If it seems too good to be true... it probably is. That said, this is the first I've heard they are still actively punishing people for taking advantage of obvious exploits.
The last exploit I heard about (now closed) was high level masterminds taking high level pets into low level missions. If your pets are one-shotting everything in sight and you're getting full xp and ticket rewards... you might be an exploiter. If you level from 1-50 in a few hours... you might be an exploiter. If you are gaining rewards much faster than anyone else without any effort or risk... you might be an exploiter.
If you're not, then you don't need to worry about being slapped on the wrist like that.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
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I hadn't heard that the devs were doing bans for this but in any case the solution is simple. If you don't want a ban for exploiting the AE, don't exploit the AE. Now admittedly the devs haven't given a solid definition for what they consider exploits (for a good reason, if they try and define it people will find loopholes in the definition) however a bit of common sense can usually be applied here. If the mission allows you to gain rewards significantly faster than you can in a normal non-AE farm then it is probably an exploit.
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Originally Posted by 13013connor
How does that happen and how do I prevent it from happening to me?
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Posie said this would happen to AE Farmers 6 Months ago.
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It happens from time to time if you exploit a lot.|
Originally Posted by 13013connor
A friend of mine let me know he got banned for a week from playing one of the farming missions on AE. How does that happen and how do I prevent it from happening to me? Is this a common thing?
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My advice is to avoid all farms
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
If you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing it.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
If you're worried about getting banned for running a single exploit-based farm mish then you probably shouldn't be. If you want to know how much exploiting you can do without risking a ban - well, nobody knows the answer to that except the devs.
History would suggest that you have to make pretty extensive use of an exploit in order to get banned, but any time you do it you're taking your chances.
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This is most likely it. To explain: people were spawning either Giant Monsters or Archvillains (can't remember, I heard it second hand) and having the group leader exemplar everyone down to level 1 or 5. A level 50 Mastermind would summon his pets outside of the instance and go into the instance. He would be exemped down, but his pets would still be level 50, and could cleave through the level 1-5 creatures in seconds. This could easily net someone dozens of levels or millions of Inf in a single run.|
Originally Posted by peterpeter
The last exploit I heard about (now closed) was high level masterminds taking high level pets into low level missions. If your pets are one-shotting everything in sight and you're getting full xp and ticket rewards... you might be an exploiter. If you level from 1-50 in a few hours... you might be an exploiter. If you are gaining rewards much faster than anyone else without any effort or risk... you might be an exploiter.
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What set this one apart was the ease at which you could do it and how relatively unknown it was. Lord Recluse farms required at least a mildly competent team to do, and Comm Officers were so widespread that there couldn't really be a coordinated response to it. Here, it was out for something like four days and netted people insane amounts of cash and levels. If you sped a character from 1-50 in a few hours, I'd expect at least a temp ban would be there.
I've been on many an exploitive farm mission... just once. When I saw it was an exploit, I stopped playing it. I've never had any encounters with 'the law' over that.
Those who level up their toon in a few hours, or make a few billion inf in an hour on these exploits... they tend to be the ones that get banned. They also get their power-leveled toon erased and their ill-gotten inf taken away.
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If he partaked in the MM farm quite severely then I am not surprised he was banned. Even I knew that was a rather extreme form of exploitation and not to use it.
Fury
I too have heard people complaining that they've had personal warnings and/or been banned for exploiting AE. I've also heard people raging about a bit in Atlas because they've had one of their arcs locked away from them.
Posi warned people that they were going to be taking action some time after issue fourteen. Possibly around issue fifteen. They warned that people could lose characters, be banned, or have arc publishing slots taken away from them if they consistently exploited. I believe the term that he used for exploit was:
An abuse of the risk:reward ratio
Or something along those lines. I can't seem to find the announcement at the moment. But basically, they define anyone who's purposefully getting a lot of reward for minimal risk as an exploit. Although that definition could be applied to a good team at a stretch, they generally don't have a problem with you unless you're setting it up specifically so that you can repeatedly get maximum rewards for next to no effort.
Or something along those lines. I can't seem to find the announcement at the moment. But basically, they define anyone who's purposefully getting a lot of reward for minimal risk as an exploit. Although that definition could be applied to a good team at a stretch, they generally don't have a problem with you unless you're setting it up specifically so that you can repeatedly get maximum rewards for next to no effort.
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Not always. ;-)
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Those who level up their toon in a few hours, or make a few billion inf in an hour on these exploits... they tend to be the ones that get banned. They also get their power-leveled toon erased and their ill-gotten inf taken away. |
I once got a few inf in a billion hours.
O wait.
Infinity and Victory mostly
dUmb, etc.
lolz PvP anymore, Market PvP for fun and profit
I've gotten the impression that it's more about when someone uses an exploit for the purpose of levling someone else stupid fast.
Keep in mind that it's not the players fault that the exploit exists.
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No, but it is their fault if they decide to use it.
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Originally Posted by JohnX
Keep in mind that it's not the players fault that the exploit exists.
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That is incredibly naive.|
Originally Posted by JohnX
Keep in mind that it's not the players fault that the exploit exists. |
Fury
Driver: Sorry, officer, you can't give me a ticket. If my car can do 90 miles per hour, then it must mean it's perfectly fine to do so in every situation.
Officer: That's OK then. Since my gun doesn't have a safety to keep me from shooting speeders, then it's perfectly fine for me to shoot you. <bang>
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It is a shame it is only a week-long ban.
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Originally Posted by 13013connor
A friend of mine let me know he got banned for a week from playing one of the farming missions on AE. How does that happen and how do I prevent it from happening to me? Is this a common thing?
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Didn't take long for the silly analogies equating real-life to a videogame to show up in this thread...
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Driver: Sorry, officer, you can't give me a ticket. If my car can do 90 miles per hour, then it must mean it's perfectly fine to do so in every situation.
Officer: That's OK then. Since my gun doesn't have a safety to keep me from shooting speeders, then it's perfectly fine for me to shoot you. <bang> |
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I don't think 'analogy' means what you think it means.
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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen
Didn't take long for the silly analogies equating real-life to a videogame to show up in this thread...
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To the OP:
Bear in mind I really don't care if people PL, farm or what have you. I know people who used these exploits. (It was around a lot longer than four days.) I don't know if any of them are banned currently, but if any of them get banned, I won't be terribly shocked. I'm pretty sure they won't either - they've been around the block a few times.
The rule of thumb is that if you find something that's so good that it blows away anything you've ever seen or done before, and especially if it does so through things that don't work like anything you've ever seen anywhere else, making repeated use of it is probably asking for a smackdown by "the man".
If you visit such a mission to see what it's about, how it works or something, or even if you take advantage of it to gain a few levels, odds are you're fine. (Don't mistake that for me suggesting it's a good idea.) On the other hand, if you get something from 1-50 in an extremely short time period, you're probably risking retribution.
The devs believe that widespread use of such things are detrimental to the game, and they have previously put out notice that those abusing them are subject to punishment. It doesn't really matter if some of us disagree or not, it's their house, and we get to play by their rules (unless you break them and don't get caught).
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I was thinking that the ban-stick only hit those creators of such AE farms? And it was only a short suspension (time to sit in the corner and think about it) while coming back to having -1 to the number of AE arcs that account could create?
The only true "banned" accounts were those that exploited such old AE enemies like fire imps for the mass ticketing... and maybe xp, or some of the infamously easier boss farms?
Otherwise, why not suspend accounts that do battle maiden or demon farms?
Champion/Freedom Servers
@Orion Zidane
@Orion Zidane2
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Nope. Actual users of the exploits can be banned and/or lose characters. At least, they were in Issue 14, and possibly again now.|
Originally Posted by Orion_Zidane
I was thinking that the ban-stick only hit those creators of such AE farms? And it was only a short suspension (time to sit in the corner and think about it) while coming back to having -1 to the number of AE arcs that account could create?
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| The only true "banned" accounts were those that exploited such old AE enemies like fire imps for the mass ticketing... and maybe xp, or some of the infamously easier boss farms? |
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| Otherwise, why not suspend accounts that do battle maiden or demon farms? |
There have been pretty extreme exploits in dev-created maps in the past. Before the AE, I don't know of any reports of them leading to bannings. That I didn't hear of it probably doesn't mean much, but I knew people who used both, and bannings among them only came down for using the AE stuff. (Edit: There may have been some bannination for the folks who abused the Cathedral of Pain trial, which was the most extreme exploit I've ever heard of, and also possibly for a free SG prestige bug. I know the SG using the prestige bug lost their ill-gotten prestige.)
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Another sign that a Mission is a Farm is people running it over and over and over again.
If you find yourself on a team and all they doing is the same mission more then once then it's a farming mission and might be getting farmed for exploits.
How come I got Jeff Foxworthy telling "You might be a Exploiter/Farmer if..." Jokes running in my head?
A friend of mine let me know he got banned for a week from playing one of the farming missions on AE. How does that happen and how do I prevent it from happening to me? Is this a common thing?