[PC] Developer Update - May 24th Challenge Help Bonus Fix

Today we closed a "hole" in the game with challenge help that could be abused and was being abused under certain circumstances, we were notified through support channels by some concerned players and after taking a closer look we had to take action to impose limits on the bonuses as we do in every other help feature in the game. This was overlooked by the developer responsible for this feature and I apologize for it being open for so long.

Players will now receive maximum bonus for the first 25 challenge helps in a 24-hr period and will receive 1 XP for all helps after.

What is the harm of not having any limits? Well, people potentially could create automation to aggregate help links from all their friends, suck down a bunch of "free" XP and level without actually really playing the game. Having players high in the game without actually playing the game (outbreaks, fights, bosses, challenges) is something that I think everyone can agree we want to avoid.

That being said, those players that are upset with this change that was not abusing it, there are still plenty of areas to get bonus XP from outbreak help, boss help, world boss help and challenge help.

Today we also released bonus XP for repeat attacks on the World Boss which will hopefully offset the players that were not abusing this feature to make up any losses and add further incentive to go after the world bosses.

We thank you for your understanding while trying to keep Pirate Clan a fun, fair, balanced and competitive game.

If you have constructive input we would like to hear it, but going back to unlimited help is not an option since it has been found to be opened up to abuse.


***** UPDATE *****
- first 50 Helps in a 24-hr period will reward maximum XP bonus
- helps from 51 to 75 will degrade linearly to 1 XP
- helps beyond 75 in a 24-hr period will reward 1 XP

I hope players see this as a fair compromise to the original change and with the potential abuse that could happen without imposing a limit.

 

lots of negative feedback and not surprised

 

.

Me neither *__________*

 

the limit only applies to challenge help right and not on the ones doing the challenge.

i been doing treasure hunt for the past 5 days. 2 times a day thats a total of 10 and i did not hit any 5FPs bonus unlike last week i get 1 bonus for every 1-2days. was there changes here too?

as for the 24 hours to get 25more challenge ..... i hardly get to 15 helps a day so i dont really notice. by the time i get to the request the help is already full.

 

Level: 3187
14338 / 95610

You are now helping Daniel. You earned 957 XP. Start your own Captain's Gambit!



you really think its possible finding 100 of these things in a day that aint already full

i think NOT

 

so if people are using automation then you should be able to catch that pretty easily I would think. 2 ip's from the same desktop/laptop should be easy to spot. Why not just create a program that looks for that and then lock their account until they contact you and you can talk to them and determine if they are using automation or not

 

I first pointed this out 18 October 2010:

Hello KANO:

I discovered a "cheat" in the Hunter Challenge & you should check it out for yourself.

1. Go to home page.

2. Click on "Shooter Help" to differentiate the game feed.

3. Click all the requests for help.

I can go back 4 days and find up to 4 or 5 of these at a time.

I check this feed 2 or 3 times a day & it works like a charm...

Not sure what the bug is but I thought you guys should be the first to know.

Cheers,
Level 2629
----------------------------------------------

KANO's response dated 21 October 2010

Hello,

All of the support issues that come to us are taken seriously.

There is no glitch in the hunter challenge system. The "help" links do not expire so if i start a hunter challenge and post for help. You respond and in 12 hours I have completed that challenge. I start another one and you click on the old link that I posted. It is connected to the new challenge now so you are actually helping out with my new challenge. If you click on the link more then once during a single challenge, you will receive nothing.

As for posting your challenge link to a certain few players, that is up to you. There is nothing wrong with what you are doing.
--
Regards,
Viking Clan Support

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fast response? Really?

 

are you serious??????????????

wow just wow

 

as of now im no longer helping on these

not worth it

sorry to those that need the help

 

It is not a matter of IP sharing that is the issue with this one.

 

This is not the same issue, this is helping out on Challenge Help through old links in the feed when a new Challenge is started.

The issue that was closed today, was limiting the total number of Helps that reward a large amount of bonus XP in a 24-hr period.

 

We just increased the limit to 50 help, we can look at a slower degradation after the fact but right now it jumps to 1 XP as it does for Boss Help.

If 50 is still to low for your liking, what is your suggestion for a reasonable cap that will meet your needs, +1000 is not acceptable as that opens up the possibility of over abuse of this feature.

We are reasonable and ask players to be the same with their input. What are your needs / expectations?

 

I think you have far more important issues to deal with in all these games. OK? Clicking on "help" is so minor and petty that it is ludicrous.

Why didn't you address it when it first was brought to your attention? Why did you wait until someone complained? Furthermore, what solid evidence do you have that someone is abusing this feature?

I will say it again and again and again: You listen to some people but fail to listen to others. I don't know what your criteria is and frankly, I am afraid to ask. Just don't tell me that you apply the same judicious process to everyone because my email to you in October is proof that you do not.

 

Your email from October is about the same Challenge Help link being applicable to future Challenge Helps, correct? If so, that is a different issue, that issue is that the link is not unique for the same type of Challenge, so if a player starts the same challenge 4-days later, the previous link will work.

 

repeating my question for kendall, is the challenges affected coz im not getting any bonus on treasure hunts for the past 5 days.
@AS - i play in FB, i know your in hi5 or myspace so we would experience differently in the game specially im not a 24/7 player.

 

i play all 3


for fb though yeah those fill FAST

 

***** UPDATE *****
- first 50 Helps in a 24-hr period will reward maximum XP bonus
- helps from 51 to 75 will degrade linearly to 1 XP
- helps beyond 75 in a 24-hr period will reward 1 XP

I hope players see this as a fair compromise to the original change and with the potential abuse that could happen without imposing a limit.

 

No, reward bonuses from playing the challenges have not been impacted.

 

thanks for the info kandell.

i was just wondering if is impact in any way coz i done treasure hunt 11 times thats a total of 165 digs (15x11) and not a single bonus (5FP) it says a 2% chance. i supposed to get 1 or 2 (5FP) bonus by now.

so ill continue to play treasure hunt. ill keep you posted of my luck.

 

thats my 12th and now doing the 13th for the past 6 days .. still no bonus 5FP. is it just my luck or kano made changes? last week its not like this. changes might have affect the drop rate. it says 2% so that 1 for every 50 digs. i have done 185 digs straight already and still no 5FP bonus. im wasting my time on those treasure hunts please advice was there any changes made?