What are exploits

[zzKratoszz]

So this is something I have thought about making for awhile now. My definition of an exploit is something like this. An exploit can only be defined as an exploit if a developer says it is an exploit. I assume there is plenty of things in the game that meet my definition. But without a source I can only call them "cheaty".

I am hoping I can accomplish 1 of 2 things here. The first one is to be told I am blind and this already exists. Or second, to create a place we can ask devs what an exploit is. If a dev was to be so kind as to either answer questions here or somewhere more official, that would be amazing. I know a lot of people who would love to know some of these grey areas. Of course I am open to the public's opinions as well. 

I'm not asking for every single possible combination of items to have an answer, but a place the devs can casually answer questions and talk to the community. Or maybe there is already a list that can help enlighten my self and others that can be linked here. Thanks in advance.

[soggynachos]

[insertjokeaboutWX78here]

in all honesty though, I'd like something like this.

[Donax]

An exploit is the use of an abnormal behavior of something to ease the game. Basically it's the use of a glitch. Using a lot items/behaviors for the purpose they have been created for is not an exploit.

Examples:

- burning backpacks and cooling them to be able to put them in our inventory --> exploit because backpacks are not supposed to be put in the inventory.

- using walking cane+coffee+ironwind+... to go faster --> NOT an exploit, all the items are used for what they have be designed to do.

edit:

- bringing a doydoy to the volcano and kill it to spawn krampus --> NOT an exploit. You can transport a doydoy anywhere you want since they have been created so you can pick them when they sleep. And Krampus spawns automatically if you kill a doydoy when they are only 1 or 2 left in the region you are (world/volcano/RoG/Cave). No glitch is involved here --> not an exploit.

[stl1234]

Quote

In video games, an exploit is the use of a bug or glitches, game system, rates, hit boxes, or speed, etc. by a player to their advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers.^[1] Exploits have been classified as a form of cheating; however, the precise determination of what is or is not considered an exploit can be controversial. This debate stems from a number of factors but typically involves the argument that the issues are part of the game and require no changes or external programs to take advantage of them.^[2]

Basically this (From Wikipedia). The above can be simplified as gaining advantage in a way not intended by the developers. It does not have to a bug or a glitch, it can also be using perfectly legitimate methods in a way that isn't intended. The intention of the developers may not always be clear to the players, especially in an early access state, where things are missing or buggy. When players are speculating, the "common sense" is usually in play, and ironically there isn't a lot common between what people consider common sense (So this thread is likely going to derail).

Let's look at the examples above:

1 hour ago, Donax said:

burning backpacks and cooling them to be able to put them in our inventory

There is no magic mechanism involving fires and extinguishers anywhere else, and this gives a player significant advantage. Therefore this is likely an exploit using a bug in the game. Most people would agree this is an exploit.

1 hour ago, Donax said:

using walking cane+coffee+ironwind+... to go faster

Perfectly within the game rules and implementation. But it may still be an exploit, depending on what the developers intended to do. Are you supposed to be able to go that fast? Maybe, maybe not. Future patches may limit the max speed somehow, or make multiple items interact with each other differently to remove this. My common sense says since the max speed (or anything close) is rather difficult to achieve, it would be left in the game as a reward for players who made it that far. Most people would agree that this is not an exploit.

1 hour ago, Donax said:

bringing a doydoy to the volcano and kill it to spawn krampus

Perfectly within the game rules and implementation. But it may still be an exploit. Did the developers want to have distinction between volcano and the outside world when deciding how to penalize player's killing the last doydoy? My common sense tells me that the intention of the Krampus event was about causing an extinction, which is very naughty. If there are enough doydoys in the world to be able to repopulate, the action is less naughty. So, I consider this an exploit. People would argue on this ad nauseam, until the behavior is changed or clarified by the developers. "Prime ape civil war" is another example of this kind.

Developers typically will not give a guideline on what an exploit is or is not for various reasons (or otherwise make broad comments about anything), mostly because they are situational.  

[Hugeisno1]

2 hours ago, Donax said:

 

- using walking cane+coffee+ironwind+... to go faster --> NOT an exploit, all the items are used for what they have be designed to do.

Would a Sleek Hat add to this?

[Donax]

6 minutes ago, stl1234 said:

Perfectly within the game rules and implementation. But it may still be an exploit, depending on what the developers intended to do. Are you supposed to be able to go that fast? Maybe, maybe not. Future patches may limit the max speed somehow, or make multiple items interact with each other differently to remove this. My common sense says since the max speed (or anything close) is rather difficult to achieve, it would be left in the game as a reward for players who made it that far. Most people would agree that this is not an exploit.

Perfectly within the game rules and implementation. But it may still be an exploit. Did the developers want to have distinction between volcano and the outside world when deciding how to penalize player's killing the last doydoy? My common sense tells me that the intention of the Krampus event was about causing an extinction, which is very naughty. If there are enough doydoys in the world to be able to repopulate, the action is less naughty. So, I consider this an exploit. People would argue on this ad nauseam, until the behavior is changed or clarified by the developers. "Prime ape civil war" is another example of this kind. 

You consider in the first case that since it's rather difficult to achieve it's acceptable and thus not an exploit. 

In the other case, you consider that since there are plenty of doydoys out there in the world it's less naughty and so, you consider it to be an exploit. Don't you think that, on the contrary, it's even more naughty if you capture and bring a doydoy with the only objective to sacrifice it ? Also all it does it takes quite some effort to bring a doydoy to spawn krampus, not only it requires time to travel but also you have either to wait for it to sleep or put it to sleep and also there are maximum 20 doydoys total which mean you cannot repeat the process very quickly. 

At the end it feels like a personal appreciation but you have to stick to some rules to define things. If you consider that it's hard to do in the first case, why not in the second ?

If game mechanics can be exploited as well, I think that the advantages of using them must be "game breaking" to consider them an exploit. Having a way to spawn krampus is not game breaking by itself, you can also do that in RoG by killing Glommer. However, using the fact that Glommer keeps spawning as long as moon is full to kill it in order to spawn multiple krampuses, THAT is an exploit.

[Hugeisno1]

2 hours ago, Donax said:

 bringing a doydoy to the volcano and kill it to spawn krampus --> NOT an exploit. You can transport a doydoy anywhere you want since they have been created so you can pick them when they sleep. And Krampus spawns automatically if you kill a doydoy when they are only 1 or 2 left in the region you are (world/volcano/RoG/Cave). No glitch is involved here --> not an exploit.

So you could have more than 20 doydoys if you started another colony in the caves?

[Donax]

1 minute ago, Hugeisno1 said:

Would a Sleek Hat add to this?

yes, same with overcharge of WX78
 

Just now, Hugeisno1 said:

So you could have more than 20 doydoys if you started another colony in the caves?

Yes, I think you can bring them to the volcano, RoG and the caves.

[stl1234]

24 minutes ago, Donax said:

You consider in the first case that since it's rather difficult to achieve it's acceptable and thus not an exploit. 

No. I guess I didn't explain it very well. I don't think this is an exploit, because my understanding of the developers' intention does not conflict with the behavior of the game. The developers' intention may still be different.

27 minutes ago, Donax said:

In the other case, you consider that since there are plenty of doydoys out there in the world it's less naughty and so, you consider it to be an exploit

No, this isn't exactly what I've said, and the distinction is important. My understanding of the developers' intention is that they consider bringing an endangered animal closer to extinction (or making them extinct) is naughty. Which makes sense with the game behavior that the naughtiness gain is inversely proportional to number of remaining doydoys, which maxes out when you make them extinct by killing one of the last 2 doydoys, or killing the last one (as you are basically killing a last alive member of an entire species). Therefore, following this logic, killing the only doydoy in a volcano while there are more outside is not making the species extinct, therefore does not warrant the maximum naughtiness. This is no different than killing the last doydoy on an island, while other islands have enough doydoys to reproduce.

To clarify, neither has anything to do with the difficulty. The only rule is the developer intention, on which we can only speculate.

Anyway, as I've said:

1 hour ago, stl1234 said:

So this thread is likely going to derail

And

1 hour ago, stl1234 said:

People would argue on this ad nauseam

So, this is my last post on this subject.