The Day the Wormhole Opened (photos/aftermath)

[Castle2.0]

Green - Oggok
Green - Cabalis
Green - Felwithe
Green - Qeynos Catacombs (no photos)
Blue - Oggok

Full circle. What does it mean?

[Castle2.0]

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[Castle2.0]

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[Castle2.0]

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[cd288]

Castle you did a great job being a positive contributor to the community for once. Thank you for the photos. The corpse pile in Oggok made me lol

[Jibartik]

god i love everquest

[Vormotus]

god i love everquest

Me too!

https://i.imgur.com/tMOuTxe.gif

[Castle2.0]

Castle you did a great job being a positive contributor to the community for once. Thank you for the photos. The corpse pile in Oggok made me lol

Thank you for your adulation, but it's not as if I opened the wormhole. The investigation continues!

[Bardp1999]

I don't play very often, what is this Oogok business? Everyone was teleported or some such nonsense?

[Jibartik]

Castle is able to travel from city city faster than anyone else using wormholes

another castle thing does better than us dammit!

[Castle2.0]

I don't play very often, what is this Oogok business? Everyone was teleported or some such nonsense?

Once upon a time quite recently, every character's login location was set to a single point in Oggok. Then it switched to other cities. Then the servers were closed for a day. Then it was fixed.

No official comment except the typical "coding" issue, and not a peep more.

Much rumor. Much swirl.

[Castle2.0]

Rumors still swirling

[goblinmob]

I can't really speculate what the implications would be.. like a GM or server test or something or someone maliciously fucked with the server?

[Edit] so this is where characters were upon logging in, what about dying or gating?

[Chortles Snortles]

that was a fun day in Oggok
(lol)

[zelld52]

They said it was a "random code bug"

random bug that followed suggestions from p99 discord. and then expertly placed the spawn point in the cleric guild in felwithe.

and then on blue it was right in front of the warrior GMs in oggok.

why did the GMs lie about it being a "random" bug

[Castle2.0]

Those are some tall accusations there.

But I do see your reasoning:

Felwithe is the most anti-evil city.

Oggok is an anti-good city that can be confusing for some people to try and exit.

And as you mentioned the specific locations. It's almost like a trap was being set.

Did the GMs get sick of endless petitions and say... "OK... it's time for PAIN!"?

[zelld52]

Those are some tall accusations there.

But I do see your reasoning:

Felwithe is the most anti-evil city.

Oggok is an anti-good city that can be confusing for some people to try and exit.

And as you mentioned the specific locations. It's almost like a trap was being set.

Yeah, too much went right about the spawn locations for it to be "random"

The locs were different in each zone. So it wasn't like players were being sent to 0,0,0 for instance.

And whoever was behind it corrected their location for Blue -- on Green the Oggok spawn was in front of the bank, a (relatively) safe location.

On Blue, the Oggok spawn was directly above the level 61 warrior GM who is KoS to all good races.

[Gustoo]

Please detail
More rumors and timelines. This is cool. I agree good job castle

was there really a discord thread with?? Who saying what? Before or after spawn spots went awry?

[Kich867]

Yeah, too much went right about the spawn locations for it to be "random"

The locs were different in each zone. So it wasn't like players were being sent to 0,0,0 for instance.

And whoever was behind it corrected their location for Blue -- on Green the Oggok spawn was in front of the bank, a (relatively) safe location.

On Blue, the Oggok spawn was directly above the level 61 warrior GM who is KoS to all good races.

My gut would say that there's only 2 reasonable explanations:

1. A disgruntled person with access to the database decided to troll people as a send-off for leaving the project.

2. Someone with access to the database didn't realize they were operating on the production database and was doing some pretty heinously irresponsible queries to test something.

It would've only been a "code bug" if they happened to deploy a patch right before this happened. If that happened, then yeah, very likely a bug. You can't have "random code bugs" without deploying new code. They would've said that though instead of explaining what it actually was because it's usually too painful to explain how software actually works to people, it's easier to just tuck it under a generalized umbrella term.

The locations are interesting, they all sound like locations new characters start in. It could've just been a bad query that set everyone's login position to a new character's start location when they're made instead of just that new character. It moved because people made new characters and it updated it again for everyone. They would be in convenient locations in cities because that's where new characters start? Do any classes spawn in front of the bank in Oggok?

I wasn't there, those would all be my guesses though.

[Toxigen]

preparation to recycle into blue

hope this helps

[Castle2.0]

My gut would say that there's only 2 reasonable explanations:

1. A disgruntled person with access to the database decided to troll people as a send-off for leaving the project.

2. Someone with access to the database didn't realize they were operating on the production database and was doing some pretty heinously irresponsible queries to test something.

It would've only been a "code bug" if they happened to deploy a patch right before this happened. If that happened, then yeah, very likely a bug. You can't have "random code bugs" without deploying new code. They would've said that though instead of explaining what it actually was because it's usually too painful to explain how software actually works to people, it's easier to just tuck it under a generalized umbrella term.

The locations are interesting, they all sound like locations new characters start in. It could've just been a bad query that set everyone's login position to a new character's start location when they're made instead of just that new character. It moved because people made new characters and it updated it again for everyone. They would be in convenient locations in cities because that's where new characters start? Do any classes spawn in front of the bank in Oggok?

I wasn't there, those would all be my guesses though.

Only 3 classes for Ogre. None start in front of Warrior GM or in front of banker.

[Chortles Snortles]

https://i.imgur.com/DHFfWXc.jpg

[Chortles Snortles]

https://i.imgur.com/86LHxCR.jpg

[Chortles Snortles]

https://i.imgur.com/xe2Af0z.jpg

[zelld52]

My gut would say that there's only 2 reasonable explanations:

1. A disgruntled person with access to the database decided to troll people as a send-off for leaving the project.

2. Someone with access to the database didn't realize they were operating on the production database and was doing some pretty heinously irresponsible queries to test something.

It would've only been a "code bug" if they happened to deploy a patch right before this happened. If that happened, then yeah, very likely a bug. You can't have "random code bugs" without deploying new code. They would've said that though instead of explaining what it actually was because it's usually too painful to explain how software actually works to people, it's easier to just tuck it under a generalized umbrella term.

The locations are interesting, they all sound like locations new characters start in. It could've just been a bad query that set everyone's login position to a new character's start location when they're made instead of just that new character. It moved because people made new characters and it updated it again for everyone. They would be in convenient locations in cities because that's where new characters start? Do any classes spawn in front of the bank in Oggok?

I wasn't there, those would all be my guesses though.

My guess is option #1.

Most telling by looking at forums / discord from the day- easily searchable for July 8th 2022

member saying “do somewhere classy like felwithe” and then the spawn point being changed to in front of felwithe cleric GM (no new player spawns here)

Then they suggested qeynos catacombs and wouldn’t ya know the next spot was qeynos catacombs.

Then they suggested cabilis and as luck would have it the next spqwn loc was cabilis

[Castle2.0]

Who would have access to the DB besides GMs? Would they even have access?

[Videri]

I met a player who liked to do bug testing on P99. He would find exploits, explore them, document them, and send the info to the P99 devs so they could fix it. He said one time when the devs went to fix one of the bugs he had uncovered, they accidentally created the Oggok wormhole. Further speculation is for the bored.

[mcoy]

For the love of the Prophets! It's the Celestial Temple, not the "wormhole"!

-Mcoy

[Castle2.0]

I met a player who liked to do bug testing on P99. He would find exploits, explore them, document them, and send the info to the P99 devs so they could fix it. He said one time when the devs went to fix one of the bugs he had uncovered, they accidentally created the Oggok wormhole. Further speculation is for the bored.

False

[Cen]

False

my dad who invented nintendo once let me work there for a day and I accidentally tripped on one of the computers there and that was the same time as oggok wormhole.. I dont think it was my fault but it sure was a coincidence.

[Ooloo]

As much of a huge clusterfuck that day was, I still applaud the staff for rectifying it very quickly and fairly.

I also agree it was almost certainly something intentional and malicious by somebody. Spawning in qeynos aqueducts just makes absolutely no sense without somebody specifically choosing that location.

Although on the other hand, if somebody had wanted to do it maliciously it would make more sense to just spawn everyone in plane of fear or something. Evil races aren't going to be impacted by spawning in oggok, other than just being inconvenienced for a bit.

[cd288]

Yes that’s why it wasn’t intentional

[Chortles Snortles]

intentional would be obvs hate fear, unless disgruntled theory was low iq or short on time b4 access revocation

[Castle2.0]

Maybe they didn't have DB access, but rather did it via some in-game mechanism.

If so, starting cities allows them to create new characters in the zones they target and do it immediately.

You need to be 46+ to get into planes. Who is risking their main toon for lolz?

My prediction:


One night, someone (probably incredibly talented, wealthy, smart, and handsome) was messing with memory offsets in the client and the X, Y, or Z offset is a float, but they sent an int 4 byte. Or maybe they sent a negative number or something outside of the acceptable range
Their client then told the server their location value was something impossible
When they exit out or camp there is some custom script to do auto-GMing to put them at a safe spot when they log back in
This script was poorly written and changed the login location for EVERYONE
Upon discovering this the following morning, our savvy chap laughed his butt off like never before
He began testing if it was their own doing by testing several different zones
Rogean logs on and has a friendly convo with him then proceeds to fix it
END


This theory could explain what happened and it was both not an inside job, but not a hack/attack, but at the same time it was a "coding error."

There only mistake was not doing the Arena :D

Any other theories?

[Chortles Snortles]

ok mulder

[zelld52]

intentional would be obvs hate fear, unless disgruntled theory was low iq or short on time b4 access revocation

No, because you need 46+ for those. In front of city GMs is actually perfect because everyone can get there, people can get there to safely spectate, and the GMs are level 61 and really fuckin tough.

[Twil]

There only mistake was not doing the Arena :D


Wish I would have logged on that day. And I agree that everyone popping up in a PVP arena would have been amazing.

[Uthgaard]

Those are some tall accusations there.

But I do see your reasoning:

Felwithe is the most anti-evil city.

Oggok is an anti-good city that can be confusing for some people to try and exit.

And as you mentioned the specific locations. It's almost like a trap was being set.

Did the GMs get sick of endless petitions and say... "OK... it's time for PAIN!"?

A GM would never use their admin tools to go out with a bang. ;) :p :cool:

[Zuranthium]

Wish I would have logged on that day. And I agree that everyone popping up in a PVP arena would have been amazing.

I doubt it would be amazing. People on PvE servers wouldn't fight each other there, they'd just walk out. Maybe some people with low resists could get owned by casters though.

[Castle2.0]

Lowbies woulda been insta-pwned if it was the Arena.

I still hold on to my conspiracy(?) theory it was an extremely smart, handsome, talented elf, probably a total stable genius as well with many achievements.

Agree with 'Gard, not a GM.

[Zuranthium]

Lowbies woulda been insta-pwned if it was the Arena.

If someone wanted to bother sitting around doing it. There's no reward for it.

Also, you should just say you created the wormhole.

[Castle2.0]

I will not give credence to these spurious accusations with an official statement on their validity.

The man that did this is obviously intelligent and handsome to a level I wish I could only dream *sigh*