Community Update: Engineer Exploit Action Taken
Hello CMDRs,
We would like to provide the community with an update regarding the recently highlighted Engineers exploit, which allowed high-grade blueprints to be rolled with low-grade materials. This exploit was removed from the game earlier this month.
This morning, during the standard Thursday update, we took action against a number of accounts which had deliberately used this exploit to gain an advantage in their Engineer rolls. The purpose of this was to not only address those players who had regrettably chosen to take advantage of this exploit, but also the significant unfair advantage gained over other users who had chosen not to do so.
While we don’t publicly discuss account specific bans and actions, we wanted to give everyone as much clarity on the broader steps being taken in light of this exploit. As a result, on each identified accounts, the following action has been taken:
- All Engineer modifications which match IDs with a blueprint used in illegitimate rolls have been removed. The module will be retained, but will no longer hold a modification.
- This action has been performed on all owned ships, and all modules held in storage.
- No reimbursement of materials spent on the removed modifications will be granted.
- Users affected by this change will have received a notification and warning through their in-game inbox.
- All modifications have been removed which match the identified blueprint IDs only. This may include modifications of the same blueprint ID earned through standard rolls, but due to the nature of this exploit, we consider this outcome acceptable. Modifications of unrelated blueprints will not be affected.
(For example: A player has two ships with a Grade 5 FSD Increased Range modification and one ship with a Grade 5 FSD Shielded modification. The player used the exploit to gain the FSD Increased Range modification on one ship, but that modification will be removed from both FSD Increased Range ships. The FSD Shielded modification will remain untouched on the third ship.)
The specific part of the Code of Conduct this relates to can be found here:
No cheating or taking advantage of exploits in the game
1. We do not tolerate cheating of any kind in the game, this includes using automated programs or services offered outside of the game to generate an advantage, altering game code or using cheat codes.
2. We also do not tolerate the use of any exploits or the use of any possible bugs in the game to generate player advantage.
3. Any player caught cheating or taking advantage of any exploits or bugs will be penalised and could face a game ban.
We would also like to direct users to our Knowledge Base page regarding action taken against an account if those affected have any questions.
In summary, we would like to remind everyone that while this is not the only instance of an advantage being discovered by manipulating the game client, it is one which resulted in a physical and significant advantage over other CMDRs. We felt it necessary to take this action and will do so again in future if circumstances demand it. As such, we encourage users who believe they have found a client exploit to contact us with as much information as possible, so we can investigate further. Thank you for your patience during this period.
Regards,
Your Frontier Support Team
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