feelings of the community towards exploitation

This thread is to discuss the feelings of the community towards exploitation and how it is handled by the game masters and Star Vault as a whole.  The goal is to create a singular thread and place of feedback to get the communities voice heard by Starvault.  The v in the title represents the times I have recreated this thread due to moderators deleting it.

How do you as a player feel about exploitation in the game?  Do you feel as though it is punished as it should be?  Do you feel there is too much of it?

Please, when responding, do not use any actual or theoretical situations.  This is about how exploiting is dealt with, not about exploiting in the game or exploiters.  I would also ask that all trolling be taken somewhere else, as this thread seeks serious change in the game development.  No poll is included to get actual reasons in the responses.  The developers need to understand that the players see the situation and state of the game and are not happy with it.

To Moderators:  I will not see this thread deleted again under absolutely no pretense or warning.  If you find a post you don't like in the thread, delete [B]it[/B], not the thread.  I am not responsible for every other member, it is your job to keep them in line.  As it stands, nothing I have said or plan to say is against the rules.  This thread is purely to discuss and encourage change in the development of the game and the punishment of exploiters as the community sees fit.

This post was originally created as a comment on a thread which dealt with the communities feelings on exploitation and the punishment they feel is in place.  The thread was wrongly deleted, and thus I am posting it in the OP's absence.

Here is my comment from the original post:

[QUOTE=Electrum]Trying not to get things out of hand, I was told by Discord personally that all stacks of Oghmium over 5000 were deleted regularly.  This was something I knew to be a lie (since I had and have seen stacks over that untouched) and something that didn't make sense.  They would delete your Oghmium just because you have a lot of it?  And the guilds who farm it fairly?

What I shortly found out, in this same conversation, was that the statement was not only a lie and illogical, but it had no basis.  I came to Discord originally to report a case of duplicated Oghmium (About 16,000) that was held by a guild who never set foot in Gaul Khor and never bought it or traded.  In fact, this sum was largely impossible to gather with the time the guild has spent in game and the size of it.  In anycase, Discord [B]refused[/B] to do anything about it stating that the logs are complicated and there was no proof.  I then asked him why Oghmium stacks like this were not deleted with his previous lie of a statement.  He came up with another, the database is big, sometimes it must miss things.

First, anyone who knows anything about computers or databases, a search cannot miss something unless the data is not gathered.  If the Oghmium is in game, though, there is a record of it.  That suggests that their database is a worthless pile of scrap programming or it does not exist, or more likely, Discord simply does not look in it at all.

After that, I talked to Discord about favoritism and another claim he made, that all duplicated material is deleted.  Anyone who knows Vlad (I am [B]not[/B] claiming he duped, just that at one time he has held duped materials) knows that this isn't the case.  You can be sure that Discord knows about all of Vlad's materials and wealth, but does nothing about it, despite Vlad's candid admission that it is from a duper, and that Discord let him keep it.

Furthermore, every case I have present video evidence of speed hacker, flag exploiting, ect. the game master would either dismiss it without cause or pretend to look into it and do nothing and never contact me.

I'll think of more, but that is it for now.  Now please acknowledge that this post breaks NO rules.  If it is deleted, I will immediately link the text to every character I meet in-game and to every connection to the mortal IRC channel with links in the off-topic channel.  I will also contact Black Opal or whoever necessary about a breech of the forum rules and an abuse of power.

EDIT:  To add on some, I should note that there was rampant duplicating of gold and horses especially near release and the effects of which can be seen on every keep in-game.  Nothing is done about this, either, and the economy is throughly broken because of it.  Also, consider the amount of Oghmium currently in circulation in use.  It is clear this is NOT from mining, but nothing is done about that either.

I have also never met one guild that is not questionable in their actions.  Most exploitation is not a lag-switch or hacks, but little bugs in the game exploited for an advantage.  Consider the weapon swing + blocking.  A clear exploit by the definition of the word, but unpunished and accepted, ruining the game for people who want to play as it is intended or fairly.  This exploit alone breaks shields, lowers their usefulness, and makes spears and other thrusting weapons throughly unbalanced.

One of the biggest examples of such smaller exploits is the use of an AI bug which renders the AI useless.  This is [B]not[/B] intended, but it used to kill everything from Spider Queens to Riser Chieftains with a single player and has resulted in some players gaining thousands of gold in loot for little to no work.  This is not fair to the others who want to actually play the game, and those who value the economy and want to experience and play along side of it.

In short, the exploiting in every corner of the game has throughly broken it and leaving unpunished only encourages it.  I want exploiters permanently banned for all exploitations if any proof can be found they knew it was exploiting and a several week ban plus bank clearing (reasonably) for other examples.  They should be publicly shamed, too.  There is currently no real punishment, because deletion doesn't happen, and neither do bans.[/QUOTE]

Here is the IRC log of my discussion with kootenay about the deletion of the thread.  It is posted to show other moderators and to offer some reason behind the repeated disappearance of this thread.  It also serves as evidence to the treatment such users as I are given despite the game's best interest in mind.

[QUOTE=IRC Logs][20:32] <Electrum> Do you intend to delete that thread?
[20:35] <Electrum> Answer me if you intend to enforce without cause.
[20:35] <kootenay> 12 hours
[20:36] <Electrum> I am banned then?
[20:36] <kootenay> it takes 12 hours for one person to get 1k oghmium without GK
[20:36] <kootenay> GK cuts it down to about 8-9 hours for one person
[20:36] <Electrum> OK, then you are welcome to post that on the thread
[20:37] <Electrum> Deleting it because you disagree is no solution and is an abuse of your powers.
[20:37] <kootenay> No, I'm just not giving you an infraction/warning for breaking the rules
[20:37] <Electrum> Please, what rules have I broken?
[20:38] <kootenay> accusing
[20:38] <Electrum> Haven't done a touch of it.
[20:38] <kootenay> I came to Discord originally to report a case of duplicated Oghmium (About 16,000) that was held by a guild who never set foot in Gaul Khor and never bought it or traded.
[20:38] <Electrum> Yes, sorry, who did I accuse again?
[20:39] <kootenay> your either implying *REMOVED* and friends or *REMOVED*
[20:40] <Electrum> No, neither, actually.
[20:41] <Electrum> It was a completely different guild, one that was relatively new and didn't ever spend time in Gaul Khor or have the numbers to truly mine.
[20:41] <Electrum> See, Kootenay, you are deleting the thread without due cause because you disagree with it or assume.
[20:43] <Electrum> Fair warning, I plan to use the log publicly.
[20:44] <Electrum> I will be removing the names of the guilds you mentioned, and anything else you would like within reason.[/QUOTE]