You might think I made this story up, for sure I would think so. I can't prove it or at least I don't want to. Only MA can confirm it.
In this game, since I started playing it I was always an adventurous type. I enjoy exploring, experimenting. For this reason I many times tumbled onto a bug. Mostly it was useless and funny stuff. Until one day, about 2 years ago, my adventures turned into a shocking discovery.
I completely randomly discovered it is possible to create from every L amp an UL amp. First it happened at weapon amps. Of course I immediately thought on Limited mining amps, big mining amps and tried it with them as well. It worked. Not only it worked, they didn't even decay! I remembered about something I read, an UL OA-105, that was own by the all known squal. The value of his little toy was about 350k peds, if I remember correctly. And I could have an UL Non-decayable OA-109...also 108 and 107...and so on. I couldn't believe my own eyes. It was like wining the lottery.
For days I thought about what to do. Should I keep it to myself and get rich or immediately report this bug to MA. I was thinking about what might happen if a thing like this came into public, how it would affect the economy in the game, what kind of consequences might happen and so on. I even made some kind of calculation, in which I calculated, that if I would mine with the mentioned amp for 5-6 hours daily I would earn about 3000-5000 peds! Daily! I got scared.
Finally I decided to report the case on MA support. When the response came I was very surprised. They handed over my case to the design team (what a surprise) and after some time my case was closed. But the bug still existed. After that I made 2 more alerts to them for this bug and the potential danger of it. Not until then they requested for an exact procedure, a step by step guiding, how to produce this bug, how to create an UL AMP. After that they eliminated the bug, but it was easily to create it again after a little different procedure. I noticed MA about this too.
Some time has passed away and I was still able to actually use this bug. I said to myself: If it's not in their interest to eliminate this mistake and at the same time protect this game, it won't be in mine anymore. Otherwise, what can I do there? ...I left the thing as it was and tried to play as normal as I could, that means without using the bug. I mostly hunt. Once in a while, when I was really disappointed and angry about the bad hunting result, I admit, I helped myself with this bug to fill in the loss from the hunt. But I never ever abused it to fill in my pockets and so on.
After the VU10 release I was absolutely sure the bug was fixed because of the major change of the game. Well, the thing still worked.
Again I was standing in front of a huge decision. Should I use this bug to my benefit and buy for instance let's say LA? LA for free? ...it still sounds almost like a dream. Or after 3-4 failed support cases report the bug again to MA. I decided to do the same as before - to send another support case. Finally it happened. A few VU's back the bug has finally disappeared. The procedure which gave me the chance to have unlimited cash in EU has vanished.
Now I ask myself have I done the right thing. Would it be better if I kept my mouth shut and careless enjoyed playing my very best game ever? I don't know...
After 2 years of thinking what's right and what's wrong, my the most interesting adventure in EU has come to end with a reply from MA: "Thank you for trying to make Entropia Universe a better and fairer place to be."
Why have I shared my story with you? Simply for this reason because I would be very sorry it this story would remain silent.
Now I feel much better when I don't have to hold it in me anymore.
- Pozzo
EDIT: I will never give any clues about how the bug was used or created
EDIT2: this is not bug report thread - moderators moved it to this section ...I just wanted to share feelings and not to blame MA or anyone else and I'm not looking for any reward
