FAQ - AD/AH Exploit Follow-Up
Got questions about how we are handling the Astral Diamonds/Auction House exploit? We will be updating this thread with the answers to the most common questions about todays downtime, and what it means for the adventurers of Neverwinter.
Q: What happened?
A: Early Sunday morning a very small group of players discovered and abused a game exploit within the Neverwinter Open Beta that affected the Auction House and Astral Diamonds.
Q: What exactly has changed?
A: We took the Neverwinter OBT down for emergency maintenance, found the bug, corrected it and tested it. In order to fix the damage this exploit caused to the in-game economy, we implemented a necessary rollback of our servers to 5:20 AM PDT the morning of May 19, 2013. This means that characters have been reverted to the state they were in at that time, pre-exploit damage. That includes items, level, experience, etc.
We know that character progress matters in Neverwinter, so as an apology for the lost time and as profound thanks for your continued support throughout this Beta, we are putting together a package of items to give everyone. We plan to distribute this towards the middle or end of this coming week, possibly on Friday 5/24.
Q: What about ZEN I spent/transferred after 5:20 AM PDT?
A: You'll have any and all ZEN that you transferred to Neverwinter -- we tracked all transfers during that time and made sure players have the ZEN they should have. If you spent ZEN on items during that time, you'll need to re-buy the items, but you'll have all of that ZEN. No one will lose any money they spent on Neverwinter because of this fix. If you have any issue, please see the customer and billing support contacts below.
Q: I leveled up after 5:20 AM PDT -- what happens to that progress?
A: Unfortunately, in order to properly fix this exploit, that progress has, by necessity, been lost. We know how much that progress means to all Neverwinter players, though, so we're putting together a package to thank everyone for their support. We plan to distribute this towards the middle or end of this coming week, possibly on Friday 5/24.
Q: What about the ZEN I bought/sold after 5:20 AM PDT in the Astral Diamond Exchange?
A: All ZEN exchanged during this period will be returned to the original owners.
Q: What about my astral diamonds?
A: Any astral diamonds claimed from your bonus balance will be returned to your bonus balance, and will be available to be claimed again.
Q: What about respec tokens, or other consumables?
A: You'll have everything you had at 5:20 AM PDT. If you had the consumables before 5:20 AM PDT, you'll still have them; if you bought them with ZEN or gold that you had before 5:20 AM PDT, you'll still have that gold or ZEN.
Q: I have another question, where can I get answers?
A: Post it in this thread! We'll dig through to find common questions, and we'll edit this post to include them.
Q: But... I won the Armored Nightmare from a lockbox! I'll never get that lucky again!
A: We know how much that would sting. We are looking into ways we can make it better, but we don’t have an exact plan yet. Stay tuned and keep checking here for updates.
Q: I was working on a Foundry missing during that time – what happened to my design work?
A: We did not revert any changes in the Foundry, so your work is still there.
This bug existed for more than 7 hours. What are you doing about the fact that players took advantage of this before the rollback window?
We are performing additional log searches and investigations to ensure that the appropriate actions are taken against any accounts that performed the exploit before the rollback window. Exploits that were performed prior to our rollback window make up a fraction of a percent of total impact, so we will be dealing with those issues selectively as not to cause greater impact on those legitimate testers.
Celestial Coins were lost as a result of the downtime? What will be done about this?
We understand that this is a concern and we are aware of the feedback. Though we may not be able to provide replacement Celestial coins, we are certainly looking into it. As we cannot guarantee replacements, we are ensuring we shortly deliver a robust thank-you pack.