Sega begins to stop duping, BUT...

[TheHangedMan]

Ok, as of today, it seems there's some new code on the server. While I don't know specifically what they're doing, it seems as if they're checking the time of your game to see if it's newer than when you last left. So if you go back to a backup save, the server sees that it has less time or whatever than when it last saw you. Then it can "fix" your save which it says there's a problem with. The fix is it deletes everything you had. Yep, everything. All of your items.

While I understand Sega is trying to stop the people from copying items, you can't say "ha, stupid duper, he lost all his stuff, good." Because I've already seen innocent people who didn't do anything wrong lose things because of the game's poor save system, then try to go to a backup save, causing them to lose everything they had. I have one friend who lost everything, then after that it said his save was corrupted, and he even lost his character. Which would be ok if he could go to the backup save he had. But he can't do that anymore. And I know a friend of a friend who also lost all his items for the same reason.

Good for Sega for trying to stop people from copying stuff. Go Sega. (Sarcasm there, if you couldn't tell.) If they're going to fix it so that people can't cheat, good for them. But if they're going to do it at the cost of screwing over people who did nothing wrong, then they should seriously reconsider their anti-cheat methods. And remember, none of you will be able to back up your characters either. So I hope you're not too attached to them.

[Socrates]

"And remember, none of you will be able to back up your characters either."

Well, if it works the way you say it does, it won't prevent people from backing up their character; they just have to be more careful about it.

For example, at 85 hours, you make a save/backup. At 90 hours, you get the ol' BSOD, and scramble your character. So you revert to your 85-hour backup. You just have to make sure to log as many hours offline as to get it up to/beyond the point where the server last saw you (90). Annoying, yes, but hardly the final word.

Incidently, this unfortunately seems to provide the loophole for Dupers to avoid the server 'corrections'....?

[Ambrai]

I am going to test this with a backup right now, will get back to you shortly with the result. If so I might quit.

[Ambrai]

Its true, I stress for you all to call 1-800-USA-SEGA and protest this!!

Now I cannot log on til they remove this or never or I will lose everything.

[Ambrai]

Its true, I stress for you all to call 1-800-USA-SEGA and protest this!!

Now I cannot log on til they remove this or never or I will lose everything.

[Buliwyf]

ambrai, shuddup u stupid cheating wanker. HA HAH too bad

[TheHangedMan]

Yes, it COULD work if you racked up the hours on the backup file, but let's be realistic here... Even if it does work, you could be offline for days or a week before you were able to even attempt to get online again, and who knows if that even works? Nobody backs up their save every few hours, and I'm guessing nobody even backs up their save daily. IF it worked, you would at the very least be likely to be offline for quite some time.

[Xria]

I have a level 100 humar and a level 65 force, and In all my times of play, I have been bsod about 10 times, disconnected dozens of times, and even had my dc power shut off, but never have I lost anything other than some worthless weapons. If you pull your modem cord during a black screen then it will save your game. There will be VERY few people who suffer character erases, and its mostly because these people don't know to pull their modem.

I think stopping duping is worth a few character erases. I wouldn't mind losing a character as long as the duping stopped.

[TheHangedMan]

I have a level 100 humar and a level 65 force, and In all my times of play, I have been bsod about 10 times, disconnected dozens of times, and even had my dc power shut off, but never have I lost anything other than some worthless weapons. If you pull your modem cord during a black screen then it will save your game. There will be VERY few people who suffer character erases, and its mostly because these people don't know to pull their modem.

I think stopping duping is worth a few character erases. I wouldn't mind losing a character as long as the duping stopped.


You're one of the lucky ones then. I myself have lost items more than once, and I would say that you've got at least a 75% chance of losing items if the power goes off or the DC freezes up or is reset. Most of my friends have also lost items at least once, and they all know to pull the cord and disconnect when they get a bsod. Just doing that doesn't guarantee that you won't lose anything. So you can say that they don't know what they're doing, but the fact is, they do, and so do I, and we've all still lost at least something, while you were one of the lucky few who didn't.

I don't think that most people will completely lose their character. But some will have the bad luck to have that happen, regardless of whether or not they knew what they were doing. While you may willingly give up a character, I'd prefer to keep a character that I've spent close to 400 hours on, even if it means some newbie is walking around with a holy ray while an Opa Opa is flying behind them.

[Rei]

Damn IGN just added dupe's trick in their code page.....

[Glider]

Personally I'm glad they did it. I don't know why everyone has been complaing about the BSOD. I've had it 3 times now, and everytime I un plug my phone cord I get the auto disconnect in less then 30 secs. The only way I could see you would lose items is if the power went out. Unless you live in California, the power only really goes out in storms(unless some trainee screws up), and why would you play in a storm if you were worried about power outages? As long as you play it safe, you won't lose your character or items.

[DiscoInferno]

This was soooooo bound to happen, and there really isn't anything we can do about it. The blame here should not fall on the hackers/dupers/cheaters, but on Sega for not taking the precaution to prevent this from happening. The GameShark and other similar units have been around forever, and they had to know that it would only be a matter of time until their game was "hacked". Sega has plans to be a multi-platform gaming arena, and if they can't figure out a way to stop cheating without hurting their paying, non-cheating customers...this isn't gonna happen! As for these new server configurations...someone will find a way around these as well.

[segagameplay]

Bows and says thank you all very much!

[Nordramor]

In almost 160 hours of playing, I have had my Dreamcast freeze once and reboot once while going through the loading screens of PSO. Both resulted in the loss of all my non-equipped items and meseta. Both of these occured before level 50. I now play with my Dreamcast upside-down and I haven't had another lockup in around 100 hours of playing.

I got the BSOD once, I simply unplugged the modem, and it recoverd and saved one minute later, no loss.

Yesterday I played online with a level 48 RAcast who didn't even know what a rare MAG was, much less that he had an Opa Opa rare MAG. He didn't even know that the Spread Needle someone had given him for free is the best weapon in the game. It was pathetic. It is incredibly boring to get into a V-Hard game where everyone has Soniti mags / Spread Needles / Twin Brands / S-Beat Blades. Short of playing in password protected games with only my personal friends (which I don't have any that play PSO, so scratch that idea), there is no reason to even include an 'online' portion to the game if cheating is this rampant. There is no teamwork or fun involved in "Everyone bring their Spread Needles and clear out the room in 2 volleys". My 98 FOnewman literally has to run to keep up just to get off a RaZonde to get any experience before everything is dead.

I would give up every piece of equipment on my character, even my sole legit Double Saber, my God units, and my carefully planned level 200 Bana mag, just to get rid off all the idiotic dupers online. If I loose my stuff, no biggie, it will be fun getting it back with honest players.

Nordramor
Nordy!
(usually on Ship 16, Block 9)

[segagameplay]

Whine whine whine...
First you want know duppers... We do that...
now you bitch becuse we did...
Theres no making some people happy!
By all means call 1800 usa sega and complain.

[Socrates]

Um, just curious here, but in exactly what capacity do you work for SEGA? Unless you work on the IT or management teams, you're using the royal "we" fairly loosely here... http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

[Xria]

Nord I've been saying the same thing for a couple of days now, but there are very very few people who see it that way, because in reality most of them are dupers.

He listed one excellent example of why duping has ruined the game: the spread needle is a not weapon that was meant to be in EVERYONE'S hands. Its just too powerful for a party of 4 to go tearing around a level with spread needles. Its obvious this gun was meant to land in the hands of only the very lucky few who would find them, but thanks to the miracles of duping, its more common than double sabers.

(and there is nothing wrong with a level 20 character having a really good weapon, as long as he found it himself or his really good friend sacrificed his weapon by giving it to this level 20 player.)

I guess it doesn't matter now, they duping might slow down but the damage is still done. there are already 10000000000 spread needles in circulation.

[Vanse]

am I the only one who thinks "segagameplay" is full of sh..?
anyway, you are saying the character loses all of his items right? but the character remains? so therefore you can backup, but your character will be naked? it's not that bad... but it is rather lame http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_eek.gif