A serious post about duping
 

Before we begin I have no solid proof that the "DDOS" lag we are getting is in actuality a group of people duping items using crashed zones.

I also want to acknowledge that I am an inflammatory personality and most of my threads turn into a TMO V FE thread or whatever, this is something I would like to avoid.

To begin, Sirken admitted during my interview that the server has an unfixed dupe and he is closely monitoring it, I believe that there is another dupe out there and it involves crashing the zones to duplicate high end items.

The reasons I think this lag is a dupe are as follows.

1. A new RMT website has sprung up recently giving rock bottoms prices of plat(I won't link any RMT websites in this post but a simple google search can confirm)

2. A slew of very high end items have currently been put up for sale,
Example 1. http://www.project1999.org/forums/se...archid=2342871 Here is EIGHT AoNs being sold by Eight seperate sellers since the beginning of July
Example 2. http://www.project1999.org/forums/se...archid=2342874 Here are SIX Thex daggers sold in the same time period by different sellers, some are selling both Thex daggers and AoNs.
This does not include the high end items being auctioned in the tunnel as well as the influx of characters seen using AoNs as of late.

AoNs are specifically very rare items. Here is TMO's entire history of AoN on our website.
http://i.imgur.com/4PPRkmt.png
Everyone of those AoN's can be accounted for not a single one has hit the guild bank nor has anyone gone 24 hours with out being rewarded to a member of the guild.

Now multiple guilds have slain Cazic Thule and multiple guilds have collected AoNs over the years, IB comes to mind. Most of these AoNs can be accounted for on there respective players or sold over a year ago.

3. This is where you have to imagine with me a bit, Rogean* mentioned that the information being sent to the server that is causing the lag is instead of normal "junk" information that a DDOS uses is actually corrupted EVERQUEST information being shot into the server at a high rate. I am not a computer person whatsoever but this everquest information being sent may be some sort of program or exploit used to duplicate an item.

4. Lets return to the items being duplicated for a moment, Every auction for an AoN/Thex is looking for High end accounts and/or Large sums of platinum. This what I think they are doing.

If they duped Fungi tunics or Heiro Cloaks they could effectively stay under the radar as these items sell for a decent amount and are very common. The fact that they are some of the most expensive items in the game tells me that.
A.They can only do this for a limited time only and need to make as much plat as possible.
B.They know that the increased lag will draw the attention of the server/staff who will fix said exploit.
C. They are dumb

I think these people are very smart people and laundering these items who will in all probability being taken away by staff, In exchange for items they can sell quicker to the mass via RMT sites.

Selling an AoN for $500 i doubt many people would spend that but, turning it into 500k PP or an uber account then selling the plat piecemeal or the account at a "loss" seems like a better solution.

So in summery I don't think this is a TMO,FE,IB,whomever DDOSing the server because they are angry nor do I think the people who are doing this are in ANY of the top guilds. It's not because of anger it's not because of banned accounts(zipzop is part of this he was a distraction that we all ate up) This is money pure and simple.

This will not stop unless the exploit is fixed or if people wise up and stop buying platinum from these people.

Thank you all for reading.

*I think Rogean mentioned it in one of my chats but it may of been Sirken or someone else, I'll leave the asterisk there until I can confirm.

I just hope it gets sorted out sooner then later, it is slowly destroying this server. Players are just getting so annoyed over the increased lag.

Who are the morons buyings stuff? Seriously, you guys are the real issue. Stop it or go play another game where buying something makes sense, like Farmville.

would you mind posting some drop stats for crimson robes of allendine? seeing these in EC has been rarer than AoN's over the past year and at least 3 have popped up this week.

Why not just tell people if they buy a duped high end item they do so at their own risk..... (ie they'll be removed and no plat reimbursed) till the exploiters are stopped.

I stumbled across this dupe a few days ago by pure fluke, accidently duping an item 4 times.

I don't want to publicize it but lets just say I you're on the right track :P

you should probably contact an admin then you idiot fuck

I did but thanks for being a ignorant nerd.

For what it's worth, I agree with you.

This isn't a normal DOS. The server lag comes in spurts, and it's over in the matter of seconds. If what you say is true and what's being sent is valid EQ packets, then it's even more possible that duping is occurring. Why? Because that's all the game is. All there has to be is one set of packets that, when sent, say "loot item X". Or, "trade item X". Or, "Pick up item X". If any of these actions send the value of X from the client, you can tell the server all kinds of crap.

Is that the problem? God, I hope not. That would be easy to validate against the DB (very similar to programming against a SQL injection). There's also a chance that this is akin to a Buffer Overflow exploit, where someone is pushing all kinds of data at the server to overflow some counters to turn item X into item Y.

Anyway, my main point is that this is either a very weak attempt at a DOS, or it's directed in such a way that the dupes are the goal. A *real* DDOS wouldn't last for 5 minutes at a time. It'd take the entire server offline for a week(s). Like what happened 2 or 3 years ago.