Giving back the improved storehouses

[Yperellanios]

Also as I see you still haven't read the ToS my dear friend I will quote them for you. Please point me out the point that says I have to be banned:

16.2 Termination of the Account or Services at UBISOFT's initiative
We may suspend or close your Account and your ability to use one or more Services or part of the Services, at any time, automatically and at our sole discretion where:
we have sent by e-mail or by post a formal request to provide us proof of your credentials or to cease an action, behaviour, or breach of these Terms;
it is confirmed or We have reasonable grounds for believing that:
you do not comply with these Terms or any special condition relating to a particular Service or Services;
you are in breach of your legal or contractual obligations;
your Account has been inactive for more than six months and you do not have access to pay functions; or
for any other reason in relation to your use or actions in relation to the Services.
If you have more than one Account, we reserve the right to suspend or close all the Accounts you have opened once one has been suspended or closed under this process.
In the event of a breach of your legal or contractual obligations, we reserve the right to take legal action on grounds of civil or criminal responsibility in order to stop the breach and obtain compensation for our losses. In particular, and without limitation, we reserve the right to prosecute any User who was deliberately damaged or attempted to damage the Services or disrupted the legitimate functioning of the Services or provided assistance for so doing.

[MutantKid]

I got an extra 2 storehouses, basically by accident. Found them in star and wondered how they got there. I won't be penalised for it as I didn't know about the bug at the time. If I knew, would I of clicked more? Dunno, maybe. Yes I know its morally wrong but given the opportunity I think most ppl would take advantage.

The scene in Superman 3 where the cash machine keeps spewing out free money ( Would u walk away and let the cash just fall to the pavement? )

A fair few ppl have walked away with an extra village school because of the 1st day fiasco, (gutted I wasn't one of them) nothing has been said about that!

[Larili]

I wasn't going to add to this thread, as it was becoming a player v's player slanging match, which is never constructive.
I'm reminded that the written word can often be mis-interpreted depending on the mind set of reader at the time.

Multiple Improved Storehouses



Dear Settlers,

There was a bug when completing the Summer Event calendar.

The main reward (Improved Storehouse) was obtainable multiple times.
Some players acquired 4 or more Improved Storehouses from the calendar, thus exploiting the bug to enrich their accounts.

Since we want players to demonstrate Fair Play and respect the “Terms Of Use”, we ask all players who redeemed 4 or more Improved Storehouses to put them back into the Star menu. They will be deleted from the Star menu during the next maintenance on the 22nd of July.

To me this seems perfectly reasonable and balanced, I have not received a mail so can not comment on the tone of its contents, however in the Q &A part of BB_Ravels announcement I can see how some of it can be interpreted as being `threatening' and ` heavy handed' and somewhat `one sided'. I would like to think that this is just another of those times when is the short comings of the written word.
My concern was the veiled `threat' of a punitive `ban' for non compliance of `not in the interest of Fair Play' ( although I noted it was not expressly stated ) In light of TSO's own conditions regarding `exploits' :
Terms of service states:

Exploits/Cheats
Any discussion or circulation of exploits or cheats is not permitted here, and may lead to exclusion from the service. Cheats and exploits should only be reported to the Support team.

IMO was an error of judgement.
This is compounded by the fact that this was the second time, within the one event, that a bug allowed an exploit to occur with the calendar doors. It is unreasonable to expect the players to take responsibility for what in any other business would be considered
a negligent action by the developers, in not testing the calendar event though to the end, after `fixing' the bug at the beginning.
If BB had worded it with more `Honesty and Responsibility' to the effect:

BB admit that some aspects of the event were not properly tested and implemented and that this has led to some players gaining an unfair advantage over others for which we sincerely apologies. In the spirit of Fair play we would ASK players who have acquired excess of 4 of the intended Improved Storehouse's to move them into Star for removal.......

I think it would have been much better received
I also find its never helpful to compare real life examples to game experiences in dealing with an issue like this. There are plenty of examples within this Forum which would provide more meaningful comparison. The one that springs to mind is the issue of players `accidently clicking on the complete with gems button' , sending a ticket and being told `no refund as it is working as intended'. Is this in the interests of `Fair Play' ? There are many more where the question of Fair Play from BB falls a little short, and so it is no surprise when players feel they should benefit from a BB `mistake'. Is it a question of Morality? or a reflection of the atmosphere between frustrated players and developers?
I hope everybody involved with the game at BB reflect over the summer on how we can all get what we want...Please

[Nihilista]

If you take out 10 imp storehouses and dont get its a bug/exploit you are so stupid you should get banned just for that

Best input in this thread.

[Kotugo]

I am not really sure what to think about this, there have been plenty of issues in the past where bugs from the test server have been blindly transferred to the normal servers, something needs to be done to improve the bug fixing/tracking so these kind of issues do not arise.

It does not specifically state what will happen to the people who ignore the warning, it just says you will not be banned if you do what is asked, meaning that the people who ignore the warning might get no action taken against them whilst the people who return the storehouses end up losing out for doing the morally correct thing.

In my opinion, a live and learn approach would have been better. If the people who abused the bug can be tracked they why not reward the people who did not abuse it with something which is usually limited on a scale where the bug abusers get nothing. For example, give out a number of free recyclers depending on how many storehouses each player got from the calendar, something like (3 recyclers -(minus) the amount of storehouses given). This way anyone who claimed 3 or more storehouses gets a message along the lines of "We are giving away recyclers to reward players who chose not to abuse bugs, unfortunately you are not eligible as you have been detected as a bug abuser, please do not do this in the future." - no threats of banning, no messing around having to reclaim items you might have got rid of, but a lost opportunity to increase the amount of building for something which is limited.

[funkybean2013]

I agree as NO ONE has stolen anything. In reality they are a fictitious item for a fictitious purpose and BB would not be any lighter in the pocket for the loss of them. I have spent about 1400 quid on this game so a few free items from BB is a welcome sight, and to well over due.

[padster007]

I think people knew that this was a bugged up mistake soon as they got an extra storehouse, then they carried on doing it knowing that something was a matter but still kept it in guilds and cliquey little circles because i never heard about it in the forums or chats until now. but isnt it strange now theres an influx of hate towards bb and settlers because they have to give them back in most cases people who was getting them over and over should face some punishment. Motto of the day, greed is not good.

[Thejollyone]

I havent gained any extra stores from these exploits. Had I known about them, would I have done? LOL yea probably. Its human nature to get something for nothing.

However, now they are asking for them back. That's cool, I would have given them back. But I can only agree with many posts here, you were only ever meant to have one storehouse from this event as a freebie, therefore, all but 1 should be returned.

Not anything other than the 4 or over, as has been officially announced by BB.

That really just doesn't make any sense - you can cheat a bit, but not too much?

Id like to hear BBs logic on this part.

[Brayarg]

I havent gained any extra stores from these exploits. Had I known about them, would I have done? LOL yea probably. Its human nature to get something for nothing.

However, now they are asking for them back. That's cool, I would have given them back. But I can only agree with many posts here, you were only ever meant to have one storehouse from this event as a freebie, therefore, all but 1 should be returned.


Not anything other than the 4 or over, as has been officially announced by BB.

That really just doesn't make any sense - you can cheat a bit but not too much?

Id like to hear BBs logic on this part.

Hiya Jolly, hope your well? , Unfortunately this is BB through and through. I received one storehouse (I knew about the exploit) a guild member told me in the dying days of the event. I decided not to test the water but, I have bought a couple of storehouses from the TO since, Does this mean I have 2-3 storehouse on my map now that are the direct result of an exploit? probably! They are level 5 now on my island so no chance they are coming down!!! But what happens if some unaware player by chance has purchased a couple of these from the TO and hasn't yet built them?? Does this then mean this innocent player will lose these if he doesn't place them within the next day or so? probably!!

So people that exploit up to 3 go unpunished, people that exploited it with 4 of more may get some punishment, people who got a free school/floaters have had a result, The innocent people who didn't participate in this again are just out of luck? Its not hard to see who got the short end of the stick is it?

Like many people around here, I'm close to the door marked "exit". Tired of the same old poor distribution of news that matters to the community, updates that are very meh, lack of testing.

[foofygirl]

@padster007 I can't speak for others, but I know I'm not upset over having to give them back. But when faced with the threat of being banned, I have opted to use what I have to help my friends and guildies come into compliance with the recall and accept the ban for myself, if that is what BB requires of me.

My issue with the situation is the arbitrary nature of them picking this one situation over all others to enforce their "Fair Play" while ignoring others that are just as egregious and/or on-going. For example...

When Dark Brotherhood could be taken out by nukes alone, you probably knew something wasn't quite right. Did you immediately stop doing that adventure when you found the exploit, or did you continue to spam them? And when BB said "this isn't as intended," they didn't recall all Dark Brotherhood loot and threaten with bans.

When people found that they could open all the calendar doors on the first day of the event, they knew they were doing something that wasn't intended. They haven't been threatened with bans nor asked to give back their prizes. In fact, many of those people are exempt from the SH recall/ban because they "only" got 2.

Guilds openly advertise that they will kick and readmit members in order to complete guild quests more quickly, to gain more guild coins. This certainly isn't as intended, yet BB ignores it. Certainly they haven't asked for those extra coins back nor threatened bans.

And goodness knows BB is well on record as saying that blocking wasn't intended.

So why exactly do some exploits get ignored and others allowed to continue, but this particular one generates a ban?