New exploit? Harvesting while invisible.

[gds]

I've noticed this recently in the last few days while harvesting various nodes in the Moors of Ykesha. I'll head up to a node and start to harvest but get the message that it is busy (ie; someone else is harvesting it) but yet I don't see anyone. My toons are between lvl 18-31 adventure (master crafters though) so it's unlikely I'll see a high level toon that is invisible. I've also noticed this with shinies where I get the message about a lottery already in progress for it.

I was under the impression that as soon as anyone started to harvest a node, the would loose their invisibility. It's a bit of a waste of my time to sneak past the mobs to get to the node to find that it's already being harvested by another. It makes me wonder if I can't see those harvesting while invis, would the mobs be able too (unless they can see through invis of course).

Well, I've bugged this since, so hopefully this exploit gets fixed soon.

[Spyderbite]

Calamoor@Everfrost wrote:

Well, I've bugged this since, so hopefully this exploit gets fixed soon.

Sounds more like a bug than an exploit to me anyways. So, good thing you did a /bug.

If you had a screenie of a scouts tracking window showing player names but nobody in site in wide open area I might be slighty suspicious.

[Jrral]

Other possibilities: a rendering glitch causing the other character to not have rendered for you (I've had characters take 20-30 seconds to render at times, and if they've harvesting tools it's possible they could harvest and be gone before your computer rendered them), the other character was behind you and not visible on your screen but within harvest range of the node (I've had people shadow me that way), or the other character had rendered below world level (I see this most often on zone-in, a character isn't visible but I can target them and when I pivot the camera to look straight down there's their name a mile straight down into the ground, but it's possible it could happen at other times).

[Playcrazy]

I've noticed this too in the moors. I've also run up to a node and could see a little bit of someones staff sticking up out of the ground next to it. Very odd I think.

[LygerT]

i agree with the rendering thing, sometimes it takes me a while to completely load into a new area even though i can move around and use things some NPCs and players won't show for a bit of time, especially in laggier zones like moors and guild halls.

[M0rticia]

I'm level 80 and my invis breaks when I harvest items. I don't believe that what you experienced is some kind of exploit.

Since the Moors are one giant zone instead of several smaller ones, there can be A LOT of lag. They really should have split the Moors into smaller sections like RoK, but that's another forum discussion. A lot of people have lag and rendering issues in the Moors. So that could be the reason you get the error.

It might also be some random bug that would go away if you camped and came back in-game. I have a friend that harvests quite a bit for all of his tradeskill characters. On occasion, he will harvest an item and the somehow gets 'stuck' in harvesting mode. He can run around and highlight nodes but when he tries to harvest them, he gets an error message about being 'busy'. If he camps to the character select screen and then re-enters the game, it goes away. I've had this happen myself a few times but not as often as he seems to get those errors.

I would /bug it and the next time it happens, camp to character select and then re-enter. It always helps my friend when he gets that weird error.

Good luck!

[wullailhuit]

Sometimes when I move into a new area I don't see players at all if they don't move after I move towards where they are , as soon as the character moves the server sends an update to their position and they appear.

Very strange when I'm asking someone where they are and they're saying 'right in front of you' in tells.

[Littlelove]

Sounds to me like someone already harvested it, but is still waiting to accept or deny it (still in lotto).  They may have already run off so you most likely will not be able to loot it, and not see them. 

[meaogre]

This happened to me several times tonight.  Mainly I harvest while doing daily quests to get a little bit of AA xp.  Anyways I ran into several nodes that said they were in use I turned around looking for another player.  There was none.

Was also in the moors near the second outpost past UJL.  Happened several times tonight while I was collecting swamp reeds to complete a quest.   (also there is a huge influx of rares on the market on my server as of late)

[zaneluke]

Ok couple things I have noticed while harvesting in the Moors.

#1- most of the nodes only have 1 pull left on them. #2 there are 3 farmers flying around on carpets nto getting agro from the crocs. They are all lev 70.

Do the math. But in usual fashion, soe will nto do anything for a long time.

[tantric]

Ohim@Kithicor wrote:

I've noticed this too in the moors. I've also run up to a node and could see a little bit of someones staff sticking up out of the ground next to it. Very odd I think.

Perhaps we have some folks that have found a crack in the layering and are harvesting from below the Visual plane

[Yimway]

Ohim@Kithicor wrote:

I've noticed this too in the moors. I've also run up to a node and could see a little bit of someones staff sticking up out of the ground next to it. Very odd I think.

This is a client hack and needs to be reported.

Be aware there are 2 client hacks that I'm aware of that cause this behavior.  One causes the toon to be rendered 5m below its actual position, allowing to essentially run under the world and click nodes aggro free.  The second is a warp hacked client that litterally warps the character directly below the nearest node to harvest it.

Both cases are exploiters and need to be /reported.  At one time these were common to spot in RoK zones and dungeons, I wouldn't be surprised if it is happening again with this expansion as well.

[Cele]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Ohim@Kithicor wrote:

I've noticed this too in the moors. I've also run up to a node and could see a little bit of someones staff sticking up out of the ground next to it. Very odd I think.

This is a client hack and needs to be reported.

Be aware there are 2 client hacks that I'm aware of that cause this behavior.  One causes the toon to be rendered 5m below its actual position, allowing to essentially run under the world and click nodes aggro free.  The second is a warp hacked client that litterally warps the character directly below the nearest node to harvest it.

Both cases are exploiters and need to be /reported.  At one time these were common to spot in RoK zones and dungeons, I wouldn't be surprised if it is happening again with this expansion as well.

How exactly would one go about reporting this, if it is indeed some sort of hack? You cant see the toon doing it. No one to /report /petition

I was in TS harvesting near RoV a week or so ago.  I watched den and shrub nodes in front of me pop, then de-pop in a period of less than five seconds. I assumed just a rendering thing, although I guess there could be yet anther new third party program out there that will ninja harvest.  /sigh

[Playcrazy]

Celena wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Ohim@Kithicor wrote:

I've noticed this too in the moors. I've also run up to a node and could see a little bit of someones staff sticking up out of the ground next to it. Very odd I think.

This is a client hack and needs to be reported.

Be aware there are 2 client hacks that I'm aware of that cause this behavior.  One causes the toon to be rendered 5m below its actual position, allowing to essentially run under the world and click nodes aggro free.  The second is a warp hacked client that litterally warps the character directly below the nearest node to harvest it.

Both cases are exploiters and need to be /reported.  At one time these were common to spot in RoK zones and dungeons, I wouldn't be surprised if it is happening again with this expansion as well.

How exactly would one go about reporting this, if it is indeed some sort of hack? You cant see the toon doing it. No one to /report /petition

I was in TS harvesting near RoV a week or so ago.  I watched den and shrub nodes in front of me pop, then de-pop in a period of less than five seconds. I assumed just a rendering thing, although I guess there could be yet anther new third party program out there that will ninja harvest.  /sigh

 I saw the staff sticking out of the ground thing again in the Moors three times. I'll try to get a screenshot, but I was busy trying to target it to get a name. I wan't able to.

[Zarador]

Not sure how this occurs, but on a few occations a family member will have to log out completely because we can't see them at all on our screen.  They are there, we can group with them, but the buffs are out of range and you can't see them at all. I can be looking at their screen and it shows them standing right next to me, yet on my screen I can't see them at all.  The only way I can target them is with the /Target Name command.

[Tenchisama]

observations

1) there is a new ability that gives you an extra harvest - perhaps some of the bot types or too sleepy types didnt realize that what they thought was 3 pulls was really 2 and a bountiful - end result a buncha 1 pull nodes

2) rendering time being slow has existed for years - I remember getting upset with some guy in sinking sands to find out later that his client connection sucked hardcore and in his uberlag he could not even see me at the node for a good 2 pulls - his client rendered the terrain fast enough but not me - took me a long time to believe this until I played from a friends house who has less than desireable internet and realized - wow if your connection sucks you can be a node pirate on total accident

I spent some time harvesting recently and must say that I run into far less farmers than before - I thank the stars that I dont see the peeps that have been complained about above.

[denmom]

Another possibility for the lack of pulls on a node is the Gathering Obsession quest for the harvester cloak.  What makes me think that is the comment of the players being L70, and you must be that level as adventure or crafter to gain the quest.

I know when I ran it twice on diff toons that when I finally harvested all I needed off a node, I'd run off to the next node I needed, forgetting to "finish" the node, ie: use it completely up.  I'd remember seconds later and then go back to the node only to see it's gone, either despawn or someone else finished the node instead.

I didn't finish the node all the time, just now and then when I would get frustrated over trying to find x number of a harvestable.  I was real bad on that with the dens and shrubs.  By the time I get to the last piece of meat or shrub, I was well and truly ready to just get the hell out and/or move on to the next elusive piece in the list.

[Gipper]

I bet it's the guildhall harvest bots,LOL.

[Yimway]

Celena wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

This is a client hack and needs to be reported.

Be aware there are 2 client hacks that I'm aware of that cause this behavior.  One causes the toon to be rendered 5m below its actual position, allowing to essentially run under the world and click nodes aggro free.  The second is a warp hacked client that litterally warps the character directly below the nearest node to harvest it.

Both cases are exploiters and need to be /reported.  At one time these were common to spot in RoK zones and dungeons, I wouldn't be surprised if it is happening again with this expansion as well.

How exactly would one go about reporting this, if it is indeed some sort of hack? You cant see the toon doing it. No one to /report /petition

I was in TS harvesting near RoV a week or so ago.  I watched den and shrub nodes in front of me pop, then de-pop in a period of less than five seconds. I assumed just a rendering thing, although I guess there could be yet anther new third party program out there that will ninja harvest.  /sigh

It required tracking to report.  You can see these toons popping in and out of your tracking list as nodes disapear.  You don't really need to report any specific evidence, just create a petition with the times and locations you observed what appeared to be a 'warp harvester'.  A GM will be able to stop them fairly quickly and take action as they have more tools in this reguard that we do.

For about the first 6 months these asian farmers using warp harvesters were warping above the ground and we all saw them much more frequently.  SoE didn't just magically make them all go away one day, they instead learned how to warp just under the world instead.

It was much easier to locate them and have more 'proof' when you were the only group in chardok or kp2 and watched nodes disapear while toons like Oqduadu dropped on and off track.

In regards to someone else's post.  There is a long known bug that causes models to disapear.  It has to do with moving objects like elevators.  Where is one member of your group uses the elevator at a different time than the rest of the group, they can no longer see that players model.  This is simply a client bug that has existed since launch.  You can quickly fix this buy going to options and toggling on and off any optional 'model'.  Just toggling an option on and off forces the client to update all player models in range and you'll suddenly see the person that went missing on that elevator ride.

Hope this information is useful.

[Cele]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

It required tracking to report.  You can see these toons popping in and out of your tracking list as nodes disapear.  You don't really need to report any specific evidence, just create a petition with the times and locations you observed what appeared to be a 'warp harvester'.  A GM will be able to stop them fairly quickly and take action as they have more tools in this reguard that we do.

For about the first 6 months these asian farmers using warp harvesters were warping above the ground and we all saw them much more frequently.  SoE didn't just magically make them all go away one day, they instead learned how to warp just under the world instead.

It was much easier to locate them and have more 'proof' when you were the only group in chardok or kp2 and watched nodes disapear while toons like Oqduadu dropped on and off track.

Oh wow, learn something new every day! UNDER the world? Jeez! People will do anything these days. I dont have a toon with tracking, so cant report, but I appreciate the education.

[gds]

Well, made some observations by studying the ore nodes near the grobb trail entrance and I could definitely hear someone using a pick axe on the ore nodes there.  But I sure couldn't see anyone harvesting it.   I tried to harvest it while I heard that pick sound and got the message the node was already busy being harvested.  So it appears there is a way to harvest nodes now while being invisible in some way.

I don't think it has anything to do with the bountiful harvest option (which I have maxed out) as posted earlier.  I wonder if anyone else encountering this invis harvest has chosen the bountiful harvest.  I hope this gets looked into soon.

[Seidhkona]

So, have the people who /petitioned on these had any response?

[Spyderbite]

Sigrdrifa@Lucan DLere wrote:

So, have the people who /petitioned on these had any response?

If it is a game mechanic its forwarded on to the developers to fix. If it is an exploit, there won't be an acknowledgement either.. to do so gives those responsible a head's up and an opportunity to change code/strategies to get around whatever blocks are put in place.

There's no reason a single player would be contacted with the status of a situation such as this.

[Qandor]

Wondering if this is the hack I have seen over the past few months where toons seem to be able to harvest nodes from huge distances. I have seen nodes being harvested from distances of 100 yards or more. This might appear to someone as the node being harvested by an  invisible player when in fact the toon is visible but just nowhere near to the node.

[meaogre]

found one of these people harvesting under the world tonight. by luck there were very few people in the zone at 4am and I used a  /target macro and did that for the 3 other people in the zone at the time.  low and behold I ran into one of these nodes that was already being harvested. used my macro and targeted said player.   (keeping that players name off here as its probly against the rules to post that here) I petitioned it and hopfully the GM does do somthing about it.

If there arnt many players in the zone and you cannot track you can do the same works great. the arrow that targets the player was halfway under the ground.  (the player was also anon you can probly narrow your /target macro that way most likly most people if not all people who do this are anon)

[Nighrbringer]

Qandor wrote:

Wondering if this is the hack I have seen over the past few months where toons seem to be able to harvest nodes from huge distances. I have seen nodes being harvested from distances of 100 yards or more. This might appear to someone as the node being harvested by an  invisible player when in fact the toon is visible but just nowhere near to the node.

I know that this is happening on Everfrost, and I know the name of the character doing it.

I started keeping track of who was in Frostfell last month when glowies started disappearing withing 30 seconds of spawning while I was watching. The same character was always standing just inside the zone entrance when this happened, he now has 300 gnome toes for sale (me and my wife spent a great amount of time in Frostfell, having fun skating, doing the tradeskill stuff, annoying people with fruitcake ect, he never once moved past the zone in.)

Since then, I have noticed him showing up in other zones pulling the same trick. I am currently in Enchanted Lands, where I was harvesting / questing when suddenly the entire zone is devoid of all glowies and all harvestables except shrubs. Sure enough, the same guy is sitting at the zone in. I was the only other person in the zone.

[Shandael]

It's definitely a hack. There's qute a few video's showing up on YouTube showing it in action. The teleport hack puts you under the ground, and with the combo speed hack also shown....put the two together....

I don't condone nor use such things. I've been in EQ2 since the beginning and want to remain with my friends and guildies. Just saying that it does exist and the proof is right there on YouTube.

[Peysel]

They don't just go under the world but in the sky too. They can go so far up they become smaller than a full stop .  I noticed last night that a node was in use just as I was about to click on it, then it was gone.  For a brief moment I saw someone appear ahead of me in the air, I had barely enough time to register the name before they were gone.

I used /target and the auto melee button to lock on them and found to my surprise they were high in the air above me, I spent about 10 mins or so watching them flit about in the sky at various heights, and they also went below ground a few times.  The player was a level 70 (down in the swamp) with no guild, lastname, rubbish treasured (and broken) gear with only the mining buff on.

It makes me think that they somehow managed to get hold of the GM ability of moving around. 

I did get screenies and did /petition /report and /feedback

[meaogre]

I found one of these people the other night petitioned it used /target to target them and havnt seen said person around firmoot/grobb area since.  However tonight there was a new person doing this. He was sometimes under the world and sometimes as last poster said was so high you could not see him most the time.

I could not inspect him However around 45 minutes latter I was afk at firmoot while in the kitchen came back to see this person at firmoot he was there for around 20 seconds before he disapeard out of thin air (not naming them here its probly against the rules) it was a lvl 24 rat wizard with fully broken gear stuff the vendor would turn down.

It would be nice if SOE had some way to instantly contact a GM (they used to have a chat server you could log into with a GM there pretty much 24/7)

Anyways I petitioned it However its probly the same person that just bought another account seeing as the character is only 24 in a 75+ area. the place was actually exploit free for a few days (that I noticed)

BTW if you run into one of those nodes that is already being harvested take a look at the people in the zone. the people doing this are anon 90++% of the time set up a /target macro and you will find them.

[Oh]

meaogre wrote:

I found one of these people the other night petitioned it used /target to target them and havnt seen said person around firmoot/grobb area since.  However tonight there was a new person doing this. He was sometimes under the world and sometimes as last poster said was so high you could not see him most the time.

I could not inspect him However around 45 minutes latter I was afk at firmoot while in the kitchen came back to see this person at firmoot he was there for around 20 seconds before he disapeard out of thin air (not naming them here its probly against the rules) it was a lvl 24 rat wizard with fully broken gear stuff the vendor would turn down.

It would be nice if SOE had some way to instantly contact a GM (they used to have a chat server you could log into with a GM there pretty much 24/7)

Anyways I petitioned it However its probly the same person that just bought another account seeing as the character is only 24 in a 75+ area. the place was actually exploit free for a few days (that I noticed)

BTW if you run into one of those nodes that is already being harvested take a look at the people in the zone. the people doing this are anon 90++% of the time set up a /target macro and you will find them.

Interesting, although just looking at their armorer and saying it's broken isn't a good reason. Anyways 2 days ago, well 2 mornings ago I ran into a node that was locked (yea I've been reading this thread so this exploit was atleast on the radar), did a who all of the zone had like 7 people in it (moors and yea it was early morning). did an /inspect_player of the 2 anonymous folks that were in the zone. Interestingly enough both were either totaly broken or 10%, although they were both roughly level 70 and 71. While that is fairly lowlevel for the zone, it's not impossible. The reason why I singled out the 2 folks that were anoymous, is I saw one in-front of me and they just "poofed" figured they used invso totem/spell so I was curious. They still could have used an invso totem completely in the realm of possiblities, they could have been hacking, again completely in the realm of possiblitiles. I hate game hackers, sigh no comment on some of the things I did when I was younger.