In the sandbox MMORPG Ashes of Creation, an exploit has spread, allowing players to gain unfair advantages. The developers acted quickly and deleted over 100 characters. There was also a warning that is likely to shake up the players.
What was the exploit? In Ashes of Creation, an update introduced the ability to duplicate items. Since the game is still in development, only a few testers have access to the MMORPG. However, some of these testers shamelessly exploited the situation:
- With the exploit, they were able to duplicate materials and sell them for a lot of money.
- This allowed them to craft legendary gear which gave them advantages in the game.
- In addition, many resources for the nodes in the game, the so-called Nodes, were hoarded.
- Some testers reported the exploit instead of using it. But by then, the damage had already been done.
Since the team, as they say, works hard and fast, it didn’t take long for a response to the exploit. The developers have now taken strict measures to eliminate the exploit and its consequences. And the exploit users have been quite lucky.
Ashes of Creation can be found in the following trailer:
Developers of Ashes of Creation use everything related to the exploit
What are the consequences? The development team deleted all materials that resulted from the exploit. The legendary items crafted from such materials were also ruthlessly removed from the game.
In the nodes, emergency elections were even initiated because there were buildings constructed with duplicated supplies or the money generated from them. The players who exploited the exploit were the worst affected: Their characters were deleted without replacement. Over 100 characters were removed by the developers.
Those who came across the items produced by the exploit through trade or chance were lucky. These players only had the mentioned materials removed. However, those who made money from the exploit had their gold set to 0.
Why is there such a hard crackdown? Although the game is still in the development phase, the developers signal that they do not tolerate exploits. Creative Director Steven Sharif wrote in a message that he has warned multiple times in the past (via Reddit).
The deletion of over 100 players is meant to serve as a warning. He himself has been banned multiple times in games and thus knows best how it feels to lose one’s account. It is safer not to exploit the exploit but to report it to the developers instead.
Ashes of Creation relies on some innovative ideas. Those who do not know the game can get an overview of the sandbox MMORPG in the following article on MeinMMO: Ashes of Creation: Release, Roadmap, Alpha 2, Classes, Gameplay, Payment Model – all important information about the MMORPG by Steven Sharif
