Hey,
sorry for the delay but I had to do some productive stuff first.
One of the most critical Alpha EXP release regarding CPU etc. is imminent.
I had to stop testing CPU and helping Eleon with balancing CPU in a good way for this drama here.
So while you can use the powerful search of this Forum I strongly recommend to check on the details exactly and do not come up with common “it happened 3 times already” stuff.
Each case was different, some of the linked topics even completely off topic.
Also do not put words into my mouth please which are not correct like
As I said, every time it was something different. Sponge for example is something completely different than what happened here.
Next thing: if there is a report where a player is concerned about something, do not bomb this Topic up to 90 posts please. It is causing just even more time investment to read all of that. Some of it isn’t even helpful…
To this case, which is in its own aspect new, I see it like that:
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the HWS Garage ship Murcielago got updated just recently and is one of the most devastating CV > HV Turrets thing. It cost a lot so sponging with it like in other tickets complained is not the case here. If it’s “balanced” like this, up to Community to decide. But yes, in 10.6 you can dock HVs to SVs and as you know, this is the time where CVs have to say goodbye to PvP planets.
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In terms of “what rule got broken” couple of approaches are being mentioned here or mixed up with situations happened in the past. Playfield limits are there for a reason right. And while not set to stone in our big rule bible, they are still there. Press M and you see it. See chat and you might read it.
It’s like speed limits on highways in real life. They are there. Yes you can break them. Yes sometimes you get away with it. But they are still there. And you know, one day you will get caught.
So the issue is plain and simple: our EAH tool is just too slow and there is nothing we can do to further improve it like recognize overlimit stuff faster. Warp ships out of the playfield right away. etc. -
But is this enough to justify some “cheesy” tactics now? Jascha and I don’t think so. Furthermore we want to highlight
Definition : A Bug or Exploit, for the purposes of HWS Rules, is defined as “Any mechanic, whether executed in or out of game, which creates a condition that was not an intended functionality of the game OR HWS Server features.”
So we are walking on a thin path here. It is not intended to abuse the EAH limits like that to have a trump card against bases on PvP with limits. If you can’t win within the given limits, leave it or come up with another legit strategy.
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Now what about the other use cases and what is now legit or not?
I differentiate every time the overall interaction between the attackers and defenders. If you leave an overclass ship on GG to sponge damage and it got captured / destroyed by the enemy, I say it’s legit, even though breaking the EAH limits as well. But it’s a kind of balance where you invested in the sponge thing and the enemies in destroying it. Take and Give.
But in this case here, where not only a badass Garage ship was being used but very precisely evaded our limit system three times, it becomes more of an imbalance and dedicated circumventing skill of our system… our “playfield rules”.
Since it’s the real first time here which got reported I do not assume anything. I just hope ABN did their best to talk to Shmak and tell him to NOT do it, but he did nevertheless… who knows. If this happens again, I will assume all ABN were fine with it and so will be the consequence to all “involved” in it. -
And I decide on overall gameplay impact. Was this fair now? Was the intention to find a loophole? Would the result be different if…? What if this becomes meta? Can this be tackled by gameplay? etc.
Unfortunately this happened just before a major change of the gameplay in terms of HV>SV docking and CPU system. Still, please do not invest so much time in finding these kind of “tricks” to force us every time to invest tons of time to rework things, change things, settle dramas, etc.
As first reported incident @Shmak is set to guilty + in prison until tomorrow 6pm for rethinking his strategies next time and his CV taken and put to a forced auction for everyone free to bid. Starting bid is 50 million credits. See the details here: Forced HWS Auction 🔨 | Case Number 1
(since the general usecase would have been, that it would have been taken by HWS anyways.)
The forced HWS Auction is something new I came up (more or less requested in the past to do more of these Auction stuff). Hope it’s cool. Will see how it goes and decide then if this will be used all the time or not. Also a time sink for me but well, let’s see the feedback.
All of that being said: play fair guys 
Your HWS Team