out of curiosity what is the turn around time for bug reports? I’ve been reporting the TWC RT bug for years and have had a disadvantage in the arena because of it. 13 seconds of hard RT constantly and have been pushed into spikes during that duration. It’s definitely impacted my bloodscrip gain and have mentioned it along with others.

It has been fixed now--as I discovered in the Arena over the last couple of weeks--but the quartz orb baldrics originally gave NO castRT when 'clench'ing to activate the CS bonus.
While I mentioned it (I think I did it in-game with a bugitem, but I know I posted here on the Boards to Mikos' attention), I certainly didn't stand there doing "one Mississippi" or a 'wait' to simulate the RT that was supposed to be imposed, either.

When something like that happens--the old gem-eating weapons used to have no RT when swung with a gem in them, too--and it's been brought to attention but goes UN-fixed for months at a stretch... What are we supposed to do?

And I was inquiring about possible consequences of continuing to use an item "as designed/as delivered" that we knew to be buggy, and that we knew the designer knew was buggy.
I feel that to be an entirely appropriate extension of the conversation, given that "consequences" was a substantial portion of what Coase posted.
It just so happens that I gave one recent and one ancient example. <shrug>

> Attempts to gain an unfair advantage which circumvents the letter or spirit of the rules presented in the documentation and version notes, as judged solely by Simutronics, are a violation of policy.

<<May I request some direction on where to find the “documentation and version notes” referenced in the opening line of this post?

It would most likely be in the announcement post about whatever mechanic/system/etc. was released. And further version notes would be located within followup posts from a GM on that subject matter.


~Aulis
Platinum Co-Guru
Forums Manager
QC'er

<<It would most likely be in the announcement post about whatever mechanic/system/etc. was released. And further version notes would be located within followup posts from a GM on that subject matter.

That seems about par for the course, we now have to have full knowledge of the wiki and forum posts.

https://i.imgur.com/V0l2ZSW.gif

~Sabotage

And here's my thoughts about "not knowing" about a bug and mistakenly erring... seriously... JUST my opinion...

If you don't "know" it was a bug, chances are, you are not going to exploit it to begin with. For example. I had NO idea there was an RT problem with the heavy quartz orb baldrics until someone in this thread mentioned it. I have owned one for two years! I have used it from time to time. I never noticed a lack of RT. If I had gotten in trouble for using it, I would just be in trouble. But I could honestly say that I never noticed.

If a GM checked back through their game logs for every mention I ever made of the word "baldric" (or "yoke" which is the other name for those things)... they would, by reading the context, know if I was exploiting the bug or was just oblivious to the bug. They might watch my behavior for awhile just to be sure they were correct. But there are ways they can determine my intent, just by watching my behaviors.

- Did I go hunting like normal and just use the baldric? Never a word said? Not much of an exploitation (though you might could get in trouble, i dunno).
- Did I buy a baldric for all 432 of my characters? Hmm MAYBE exploitation, but do i ever really hunt with those other guys? Nah so MAYBE NOT (or maybe so).
- Did I bigshot all 432 of my chars at once while using the baldrics? MAYBE moreso exploitation. And trouble on more than one front too if i didn't have 432 pairs of eyes to watch those 432 game screens.
- Did I tell all my friends HEY BUY A BALDRIC THERE'S NO RT!! WOOHOO!! Now that's not just exploiting, but encouraging others to exploit. Houston we have a problem.
- Did I buy up every baldric known to Elanthia and stash them in a locker somewhere? That seems a bit extreme... but... who knows...
- Did I buy up every baldric then sell them for profit with a NO RT WOOHOO! tag line? OK that's a definite problem. Then a GM needs to watch not just the person but all the buyers.
- How the GM's actually determine if you exploited a bug, is beyond me, but if it was my job, I would assure you I could do it well if I had the benefit of internal simu game logs!

But more to the point of this discussion, let's say, hypothetically, that you're a wizard who is high enough level to enchant. And who does not use the forums nor gswiki nor lnet nor discord nor any other modern means of communication. Let's also say that you are doing your first enchant. Chances are, you can't even AFFORD a coraesine something or other to attempt to enchant, and if you manage to get one, you're definitely not gonna just test enchanting on it. You've spent money on this thing and you want to ask an elder wizard "hey will this hurt my coraesine thingamajiggie in any way?"

But even if you were really oblivious and didn't proceed with caution, and did manage to get the one coraesine thingamajiggie to enchant with no penalty due to the bug, the minute you try to sell or trade that sucker, there will be a million eyebrows raised in your direction (a dozen who would report you). You will hear that it was NOT a real thing you could/should be able to do. You will ASSIST REQUEST. You will say "hey this was kinda weird, and people told me it shouldn't be possible, was this ok to do? i mean there are these new enchanting rules and i don't understand em all but i WANT TO do the right thing here"... that is, if you have good sense. The Game Host might refer you to a GM, you might be told no that wasn't ok, here let me have that coraesine thing. You, the honorable citizen, will yield and hand it over.

EXTREME Hypothetical: If you're nice, and you report it FAST rather than mulling over whether you should exploit it... then in my dream world, you might also be told, "here let me replace the thingamajiggie in its original form that you worked so hard to buy, since you were so good as to report this thing immediately and not try to exploit the bug. thanks for bein a good citizen." (one can hope!)

But to wrap up my long and meandering post, IMO I would hope that nobody is gonna get in trouble, unless there is proof that they exploited a bug that gave them a fairly good advantage over other players somehow. And if you found a bug you think does NOT give you a major advantage, still report the bug so there is a report on record from you, and then maybe ASSIST REQUEST and ask that specific question, will I get in trouble for this? And make sure to stay on top of it until you get a response "yes" or "no" and not just a lot of "read these policies" because in a case like with the baldric RT problem, someone needs to clarify the policy for you regarding that specific situation. And in my experience, they will be happy to clarify after doing some research and maybe passing you on to a GM.

I have never done an ASSIST REQUEST about a weird controversial issue and been disappointed with the answer I received except maybe twice. In those cases I ASSIST REQUESTed again and asked for clarification until I got a "yes" or "no" answer regarding whether I would get in trouble AND under what circumstances would I get in trouble.

You can't expect a blanket answer in the forums sometimes due to the fact that "each situation" has its own very unique... quirks? nuances? that would prevent a blanket response here. But I can assure you that you will get a very specific answer if you ASSIST REQUEST about your particular specific issue. I know this, because I am dumb as a stump, and I have to ASSIST REQUEST more than your average joe for my 432 characters. :D

And to repeat myself, yes, this post contained a lot of speculation and quite unscientific hypotheses, but other people are also speculating in a more negative way. Yesterday I almost had to untune lnet to get any peace. I'm just striking the balance with my eternal Pollyanna-ness. Thanks for your patience, much love to allay'all cause ya know I mean it.

Hoping this post was forum-kosher.
Soliere :) <--who deleted this post one time due to she made one paragraph that even she would have deleted if she had been the forum moderator hee hee 0:)