Just got a new special offer for today... Yah I'm gonna go ahead and hold on that for now...
Hahaha....you mean to say you're not interested in $9.99 worth of crons and not enough honor to part Stargazer's toupee, amidst the largest box of coat hangers in DB history? Good for them for being greedy til the end.😂😂
Where is the 200k free dilithium offer? Sound stupid? Guess what DB: You've done that already
I cannot see mass bans. The players exploiting this would had to have at least 650 dil to spend, so would be spending real money on the game. DB don't want to lose the big spenders.
Either a complete seever roll back to the last snapshot, which may have been just after the last event, or identify those who exploited the bug, and roll back just their accounts. DB should ignore those who bought a couple of pack, but chose not to exploit the bug.
I mean, they have zero choice here right? They have to roll back the server. They can't possibly allow that much DIL into the economy. There's going to be a ton of people pissed at a rollback, especially those who had no idea what was going on, but the alternative is much worse.
Or, they'd have to manually reset each account who purchased the "free" dilithium...which sounds even less likely.
Immortalized: 465
Tour of duty: January 2016 to present.
Shut up Wesley.
Individual auditing of people who "took advantage " of this offer would be a cs nightmare and huge labor time sink.
Do you ban accounts? If so, where's the line? You just end up losing customers however you do it.
Then there's the issue of how do you deal with people who "laundered" the dil, by buying crew slots, store cards, packs, whatever. Then what about the second level of laundwring where you buy nothing but packs, convert it all to honor and then just buy citations.
Even if they wasted the time to go through this, what about group benefits? Like someone who refreshes and speeds up starbase upgrades?
I'm sure there's more I'm missing. However every minute they waste brings up the point made earlier. What about that guy or gal that finally got their temporal chakotay, or caretaker drop, or voyage only crew they've been waiting for? That's why I think the apology needs to be big enough to compensate with the fewest possible toes stepped on, yet not breaking the economy
Unless they take periodic snapshots of the game servers and the associated databases, I'm not sure how they would roll anything back.
This exactly.... They would need to have backups or 'snapshots' taken at pretty routine intervals to be able to accomplish this... maybe they do, it's hard to say... but it's still a crapshoot if they roll back because how do you compensate the hours of time that people may have lost playing just to have it un-done.... *shrug* I don't know
I'm sorry but making such backups is one of the most important rules of any online business. I would be very disappointed if DB broken this rule.
I'd argue daily backups are the 'standard'. Incremental backups on an hourly or "anytime" basis would be more rare... just depends on the infrastructure
They are dealing with money. I think it's not unreasonable to express such hopes. I really hope DB makes regular backups. In fact I would like to hear official statement on this matter.
Individual auditing of people who "took advantage " of this offer would be a cs nightmare and huge labor time sink.
Do you ban accounts? If so, where's the line? You just end up losing customers however you do it.
Then there's the issue of how do you deal with people who "laundered" the dil, by buying crew slots, store cards, packs, whatever. Then what about the second level of laundwring where you buy nothing but packs, convert it all to honor and then just buy citations.
Even if they wasted the time to go through this, what about group benefits? Like someone who refreshes and speeds up starbase upgrades?
I'm sure there's more I'm missing. However every minute they waste brings up the point made earlier. What about that guy or gal that finally got their temporal chakotay, or caretaker drop, or voyage only crew they've been waiting for? That's why I think the apology needs to be big enough to compensate with the fewest possible toes stepped on, yet not breaking the economy
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB ineptness at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
There isn’t going to be a server reset. I have no clue why people keep thinking that’s a solution.
They have a transaction log every of single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB inept at offers at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
There's also the question of what those accounts might have done outside of themselves, for example, starbase donations/resets.
Immortalized: 465
Tour of duty: January 2016 to present.
Shut up Wesley.
There isn’t going to be a server reset. I have no clue why people keep thinking that’s a solution.
They have a transaction log every single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
Problem solved? How do they undo what people did with the Dil they got? It isn't a "simple" solution of just removing their purchases.
There isn’t going to be a server reset. I have no clue why people keep thinking that’s a solution.
They have a transaction log every single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
The issue isn't that people got a bunch of DIL for free. If that was just the case, yes, they probably know exactly how much each player got.
The problem is those players went out and SPENT that DIL in various different ways (pack drops, crew slots, dabo spins, faction store buys, cadet tickets, starbase donation resets, etc). They would have to track down how all of the illicit DIL got spent and attempt to remove that.
Individual auditing of people who "took advantage " of this offer would be a cs nightmare and huge labor time sink.
Do you ban accounts? If so, where's the line? You just end up losing customers however you do it.
Then there's the issue of how do you deal with people who "laundered" the dil, by buying crew slots, store cards, packs, whatever. Then what about the second level of laundwring where you buy nothing but packs, convert it all to honor and then just buy citations.
Even if they wasted the time to go through this, what about group benefits? Like someone who refreshes and speeds up starbase upgrades?
I'm sure there's more I'm missing. However every minute they waste brings up the point made earlier. What about that guy or gal that finally got their temporal chakotay, or caretaker drop, or voyage only crew they've been waiting for? That's why I think the apology needs to be big enough to compensate with the fewest possible toes stepped on, yet not breaking the economy
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB ineptness at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
I don't advocate banning accounts either, it's bad customer service, a logistical problem, and a cheap solution that hurts the game. However it is a TOS violation.
Not for the guy who clicked on the pack once or twice, nor probably for the gal who clicked on it 10 times, taking screenshots and posting a ticket, but for the people who obviously exploited a glitch it is...
There have been screenshots of 200+k and plenty on the forums, reddit, and global chat with 10k+ claims.
There isn’t going to be a server reset. I have no clue why people keep thinking that’s a solution.
They have a transaction log every single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
Problem solved? How do they undo what people did with the Dil they got? It isn't a "simple" solution of just removing their purchases.
They have logs for everything. Anything can be undone
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB inept at offers at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
There's also the question of what those accounts might have done outside of themselves, for example, starbase donations/resets.
If DB roll back accounts on a case by case basis, then that will sort out the major issue, and they can probably ignore Starbase issues.
There isn’t going to be a server reset. I have no clue why people keep thinking that’s a solution.
They have a transaction log every single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
Problem solved? How do they undo what people did with the Dil they got? It isn't a "simple" solution of just removing their purchases.
Those transactions would need to be reversed too. At least for people who removing the free DIL would put them at negative for now. If those people then want to file CS tickets they can, but they are going to have to reverse the general DIL purchases.
They have a transaction log every single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time.
What you're saying should be true. Whether it's really the case, and whether they have the technical ability to withdraw specific select transactions, is another story.
But I doubt your basic premise. Remember the Mirror Picard Fiasco? I was one of those who had bought a citation for the 5th star, before DB surprised everyone with a free copy. So I logged a CS ticket as instructed. According to CS, there was no record I ever bought that 5* citation, and they initially declined my request. (This ultimately got resolved, but it shows their records are not in fact 100% accurate.)
Remember, when the packs were broken and then DB offered free packs based on the number of purchases made, DB knows exactly what everyone purchased and can reverse as needed.
So you want the company that can't make an event pack without it glitching 10% of the time to do a server rollback, or modify a large number of accounts.....hmmmm really?
Remember, when the packs were broken and then DB offered free packs based on the number of purchases made, DB knows exactly what everyone purchased and can reverse as needed.
How do you reverse a shuttle Dil boosted home? How do you reverse a SB room insta upgraded? How do you reverse 1000 crew airlocked for honor and spent on cites?
One interesting thing is I hope DB gets it’s the math right. For example if someone purchased it five times so got 5000 dilithium, let’s hope they realize they should only be removing 1750 dilithium from the account. It cost 650 dilithium to get the 1000 dilithium so the net gain of each purchase was really only 350 dilithium
Well, there is one solution alternative to server roll back. Identify player which bought the most number of bugged packs and give out the proper amount of dilithium to all the players that haven't touched this pack.
Did they bad anyone for using the 5$ exploit for the DYC probably dozens of time before someone leaked the exploit?
That was stealing real money and using a technical glitch in the payment system.
This is not an exploit, it’s a badly packaged pack available to anyone.
Glitch/bugs not intended to advantage players can be argued violate TOS if nothing is done to restore the intended playing field. IMO DB is obligated to correct but not ban accounts.
Remember, when the packs were broken and then DB offered free packs based on the number of purchases made, DB knows exactly what everyone purchased and can reverse as needed.
How do you reverse a shuttle Dil boosted home? How do you reverse a SB room insta upgraded? How do you reverse 1000 crew airlocked for honor and spent on cites?
Shortening shuttle missions is minor, SB insta upgrade can be reverted by insta downgrade.
Well, there is one solution alternative to server roll back. Identify player which bought the most number of bugged packs and give out the proper amount of dilithium to all the players that haven't touched this pack.
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB inept at offers at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
There's also the question of what those accounts might have done outside of themselves, for example, starbase donations/resets.
If DB roll back accounts on a case by case basis, then that will sort out the major issue, and they can probably ignore Starbase issues.
But here are the problems I see with individual auditing from a time/quality standpoint.
1) first assumption made is they have logs for everything or can track individual issues and accounts.
Ok...great...that's probably true, but how accurate is their tech team going to be going through all of these (if you want the reason for that question, this is the team that released this pack to begin with).
But let's give the benefit of the doubt and say they are perfect in this.
2) there will always be the feeling that someone got an unfair advantage. Plenty of people don't trust "the man"; you can see that sentiment in plenty of forum posts.
If db releases a statement saying they fixed all the issues. There will be people that at least believe this has not been handled. ..
Which can all be pUT aside for problem 3.
3) I like this game, it's why I play it. I assume most of you like it too.
One of the things that makes this game, "this game" was summed up in the q&a...it's like a new star trek story every week. I don't want employee resources dumped on this for a week or more.
Let's be conservative in an estimate. Let's say this only affected 100 accounts, and only takes 10 minutes per account to fix. That's 1000 minites, or about 17 hours to fix this one thing. That's half a week (almost) for a full time employee, that I'd rather go towards fixing tickets, bugs and adding to content.
Comments
Where is the 200k free dilithium offer? Sound stupid? Guess what DB: You've done that already
Either a complete seever roll back to the last snapshot, which may have been just after the last event, or identify those who exploited the bug, and roll back just their accounts. DB should ignore those who bought a couple of pack, but chose not to exploit the bug.
Or, they'd have to manually reset each account who purchased the "free" dilithium...which sounds even less likely.
Tour of duty: January 2016 to present.
Shut up Wesley.
Do you ban accounts? If so, where's the line? You just end up losing customers however you do it.
Then there's the issue of how do you deal with people who "laundered" the dil, by buying crew slots, store cards, packs, whatever. Then what about the second level of laundwring where you buy nothing but packs, convert it all to honor and then just buy citations.
Even if they wasted the time to go through this, what about group benefits? Like someone who refreshes and speeds up starbase upgrades?
I'm sure there's more I'm missing. However every minute they waste brings up the point made earlier. What about that guy or gal that finally got their temporal chakotay, or caretaker drop, or voyage only crew they've been waiting for? That's why I think the apology needs to be big enough to compensate with the fewest possible toes stepped on, yet not breaking the economy
They are dealing with money. I think it's not unreasonable to express such hopes. I really hope DB makes regular backups. In fact I would like to hear official statement on this matter.
I don't advocate banning accounts. It's DB ineptness at fault. Let them audit all accounts bought the packs. Roll those back & without any punitive measures let those accounts ticket on a case by case basis if it's rolled back more than it should have
They have a transaction log every of single pack you have ever bought since the beginning of time. A simple query of that log will show a complete list of all of those packs that were purchased today. They simply remove those purchases from those accounts. Problem solved. They are not going to do a server reset because that would cause major, major issues for people who have made other purchases in that time.
There's also the question of what those accounts might have done outside of themselves, for example, starbase donations/resets.
Tour of duty: January 2016 to present.
Shut up Wesley.
Problem solved? How do they undo what people did with the Dil they got? It isn't a "simple" solution of just removing their purchases.
The issue isn't that people got a bunch of DIL for free. If that was just the case, yes, they probably know exactly how much each player got.
The problem is those players went out and SPENT that DIL in various different ways (pack drops, crew slots, dabo spins, faction store buys, cadet tickets, starbase donation resets, etc). They would have to track down how all of the illicit DIL got spent and attempt to remove that.
I don't advocate banning accounts either, it's bad customer service, a logistical problem, and a cheap solution that hurts the game. However it is a TOS violation.
Not for the guy who clicked on the pack once or twice, nor probably for the gal who clicked on it 10 times, taking screenshots and posting a ticket, but for the people who obviously exploited a glitch it is...
There have been screenshots of 200+k and plenty on the forums, reddit, and global chat with 10k+ claims.
Agree that players shouldn't get banned, but they should not get advantaged by this kind of error.
That was stealing real money and using a technical glitch in the payment system.
This is not an exploit, it’s a badly packaged pack available to anyone.
They have logs for everything. Anything can be undone
You don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater
If DB roll back accounts on a case by case basis, then that will sort out the major issue, and they can probably ignore Starbase issues.
Those transactions would need to be reversed too. At least for people who removing the free DIL would put them at negative for now. If those people then want to file CS tickets they can, but they are going to have to reverse the general DIL purchases.
What you're saying should be true. Whether it's really the case, and whether they have the technical ability to withdraw specific select transactions, is another story.
But I doubt your basic premise. Remember the Mirror Picard Fiasco? I was one of those who had bought a citation for the 5th star, before DB surprised everyone with a free copy. So I logged a CS ticket as instructed. According to CS, there was no record I ever bought that 5* citation, and they initially declined my request. (This ultimately got resolved, but it shows their records are not in fact 100% accurate.)
A player who would abuse an obvious glitch hundreds of times is most definitely a problem.
I'm sure they'd prefer to avoid banning customers, but if it were to happen those people earned it.
How do you reverse a shuttle Dil boosted home? How do you reverse a SB room insta upgraded? How do you reverse 1000 crew airlocked for honor and spent on cites?
Glitch/bugs not intended to advantage players can be argued violate TOS if nothing is done to restore the intended playing field. IMO DB is obligated to correct but not ban accounts.
Shortening shuttle missions is minor, SB insta upgrade can be reverted by insta downgrade.
+1000
But here are the problems I see with individual auditing from a time/quality standpoint.
1) first assumption made is they have logs for everything or can track individual issues and accounts.
Ok...great...that's probably true, but how accurate is their tech team going to be going through all of these (if you want the reason for that question, this is the team that released this pack to begin with).
But let's give the benefit of the doubt and say they are perfect in this.
2) there will always be the feeling that someone got an unfair advantage. Plenty of people don't trust "the man"; you can see that sentiment in plenty of forum posts.
If db releases a statement saying they fixed all the issues. There will be people that at least believe this has not been handled. ..
Which can all be pUT aside for problem 3.
3) I like this game, it's why I play it. I assume most of you like it too.
One of the things that makes this game, "this game" was summed up in the q&a...it's like a new star trek story every week. I don't want employee resources dumped on this for a week or more.
Let's be conservative in an estimate. Let's say this only affected 100 accounts, and only takes 10 minutes per account to fix. That's 1000 minites, or about 17 hours to fix this one thing. That's half a week (almost) for a full time employee, that I'd rather go towards fixing tickets, bugs and adding to content.