Thanks for the response. The new changes are good.
ps pls increase arcane dust drops
Blood Thief Exploit Hotfix Explained
Blizzard chooses from multiple steps of action against exploiters of the bug
Blood Thief Hotfix and Account Actions
Blizzard used multiple levels of punishment for the players who exploited the Blood Thief Goblin bug, including rolling back certain accounts to the start of Season 3 or when Patch 2.2 landed. Community Manager Lylirra details the actions taken, and why.One side effect of the hotfix is that all Treasure Goblins now only drop items for players who were in range when the goblin was killed. This makes split farming a little less rewarding. The portals that occasionally come from killing a goblin, that leads to the Realm of Greed, are still accessible by anyone who was in the game when the goblin was killed.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
UPDATE – April 21 @ 6:05 p.m. PDT
While this issue is now resolved, we know a lot of players have questions about what happened and how we responded, so we wanted to take some time to discuss a few of the details with you here.
Following the launch of patch 2.2.0, players discovered an exploit that caused Blood Thief goblins to drop a larger number of Blood Shards than intended. The exploit could only occur in Greater Rifts when in a multiplayer group and required a specific sequence of steps to activate.
As soon as we were able to able to verify the exploit and identify its underlying cause, we immediately began working on a hotfix for PC. The hotfix was deployed in all gameplay regions on April 16, which made the following changes to the game:
For console, this particular change cannot be implemented via hotfix, so we've temporarily disabled all Blood Thief goblin spawns on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One until further notice (pending a future patch).
From there, taking the complexity and impact of the exploit into consideration, we also elected to action accounts on a case-by-case basis. In general, one of three things occurred:
All in all, this incident has shown us that the vast majority of players, upon encountering an in-game exploit, will not only put sportsmanship and fair play above personal gain, but will also work to bring the matter to our attention quickly via channels like hacks@blizzard.com, our online webform and ticket system, and these very forums. (We even received a few Twitter DMs, Skype messages, and personal emails too!) So, on behalf of the development team, I just want to say thank you to those of you who took the time to notify us, as well as apologize for any inconvenience caused a result.
As noted in our original post, maintaining an enjoyable and equitable play experience is very important to us, and we’re going to continue to monitor the game as well as take steps to prevent exploits like this from happening again.
While this issue is now resolved, we know a lot of players have questions about what happened and how we responded, so we wanted to take some time to discuss a few of the details with you here.
Following the launch of patch 2.2.0, players discovered an exploit that caused Blood Thief goblins to drop a larger number of Blood Shards than intended. The exploit could only occur in Greater Rifts when in a multiplayer group and required a specific sequence of steps to activate.
As soon as we were able to able to verify the exploit and identify its underlying cause, we immediately began working on a hotfix for PC. The hotfix was deployed in all gameplay regions on April 16, which made the following changes to the game:
- In order be eligible for experience or loot from any monster (including Treasure Goblins), you must do damage to it or be in the same area when it is killed
- If you are in a Greater Rift, you are no longer eligible for any experience or loot gained by party members outside of the rift
For console, this particular change cannot be implemented via hotfix, so we've temporarily disabled all Blood Thief goblin spawns on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One until further notice (pending a future patch).
From there, taking the complexity and impact of the exploit into consideration, we also elected to action accounts on a case-by-case basis. In general, one of three things occurred:
- Accounts which were found to have both used the exploit excessively and publicly promoted its use were permanently banned.
- Accounts which were found to have used the exploit excessively, but did not publicly promote it, were rolled back and their associated heroes removed from active Leaderboards (both Seasonal and non-Seasonal).
- Accounts which were found to have used the exploit to a limited degree (or quickly stopped once realizing the scope of what was happening) were effectively pardoned. We understand these situations can inspire a certain level of curiosity and that it may not always be immediately clear if you’re undermining intended game mechanics. Mistakes happen, but we hope this leniency won’t be taken for granted in the future.
All in all, this incident has shown us that the vast majority of players, upon encountering an in-game exploit, will not only put sportsmanship and fair play above personal gain, but will also work to bring the matter to our attention quickly via channels like hacks@blizzard.com, our online webform and ticket system, and these very forums. (We even received a few Twitter DMs, Skype messages, and personal emails too!) So, on behalf of the development team, I just want to say thank you to those of you who took the time to notify us, as well as apologize for any inconvenience caused a result.
As noted in our original post, maintaining an enjoyable and equitable play experience is very important to us, and we’re going to continue to monitor the game as well as take steps to prevent exploits like this from happening again.
Exploiters Misusing Account Rollbacks
Some players who were given actions on their account for exploiting the Blood Thief Goblins issue, decided to use the official Account Rollback system to try to get around the punishment. That was dealt with, as well. Reportedly those accounts were once again rolled back to the start of the Season or patch so their hero progress was deleted, and all three of their official rollback allowances were removed. It is really not worth trying to cheat, folks!
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
Thanks for the reports! Our Customer Support team is already investigating and will be taking action as needed.
Improvements to Crafting Resource Management
Grimiku took to the forums to discuss a year-old thread, where he had originally mentioned an idea that the developers had for changing all materials into currency-style user interface. That system wasn't implemented, but there have been gradual improvements through multiple patches, to make crafting materials and gems easier to pick up and store.
Post by Blizzard (Blue Tracker, Official Forum)
As some of you may have noticed, my original post about potential updates to crafting resource management was created over a year ago. A lot of changes relating to crafting, inventory management, and looting items in bulk have happened since then, and chances are there will be more changes that affect them in the future, too. At this time, we’re no longer planning to implement a currency-style storage system for crafting materials, and we don’t have any additional related updates to provide. That said, we do plan to continue to make improvements to these systems when it aligns with our design goals, and makes sense for us to do so.
As a refresher, here are some of the more recent changes that have improved on the crafting system and/or inventory management which are already in the game.
More info: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/18642492/
As a refresher, here are some of the more recent changes that have improved on the crafting system and/or inventory management which are already in the game.
- All normal Health Potions are now bottomless, and regular Health Potions no longer drop
- There is now a “vacuum pickup†system to make gathering large amounts of certain items (including gems and crafting materials) easier
- A Wardrobe has been added, which now manages cosmetic items like pets, wings, pennants, and portrait frames
- Players can now increase their Blood Shard cap by reaching new personal bests when playing in Solo Greater Rifts
- When crafting gems and items, the entire quantity will be crafted at once
More info: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/18642492/
