Monday, May 20, 2013

NeverWinter OnLine - rollback after exploit discovery


Yesterday, the NeverWinter forums were on fire after people discovered and reported a bug that lead to an exploit. The exploit involved the "auction house" and negative bids, people who knew about it took advantage and gained unwarranted sums of "astral diamonds".

Since then, the devs took actions by disabling completely the "Auction House" and the "Astral Diamond Exchange" while working a fix.

They fixed the bug, the damage to the economy is already done. So, Cryptic decided that a database rollback is necessary to restore the game's balance.
Cryptic also said that: "we have taken appropriate action against all players who took advantage of the bug, including but not limited to enforcing permanent bans".

What does the rollback mean?
This means that roughly seven hours of progress made between 5:20 AM and 12:20 PM Pacific Time will be lost to all players.
Also, keep in mind that after the rollback will be performed neither "Auction House" nor the "Astral Diamond Exchange" will be functional until Cryptic decides it's all clear.




FAQ - AD/AH Exploit Follow-Up
source: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?266921-FAQ-AD-AH-Exploit-Follow-Up&p=3479161#post3479161

Q: What happened?
A: Early Sunday morning a very small group of players discovered and abused a game exploit within the Neverwinter Open Beta that affected the Auction House and Astral Diamonds.

Q: What exactly has changed?
A: We took the Neverwinter OBT down for emergency maintenance, found the bug, corrected it and tested it. In order to fix the damage this exploit caused to the in-game economy, we implemented a necessary rollback of our servers to 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT) the morning of May 19, 2013. This means that characters have been reverted to the state they were in at that time, pre-exploit damage. That includes items, level, experience, etc.
We know that character progress matters in Neverwinter, so as an apology for the lost time and as profound thanks for your continued support throughout this Beta, we are putting together a package of items to give everyone. We plan to distribute this towards the middle or end of this coming week, possibly on Friday 5/24.

Q: What about ZEN I spent/transferred after 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT)?
A: You'll have any and all ZEN that you transferred to Neverwinter -- we tracked all transfers during that time and made sure players have the ZEN they should have. If you spent ZEN on items during that time, you'll need to re-buy the items, but you'll have all of that ZEN. No one will lose any money they spent on Neverwinter because of this fix. If you have any issue, please see the customer and billing support contacts below.

Q: I leveled up after 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT) -- what happens to that progress?
A: Unfortunately, in order to properly fix this exploit, that progress has, by necessity, been lost. We know how much that progress means to all Neverwinter players, though, so we're putting together a package to thank everyone for their support. We plan to distribute this towards the middle or end of this coming week, possibly on Friday 5/24.

Q: What about the ZEN I bought/sold after 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT) in the Astral Diamond Exchange?
A: All ZEN exchanged during this period will be returned to the original owners.

Q: What about my astral diamonds?
A: Any astral diamonds claimed from your bonus balance will be returned to your bonus balance, and will be available to be claimed again.

Q: What about respec tokens, or other consumables?
A: You'll have everything you had at 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT). If you had the consumables before 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT), you'll still have them; if you bought them with ZEN or gold that you had before 5:20 AM PDT (12:20PM GMT), you'll still have that gold or ZEN.

Q: I have another question, where can I get answers?
A: Post it in this thread! We'll dig through to find common questions, and we'll edit this post to include them.

Q: But... I won the Armored Nightmare from a lockbox! I'll never get that lucky again!
A: We know how much that would sting. We are looking into ways we can make it better, but we don’t have an exact plan yet. Stay tuned and keep checking here for updates.

Q: I was working on a Foundry missing during that time – what happened to my design work?
A: We did not revert any changes in the Foundry, so your work is still there.

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