Exploit Discovered (Not April Fools)

[Deman]

So with the i30 tourney coming up ironically an exploit has come to light, luckily it is very very easy to spot by an admin watching the game or by anyone watching a replay.

The way the exploit works is thus. Start upgrading a mass extractor to tech 2. Pause the upgrade and then have engineer(s) finish it up. Don’t unpause the nass extractor, even after it is finished upgrading. What you will have now is a “paused” tech 1 mass extractor that is still outputting mass and a newly completed tech 2 mass extractor that is also outputting mass and exists on the exact same deposit as the tech 1. The reason this bug works is because being paused only affects mass extractor’s upgrade status; to actually turn production off is a completely different button. By moving the mouse cursor around a little bit you will alternately highlight the tech 1 and the tech 2 mass extractor, which occupy the same spot. Don’t unpause the tech 1 extractor; if you unpause it, it disappears.

Just tested it myself, it does work, you can drift your mass over the mex and it will show tech 1 and 2 and even 3 if you upgrade again.

This will be easy to spot at i30 as the Pause Sign that shows on the mex to allow you to do it.

Making it public as well as posted Joey so everyone will know what to look out for in replays of your matches.

Edit: This exploit seems to be doable on any upgradable unit/building. eg. Shields, which again are easy to spot by the double shield bubble seen here:
http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9804/uefdoubleshieldfb3.jpg

[Cheez]

What about power drain, do you get the drain of one shield gen or both?

[Penguin2]

What about power drain, do you get the drain of one shield gen or both?

Most likely both, its essentially 2 separate buildings on the same spot

[Joey[kins]]

it's easier to spot with shields but the biggest exploit factor is on the mass deposits.

with any luck this'll be patched before friday. if not then rest assured that usage of this exploit will result in instant disqualification from the sup com tourney AND ineligibility to enter all other tourneys at the event.

[Joey[kins]]

and yes the rules are on their way. honest.

[DaveL]

;619698']it's easier to spot with shields but the biggest exploit factor is on the mass deposits.

with any luck this'll be patched before friday. if not then rest assured that usage of this exploit will result in instant disqualification from the sup com tourney AND ineligibility to enter all other tourneys at the event.

This is a bug, and only is an exploit if you used it on purpose. Infact I discovered this a week ago after accidently using it a couple times and noticing an animation glitch.

When your economy crashes, you need to pause your mez upgrades - and sometimes you have engys assisting (which is much lighter on economy drain). So you got to be careful in the rules how you want to explain what is and isn't allowed. i.e. you can only pause your mez upgrades but as long as they aren't being assisted (built) by an external unit.

[afty]

Seems like simply warning the players about the exploit pre-tourney would be enough. As it's easy to diagnosed from a replay, make it the players responsibility to NOT make the mistake...

[Elkeeed]

Or just tell everyone how to do it and allow it to be standard practice. Then there would be no problem with people doing it by mistake.

[Gunsmith]

I can't believe you just said that.

[Elkeeed]

oh its not another damn april fool is it?

[afty]

Or just tell everyone how to do it and allow it to be standard practice. Then there would be no problem with people doing it by mistake.Yeah, like, everyone could use aimbots in the CS:Source tournament too!

[Elkeeed]

Well I only suggested it because its not something that takes practice to do and to be honest if both sides survive the initial rush then mass fabricators are more economically efficient anyway. I just thought it might be better to be balanced with a sploit that everyone can do than worrying about catching people cheating. Anyway it was just a suggestion. :)

Plus they did allow dolphin diving in bf2. 'Its part of the game.' :)

[afty]

Plus they did allow dolphin diving in bf2. 'Its part of the game.' :)True, but BF2 was an abysmal game all over :)

[Dentist]

Basically if you end up with two buildings in one location i'd say you're exploiting, even if you did it accidently.

[Omnituens]

Plus they did allow dolphin diving in bf2. 'Its part of the game.' :)my argument against this is: why did they attempt to patch it out?

granted, they didnt fix the problem because EA suck, but if they attempted to fix it, it obviously shouldnt have been part of the game.

same applies to this: no doubt GPG will fix this bug, so that makes this an exploit. if you apply that to BF2, dolphin diving is abuse of a bug, hence exploit.

[DaveL]

Yet, this isn't something you need to "abuse", you can often come across doing it without any devious intentions. Especially if you know how to number crunch and manage your economy in the most efficient ways.

Pausing production/upgrades is common practice in times of need, especially since a mez upgrade consumes -10 mez (-8 + the fact it isn't gaining +2 anymore), however you'll also be wanting sometimes to rush mez upgrades by assist building them with engineers (most useful when you have a large stock of mez - basically quick spending for a return on investment in about 90 seconds).

This is something that *can* be entirely accidental.

[Elkeeed]

yeah and my point was that while dolphin diving gives an advantage to the player that has practised it more, this sploit is just as easily done by anyone. So allowing it this one time wouldn't be so bad, hopefully it will be patched before too long.

I dont mind either way, outlawed or not, but I'd be quite annoyed to look back at a replay after i'd been knocked out and catch someone doing it when its too late to do anything about it. Plus you know if someone does it accidently its gonna cause allsorts of squabbling about whether they were trying to cheat or not.

[Aardvark]

I'm sure tripping someone in the penalty area in a football match can be accidental, its still a penalty.

Just don't mess up.

[kandy]

This is something that *can* be entirely accidental.

True, but it will be pretty obvious to the admin/on the replay.

[Joey[kins]]

given the prizes in question this simply isn't up for discussion; the senior admin for the tournament has ruled that use of this exploit constitutes cheating, case closed. if we say "we'll let you off if it was an accident" then everyone will do it and when we confront them they'll say it was accidental.

double building = bye-bye from tournament

end of discussion


as i said, hopefully it'll be patched by then but i'm going to be abundantly clear right now on the matter.

[Deman]

It's fairly impossible to do accidentally unless you are the worlds worst micro manager and even then you wouldn't think to pause a mex during an upgrade.

Very easy to spot the exploit by the giant pause sign on the overlay of a replay. Rest assured I will be watching every single replay I take part in if only to see where I went wrong.

ps. It is a banable offense on GPG.net which means no more supcom for your account.

pps. WTF did you all surface from? :)

[DaveL]

;620016']given the prizes in question this simply isn't up for discussion; the senior admin for the tournament has ruled that use of this exploit constitutes cheating, case closed. if we say "we'll let you off if it was an accident" then everyone will do it and when we confront them they'll say it was accidental.

double building = bye-bye from tournament

end of discussion


Sure, I simply wanted to clarify exactly what consitutes as the cheat. If ultimately it's "double building", or if it's assisting paused mez - as long as you unpause before the "double build" occurs.

[DaveL]

It's fairly impossible to do accidentally unless you are the worlds worst micro manager and even then you wouldn't think to pause a mex during an upgrade.



No, because I assume you learn your strategies and number crunching from watching demos of those "top players" that design them.

Pausing a mex is quite viable, it upgrades without the mex being turned off (no resources). It just so happens that it keeps the instance of the t1 mex for a minute or so (thus this exploit)

[Deman]

It wasn't actually aimed at you as an insult it was a broad statement but if you take some kind of offfense then fine.

I have heard of your reputation, enough said ;)

ps. You say you discovered this a while ago, gg on reporting it....