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My Arc suddenly dropped from level 52 to 28???

  • Thread starter DeletedUser27184
  • Start date

qaccy

Well-Known Member
Wow... I hadn’t realized it was only a 4 day difference between Beta and Live releases. That’s just insane.


Part of me wants to believe that this was planned from the start. To implement a GB with variables in the GB algorithms that could be abused to such great extent. Then to watch as players dump thousands of FPs and eradicate the FP banks in one fell swoop. Forcing those that worked long an hard to get those big banks to lose it overnight. Which creates a greater imbalance in the game since half the players have their GBs and FPs and half have 1 or 0 of the two.

I'd like to think that this wasn't done with malicious intent. The developers who created the 'fix' were more likely just unaware that this wasn't a problem that needed to be addressed in the US servers, but assumed that it was something that needed to be corrected in all servers and not just the French/German ones. That's my optimistic take on it, anyway.
 

DeletedUser23307

Other than their solution did not target those who used the Oracle to amass loads of FP. They instead targeted players who did nothing more than work hard at leveling their GB.

.... this person gained 20 levels in 2 weeks? They must be cheating.
 

DeletedUser23307

Pretty sure they could have done a DB filter to see who had hundreds of Oracle BPs... that would be a good indicator of someone power leveling that GB.
 

DeletedUser31392

I'd like to think that this wasn't done with malicious intent. The developers who created the 'fix' were more likely just unaware that this wasn't a problem that needed to be addressed in the US servers, but assumed that it was something that needed to be corrected in all servers and not just the French/German ones. That's my optimistic take on it, anyway.

I’m not entirely sure I understand why they chose this method to “fix” the problem anyway. Since it clearly caused innocent players across the US server to lose several level or have GBs reset to 0, then clearly this would have happened in the effected servers as well.

It’s obvious with proper planning and dedication you can power level an Arc from about 28-62 in less than a month. I personally know of 2 players who weee doing just that and were effected by this patch. So it’s safe to assume players on other servers had the same issue, regardless of if they participated in the exploit.
 

DeletedUser31392

Other than their solution did not target those who used the Oracle to amass loads of FP. They instead targeted players who did nothing more than work hard at leveling their GB.

.... this person gained 20 levels in 2 weeks?

They must be cheating.
Pretty sure they could have done a DB filter to see who had hundreds of Oracle BPs... that would be a good indicator of someone power leveling that GB.


Yes!!! Exactly this!!! This should have been part of the patch fix, locate who had more than a reasonable amount of Oracle prints and punish only those players and their GBs and remove their FP bank.
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
I’m not entirely sure I understand why they chose this method to “fix” the problem anyway. Since it clearly caused innocent players across the US server to lose several level or have GBs reset to 0, then clearly this would have happened in the effected servers as well.

It’s obvious with proper planning and dedication you can power level an Arc from about 28-62 in less than a month. I personally know of 2 players who weee doing just that and were effected by this patch. So it’s safe to assume players on other servers had the same issue, regardless of if they participated in the exploit.

Your guess is as good as mine! I never said it was the right thing to do, merely providing my speculation on why what happened ended up happening. It certainly doesn't have any upsides in an environment where nobody was actually exploiting, but I'm curious as to what the effects were over on the servers where it was actually a problem. Was it the same thing, simply mass removal of levels from GBs that moved up quickly in the past month or was there more to it than that when there were actually people exploiting?

@W3Forge, whatever solution they implemented in the game was obviously an automated process. If it had been done by a human it 1) wouldn't have affected all applicable GBs instantly and 2) wouldn't have happened at all since it's clear that there are no mass quantities of 'tainted' Oracle FPs floating around the US servers because there are no high-levelled Oracle GBs on US servers. Even if we concede that maybe it was happening on L, that still leaves 24 other US servers where it wasn't happening.

I guess my viewpoint can be summed up like this: This wasn't done to punish exploiters. This was done because it was done in France and Germany, and all other versions of the game had to follow suit.
 

K--O

Member
This is undoubtedly the biggest Inno bungle to date. And in kind, how they address it is going to be a make it or break it for the game in general (IMO). I wasn't involved and don't anyone who did figure out the way to capitalize on the Oracle and if I don't get my levels back that I spent countless hours and earned FPs on, then I'm likely going to say ef it and leave the game.

The problem is not really with the situation where players that used the Oracle to get massive amounts of FPs in order to keep leveling Oracles and still have the FP bank. If that was the problem Inno could just reset the Oracle reward points, remove all points achieved through Oracles, and re-release the Oracle. The problem I think they tried to fix is the case where someone who used the Oracle to increase FPs then used those FPs to level other buildings (theirs and other peoples) quickly. And everyone who didn't even know about the Oracle got caught up in their fix. IMO they just have to accept any other GBs that got increases and just remove the effect of the Oracle. I don't think it will be possible to figure out the downstream effect of anyone who did take advantage of the Oracle and adjust because if 1 person took advantage of the Oracle you can't penalize the other 5+ contributors on each GB level.

So back to my original statement. Inno has a big problem on their hands.
 

DeletedUser27889

Was it the same thing, simply mass removal of levels from GBs that moved up quickly in the past month or was there more to it than that when there were actually people exploiting?
There's actually already 62 pages of complaints on the French server. https://forum.fr.forgeofempires.com...scussion-sur-loracle-pas-normal.94283/page-59

To sum it up the huge thread: It begins with people complaining as they got the announcement we got about this being fixed. We didn't really know what they were talking about, the French knew exactly what they were talking about. They quote mods and even support tickets that they submitted wanting to make sure there were no rules being broken, in all cases they were told arc power leveling is a part of the game, some who had not done it now did because they felt they had the green light. Others disagreed saying they knew they were exploiting and deserve to have to pay the points back somehow.

Once this patch hit this morning however, everyone was affected. Some believed they were being penalized because though they took no part in the exploit maybe a trade partner did and they lost all their levels. It took a few hours before the mass of French players received the notices we did and believed each other that all the players complaining were not just the ones who participated. It seems like their patch did the exact same thing as ours did but with more people being affected as there were actually many people exploiting.

Going off of that thread and ours I would say that your guess of a blanket nerf on anything being power leveled in X amount of weeks makes the most sense as that seems to be the case there as well.

Best line from the French Thread:
kuxux40 said:
je suis à -9000 habitants.... je vais devoir forniquer ce soir !!!!

Translated:
I am at -9000 inhabitants .... I will have to fornicate tonight !!!!
 

DeletedUser20367

Wow... I hadn’t realized it was only a 4 day difference between Beta and Live releases. That’s just insane.


Part of me wants to believe that this was planned from the start. To implement a GB with variables in the GB algorithms that could be abused to such great extent. Then to watch as players dump thousands of FPs and eradicate the FP banks in one fell swoop. Forcing those that worked long an hard to get those big banks to lose it overnight. Which creates a greater imbalance in the game since half the players have their GBs and FPs and half have 1 or 0 of the two.

The problem is that Beta is really only about testing for bugs, not game balance issues. The Crystal Villa imbalance was reported on Beta before the building was released on live. This information (we were told) was 'passed on to the developers' along with all the other Beta feedback. Nothing was done and the building was released on live. Then, after a bunch of people built them and sales of Sea Scrapers tanked someone actually looked at the stats and decided that they needed a fix. I'm guessing here but the actions fit the facts.
 

DeletedUser23307

Seems a whole lot got fornicated today...

My guildmate is HMA, was working on lvl 56 of his Arc and was set back to lvl 26

During the last 2 weeks he had been powering through the sweet spot of Arc building and we have several lvl 80 Arcs in our guild and do full value for rewards returned so most of each level is covered on donations. Many of us will even go over reward return in support of our mates.

1 Day last week he was able to go through 10 levels in one day, it was awesome and we all really worked at it to make it happen. He burned through the coins he had been saving for months to buy FP to keep the levels moving.

Now he is seeing returns on investments he had out coming back at less than he had invested, those mates who were on his current lvl 56 just watched about 3K FPs go poof and none of us were involved in the Oracle Debacle yet apparently Inno decided he was guilty because his GB had grown more than a prescribed number of levels for the period of time.
 
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Salsuero

Well-Known Member
All this because of a "training" GB that no one above EMA/HMA was supposed to want. Bravo, Inno. It makes me wonder if this ominous response might have been a bit creepily written with an evil grin and a foreboding laugh:

Screen shot 2017-11-08 at 5.28.24 PM.png

I'm probably crazy. It's probably just bad luck, eh?
 

DeletedUser31592

Mek, from ForgeDB website


ForgeDB displays Player, Guild, and Great Buildings statistics generated from within Forge of Empires with the ability to sort and search easily. Data is not real-time and is usually updated every 24 hours, but may vary from server to server. Low-ranking and/or inactive Players are not reported.


Thanks for posting that. I never noticed that before. I'm not high-ranking, but I don't consider myself low-ranking (2.2 million, just out of top 1000 in Q) and I'm definitely not inactive, yet they've never had all of my GBs listed. My Arc finally showed up on ForgeDB the other day for the first time. Like a month ago they showed me only having 3 GBs, lol. So I would not trust it for accuracy....
 

Salsuero

Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting that. I never noticed that before. I'm not high-ranking, but I don't consider myself low-ranking (2.2 million, just out of top 1000 in Q) and I'm definitely not inactive, yet they've never had all of my GBs listed. My Arc finally showed up on ForgeDB the other day for the first time. Like a month ago they showed me only having 3 GBs, lol. So I would not trust it for accuracy....

Yeah, it's not accurate at all when it comes to that. I go months on there without showing my newest GBs. I don't trust it either.
 

Darkbox

Active Member
Is this thread the extent of the outrage being expressed over this?

Shocking...
@heybo answer above is spot on.

Add to that the fact Inno continuously frustrated players without "real" consequences, they certainly feel like they can do whatever they want and we will just swallow it.
 

DeletedUser23307

Well class action lawsuit is certainly out of the question but a large group of us concentrating otherwise spent hrs gaming on social media eviscerating them as a gaming platform would put a huge dent in all of that media money they have been spending trying to bring new players to their games.

If they are going to arbitrarily destroy what someone has spent half of their time playing this game building and not respond that seems about the best option for me to take. I could care less about the game, it has been fun and I have made friends but I am not going to sit back and watch those friends lose everything they have fairly worked for taken away without answer and just go about my merry way in the game.
 

DeletedUser32065

I'm waiting for news... I got 4 GBs affected My kraken goes from 24 to 0, Inno from 64 to 21, Tor from 63 to 38 and Chateau from 56 to 25... I hope they fix it fast. To be fair in Uceria (us20) I never heard a thing about that oracle thing and never saw a big Oracle of delphi there...
So I would like to know when will they fix it because that's already hurting a lot my game... I didn't do any GE today waiting for my ToR get big again and I am getting a way less goods, coins and supplies in the quests..
 

DeletedUser25795

ForgeDB is only about 24 hours out on my GB's so not sure why others have longer gaps.
 

DeletedUser18087

It seems to me that there should be some notification from Inno if they feel someone is cheating. There should also be some appeal process. I for one spent a lot of effort leveling my Kraken up and real money buying BPs and Inno just decides somehow that I cheat so they take it all away. No notice. No chance to dispute their "facts". No appeals. 21 levels of work just poofed. And now, nobody in our Kraken club wants to post their 200 FPs a day for fear Inno will take it away again. I guess this is the end of this game for many of us.
 

DeletedUser18087

It seems to me that there should be some notification from Inno if they feel someone is cheating. There should also be some appeal process. I for one spent a lot of effort leveling my Kraken up and real money buying BPs and Inno just decides somehow that I cheat so they take it all away. No notice. No chance to dispute their "facts". No appeals. 21 levels of work just poofed. And now, nobody in our Kraken club wants to post their 200 FPs a day for fear Inno will take it away again. I guess this is the end of this game for many of us.
And, by the way, I Never cheated but that doesn't matter at all in this game.
 
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