Bug Leaderboard exploit discussion

[trickracer]

Mike I just messaged you and support about my high score #1 on Big Shot and Space Shuttle (they are bogus).
Like it was mentioned above I won't let anyone know or post info on how to do it so don't ask

 

[Mayuh]

...I also doubt the current 14 million on space shuttle in the current tournament. Looks like the score is just a shy exploitation of the bug. Either that, or the player had the game of his life, as he doesn't even show up in the top100 at the regular tables score...

...I know it's hard to not exploit a bug you know of, but could you just quit it? Thanks!

 

[neglectoid]

terrorist

 

[xAzatothx]

Mike Reitmeyer : have you been able to replicate this issue? Can we expect a fix and reset of leaderboards at some point?

 

[MontanaFrank]

Bogus Space Shuttle Score is Mine

...I also doubt the current 14 million on space shuttle in the current tournament. Looks like the score is just a shy exploitation of the bug. Either that, or the player had the game of his life, as he doesn't even show up in the top100 at the regular tables score...

...I know it's hard to not exploit a bug you know of, but could you just quit it? Thanks!

My bad. I CLAIM FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR BOGUS SPACE SHUTTLE SCORE. It truly was an honest mistake. I am truly sorry. I was just checking something and it crossed posted to Space Shuttle. I wouldn't trust any score. I am tablet ignorant and don't know what I'm doing. I like you all and never would exploit TPA or this forum.

 

[Day]

aw shucks, you disappoint me Frank.... i thought you had gone and knocked the ball out of the park

 

[9u1d0]

Ok I now know how it works too. Indeed very easy to do. Works on IOS as well.
I now lost my interest in the current tournament.

Really frustrates me. Played a lot of hours the last week, had fun though. But knowing everyone can use this glitch and getting a higher score without all the effort is really frustrating.

 

[Luobo]

I think the fact that more and more people are coming forward who have discovered the bug makes my point stronger - knowledge of this bug is widespread and you can't trust ANY score.

 

[9u1d0]

I think the fact that more and more people are coming forward who have discovered the bug makes my point stronger - knowledge of this bug is widespread and you can't trust ANY score.

I totally agree with you.
FS need to reset all Leaderboards. Although it is unfair to all users that did not run into the bug and got scores just from playing.
Tournament ranking cannot be trusted at the moment either.

 

[Day]

I totally agree with you.
FS need to reset all Leaderboards.

i suspect i may be in a minority here however i voice strong opposition to a reset of the LBs. (here goes...)

By all means remove those scores that are clearly fraudulent by dint of fact they are well beyond all other scores for the table. And, yes i understand that a score earned on a table that uses a high currency value can readily be transferred to another that uses a much lower currency (if one happens to know the exploit);

Question (to those who are aware of the exploit): does the exploit affect all tables or only some? (i guess the question's irrelevant to the discussion. It happens. But maybe is relevant to FS if any investigation takes place into who's been cheating, and which tables are affected)

However many of us are unaware of the bug, and also have no inclination to use it either. what is the point of setting an absurdly high score for a table ? everyone clearly knows it to be fake? and it just makes the poster look like a dick. Ok, so some cheaters might be more subtle in their deception and might submit a score only marginally higher than honestly-attained scores. But so what ??? The dishonest score posted won't appear to be 'in question' and merely serves to incentivise other players to better it. A close-to-the-rest, dishonest score has little negative impact.

I'm sure the majority are completely unaware of the exploit less still would care to use to deceive others, and indeed ourselves also, even if we did know it.

I've put in many hours to get the honest scores i have on certain tables. i'd be very disappointed if they were to wiped out, and presumably also my HOF points? (i already lost my HOF points & local scores, 2-3 months back. i didn't play much for a couple of weeks thereafter, i was that distraught)

i have no intention of every playing Dr Dude again (it drives me mental)...i want my 43mil to stand ;-)
My Whitewater score, whilst not something i couldn't aspire to reach or better in future, is again a score from one of my far better that average games (Tip: despite what you've heard, beer doesn't actually enhance performance...but dark chocolate seems to...and is legal)

I'd have thought a fairer option would be to remove all scores on all tables where the score is quite clearly out-of-scope or for anyone found to have been dishonestly exploiting the bug and who has not come
forward to admit to their mistake (you're covered here Frank!). A ban also for that username posting any further scores to any tables until the bug is patched.

Once the bug is patched and the exploit removed, we don't need to worry about users banned from posting scores from re-registering with different user names, they'll have to work for their scores like the rest of us do.

thanks for reading
Day

 

[TomL]

I like seeing where my scores place with respect to the worldwide community's score, but playing offline means there no after game delay where the score is uploaded.

And personally, I'd rather see camera issues fixed before sc8reboard issues fixed.

 

[MontanaFrank]

i suspect i may be in a minority here however i voice strong opposition to a reset of the LBs. (here goes...)

By all means remove those scores that are clearly fraudulent by dint of fact they are well beyond all other scores for the table. And, yes i understand that a score earned on a table that uses a high currency value can readily be transferred to another that uses a much lower currency (if one happens to know the exploit);

Question (to those who are aware of the exploit): does the exploit affect all tables or only some? (i guess the question's irrelevant to the discussion. It happens. But maybe is relevant to FS if any investigation takes place into who's been cheating, and which tables are affected)

However many of us are unaware of the bug, and also have no inclination to use it either. what is the point of setting an absurdly high score for a table ? everyone clearly knows it to be fake? and it just makes the poster look like a dick. Ok, so some cheaters might be more subtle in their deception and might submit a score only marginally higher than honestly-attained scores. But so what ??? The dishonest score posted won't appear to be 'in question' and merely serves to incentivise other players to better it. A close-to-the-rest, dishonest score has little negative impact.

I'm sure the majority are completely unaware of the exploit less still would care to use to deceive others, and indeed ourselves also, even if we did know it.

I've put in many hours to get the honest scores i have on certain tables. i'd be very disappointed if they were to wiped out, and presumably also my HOF points? (i already lost my HOF points & local scores, 2-3 months back. i didn't play much for a couple of weeks thereafter, i was that distraught)

i have no intention of every playing Dr Dude again (it drives me mental)...i want my 43mil to stand ;-)
My Whitewater score, whilst not something i couldn't aspire to reach or better in future, is again a score from one of my far better that average games (Tip: despite what you've heard, beer doesn't actually enhance performance...but dark chocolate seems to...and is legal)

I'd have thought a fairer option would be to remove all scores on all tables where the score is quite clearly out-of-scope or for anyone found to have been dishonestly exploiting the bug and who has not come
forward to admit to their mistake (you're covered here Frank!). A ban also for that username posting any further scores to any tables until the bug is patched.

Once the bug is patched and the exploit removed, we don't need to worry about users banned from posting scores from re-registering with different user names, they'll have to work for their scores like the rest of us do.

thanks for reading
Day

Greetings Day and all you other forum fans,

Day, I really would hate to see you lose your 43 million score on Dr. Dude, that's a great score - my best is only 17 mil. After looking at the leader-boards for over an hour, after seeing your post, I think all the scores should be reset once the bug has been fixed. A person really has no idea where there score rates among the other scores. One person could manipulate the board to be the high score for the week and then after that the score would not rate the highest for the month and maybe not even be close to the top of the all-time leader-boards; however, that bogus score is in the record permanently. I am also pretty sure that some TPA players have inadvertently cross posted leader-boards without even knowing they did it. My Space Shuttle bogus tournament score could have just as easily registered in White Water and then I nor anyone else would know that I had sabotaged the tournament by my mistake.

Day, I can not answer your question whether this bug affects all games. My Space Shuttle score was an accident and being from Montana, my honesty and integrity, which I know is not being called to attention, is more important to me than how this bug really works. I would guess that it does affect every table in TPA.

I still feel dirty from the mistake I made. It just irks me that I interfered with a tournament. The members of this forum and their enjoyment is way more important to me than getting a high score. I don't know how anyone could find satisfaction in seeing there name as a high score and know it's a fake. I never need to be #1 at anything, but I do like knowing where I stand in any endeavor I partake in.

 

[Mayuh]

True...

 

[smbhax]

I haven't seen this problem with PS3 scores.

 

[xAzatothx]

I'd love all scoreboards to be wiped. At the end of the day, if your any good then you can repeat a similar score providing you have the time to invest.

My one big issue with wiping the score boards following this fix...................... what about all the other scoreboard hacks that are out there? Until the code is tightened up it's a pretty futile exercise.

 

[ER777]

I totally agree with you.
FS need to reset all Leaderboards. Although it is unfair to all users that did not run into the bug and got scores just from playing.
Tournament ranking cannot be trusted at the moment either.

I would make one correction to that statement. They should only reset scores coming from platforms able to produce the glitch, in other words only mobile platforms. There's no reason to penalize the console players for a problem that is limited to mobile devices, and I second this statement:

I haven't seen this problem with PS3 scores.

 

[Frostyglitch]

Unfortunately scoring bugs are not limited to the mobile platform by any stretch. With a bit of searching on Youtube you'll find PS3 videos with people finding score bugs for nearly all the tables. So far from what I've seen tonight, thankfully these seem like bugs they stumbled upon and not hacks. Also, all the cases I seen were not situations that could be exploited or repeated to help others cheat.

 

[ER777]

I don't think those kind of scoring bugs are really the same though. Those only happen once in a while and my gain a player some extra points, but usually not to the point where its a truly out of place score. Even if a few instances do lead to a huge score its still at least in line with that table's scoring system and is not bound to happen again often.

The bugs that lead to scores going to the wrong table's leaderboard really mess up the whole board. Not only do you have a few completely broken scores at the top but you have a decent percentage of bogus scores throughout the board, to the point where your position is meaningless. Its not like you're just a couple spots lower than you should be.

Just look at the top several hundred (thousands?) spots on the Black Hole leaderboard, which are obviously scores coming from other tables and are all from mobile platforms. That may have been a different glitch than this one but its the same outcome - useless leaderboard.

 

[9u1d0]

I ma not sure the glitch only affects the online leaderboards or also the device's high scores.
If the device's high scores are still intact FS should be able to wipe the leaderboards and fill them initially with all the device's high scores.
If that's not possible we need to start playing again with only fair scores.

 

[9u1d0]

Unfortunately scoring bugs are not limited to the mobile platform by any stretch. With a bit of searching on Youtube you'll find PS3 videos with people finding score bugs for nearly all the tables. So far from what I've seen tonight, thankfully these seem like bugs they stumbled upon and not hacks. Also, all the cases I seen were not situations that could be exploited or repeated to help others cheat.

So if several bugs are on Youtube, why can't we post the bug here?
In my opinion
- the current tournament must be stopped.
- Score bugs fixed.
- Leaderboard resets.
- (Fix camera and game ending bugs)
- Start a new tournament