U$C Public Statement - Potential breach, and the future of Scrapping

HWS Community
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** U$C Public Statement - UMC Leaked Ship Design **

Recently it has come to our attention (and many othrs on Discord :slight_smile: ) that proprietary information has allegedly been stolen or leaked from the NA Scrapyard. A very serious (seriously) investigation is underway in cooperation with (led by) the Admins to learn the details behind the incident to validate these claims. As of yet, no determination has been made but we hope to close it soon.

We are respectfully refraining from making any direct judgements or accusations as to the source of the breach, if any, until we have removed any reasonable doubt of actual foul play. We respect the gravity of the situation and deeply regret having allowed the environment for even the opportunity for exposure to exist. As a business owner, it’s gut wrenching to have the hit to our name and the violation of our customer’s trust.

to UMC @nauttdog, regardless of the results, Please accept our apologies for the potential for a breach. I’m committed to sourcing the weak spot in our policies or people and eliminating it. I know trust is a difficult thing to repair, but it’s a road we all travel in our careers, and our feet are moving.

The Future of Scrapping in HWS

The Yard had closed shop to new vessels prior to this incident early last week due to the impending Wipe and will be revisiting business strategy coming into 6.0. We are working with @RexXxuS to determine the impact, positive and negative, of the Scrapyard service and whether or not it presents a risk to the greater community. While we would like to think we have provided a positive experience and contributed to the enjoyment of many players through the Scrapyard and its services – we take this notion very seriously – and will comply and do whatever it takes to help maintain community balance. That’s #1 above all.

All that said, we look forward to helping to fine tune the concept of the new EGS Services to automagically scrap your vessels and feel this is a much-needed improvement for the game and the HWS community! Whether or not the Scrapyard and our services persist into 6.0, we’re pleased that the community will have some means to get these resources back into the hands of the players and encourage more encounters with less fear of utter loss! That was always my goal.

To that end, I’ll continue to work with the admins and community to try to find ways to enrich the gaming experience and immersion at HWS wherever and however I’m allowed and look forward to gaming with you in season 6.0!! :airplane_departure:

Thank you all - and here’s to a really interesting and almost entirely fun 5.0!!! :champagne:

– Hopskotch
The U$C Scrapyard
HWS - NA 5.x

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This is unfortunate and is deeply dishonorable on part of whomever conducted this activity.

I wish you all the swiftest of luck isolating the details and subject(s) of interest on the matter.

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FYI, it is absolutely 100% possible to duplicate a bp if you have unattended access to it, even if it’s another faction. It is tedious, and incredibly time consuming, but possible. Now as to whether Colin took the dozens of hours to fly through the ship and look inside and perfectly match up everything inside, or perhaps started from an earlier version, I cant say. But Just because it looks identical does not mean it is. The best thing I could say would be to paint one face of one block a particular color on your builds. If someone rebuilds, imitates, or stumbles upon the design, that paint will be gone. If it is a true bp copy, it will be there.

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My old troup of playes left EUT for HWS. A group we had spanked pretty hard when we doninated sever with just 5 people…had stolen our fighter blueprint which was a big part of our success because of good designing…and was using it here on HW US to good effect unti i want to say 4.5.

I want to say… now days…engineering hasnt lost any of its importance… and I reccon 6.0 to 7.0 it is going to become even more sensetive.

Still though, plagiarism is plagiarism.

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I see this a lot when tearing down ships… people leave whole messages inside the guts of their ships… lol. Its entertaining to puzzle them out. But sure as hell you’ll knwo if its a BP theft that way.

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Ya, there are one or two stolen bp’s of mine floatin around out there. Beyond the toolbox ones I posted obviously. Always easy to spot em.

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While results of the investigation are still inconclusive, I want to say that @nauttdog and I have resolved this issue amicably and are looking forward to 6.0 with no ill will. Needless to say, 6.0 will be a very different game and the future of scrapping is uncertain at best - But we will use this lesson and improve our ability to continue to try to provide an environment that provides opportunities and rich, live, player driven content to our new and vet players!

Thanks for the comments and feedback, and mostly, understanding on the matter.

@RexXxuS - Would you mind closing this thread, please?

Best,

  • Hops