Did you exploit surveys?

Shadowfx1970

Well, it would have made the banker worth having at 5k. But even so still wouldn't buy one also you end up upsetting way too many underprivileged children by taking advantage of an exploit.

Tandor

No I didn't cheat, nor would I have done if I had known about it in time.

Out of interest, has there been any official acknowledgement that bans have been limited to 3 days in all cases and no items/gold removed or is that just speculation based on what people have heard from their best mate's guildmate?

gkitti7

Yes I did but don't tell anyone.....



Joking, as most others I dont usually find out about exploits until after they are fixed. I do find it funny how eso will shut down for maintenence real quick to fix an exploit but when a main quest is bugged that halts the ability to progress for everyone, we have to wait months for the next dlc patch before the issue is addressed.

Mojmir

I only exploit argonian slaves

ZOS_DaryaK

We removed a few comments as they pertained to specific account actions which is a violation of the forum rules.

Flaminir

I find the whole episode quite depressing really...

I try to be good....

I knew about the exploit before it was patched....

Had survey reports as I do writs daily...

Stood there at the report site & considered it... and thought, No... I'll continue to play ethically, & besides I'm sure ZoS will find/deal with those cheating.

Only to find that yet again they haven't, even though they could very easily have removed the 'stolen' goods from those responsible.

Totally wrong message being sent out... they are actively encouraging cheating & exploiting now by the total lack of action. Either exploit as well or you'll be at a massive disadvantage compared with those who do cheat & exploit.

rfennell_ESO

When I was a kid in school they had these government surveys that groups of students had been selected to fill out anonymously. Then every year, all the way to the end of high school, we would do the surveys again.

I exploited on those surveys.

Waffennacht

Im confused, was there anyway someone whom had not known about an "exploit" accidentally have done it? If so, how is it an exploit and not just a fubar caused by programmers?

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO

Waffennacht wrote: »

Im confused, was there anyway someone whom had not known about an "exploit" accidentally have done it? If so, how is it an exploit and not just a fubar caused by programmers?

Some people possibly were banned erroneously due to the script they put in place. Its not something you could do on accident tho. Just the script I guess caught some who didnt do anything wrong.

DRXHarbinger

I would have rinsed it. I wouldn't have sold them I'd of just kept tons of items all for me so I never to do any wretched farming ever again.

IcyDeadPeople

I have a two master crafter characters, but never had a chance to do any surveys, since both have high bounty and cannot start the quest to do crafting writs. (There are three guards inside the Davon's Watch mages' guild who kill me if I try to speak to the quest giver).

myrrrorb14_ESO

Waffennacht wrote: »

Im confused, was there anyway someone whom had not known about an "exploit" accidentally have done it? If so, how is it an exploit and not just a fubar caused by programmers?

The chance of exploitation is by accident is near zero.

But in theory. You go to your survey site and once it spawns you decide to stuff your bank with your surveys. You then grab up the spawned survey and walk away a few steps and decide to open your bank again to manage resources and grab your survey back. The survey would then respawn.

That's the basis, which should be okay to explain since it's been fixed (band-aid might be a better term).

The likelihood of putting surveys in your bank while you are actually collecting them is extremely low. You would most likely put other things in your bank to make room.

The ban bot just looked for certain criteria and then executed it's command. If reports are true some people got caught up in that. Not sure, why it didn't just flag those people for investigation by real ZOS employees. I assume there was a massive number of people doing it and it was just not physically possible.

newtinmpls

No

Just no.

phairdon

No. Heck, cannot remember the last time I bothered to do any writs.

Katahdin

No.

Didn't know it was a thing until it was fixed.
Didn't have any surveys.

Would have been too afraid to do it at the time even if I had known because losing my whole account would not be worth it.

In hindsight with the relative slap on the wrist they got, I probably would have.

JamieAubrey

Still didn't make me the the 5k banker

Vaoh

ZOS, you are the developers of this game. I thought you could rollback, correct? Solve the issue....

andreasv

Doncellius wrote: »

ZOS, you are the developers of this game. I thought you could rollback, correct? Solve the issue....

I guess the problem is that this exploit has started with the introduction of the assistants. And rolling back that far will be quite the effort and probably not worth for them, also in regards to loosing those players that were willing to waste their money on the assistants.

Although, not wasting in the end as they've got quite a good deal, ie. unlimited crafting material for a limit period for only 5000 crowns and a three day break from the game. Sounds tempting to me.

Tryxus

DId you exploit surveys?

...

Would be interesting to see any honest answers from the exploiters

Hymzir

As they say... Exploit early, exploit often...

I however didn't. Didn't even know about the whole thing before it was over, and I don't have a banker either, which seems to have been a required part for the exploit. Would I have exploited had I know and had a banker? Don't know,... Maybe, because seriously, why not? Not like ZOS does anything meaningful as far as disciplinary actions go. Or that's the way it seems anyway.

And in this specific case, what would could they realistically do about it? It was a mistake on their part, they botched it up. Those who noticed it, saw an opportunity to get easy mats, and from what I can tell, a lot of players went for it. Players willing to spend crowns on the game. Not like ZOS can afford to perma ban them all.

The only reasonable punishment would've been to remove the ill gotten goods. And if ZOS didn't, then that's another mistake on their part. Or, perhaps, they can't remove those mats. I find it quite a depressing thought, but maybe they do not have the required tracking mechanics in place to strip them away automatically. Maybe it would require too many hours of actual manpower to do, and thus isn't feasible. If that's the case, then it's another strike against ZOS for designing a crappy system.

There have been other similar glitches in the past, where it was possible to get much more mats than was obviously intended, by means that were equally obviously not intended to be possible. And as far as I can tell, the repercussions of exploiting those things amounted to zilch. Thus there is a general feeling among the player base that exploiting these things is okay, that it's a gray area, and that profiting from them until they get plugged is okay.

As far as I can tell, the official line by ZOS is that such activity is a no-no, but since they are famously tight lipped about any disciplinary actions, who knows what the reality actually is. And in such an environment, feelings fester - those who did not exploit, feel that ZOS did not punish those that did, and that others profited from it unfairly, and thus they start to think that next time they too will get on the action. Thus every time something like this pops up, more and more people jump on it. And if ZOS bans them all... Well that's not gonna work either.

The end result is that people are pissed, for one reason or another,. And if those mats ended up remaining in the game... Well there goes the economy... again. Just one more reason to keep ignoring this game. It's already fairly low on my list of ways to spend the evening after work, and with stuff like this taking place, it gets harder and harder to keep motivated at playing this game.

In any case, ZOS really should be much more stern as far as exploits go and also tell us what disciplinary actions were taken and how many suffered from them. No need to name those who were targeted by said actions, but they should be fairly open about what actions were taken and for what reason.

qrichou

I had the oppesite , survey nr 1 in hand ,1 excatly the same still in bag not opened ,.
chopping wood , forgot 1 node, map was gone , rode of , opened bag ,came back , chopped the last wood from last survey , . . . map gone no nodes .
So imma non exploiter ?
Or just a noob.

rotaugen454

I've only been doing Provisioner writs, so I had zero surveys.

svartorn

Ra'Shtar wrote: »

If i had known i would have, seems it was very rewarding.

Elvent

I'm just now learning what survey's are so I guess not.

waterfairy

I've never even got a survey. I did a writ once, burned through a handful of materials and got a *** reward so I never did it again.

Rune_Relic

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Honestly i was expecting this to be a witch hunt thread, but really it seems a majority of people would have COUGHCOUGHcheatedCOUGH if they knew they wouldnt be permabanned and still keep the spoils.

No i didnt, i dont even do crafting writs. Too busy levelling and questing.

If you knew you could make millions and worst could possibly happen is a 72 hr ban wouldnt you do it?

Alas no. ... and that is why I am poor

ArchMikem

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Honestly i was expecting this to be a witch hunt thread, but really it seems a majority of people would have COUGHCOUGHcheatedCOUGH if they knew they wouldnt be permabanned and still keep the spoils.

No i didnt, i dont even do crafting writs. Too busy levelling and questing.

If you knew you could make millions and worst could possibly happen is a 72 hr ban wouldnt you do it?

I'm too much of a goody two shoes.

WalkingLegacy

I still wouldn't have done it because I'd have to buy the rip off assistants and I value my real life money more than in game currency/items.

Probably why they got away with it. They spent the dollars in the cash shop.

Tryxus

ArchMikem wrote: »

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Honestly i was expecting this to be a witch hunt thread, but really it seems a majority of people would have COUGHCOUGHcheatedCOUGH if they knew they wouldnt be permabanned and still keep the spoils.

No i didnt, i dont even do crafting writs. Too busy levelling and questing.

If you knew you could make millions and worst could possibly happen is a 72 hr ban wouldnt you do it?

I'm too much of a goody two shoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Hmc7eeXjw

Reverb

I didn't. If I had known how lucrative it would be, and that the punishment was only a 72 hour ban, I totally would have.