About today's disciplinary actions - 2021-02-11

Shan

The decisions we had to take today are not ones we took lightly.

It was a necessity due to the nature of the exploit, and the severity of its impact on the game. Both also being why we had to handle this differently than previous issues, even if said previous issues may appear similar on the surface.

This pack was announced as being available once per day and displayed a purchase limit of 1. The fact that it was claimable more than once was clearly a bug.

We understand that many players made a few additional claims without understanding there was an exploit, and those people will suffer no repercussions for their actions. However there were also players who exploited the issue to a degree that was not acceptable.

Ineffyble

From what I can tell, plenty of users affected were acting in good faith, not intending to "exploit" anything

Drago Musevni

Typical tone-deafness from TP is typical.

=j= JC Ravel

Not good enough, Shan. Not good enough at all. I didn't take advantage of the glitch, and I wasn't banned. I've given you hundreds of dollars, but not a cent more. I've left my 1* review on Google, and I'll be leaving the game unless the bans are lifted immediately. It's as simple as that.

--[RR] JC Ravel

Webberoni

With all due respect, this is complete BS.

I was pleasantly surprised with a new 'buy again' button, so I pressed it. My excitement towards the new feature grew substantially, to the point I was impressed with TP's surprise gift for players.

I did not program the app.

I did not hack the app.

I did not use a 3rd party interface into the app.

I pressed a button that the app presented.

I did not exploit anything.

I did not breach any terms of services.

If you want your stuff back, take it. Don't insult me. Don't penalize me further by taking stuff away that I had before today. DO NOT BAN ME.

BarnBurner

Yup, its not as though we created malware to take advantage.

This was your companies lack of testing. YOUR FAULT.

Comment moderated. ~Shan

=j= Ulysses Winters

So the bans against my friends and fleetmates will not be reversed?

Maybe you should go ahead and ban all of us for accepting that Honor Christmas Miracle over a year ago. Because that was clearly a bug in the game and you know what? We took it. And nobody got banned over it.

If this is the decision, then I'm uninstalling and never coming back. This wasn't just a game, this was a community. I've made incredibly great friends because of Star Trek Timelines.

And in their support, THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

~[RR] Ulysses Winters

The Big Ticket •4LB•

Webberoni wrote: »

With all due respect, this is complete BS.

I was pleasantly surprised with a new 'buy again' button, so I pressed it. My excitement towards the new feature grew substantially, to the point I was impressed with TP's surprise gift for players.

I did not program the app.

I did not hack the app.

I did not use a 3rd party interface into the app.

I pressed a button that the app presented.

I did not exploit anything.

I did not breach any terms of services.

If you want your stuff back, take it. Don't insult me. Don't penalize me further by taking stuff away that I had before today. DO NOT BAN ME.

This plus 1000.

Dont hate the player, hate the you know what....

Commodore Pack

@Shan
Quite frankly it is a disgustingly draconian response and based on what many folks are saying here on the forums, it is being applied far from evenly. Also the tone being used in these communications is insulting and belligerent. Thank you for making it easy for me to never spend money on this game ever again.

eXo | SilverRose (retired)

So hold up. This was more impactful than the multi tap bugs in voyages and the mailboxes? For multiple event rewards? I cry foul on this. I helped you guys root out actual game breaking bugs. People hitting a "buy again" you put into the game isn't one.

{SST} Captain Magenta Borealis

Exploit? This was NOT a glitch that someone took advantage of through the backdoor. This was a screwup on whomever coded the pack and released it out and has affected hundreds of players or more. I am glad I stopped spending my money a month ago after over $100 worth of Dilithium used on a Tuesday pack only netted me one featured Legendary crew. You just killed this game with one single decision to ban everyone who dared to hit that button a second time for three days. Good luck keeping this ship with a massive hole on the bottom now afloat.

snookbunny420

Thanks for clarity, now i can clearly delete your game and leave your forums to find a better way to spend my time.

Webberoni

@Shan

And stop referring to what happened as an exploit.

TP programmed a new 'buy again' button that wasn't in the game yesterday. Players pressed the big yellow button. Technically speaking I only did claim it 1 time... I just kept clicking the new 'buy again' button!

If that behavior is wrong, it is on TP - your devs, quality control, product manager, whoever - not on the players.

The Big Ticket •4LB•

All aboard the titanic! It will end well trust us 😉

qoute:"TP"

guest_1019503497683973

First time poster but felt the need to make sure my small voice is heard. Long time player and pretty significant spender. Did click the button a few times today - and honestly if it did not get fixed when it did I would probably have been banned. If you've played this game long enough you can count way to many times that exploits equal or far worse then this have left those that did not partake in the dust.

If the bans aren't reversed I too will not spend another penny and will in all probability fade from daily gameplay. God I love Star Trek, I really do.....but this is about the company - not the idea. And I can't be this stupid to keep giving this company money after this.

ChaosChild

Unacceptable. This was not an exploit, it was a bug. A bug that was developed and deployed by WRG. This was absolutely 100% your fault. The players should not be banned.

Shan wrote: »

We understand that many players made a few additional claims without understanding there was an exploit, and those people will suffer no repercussions for their actions.

This is not true. I know at least one player who was banned for clicking on the pack one additional time.

Don't compound your mistakes by lying to the players.

Also, what compensation are you giving to the other players affected by this? Those who are now going to miss out on fleet rewards through no fault of their own.

This hamfisted attempt at enforcement, punishing the entire player base because of your own mistakes, is not going to go away until you do something to fix it. Attempting to justify it like this is only going to make it worse and lose you even more players.

Katla

"Nature of the exploit and its severity on the game", yet players caught using macros were given 8 hour bans. How is it that this warrants 9x the punishment?
Hint: it doesn't.

Uhtred of Bebbanburg

You're doubling down on this? It was your foul up. People clicked away and it seems to me that they were all treated in the same draconian manner.
With this reaction to a matter *entirely of your own making* you haven't so much as ignored the furious reaction on here; you've essentially said 'deal with it' (I'm trying to be polite.)
Well, you're going to have to deal with the stampede of people leaving the game.

Cpt dx

Shan wrote: »

The decisions we had to take today are not ones we took lightly.

It was a necessity due to the nature of the exploit, and the severity of its impact on the game. Both also being why we had to handle this differently than previous issues, even if said previous issues may appear similar on the surface.

This pack was announced as being available once per day and displayed a purchase limit of 1. The fact that it was claimable more than once was clearly a bug.

We understand that many players made a few additional claims without understanding there was an exploit, and those people will suffer no repercussions for their actions. However there were also players who exploited the issue to a degree that was not acceptable.

This is unacceptable. My revenue is gone forever unless this is reversed, I get an apology, and WRG lays out a plan to have an open discussion how this doesn’t happen again from YOUR end.

If grocery store sells me a steak for $1.99 instead of $19.99, that’s on them, not me. Take some responsibility for your Fark up.

Jellybaby

We made a mistake in our game and despite being able to reverse it on player accounts we are going to just ban you as well for good measure.

Well played guys, well played, glad I wasn't on at the time as im only half paying attention when I play and I would have probably kept clicking without realising something was wrong, hell even during skirmishes ive gotten the PITA popup thingy and clicked wrong one as im using muscle memory to go through it whilst watching a movie.

Sky Cap 18

Hey that’s cool! It just means I stop engaging with the game, stop spending money on the game, stop doing guest spots on Timelines Talks to drum up free publicity for the game...

I and all the other loyal, everyday players who don’t return after this ban will be better off for it, I’m sure of that. Can’t say the same for WRG.

=j= Ulysses Winters

Honestly, I spent around two hundred dollars on this game since joining (don't mock me, I tracked my purchases in a spreadsheet) and I really regret that now. Coulda bought more official Star Trek merch, like books, DVDs, model ships, and shirts.

So no, I'm not a whale. I'm barely a minnow compared to a lot of you guys.

But I promise you, not one penny more. Not one more penny EVER. This is a paying customer demanding that you...

REVERSE THE BAN. @Shan @WRG Ben

~[RR] Ulysses Winters

ursine cotcher

Bye guys, have nice lives! LLAP!

Zombie Squirrel

„...Severity of it’s impact on the game...“?

I fail to see how some extra constellations, polestars and IMS, have more of an impact than e.g. Macro Cheaters that affects whole events and the ranking of several other players?

To craft/retrieve crew(and make use of the polestars and constellations)
u need Quantum currency which is limited to 1000 and not obatainable
from the game except for extra dilithium.
So nobody could just retrieve XX amount of legendary crew, which might
have a slight affect on the game balance and revenue.

So please? Where is the severe impact on he game?
And btw you still can remove IMS, Polestars and Constellations(as u did) regardless.

[10F] SmockTeleHeli

My understanding is that overuse of the bug inherent in pack disrupted the brand new shiny currencies you recently introduced to the game. That which was supposed to be slowly doled out came in a flood. Most of those that overused the bug got no more use out of than a chance to explore the new feature. Nobody I know had the Quantum or spent the dilithium to actually run a retrieval of a crew through this event. There was no realized advantage in the game attained. So what make this event different is that WRG wanted control. The un-reversible damage to your metrics and data farming was too much to fathom. So you took out this loss of data on the players that are most committed to the game. Those that showed up at portal reset. Those that are used to opening pack after pack. Those that like spend the most on the game. Those that are most excited about the new feature and the hope of getting to engage in it at a little faster past due to what is either a great gift or perhaps a bug in the game.

This attempt at control of behavior has narrowed mine and many others enjoyment of the game. It makes the game feel like less of an escape and more like a burden.

Mirror Cartman

@Shan,

TP made a mistake, and did not test this. TP make a lot of mistakes, it is the second one like this to come to light in the last few days. The other being the Demo accessible before it should have been.

I did not see this bug, exploit it, or receive a ban.

This ban is wrong, TP should have just removed the extras, like they have before.

If players have monthly cards, or have paid for the premium campaign then at a minimum this is breach of contract. That the contract is between the player and their provider, not TP. (e.g. Apple, Google, Amazon), with TP receiving money from that contract.

Denying a service under these circumstances is fraud, and any player who has paid monthly money is entitled to that money back.

In the case of Apple, I doubt they would look to kindly on this kind of behaviour from TP, when the fault of the exploit lies with TP.

Kanon

This was not an exploit, but if you want to consider it one, it was programmed and deployed by the developers, and the uusers are the victims of it. You put a "buy again" button which fooled the users into clicking it when they shouldn't, wth little way of knowing that.

You are angry that you messed up your game and will be losing money due to people having more resources than what you want them to have? Fine, but don't try to put the blame on the users.

DScottHewitt

Shan wrote: »

The decisions we had to take today are not ones we took lightly.

It was a necessity due to the nature of the exploit, and the severity of its impact on the game. Both also being why we had to handle this differently than previous issues, even if said previous issues may appear similar on the surface.

This pack was announced as being available once per day and displayed a purchase limit of 1. The fact that it was claimable more than once was clearly a bug.

We understand that many players made a few additional claims without understanding there was an exploit, and those people will suffer no repercussions for their actions. However there were also players who exploited the issue to a degree that was not acceptable.

And there was a big, clear "BUY AGAIN" button. Which made it look like y'all decided to give people more resources {except the cash one} to participate in the new feature. Obviously there was a coding issue. But, coding is not done by the players. Monthly mistakes in a game would be concerning. We are fast approaching weekly mistakes. If we have not passed that threshold already.

Taking back incorrectly claimed items, even though none of that excess would be the player's fault, is one thing. Cleaning out people's resources they had before the error by your people, is excessive.

Banning players for three days for a mistake your people made, during an Event, exceeds excessive. I think y'all created a new thing. Congrats. Banning players who clicked a button your coders placed in the game has repercussions beyond the players who are being "disciplined". It affects everyone in their Fleet. Three days of missing ISM for the completed Dailies. Reduced Fleet standing in the Event. Fleet Leaders who will lose the VXP they should get for their Shared Crew. Other things not immediately coming to me are highly likely.

I can only assume it is because players have been banned, that I jumped several hundred places in the Ranks, to mid-30s after my last wave of Shuttles. Everyone likes to win. That is normal. But, wherever I end up in the Ranking for the Event, I will not consider a "Win". Because that rank will be based on people not participating that were ahead of me before the ban.

I understand you are not making these bad decisions. You are just passing on what you are told to pass on. Please pass our concerns back to the company. Sorry they threw you under another angry Shuttle!

Thank you for being our liaison!

Navarch

Yeah. This is an interesting hill for TP to make its stand on. Not the people who used macros, not the people who used iampicard, not the bugged dil offer, but a free reward that isn’t worth that much to most players.

Congrats, TP on your biggest mistake yet! How will you be able to top that?

{SST} Captain Magenta Borealis

Kanon wrote: »

This was not an exploit, but if you want to consider it one, it was programmed and deployed by the developers, and the uusers are the victims of it. You put a "buy again" button which fooled the users into clicking it when they shouldn't, wth little way of knowing that.

You are angry that you messed up your game and will be losing money due to people having more resources than what you want them to have? Fine, but don't try to put the blame on the users.

They have just lost waaaaaaaay more money by banning people and stripping them of all resources as there is now a mass exodus from the game.

DScottHewitt

Navarch wrote: »

Yeah. This is an interesting hill for TP to make its stand on. Not the people who used macros, not the people who used iampicard, not the bugged dil offer, but a free reward that isn’t worth that much to most players.

Congrats, TP on your biggest mistake yet! How will you be able to top that?

Many people can't even use the extra stuff for over two weeks, because they are likely Quanta Locked. It's not like there was overwhelming pressure to keelhaul "guilty" players in a matter of hours......