Update on Recent Glitch/ Hack Concerns

[CJ54]

Thanks CJ. Can we also get a total number of players that have been using it?

I can't give an exact number, but less than 30 out of a game with tens of thousands of active accounts. It doesn't take many turds to spoil a punch bowl, though.

Thanks for the communication

An easy check for energy HACKERS -

1) Run a script to flag all those accounts who have the 15% Air Boost unit from the current LTQ -

2) Check how many gold energy refills were done

there is NO WAY anyone could finish prestige mode on this LTQ without at least one whole vault of Gold

3 hours MAX to do this - and you will be able to BaN hackers and send a strong message to those of us holding on to any hope that you CAN actually root out the hackers.

Thanks again

It's a good idea and we do something along those lines periodically, but #1 by itself is actually a 6+ hour query that has to be run when there aren't a lot of other server-intensive things going on. EDIT: Which we will do in emergency cases anyway, but it isn't something we can just do all the time.

The reason we keep playing whack-a-mole with the energy thing is because to well and truly kill it for all time no matter what people were doing, we would have to put some stuff in place that would make it so that thousands of innocent accounts would have serious trouble interfacing with the game. Which has actually happened once or twice in Modern War or Crime City and explains a couple of the "omg GREE why do you guys keep doing this" moments (the answer being "we deployed a security upgrade that snagged on something client-side").

The situation with people purchasing the out-of-store LTBs is a similar case, where we are working on a more difficult way to stop that from happening. I say "more difficult" because all of the easy ways would have potential unforseen side-effects like a couple thousands people waking up one morning to find all their legitimately purchased LTBs missing. That would not be good. A couple dozen people purchasing those when they shouldn't be able to is also unfair, and not good, but that would be measurably worse. With large-scale changes of any type, we have to weigh the potential collateral damage to the gameplay of our playerbase as a whole.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, sometimes there are no easy/simple fixes for something.

[Rob TRK]

CJ, solve the problem with the LTBs with just releasing them again. No units so none of the benefit from the initial purchase. Let the new guys have access. Makes more raid opportunities for me if you do....

And that's probably a really simple fix....

[SimplyminiMW]

CJ, solve the problem with the LTBs with just releasing them again. No units so none of the benefit from the initial purchase. Let the new guys have access. Makes more raid opportunities for me if you do....

And that's probably a really simple fix....

Wouldn't really be Limited Time Buildings then would they.......

[CJ54]

CJ, solve the problem with the LTBs with just releasing them again. No units so none of the benefit from the initial purchase. Let the new guys have access. Makes more raid opportunities for me if you do....

And that's probably a really simple fix....

That is actually on the table. Reintroducing them *occasionally* for limited times (like a week or two out of the year well after they come in) is something we've been talking about over here, also just due to people begging us for a chance at some of them.

In these cases, the associated Goals would NOT be reintroduced, so every award people got for hustling those to completion during the original period would remain unique.

[Rob TRK]

Simply. Depends in what you understand the limited building quest to be. My take the LTB quest is associated with goals and rewards. Reintroduce the buildings would not add those goals again.. Meaning those who got them in the original time achieved the limited time quest. For everyone else it's just another building and allows further raid options. That has to be good for all players... I've been in the game since the early days so it's not great shakes personally if they are or aren't released...

Thanks CJ for the response as well.

[xxxfff]

I like that angle. First though please let us sell units back to continue uncluttering inventory

That is actually on the table. Reintroducing them *occasionally* for limited times (like a week or two out of the year well after they come in) is something we've been talking about over here, also just due to people begging us for a chance at some of them.

In these cases, the associated Goals would NOT be reintroduced, so every award people got for hustling those to completion during the original period would remain unique.

[corey0025]

Love the idea of reintroducing LTB....I came to the game late and had no chance to get them. Don't mind not having the units associated with goals. Also a thought, instead of selling units, allow the capability to sort the inventory list!!! It takes forever to find a unit!

[SimplyminiMW]

Simply. Depends in what you understand the limited building quest to be. My take the LTB quest is associated with goals and rewards. Reintroduce the buildings would not add those goals again.. Meaning those who got them in the original time achieved the limited time quest. For everyone else it's just another building and allows further raid options. That has to be good for all players... I've been in the game since the early days so it's not great shakes personally if they are or aren't released...

Thanks CJ for the response as well.

Well that's just getting into the semantics of the terminology that we use. LTB - limited time building with a LTQ, limited time quest...? Truthfully I run zero IPH on both my accounts so to have "more" buildings to raid would benefit me.

[Merc_mw]

CJ,
Is the increase in data usage related to what you guys are doing or is it some other surprise anomaly? It is getting expensive to play unless on wifi. I have turned off MW's access to cell data and it's cut back dramatically in how I play.

If it is reduce the hack related, I may not like it but I understand it.

Thanks

[CJ54]

CJ,
Is the increase in data usage related to what you guys are doing or is it some other surprise anomaly? It is getting expensive to play unless on wifi. I have turned off MW's access to cell data and it's cut back dramatically in how I play.

If it is reduce the hack related, I may not like it but I understand it.

Thanks

It is not, something else unintended is going on there. We're working on figuring that one out as soon as possible.

[Web323]

Cj, what about not being able to upgrade two buildings at once right now on iOS.

[Dazzj10]

That is actually on the table. Reintroducing them *occasionally* for limited times (like a week or two out of the year well after they come in) is something we've been talking about over here, also just due to people begging us for a chance at some of them.

In these cases, the associated Goals would NOT be reintroduced, so every award people got for hustling those to completion during the original period would remain unique.

If this does go ahead cj, can we have some sort of pre warning, so it gives low income players chance to accumulate the cash

[CJ54]

Cj, what about not being able to upgrade two buildings at once right now on iOS.

Unrelated, that was a bug that got introduced with the 4.1 data deploy. QA is tracking that down right now.

[Web323]

Unrelated, that was a bug that got introduced with the 4.1 data deploy. QA is tracking that down right now.

Thanks CJ ....

[CJ54]

Actually, not clear that it is a bug, since the items checked so far are allowing the right number of upgrades when we test it... we'll keep investigating.