All the Things that break the ToS
Riker's islan{DD}
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TP/WRG has set a precedent that using the game not as they intended is breach of ToS.
Based on this, we should all be aware of the items that break the ToS of the game.
To be clear:
- I use many of these myself (yes this can be taken as prrof of my breaking the ToS - sue me TP!)
- Without these items & actions the game is unplayable
- Not naming names, and request if you add to the list - you do not cross that line as well
- This is not a player attck - it is here to show the double standards that TP has applied
ToS Breaching In Game Actions:
1. Shuttle Tanking >> unintended use of feature
2. Faction Jump Start >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
3. Intentionally failing shttles to compete dailies in super quick time >> unintended use of feature
4. Intentionally failing wininng faction shuttles to keep the timer at 30 minutes to maximise Chron generation >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
5. Swicthing Squad Leaders to get the best share for a event >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
6. Swicthing Squads to create event-only squad >> debatable, possible over-reach
7. Jumping into a sister fleet to help out with Starbase donations of hard to get ietms (e.g. holoemitters) >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
Unapproved / Unsupported Access to Game Data
1. Community developed site that analyses your player data and displays various voyage options & analysis
2. Community developed sheets that analyses your player data to help you select best crew for events
3. others?
Sharing of Material without permission
1. You-tube channels that show you how to Tank, jump start etc
2. Discord channels & reddits that show, discuss & teach you to do the same
3. Any site / channel / subredit that contain in game screen shots & images taht are open to anyone to join
4. Any site that has a crew ranking system where the art used is game art, where permission to use & reprint the art is not expressely gained
ToS Sections:
PROHIBITED USES
We specifically prohibit any use of the Tilting Point Services, and require all users to agree not to use the Tilting Point Services, for any of the following:
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that is copyrighted or otherwise owned by a third party unless you are the copyright owner or have the permission of the owner to post it
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that reveals trade secrets, unless you own them or have the permission of the owner
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that infringes on or violates any other intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual right of another
SECURITY RULES
Violations of computing, system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate occurrences and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting any user or users who are involved in such violations. You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security and integrity of Tilting Point Services, including, without limitation, the following:
- Deciphering, decompiling, disassembling, reverse engineering or otherwise attempting to derive any code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Tilting Point Services
- Using, developing or distributing any “bot”, spider, unauthorized script, unauthorized scraper or offline reader, or any other cheat, exploit, mod, bot, hack or the like, or any unauthorized third party software designed to modify or interfere with or provide automated access to or use of the Tilting Point Services (including for purposes of accumulating “digital” or “virtual goods” or “virtual currency” or bypassing features that otherwise require payment)
Assisting, permitting or encouraging any party in engaging in any of the activities described above
So basically you know all those player / community tools we love - All are ToS Breaches!
I have used every single one that i have found on the forums, discords and sub-reddits - do your best TP ....
edited to correct format & spelling & add clarity & relevalnt ToS sections
Based on this, we should all be aware of the items that break the ToS of the game.
To be clear:
- I use many of these myself (yes this can be taken as prrof of my breaking the ToS - sue me TP!)
- Without these items & actions the game is unplayable
- Not naming names, and request if you add to the list - you do not cross that line as well
- This is not a player attck - it is here to show the double standards that TP has applied
ToS Breaching In Game Actions:
1. Shuttle Tanking >> unintended use of feature
2. Faction Jump Start >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
3. Intentionally failing shttles to compete dailies in super quick time >> unintended use of feature
4. Intentionally failing wininng faction shuttles to keep the timer at 30 minutes to maximise Chron generation >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
5. Swicthing Squad Leaders to get the best share for a event >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
6. Swicthing Squads to create event-only squad >> debatable, possible over-reach
7. Jumping into a sister fleet to help out with Starbase donations of hard to get ietms (e.g. holoemitters) >> specific sequence / keystroke to create artifical gain
Unapproved / Unsupported Access to Game Data
1. Community developed site that analyses your player data and displays various voyage options & analysis
2. Community developed sheets that analyses your player data to help you select best crew for events
3. others?
Sharing of Material without permission
1. You-tube channels that show you how to Tank, jump start etc
2. Discord channels & reddits that show, discuss & teach you to do the same
3. Any site / channel / subredit that contain in game screen shots & images taht are open to anyone to join
4. Any site that has a crew ranking system where the art used is game art, where permission to use & reprint the art is not expressely gained
ToS Sections:
PROHIBITED USES
We specifically prohibit any use of the Tilting Point Services, and require all users to agree not to use the Tilting Point Services, for any of the following:
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that is copyrighted or otherwise owned by a third party unless you are the copyright owner or have the permission of the owner to post it
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that reveals trade secrets, unless you own them or have the permission of the owner
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that infringes on or violates any other intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual right of another
SECURITY RULES
Violations of computing, system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate occurrences and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting any user or users who are involved in such violations. You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security and integrity of Tilting Point Services, including, without limitation, the following:
- Deciphering, decompiling, disassembling, reverse engineering or otherwise attempting to derive any code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Tilting Point Services
- Using, developing or distributing any “bot”, spider, unauthorized script, unauthorized scraper or offline reader, or any other cheat, exploit, mod, bot, hack or the like, or any unauthorized third party software designed to modify or interfere with or provide automated access to or use of the Tilting Point Services (including for purposes of accumulating “digital” or “virtual goods” or “virtual currency” or bypassing features that otherwise require payment)
Assisting, permitting or encouraging any party in engaging in any of the activities described above
So basically you know all those player / community tools we love - All are ToS Breaches!
I have used every single one that i have found on the forums, discords and sub-reddits - do your best TP ....
edited to correct format & spelling & add clarity & relevalnt ToS sections
8
Comments
Maybe instead of making wild accusations, you could provide exact parts of the TOS that make those things "illegal". If this wild dren you keep crossposting us satire, I apologise for missing the joke.
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About switching squad leaders, i haven't tested it, but doesn't it work as well if you keep 1 squad leader, but switch out the shared crew after someone send a shuttle. It does take some planning and colaborating, but i believe this works as well.
1, 2 & 3 , if failed intentionally is us as the player using a component of the game in manner that it was not intended to be used - this according to ToS is breach
4. again - same concept, again, you pass 4 shuttles & gain chron, shuttle time increases, but if you pass two and intentionally fail two, you only get chron from 2, your timer stays below 30 minutes, so you can sit there all day if so inclinded and make chrons.
#2 literally would not work if you failed, intentionally or by RNG. Jump start would not advance VXP if Shuttles were failing. So, that theory is flawed off the bat.
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One would think/hope that pressing a big 'buy again' button leads to a ban would be a flawed theory too.
It's not any player's fault that the Buy Again button didn't charge the player.
I mean, look at Skirmishes.
They have a 'Buy More' button, but it doesn't actually buy more of the item that's in front of you either.
Wait
The ToS is here: https://www.tiltingpoint.com/terms-of-service/
And most of what i have listed falls foul of:
PROHIBITED USES
We specifically prohibit any use of the Tilting Point Services, and require all users to agree not to use the Tilting Point Services, for any of the following:
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that is copyrighted or otherwise owned by a third party unless you are the copyright owner or have the permission of the owner to post it
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that reveals trade secrets, unless you own them or have the permission of the owner
- Communicating, transmitting, or otherwise providing material that infringes on or violates any other intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual right of another
SECURITY RULES
Violations of computing, system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate occurrences and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting any user or users who are involved in such violations. You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security and integrity of Tilting Point Services, including, without limitation, the following:
- Deciphering, decompiling, disassembling, reverse engineering or otherwise attempting to derive any code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Tilting Point Services
- Using, developing or distributing any “bot”, spider, unauthorized script, unauthorized scraper or offline reader, or any other cheat, exploit, mod, bot, hack or the like, or any unauthorized third party software designed to modify or interfere with or provide automated access to or use of the Tilting Point Services (including for purposes of accumulating “digital” or “virtual goods” or “virtual currency” or bypassing features that otherwise require payment)
Assisting, permitting or encouraging any party in engaging in any of the activities described above
Public profile
Captain Zombie's Combo chain calculator
Shuttle Quickstart doesn t involve any intentional failing, you open the max possible missions and use time boosts, and if you want, add Dilithium to instant recall. That‘s not a violation of ToS at all.
And how can you tell that was not „intended“ behavior when they coded the game?
I get ur point regarding some other of ur examples. But just using game mechanics and some strategy is not violating any ToS at all.
Check out "shuttle tanking" in ready room and apply logic to winning faction in a full faction - Buyer beware - you may get banned if they find out
Somewhat debatable.
When I first started out as a wee squire, I assumed that the shuttle system meant that a shuttle goes out and then comes back.
Why would you be able to use a shuttle without unloading it?
The Voyage system behaves more like you'd expect the shuttle system to work.
Nothing in that posted TOS makes #2 {jumpstarts} "illegal". I open the number of Missions the game allows me to open. I send those out for one minute deploys, four at a time. {The time duration that is set by WRG/TP, not me. I have four Shuttle Slots because we start with two, and the game has an option to buy two more for Dilithium.} I then use 3⭐ Time Boosts and Shuttle Rentals I have earned in-game to send 1.5 hour Shuttles. {The time being 1.5 hours because they are 3 hour Shuttles, and the 3⭐ Time Boosts reduce that by fifty per cent. I'm confused how using resources in the game, earned in the game, for what they are supposed to be used for in the game is an "exploit".
Apparently, my "tone" of what I type sometimes comes across to people as "harsh". Or "mean". I swear I am not talking down to you like you are an idiot, in case my "tone" gets misread....
Hey @DScottHewitt - I'm not put off / put out by anything you said - i was clearing up my mistake in repling to you!
you may be correct about the jump start - but the way I see it, is that in the s/w industry we say something is an expoit when you can use a specific set of keystrokes or a specific sequence to achive a result faster, gain higher or better rewards than programmed.
To me this is what a Jump start is - and if you apply the ToS as they did yesterday its a breach because, if a player opens all shuttles allowed then plays 4, completes 4, plays 4 with boost, completes those and plays 4 with boost and so on, the intended behaviour is taht he time shold increase - but this is clear bug on thier side and does not increase. therefore a player can get to 4K in about 30 minutes, which would normally at least 3 hours
you are basing this on !?
original post edited to clarify - ToS added
I detailed here and in the other thread where your theory was posted the way I do it. I complete all the one minute Shuttles before I start sending 1.5 hour Boosted Shuttles. And it is well after half an hour before I start getting 4000 VXP. I've never used any of those combos other players post that involve manipulation of the batches of Shuttles in other ways. I {usually} don't jump very high doing my jumpstart pattern. I'm not even sure it actually is a "jumpstart", as others define it. Because I do not do anything but send out Shuttles within the game mechanics. Once I do those opening one minute Shuttles, I only open and send what I can send in a batch, together. If I have four Rental Tokens, I send eight Shuttles with 1.5 hour Boosts. I don't open Shuttles, send some, then open more and use them later, so they have shorter times than they should. My only shorter than normal Shuttles are ones with Time Boosts. Am I using time Boosts to get Shuttles back faster? Yes. Is that their purpose in game? Yes. Am I sending more than four Shuttles when I have Rental Tokens {early on, before I don't have Crew that can staff more than four successful Shuttles}? Yes. Is the purpose of the Rental Tokens to allow us to use extra Shuttles beyond our Shuttle Slots? Yes.
Yesterday was an exception. The only reason I got into top 100 was because the Banhammer was swung far and wide. I know players that were ahead of me fell below my ranking because of the bans. I even commented in one of the threads that I do not consider any rank I get this Event to be a "win". Because of the bans.
If WRG/TP can demonstrate {clearly & honestly} that using Boosts and Tokens during Faction Events somehow violates TOS, I will stop using them, even if no one else does.......
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It's one of those things that have been around forever, but it's a strange design when compared to voyages.
Choosing shuttle timing based on success or failure or opening and sending shuttles in a pattern based on the game mechanics to efficiently get to 4K VP event missions is not exploitation. It's just strategy.
Why is the default “intended” to send event shuttles without strategy? All that’s intended is we send shuttles and get rewards. 10-11 successes are intended to bring us to 90 min shuttles that give 150 points. So that what I do, I get to that number of successes so that I can send shuttles of that length with their corresponding time boosts.
Who ever said in TOS I must go for only 3h missions and am not allowed to run short ones instead? As captain and our ship needs some basic items, I can send our crew to go on shorter missions for them. Or longer missions if we need big stuff that’s farther away.
We don’t need to make things out to be exploits that aren't, just to say that tapping on a “buy again” button to.. buy it again (wild concept, I know) isn’t an exploit or bannable offense either.
~· Fly with the Subspace Eddies! ·~
The question comes down to whether the game designers wanted it to work that way and if it is fair competition from a gameplay perspective.
Technically, they'd make a hell of a lot more money if they didn't allow jumpstarts and forced you to only use your 3 or 4 shuttles and the rent-a-boats.
All VP differentiation would have to go through either collected or purchased items and RNG.
So maybe they don't like it.
But it's also not an easily findable gameplay feature either.
I didn't learn about it until 3 or 4 events into the events (yes, a million years ago), so that means that some players might be spending Dil to try to catch up.
Is it a strategy? Sure.
Is it fair and obvious? Nehhhh.
There's a good argument that they would try to reverse the way shuttles are built now if there weren't so much precedent.
And much like the make-a-bunch-of-mission-items galaxy exploit and the randomly changing skirmish rules, change could happen.
I believe that the real issue here is the question of intent. Did you intend to "steal" or get something not intended for you from the game? I believe that in some cases the answer to this question was yes. In some cases it may have been accidental. The "buy again" button makes the issue a grey zone in my book. Some were just clicking "buy again" and not considering it, no real intent. Other players actually went into their fleets and explained the exploit for all to use. That was intent. These people intended to take intellectual property that was not intended for them. This is NOT the first time a ban has been used to deal with a situation like this. Several years ago an exploit was found in the DYC offer with people being banned. In both cases intent is the key. I would suggest if you have been banned and you feel it is in error because you weren't paying attention, contact CS.
That's a bug, it gets exploited every day. I suppose that deserves the 72 hour ban hammer too in WRG's "infinite wisdom".
But they wont fix their god damn bugs.