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Massively: Elite has "instant billionaires" due to haywire server

PhaserlightPhaserlight Member EpicPosts: 3,075

http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/02/elite-dangerous-server-goes-haywire-creates-instant-billionair/

All I can say is, welcome to the big leagues.

Hope they get it sorted out soon.

"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance

Comments

  • rpmcmurphyrpmcmurphy Member EpicPosts: 3,502

    Really unlucky timing with the holidays...

    Only heard of 1 person who got credited 5 billion and he sent a ticket straight away. I wonder if there's many others keeping quiet? It sounds like a few were taking advantage of the glitch and reselling their cargo which netted them a tidy profit.

    Oh well, such is life in every new MMO 

  • VelocinoxVelocinox Member UncommonPosts: 1,010
    The Jumpgate economy lesson was given to the development world a decade ago... too bad Frontier Developments chose not to learn it.

    'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.


    When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.


    No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.


    How to become a millionaire:
    Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.

  • ErillionErillion Member EpicPosts: 10,317

    The billions in wallets are easily detected and corrected.

    The missing cargoes, ships and equipment ... sounds like a lot of effort for Game Support - expect ticket backlog for weeks.

    Server rollback after 10 days ? Not going to happen.

     

    Have fun

  • rpmcmurphyrpmcmurphy Member EpicPosts: 3,502

    Problem started happening less than 18 hrs ago, so a rollback would be for 3 1/2 - 4 days assuming they fix it on Monday.

    I can't see them doing one though, not the sort of game where you can totally whack the economy or convert your credits for cash shop items etc.

  • ErillionErillion Member EpicPosts: 10,317

    Problems started as early as the 29th, but it was very rare.

    Signficant effects have been observed the last two days by a larger number of people.

    Personally i have not encountered any problems and have certainly seen no rollback.

     

    Have fun

  • NasherUKNasherUK Member UncommonPosts: 480

    It's an easy fix.

    Just a matter of looking a the server logs, seeing when the money appeared and correcting the database (I assume they are using SQL). After making a fix ofc.

    They won't let it stick, especially with money prizes up for grabs. So anyone thinking they will be keeping it are wrong :P

  • rpmcmurphyrpmcmurphy Member EpicPosts: 3,502
    Originally posted by Erillion

    Problems started as early as the 29th, but it was very rare.

    Signficant effects have been observed the last two days by a larger number of people.

    Personally i have not encountered any problems and have certainly seen no rollback.

     

    Have fun

    https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=90626&page=5&p=1425751#post1425751

  • rpmcmurphyrpmcmurphy Member EpicPosts: 3,502

    Bit more of a detailed update of what occured and what's being done - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=92233

     

    Hello,

    I had previously posted a message similar to the following in the forums already (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=90626&page=5&p=1425751&viewfull=1#post1425751), but felt the players (you guys!) deserved a little more explanation and a plan of things to come!

    Firstly, I'd like to apologies to all commanders affected by the recent server issue we suffered over New Year. On January 1st 2015 around 11:00pm we had a network issue with one of our databases. Our online engineering team spotted the issue and reacted to it immediately. During this period, a relatively small number of commanders were affected in various ways. Some having cargo stuck in their ship, others with missions that couldn't be completed/aborted and vanishing ships. Our customer services team have been working through tickets to resolve these issues on an individual basis since the event. We have also updated and improved the architecture and solidified our server side technology to avoid this happening again.

    After shoring up the database, in the early hours of the 2nd of January, we automatically refunded all the affected players for their lost transactions and also granted them a 20% bonus for their troubles. However, during this refund process, a very few (lucky) commanders received more credits than perhaps they were entitled to (5 billion credits in some cases)!

    To be clear - these players will not be banned. Over the next 24 hours we will be investigating every affected player and performing individual commander rollbacks where we feel it's fair to - which may include credits, assets and rank where appropriate. We may reach out to individual commanders where this situation may not be straight forward. None of these players will be eligible for the "Race to Elite" competition if we feel they have gained an unfair advantage over the competition.

    On the morning of the 3rd of January, after reports that some players were still having issues, we ran a second pass over the database to remove any excess cargo commanders may have still been carrying, which should have unblocked the commodities markets for those remaining affected players. In the next 24 hours we shall also be issuing a server side fix to automatically issue a credit or asset refund on login after cases similar to these. Of course, if you are still having problems, please submit a support ticket at https://support.elitedangerous.com - our customer services team can help.

    We are also aware of an exploit (I wont detail it here) which occurred due to this database error, where players have been abusing the broken state of their ship to "create credits". These players know they are exploiting the system and will also be investigated. Actions may be taken against players who are known to be exploiting the system and do stand out from the commanders who were simply given the credits during our credit refund process. These players will also not be eligible for the "Race to Elite" competition if we feel they have gained an unfair advantage over the competition.

    Again, I (and the whole of the online team) apologise for the disruption you may have suffered over the last few days. As you can see, we reacted promptly to the situation but simply failed to communicate this in good time with the players.

    To avoid this happening in the future, in the next week, we shall be publishing a "Server Status" dashboard which you can use to see the state of the online galaxy. From here we shall let you know immediately of any problems we are currently facing, any known issues and any scheduled down-time for maintenance. This should give us a single place for us to be able to communicate directly with you guys about any problems the servers are currently facing - or hopefully - simply that all is well in the galaxy.

    Finally - if you are still affected by this issue in anyway, please do submit a support ticket: https://support.elitedangerous.com. Our apologies for the disruption and we shall endeavour to communicate with commanders more promptly and directly going forward.

    As always, fly safe commanders!

    Andrew Barlow

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