There was a short heated discussion in the world chat after the server was restarted to fix this 'feature', and a few people mentioned bringing up a forum topic for it, but nobody did, and I'd like to give my 2 cents on the subject... so here it is :)

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I'd like to start by admitting that initially, I did think that it was probably an unintended feature... but I was turned around into thinking it was part of the new feature.

I wasn't the person that discovered you could join without it costing an instance. A couple helpful guild-mates did: on 2 separate occasions, they joined a MP to help kill a boss that others were struggling on - and people had quit... They noticed it didn't cost an instance... and shared it with the guild.

I was surprised that CNE released yet another update without properly testing it... and I had to test it for myself... Sure enough, it didn't cost, and I instantly saw the potential in one person starting a game solo, and inviting others to join once it had been started.

Naturally, I saw the way to 'exploit' it (see my definition of 'exploit' below), and my first thought was to report it... Because I truly believe in an equal playing field, and that the scoreboard in any game is for competitive players and should represent how good a person is at the game, and that nobody should be able to cheat their way up the rankings.

However, it wasn't unlimited MP, as somebody had to create the instance, and you couldn't join if you had used all of your instances.

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Fellow guild mates discouraged me from reporting it. - I listened to their argument that: This 'feature' was 'fair game' - it wasn't really hidden, it was there for anyone who joined an active game to notice... And the benefits weren't large - You couldn't receive fragments in loot bags, and the loot drops seemed to be reduced. The biggest advantage was receiving paragon tokens... For example, when doing a T3 Desert, you gained 3 paragon tokens for it (for completing a T3 mission). - So if you did 10 T3 Desert, you gained 30 paragon tokens. Now, doing 10 T3 desert takes a LONG time... Not just playing them, but organising players to host and join them... I estimate that to earn 30 BH tokens from playing 10 T3 Desert, took longer than 5 hours dedicated playing.

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The primary dictionary definition of "exploit" is:
To make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource). "500 companies sprang up to exploit this new technology" synonyms: utilize, make use of, put to use, use to good advantage, turn/put to good use, make the most of, capitalize on, benefit from.

The technical dictionary definition is:
A software tool designed to take advantage of a flaw in a computer system, typically for malicious purposes such as installing malware.

^^ well, we're not talking about any software tools, or any malicious intentions.

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Many competitive players exploit the missions that give the best reward... In The Kindred, we have a spreadsheet of missions, sorted by loot score: http://bit.ly/sot4 - we exploit the best missions based on loot score, and avoid the missions that give the least reward.

A few people say that there is no 'skill' to this kind of game, that it's just a time-management game... But if it was that simple, I wouldn't be playing it... The skill in SoT, and games like it, is tactical... To find better and more efficient ways to gain more reward than those you are competing against... The skill is in using clever tactics to beat hard missions, and 'exploiting' areas in the game where you gain the most reward (usually called 'farming').

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So, I listened to my guild mates, and we decided to take full advantage of this new feature... Being a competitive player, I suggested that we keep it a guild secret... that soon enough, other people would discover it for themselves... And that if it was an 'unintended feature' (I strongly assumed that it was), that someone else would report it, and it would get fixed soon enough.

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Additionally, I am a player that spends money on the game... but I believe in sensible purchases.

It recently really annoyed me that Farflier was able to buy his way to the top of the paragon scoreboard. - I felt that the paragon was the only scoreboard that showed true dedication to the game... I saw this 'feature' as a way to try to catch him... He buys his BH tokens by the 50, for $5 in the brotherhood 'discount pack' (and buys many multiples of them)... for me to earn 50 tokens playing MP this way, I had to spend hours playing missions! - so it seemed like a very reasonable and fair method... I would spend more than 5 hours playing to 'earn' 50 tokens, and he would spend $5 to skip it...

I almost convinced myself into thinking that maybe this wasn't an unintended feature... that CNE were actually getting soft on the MP limits, perhaps in an attempt to deal with the problem of people complaining about not being able to find people to play MP with them? - And that it was also a way for dedicated players to earn tokens, to make it possible to catch those who choose to buy them.

If this was a new intentional feature, it was a great one, that made the game less pay2win - and more pay2skip.

^^ but instead, I get people ranting at me in the world chat, and calling me a cheater, after having admitted that I have used it to play more than double the 'daily limit' of MP instances over the previous 24 hours.

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David mentioned the possibility of adjusting people's accounts to make up for any gains that shouldn't have been possible...

The gains of myself and others doing it, have been very small in terms of effecting any game balance... we have gained, at most, a few days worth of MP instances - but with reduced loot, and no fragments.

However, we did invest many many hours of hard work, playing missions, for a relatively small gain! I will be angry if the rewards for all that effort are taken from me... and in the last day of doing this, farflier has widened the gap even further on the paragon leaderboard.

Yes, along with people questioning my moral, someone who isn't in our guild suggested it 'went against The Kindred values'... well... I like quoting it, because I spent several hours writing, editing and re-editing our guild description ;)

"We are not elitist and nor are we exclusionary."

- We have never turned anyone away who has asked to join :)


"Our main focus is to provide players with a good atmosphere in which to enjoy the game. We cooperate and grow together as a close group of kindred friends."

- We have a great active guild chat, where we share strategies, compare and gather data, rant about what we hate in the game, praise the things we love about the game etc etc...


"Inflexibility and egoism are the failure of all groups. Let yours go and you will have a great time with us - Level up! Gear up! Group up and move as ONE – The Kindred!"


I don't see how keeping any information within the guild is 'against The Kindred values'?

Btw, if anyone wants to join, we have space ;)

I will say only one thing as I feel this "fire" needs to die down as the "facts" are being romanticized and misconstrued. My observations are this: David did state that some fixes were applied quickly (and were not advertised to my knowledge) and that he liked previous idea for rewards to those who helped out on lower tiered mps.. i just thought this "exploit" was part of that.

Since the game is in beta and the devs are working their ass off to give us more stuff and features, there is bound to be some bugs, when they roll out stuff quite fast if you ask me. I would rather have it this way, than wait forever with "nothing" happening while we wait. The devs have listen to many of my ideas, and i guess a lot of other ideas from the community.
Bugs will be sorted out when the devs are told about them, and i think they fix the bugs quite fast.

On the other hand, some crucial testing before its released is in order. Like the glitch was when science lab was released. That was way to bugged when it was released.

You are correct. The beta is gone now.

This thread is hysterical. "Sure we exploited! But people bought BH tokens and thats not fair in my mind." Give me a damn break it was a bug that gave players an advantage over others and you didn't report it "cause". We all know why you guys didn't report it.

By the way if the gains were so small, then you shouldn't mind if they were removed since you would hardly notice obviously.

I wish someone could give me a break of posts like that. No offence, but the only hysterical I can see by now is you.
And who, by all means, is in this case "we all"? And as you say you know the why, please tell me, because I don't seem to know it...Do me a favour and read the posts to learn about the whys I want to have this feature back.

I was just a little player happy that someone rescued me after my group decided to leave because we couldn't finish on our own.

And to repeat it once more: it was no secret like 'if you go there and click on that, that, and this in a certain sequence then you get 500 tokens for free'.

Hi David,

thanks for the reply. I just would like to contradict/add at one point:

If the "not using the daily allotment" would have been combined with "still giving up to the full rewards" it would have been stood "out as unintentional". In this case even me would have recognized that this wasn't intended.

Fact is: there was no full reward. There was no way to earn power fragments during these runs even if you joined near the beginning. Which in my eyes is not "full reward". Also there were no epics in there. The few poor green and white gear drops won't count as full reward, I'd say (having more of enough white and green scrap to completely gear up all guild companions).

Edit:
I somehow like the idea of "helper tokens" :) Or another flag for the helper of the week?

I can confirm that there were no power fragments from any loot when I joined the 'free' mp runs. That's why we thought this was intended as a free instance. In desert, I wondered if that was because I had done the MP already and there were no fragments to be dropped anymore, but I only had done 1 that day and it was Forest.