Request to shut down Treasure Hunt for PC until exploits are fixed!

edited July 2009 in Game Support
Please shut down the portion of the site for the Treasure Hunt until you guys have fixed the exploits! It irks me that so many people getting ahead in unlocking prizes, even abusing the discounts from the exploits!

http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10959
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10756&page=10

Comments

  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited July 2009
    I agree 100%.
    Basically everyone can buy every game/season 50% off as often as he wants. This can't be good for our beloved TTG and was probably not intended.
    Further both threads should be deleted in order to stop spreading the information.
  • edited July 2009
    DjNDB wrote: »
    I agree 100%.
    Basically everyone can buy every game/season 50% off as often as he wants. This can't be good for our beloved TTG and was probably not intended.
    Further both threads should be deleted in order to stop spreading the information.

    Even though never having played the Treasure Hunt, I agree 100% and have to say it really can't be doing Telltale many favors. TBH 25% would proably be a lot more bearable for them...
  • edited July 2009
    I agree too. they should make it like every computer gets said prize instead of every account. Or at least make the code typing harder, like making a code chamber for wii owners making it only accesible by logging in on the wiiware version. that would work, because you would have the code legitimatly, that would work right? only one per computer and logging in on wiiware monkey island to get the prizes.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited July 2009
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    I agree too. they should make it like every computer gets said prize instead of every account.

    That's close to impossible. It could however be limited to accounts of people who bought the whole season, therefore excluding the possibly unlimited amount of demo users. Although i haven't checked whether it's that way anyway.
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    Or at least make the code typing harder, like making a code chamber for wii owners making it only accesible by logging in on the wiiware version.
    Assuming TTG expects every user to get every prize anyway, it would be enough to not enable the codes in advance, but when the map is out.
    People who brute force it, ruin it for themselves, but don't get any advantage.
  • edited July 2009
    DjNDB wrote: »
    That's close to impossible. It could however be limited to accounts of people who bought the whole season, therefore excluding the possibly unlimited amount of demo users. Although i haven't checked whether it's that way anyway.

    What I was thinking, is that they can IP ban which is like banning the computer from the website last I checked which was for constant spamming users who keep getting another account. I was wondering if they can use that IP banning thing to IP ban multiple entries of typing the code
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited July 2009
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    What I was thinking, is that they can IP ban which is like banning the computer from the website last I checked which was for constant spamming users who keep getting another account.

    IPs are worthless for preventing multiple accounts, because there are many ways to bypass IP blocking. Since the code entry is bound to an account anyway, it would be reasonable to limit the Treasure hunt to accounts of paying customers. That way the risk of exploitation would be minimal.
    Gman5852 wrote: »
    I was wondering if they can use that IP banning thing to IP ban multiple entries of typing the code

    Using the accounts to identify individual users would allow to limit the number of wrong entries to slow down brute forcing. As stated earlier i think that would be unnecessary, assuming the previously proposed condition.
  • edited July 2009
    The codes are working as intended. But they should not be working right now, when not all puzzlemaps are available.
    If you want to buy ToMI right now the best you can get from playing with the tiki is 5$ off. (since there are no single episodes and the 50% off a whole season is not useable with ToMI).
  • edited July 2009
    der_ketzer wrote: »
    The codes are working as intended. But they should not be working right now, when not all puzzlemaps are available.
    If you want to buy ToMI right now the best you can get from playing with the tiki is 5$ off. (since there are no single episodes and the 50% off a whole season is not useable with ToMI).

    All the maps are available on Wii.
  • edited July 2009
    Pale Man wrote: »
    All the maps are available on Wii.

    Now that's interesting.
    Then there is no mistake. Or are the maps and prices updated automatically on the wii via internet too?
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    Wii maps are set, they can't update from the web (rules we have to abide by). As for the exploits you are welcome to enjoy the fruits of their labor for now. Those are totally valid for the moment, but you may want to act fast (and tell your friends) in case we change our minds!
  • edited July 2009
    There you go. Listen to the man and enjoy your purchases. It seems to me that some people are just envious that they paid full price for a product, instead of getting it on a sale and they think they have the right to tell Telltale what to do and how to do their business.
  • edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    As for the exploits you are welcome to enjoy the fruits of their labor for now. Those are totally valid for the moment, but you may want to act fast (and tell your friends) in case we change our minds!
    Using the exploits unfortunately means that you cannot do the "real" treasure hunt later, as the maps get marked as "completed" in your account then, and there is neither a "reset" button, nor an option to replay one of the completed maps.

    So it's either "have the fun" (wait until the maps are officially released and play the treasure hunt) or "get the coupons" (cheat by playing around with the tiki) ??? - Not a very satisfying situation at all!!! :(

    Sorry, Telltale, but though the treasure hunt idea is really great, it seems that this had not been fully thought out. (And once again the PC gamers have to suffer because of some restrictions for the consoles...)
  • WillWill Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    I'm sorry but I'm not sure what the consoles have to do with any of this. And as for ruining the experience, you are still welcome to wait until the new maps come out and do it the old fashioned way. It's not like we are going to stop releasing maps because some people don't need them.
  • KevinKevin Telltale Alumni
    edited July 2009
    I'd like to reiterate that this is not an exploit! Some people have brute forced their way to the maps that are in the Wii version of the game, but those maps are in fact public information, and a few hours with the Wii version would get you all these codes. There is no exploit! We'll be turning on more maps as time goes on, so just because a code doesn't do anything today doesn't mean it won't do something interesting tomorrow! We've put the discounts, etc there for you to use, so have fun!

    PC Gamers aren't suffering at all! PC users will get to explore more maps (and win more stuff) as the season goes along!
  • edited July 2009
    You guys are so weird. Why on earth do you care? These people entering the codes early aren't taking anything away from you. You are all free to enter the codes whenever you like.

    Frankly, the Treasure Hunt game is pretty easy, and not very fun to begin with (not that I'm complaining), so I can see why some people don't want to bother with it.
  • edited July 2009
    Will wrote: »
    I'm sorry but I'm not sure what the consoles have to do with any of this.
    Simple: The only reason why you need that tiki to manually enter codes for the treasure hunt is obviously that the Wii does not allow to automatically submit the status to your website. So this is a compromise made for the Wii. - If there was no tiki, there would be no way to acidentally or intentionally "complete" maps you have never really played.
    Will wrote: »
    And as for ruining the experience, you are still welcome to wait until the new maps come out and do it the old fashioned way.
    It was you who stated:

    "Those are totally valid for the moment, but you may want to act fast (and tell your friends) in case we change our minds!"

    That might have been a joke, but some people believed it, unlocked the treasures and now complain that they cannot play the "real" treasure hunt any longer, as the game unfortunately does not allow to reset the maps or re-play any of the completed maps.
    Will wrote: »
    It's not like we are going to stop releasing maps because some people don't need them.
    So why don't you just release them now? - Or if you want us to have some discount codes, why don't you just openly publish some codes instead of asking us to "cheat" with the treasure hunt if we want to get them? - Or just disable the routine which reports completed games back to the game for a while. (Why does this need to be bi-directional anyway? I understand that the game needs to reports the status "map solved" to the Telltale account, but why does the Telltale account need to feed that information back to the game?)
  • edited July 2009
    Kevin wrote: »
    I'd like to reiterate that this is not an exploit! Some people have brute forced their way to the maps that are in the Wii version of the game, but those maps are in fact public information, and a few hours with the Wii version would get you all these codes. There is no exploit!
    So why didn't you simply use different codes for PC and Wii then? - I think nobody is complaining about getting "treasures for free". - Most people complain that "hacking" the Wii codes do not allow them to actually play the treasure hunt on the PC any longer, as the maps get set to "completed" and there is no way to reset or replay them.
  • edited July 2009
    I think that the codes should have been simple alphanumeric codes, more difficult to find out than the tiki-thing.
    Maybe the names of the tiki-gods, or the answers to some riddles, or something
  • edited July 2009
    Anyway, it's a fine solution from TTG to offer those who didn't brute force the prizes map 7 with the 50% off season code. Everyone wins.
  • edited July 2009
    I brute forced the codes just out of sheer scientific curiousity... I would really rather play the game than get any of the codes, I thought it was all avattars and stuff and I would be able to play them anyway...is there anyway at all to reset my account for this? i haven't used or copied any of the codes or even downloaded the avatars or wallpaper
This discussion has been closed.