Black Eye 3 Exploit and Poll

Universal News
1

It has been reported/confirmed that an unapproved tool is being used to enable map functionality that was intended to be unavailable for this round.

I am working on a fix to address this, but in the meantime we should discuss the impact on the round.

For context, using unapproved tools/hacks is against our rules, specifically because it provides an unfair advantage over players that don’t know about it. From The Imperial Conflict Rulebook:

We do allow most tools and are generally pretty lax about this, but we require that players share the tools openly. If they don’t, that is considered cheating.

What do we want to do?

I would normally consult with Staff, but our only moderator is playing in this galaxy, which presents a conflict of interest.

So it’s up to the players:

  • Scrap and restart the round
  • Keep the round open, but remove the player who created and shared the exploit
  • Keep the round open, and do not remove anybody
0 voters

No matter what we pick, I will be asking the player to share his tool and instructions publicly.

Thank you.

4

What does the tool do?.. I understand it apparently gives details about the map but in what context? Is this more than what even a fully enabled map would be able to give you?

5

It adds ability to render a custom list. Even prior to this round, that’s not something that we have out of the box in the newer map.

It’s a fuzzy area, and I don’t believe the intent was malicious. It was in use prior to this round, which indicates that it wasn’t actively made to circumvent this round’s map limit even if it did end up being used that way.

That’s why we’re taking a soft approach here. We’re not trying to throw down ban hammers, but we want to acknowledge the problem too.

6

Is mapgen allowed?

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7

Would the tool show what infra is on the planets or if a portal is building/built? I think if it did I would be on the side of banning but otherwise continuing on as is.

8

I tried that for ages… but no. You can only estimate infra, not say what it is specifically

9

Doesn’t seem to affect the round, so I suggest, let the round go on.

Although I think 20 fam member HC round is a failure by default, because fam does not have a good role for everyone if one big attacker, one big agent opper and one big Pax can basicly do the most of the real work and 17 others just provide stuff with less OB.

If fog of war only makes ppl to check map system by system to get info, it only makes playing harder and more time consuming. I did not appreciate trying to find unexplored systems where to send ships. I do not want to use my time for that when playing. Thus the FOW is a step backwards in the game IMO. Just if you would setup a round without mass building or OB. Someone with skills is bound to automate the tedious work. The best fix is to get rid of it as it is now.

If you want to keep it, hide the info some other way, so it is not available at all. Not even by manually checking systems. Maybe spells would be only way to get planet owner info and systems would only show which planets are your own and which are explorable? Not even bonuses (only in planets page)? Attacking would be blindfolded without plist. That would make it hard to see where enemy explores and portals. Dunno if I would play a round like that, but that could be one solution if you want to have some kinda FOW.

Just few thoughts.

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10

@Xenon1122 yeah mapgen is allowed.

There are very few things we don’t allow, and we are still working on an API to make it even easier to make tools.

The main point here is that staff should be aware of them, and all players should have access to them.

11

Players were asking in chat about what is or isn’t approved:

It’s likely outdated, but feel free to add or ask about any if you think some are missing.

12

Thank you everybody for providing your feedback. We’ll keep going with the round and nobody will be removed.

Thanks too to everybody in chat for helping brainstorm on how we should handle these situations generally.

We’ve disabled the limited map feature while we figure out how to move fwd with the tool itself. This should negate the main advantage that it provides.

We’ll be hashing out details on the tool here: Map Hack Tool. Feel free to join.

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