the KAAOS-sponsored CR4/CR5/OL discussion group (aka team long-winded, shout-out fellaaaaz!) or associated with the members of that strategy group, or you're in ULTRA. Aside from that, there are few other "groups", and two of those groups are VERY together. If that's sucking, then you must have an army of love-children of Stephen Hawking and George Patton.

Which doesn't explain why you yellow-wearing sissies came in dead LAST for the monolith event. I guess your NC high command was all on a corporate picnic, hmm? Then again, I wonder what that says about the average NC player that isn't a part of the NC high command. That you're a bunch of lemmings that couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag without some head honchos holding your hands or shooting at you from behind a la "Enemy At The Gates", I reckon? Yes, you're so much more superior than we poor TR. At least on Markov they have the excuse that a majority of the NC's commanders are actually all in one outfit - so what lame excuse might the NC have for their subpar disgraceful performance this weekend? Wait, I don't care.

Otherwise.. maybe you could organize a raid and use the bug to get in. TR markov has done it with me, so has NC markov, NC emerald, and on one occasion TR emerald.
We had several raids today (Sunday), because I took part in some, and/or led some of them. I counted three successive TR monolith-snaggings during that time period, during which time there were no NC monoliths of blue and yellow hippy-loving. And the funny thing was, to the best of my knowledge there were no glitch-using exploits, and the group I ran with fielded at least 100 coordinated players.

But then again, this is coming from the same empire that said they possessed skill, but screamed bloody murder when surgile was taken away and the Jackhammer was "fixed". All that hype about skill and then suddenly when you're brought within standards, you suddenly cry about the nerf? Hmmm... so I'm supposed to automatically give credence to your "let's cheat!" theory? Simply because the empire you play for is obviously far superior to mine? Sounds like what we've got here is a case of "Do what I do because that's how we have to get ahead in life."

No thanks - it is just a game, but I live by a code of ethics that includes honor and integrity, and that's at the core of who I am, game or not. No thanks, I'll *EARN* my keep the honest way.

Have a nice day.

[SquishyWaffle]

Blast those VS, they beat us! Therefore they cheated.

As if the other empires weren't abusing the very same glitches if everyone seems to know about them anyway. I don't condone cheating but don't stick your nubby finger at VS when your own kind were doing the same thing.

[Warborn]

Hmm, correct me if I was wrong, but the TR was in second place on emerald at the end of day 2. Guess the NC sucked more?

Yeah. It's as if the NC didn't even know there was an event going on half the time. They, like us, showed up late a hell of a lot and often didn't even get a foothold (also like us at times). But the topic of discussion isn't the NC, it's the TR, so really, I think the performance of the NC is beside the point.

Though I will at least say that the rampant cheating sullied the entire thing, and I don't believe the results are at all indicative of what each side could have achieved.

[nosferatu2323]

When is that 4th empire glitch gonna get fixed? :)

[NeoPhoenixTE]

For the first two days, there is no question about the VS' use of the bind exploit. People from both TR and NC have seen it, and have submitted screens of it. How big of an effect this had on the monolith competition is obviously being debated, but my two cents say it was alot.

Am I condemning the VS commands strategical abilities? No. I've seen some killer tactics come out in an even fight. Am I blaming the VS as a whole? No. There was a select group using the bind exploit (I Could name an outfit that's high on the list of suspects, but it mighta only been somethin like a random 22 guys or so) while there were alot of VS just showing up for the fight early and being there legitimately. It's the select group that needs to be looked at for this.

Could the TR/NC have come out on top despite this advantage?

With how high a percentage advantage the VS had achieved, I'm going to have to say no. No amount of strategy can overcome a 7-10% population advantage. The zerg would just be too much to handle.

People from both TR and NC (I'm hesitant to speculate that any VS did it) submitted appeals to the CSRs about this exploit, and an answer was given.

The devs obviously scrambled to make a fix to this bug (which is why alot of people get "target cont is full" errors when trying to respawn at sanc after binding somewhere, it's still a lil buggy), and I applaud their swiftness to a solution that stopped this exploit from happenning on Sunday. However, it came as too little too late. This competition showed a rather unplesant side to the VS that has left my respect for that empire shaken significantly.

If those that exploited came forward and confessed, then a simple punishment of those inidividuals (no BFR imprinting during the two weeks, period) would make it better in my book. It takes too many resources to redo an event like this, reguardless of how many complaints were given.

The VS lived up to their legacy of "technology = might" this weekend. Sadly, it was in the form of exploiting existing technology to gain an unfair advantage in an otherwise awesome event. Kinda ironic, wouldn't you say?

[Rei]

While some people had gotten through useing the Module feature, what really bolstered VS forces was the fact that the servers will allow everyone in a continent specific WG to gate through when one player leaves the target continent. And the VS were willing to sit and wait in those gates. It wasn't so much an organised effort as just a bunch of people who wanted to play in the event. But I think some people are being selective in their memory of things. While I don't have a screenie of the Map page ( I crashed... AGAIN) soon after I took the shot. But the TR definately had 50% pop on Forseral to the VS 32% (poplock) and the NC 31%. The devs need to address the issue of WG's gating everyone when one place opens.

[Firefly]

The devs need to address the issue of WG's gating everyone when one place opens.
That's the problem there. That, and the module exploit. Funny how they don't seem to know a fix, yet we've known about the one-slot trick for how long? Months?

I'm listening to Morbid Angel and it rocks, as ever. Just thought I'd share that.

[johnypilgrim]

As a VS CR5 on Emerald I played all weekend long and never saw one global about this exploit. I didn't even know what it was until I read these forums.

What I do know is I've never ever seen the kind of cooperation and planning among the CR5s that happened this weekend. Once a continent was locked, outfits were directed to the next continent where upon defences were placed, AMSes set-up and the wait for the earthquake and meteor shower was begun.

We'd have entire bases covered in mines and spitfires as soon as it went neutral and 3-5 AMSes within the soi of every subcap we needed.

I didn't see that kind of perpartion in the NC or TR when I would drop on one of their recently hacked subcaps.

Its a shame that it appears there was a mechanism that could allow more people on a continent at once, but if you think that every single battle was one because there were more VS on than TR or NC then you are fooling yourself.

JP

[Black]

if you think that every single battle was one because there were more VS on than TR or NC then you are fooling yourself.

JP
Why are we fooling ourselves might i ask?

[Warborn]

But the TR definately had 50% pop on Forseral to the VS 32% (poplock) and the NC 31%.

I believe your numbers are incorrect. I doubt we could get a 50% population, as we were almost always either even with or outnumbered by the VS and NC before (why would we just exploit there?), and 50% + 63% is 13% too much. Maybe you meant 37% TR, 32% VS and 31% NC, which is ironically what the TR were up against fighting the VS virtually every time a monolith spawned, in favor of the VS of course.

[johnypilgrim]

Why are we fooling ourselves might i ask?

As a guy that works in dev for another gaming company, I see this type of crying foul all too often when one side wins and another loses. There may well have been an exploit but the only evidence I've seen of it saw for are a couple screenshots that could just have been easily doctored in any imaging program.

As a CR 5 I was constantly checking the map and never saw those out of whack percentages. Maybe it just happened Friday (I didn't play Friday until very, very late) but I played almost all Saturday and Sunday on Emerald.

But why only the VS and why only on Emerald (which are the only complaint I've heard about so far). That's what makes it seem so fishy (ie poeple trying to point fingers at a coding problem rather than themselves).

Looking for answers myself,

JP

[Firefly]

I didn't see that kind of perpartion in the NC or TR when I would drop on one of their recently hacked subcaps.
I can only speak for the ULTRA Alliance, not the rest of TR, because that's who I was working with.

We limited our targets to NC-held areas, mainly, because the VS were already far ahead of us and we could only attempt to maintaint a strong second, and then attempt to catch up. I know that of the many fights I took part in, a majority of them were versus the NC (that's right girls, you got trashed). And the funny thing was, despite all this griping and complaining, the TR's "high command" was seemingly unified, working together for once. It did much to restore many peoples's'e's'es' faith in the TR CR5s.

Although, I think I do recall a battle on Hossin against the VS, and I clearly recall the enemy losing after a vicious fight. I know during that fight, the alliance was fielding three platoons and we focused on Naum, Bitol, and Ixtab, getting there before the neutrality set in. From there we CE'd the crap out of the base, and when it went neutral we had our three subcapitols. By the time you ladies got around to coming for our bases, we'd all migrated the majority of our forces to the capitol, securing it before you could get a completed hack on the subs.

From there, it was simply a matter of holding the capital while we retrieved the monolith.

Coordinated TR Armor for teh win!!

[Warborn]

There may well have been an exploit but the only evidence I've seen of it saw for are a couple screenshots that could just have been easily doctored in any imaging program.

This (http://img79.exs.cx/img79/3264/awesome6.jpg) wasn't doctored. I took it myself, and was meaning to post it on the Official Forums to ask why this kind of population imbalance was going on so much this weekend (Friday/Saturday at the time), but then I read Samhayne's post about the rampant cheating going on and their attempt to quell some of it, at which point I got my answer.

That picture was taken on Saturday, by the way, so no, it wasn't just Friday, it was the entire weekend, although I'm not sure how common it was Sunday, as unlike Friday and Saturday I didn't play much then, but I remember, at least, the populations being 29% TR, 29% NC, 42% VS, so even if the individual continents weren't still being flooded by VS as much on Sunday, they certainly had way more people than either the TR or NC, which helped a lot with the more commong monolith spawns, I'm sure.

[NeoPhoenixTE]

It had stopped about halfway through Saturday. Last overpop I saw was around 10-11pm EST Saturday night. Sunday, it was gone.

And at the risk of calling someone a liar (I would rather say "mistaken"), I had gotten word from two VS contacts stating that there were globals on how to use the bind exploit. However, I had received one of these confirmations on friday (which makes johnypilgrim's story check out), but I had also gotten word of it going on Saturday as well. These conflicting stories worry me.

johnypilgrim, is there a chance you missed a global, or ever had your command chat off for a second? Like I said, I don't wanna call anyone a liar here, but simply mistaken.

We have the NC/TR accusing the VS of exploiting, and VS deny it up and down. At first glance, this is exactly what's expected given the results. However, there are many people (myself and the rest of the TR CR5s, as well as many members of my former NC outfit) that witnessed this population exploit. It did happen, there is no denying that. The guilty parties are refusing the step forward on this one, and are thus leading to fingers pointing at the VS as a whole, which I think is unfounded and pretty unfair. Like I said earlier, there were VS that were there legitmately and early. It is these parties that used the bind exploit that showed up after the cont was locked. The VS as a whole is not to blame, and I want the people who did this to step forward and take responsibility so all this finger-pointing crap can stop.


Also, I would like to add as a side note here: My reason for saying it was the bind exploit, and not the use of modules, is that I saw little to no module activity during the event on the continents and during the times in question. Plus, modules only work for a single person. Had the amount of people that slipped in had used modules, there would have been witnesses stating that there was a mod pile at the geowarp. I myself never saw one. If someone saw something like 10 or 20 modules sitting in a geowarp, speak up so we an clarify this.

[johnypilgrim]

johnypilgrim, is there a chance you missed a global, or ever had your command chat off for a second? Like I said, I don't wanna call anyone a liar here, but simply mistaken.


I always keep command chat on (no matter how painful somedays), but there were the food and bio breaks, so I could have definitely missed a global like that.

What makes it weirder, there were multiple CR5's saying "What is this exploit people are talking about on the forums?" In other words, they had no clue what it was (me included).

So, I take this that if there was a way to increase pop (baring it being a reporting error) only a few outfits new about it and used it.

As I mentioned before, Isaw unheardof cooperation and coordination between all CR5s and outfits - which makes it sad that there is this dark cloud of possible cheating overshadowing it. It just tarnishes the best play I've ever seen in almost a year and a half of playing Planetside.

JP

[Warborn]

I've had VS players that I know through other forums saying that the CR5's were telling people over Global to exploit it. Whether you or some other CR5's saw it or not, it was happening. As was said, the entirety of the VS wasn't exploiting, but some were, and by trying to make it as if none of the VS were doing any exploiting at all, you just make your entire side look bad.

[kcirreda]

I was TR on Saturday and VS on Sunday. TR was going on "Ohhh VS exploiting!" when we was on Cery that night, tho I told them it was because of **read last post**. But when I played VS on Sunday I did not see any exploit msgs from CR5s or sanct. But I did hear alot of GREAT tactics from "Ghosts Of The Revolution" chat. See, when a cont is locked, I use a standard WG and wait. I thought it was 1 for 1 as allways as I waited in that WG for over 7 mins. But sure enough, EVERY1 in that WG warped at once. I was clueless 2 it, so I used it by acident.

Oh BTW, VS on Esamir yesterday (sunday) did a AWESOME job on getting that mono to Eisa (capital) with NO sub-caps. It was a 20+ mag column with AIR support bringing that LLU home. KUDOS to all VS crewing a mag!

Edit: Oh TR did great too, especialy on conts they allready owned B4 it went neut. They was organized better than VS most of the time if they could get there. I was in a Ultra Platoon (Hell's Rangers 4 teh win!) and we each covered 3 sub-caps blah blah blah, it went very well.

No Punishment for VS. If they were truely "cheating" they would have got ALL monos.

[NeoPhoenixTE]

Just as one more little quip before I log for awhile, I jsut gotta say that this is turning into the Auraxis Witch Trials with all this.

I am also disappointed with the latest dev activites post. (link (http://www.planetside-universe.com/index.php?newsid=1062)) Spork speaks of how well the event went, but constantly beats around the bush as far as all this speculation goes. Seeking to improve the next one, discussing it inernally. Wish he would just come out and say "we're working the resolve the continental overpop issue that came up during the event" or something to that effect. Sickens me that we can't get someone high up in SoE to at least admit that something went wrong and it came out in a very bad way this weekend.

This "ignore it and it'll go away" stance just frustrates me is all. The event is over, I'm not expecting a recall of the results (as it seems SoE has thrown out ALL chances of that happenning), but at least a serious look at what happenned, as well as the truth, along with a solution ot this problem. If not for the sake of fairness ("truth, justice, and the Auraxian way"), but for the sake of server stability. Those continents were excessively laggy for my only having a 103 ping. It felt like 56k all over again (oh the horror) with how many people were on that one continent. The fix in place was effective, it just simply needs to be fixed, and the issue that spawned it acknowledged and labelled as resolved.

...wont be resolved until those responsible come forth and confess. Then we can return to our regularly scheduled game. I don't see the VS hearing the end of this until someone comes forward.


(....that was a really long "final quip" now that I look at it >_>)

[Mango]

All is fair in love and war

[Warborn]

All is fair in love and war

Which is why we play games, because love and war both suck.

[Tssha]

I've had VS players that I know through other forums saying that the CR5's were telling people over Global to exploit it. Whether you or some other CR5's saw it or not, it was happening. As was said, the entirety of the VS wasn't exploiting, but some were, and by trying to make it as if none of the VS were doing any exploiting at all, you just make your entire side look bad.
Or maybe, we just don't know about it and don't want to lie about it. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but a lot of VS were genuinely oblivious to it. Particularily because all we get in the pop screen is "empire pop lock", not "over empire pop lock". Also, as a cr 5 on Friday (I played with my alts Sunday, and slept through Saturday), I never once saw a global or item on command chat about any exploits. Of course, it was busier than usual.

However, VS cr 5's did a great job leading over this. They globalled the next continent well ahead of time, and did a lot of leading on cont-all when they got there. CE was laid and AMSes were put up. Honestly, they never worked together the way they worked that day, and the whole empire benefited.

Course, globalling the cont early might have brought all those people to the linked WG's, people who didn't know they were exploiting before or even after the fact. Like I said, you can't tell your empire is over its pop lock by looking at the population percentages. Because of that, and the fact that all it would take is one guy going linkdead (a common occurance), and you've got a recipe for an unbalancing bug. THAT'S what the devs are refering to by not punishing people that just wanted to play.

Hell, I didn't even know about the bug before I read this thread.

Lastly, I can vouch for each and every one of the people in my outfit. Not one of them exploited or enabled exploiting of pop lock bugs. If they did, they'd be out of the outfit in a very short measure. Hell, most of the time we'd have squads on different continents, and we're usually very strict about that (i.e. stick with the group, recall when we tell you, or get out of the squad :D ). Exploiters there may be, but I refuse to let my outfit's name get dragged through the mud with the rest of my empire.

Also, I hope the devs close these exploit holes before the next event.

[Magnus49]

if im not mistaken i thought that the devs allowed people with mods to enter a cont. so they could get the mod in......

[F!LTER]

Your all a bunch of whiney babies.

That being said, yes i believe VS emerald used an exploit to gain an advantage, but was that advantage unfair?

Hell NO! I am a member of VS markov, and i personally saw globals of how to use the bind exploit to overpop the monolith continents. Last time i checked.... oh ya we finished dead last (way to go team :P).

I dont believe for a second that ANY of the empires on ANY of the servers were unaware of these exploits or were aware but neglected to use them.

Cudos to VS emerald and their leadership for organizing the exploiting better than all the others. Cheaters? Maybe. Exploiters? Hell yes, but so are you, they were just better at it...

They won, you lost, who cares we all probably all have our BFRs by now ne way (I know i do).