Did they patch the pickpocket backpack exploit?

[Extal]

Just tried it and had to roll a 29 to succeed, did they finally patch it?

If you're not aware, the exploit was that you sold any trader a backpack and then put your desired items into it, then you just pickpocket the backpack easily.

[Evangeline]

Why do you have to explain it and ruin it for the rest of us?

Even put it in the title.

[Wyrtt]

Originally posted by Evangeline:

Why do you have to explain it and ruin it for the rest of us?

Even put it in the title.

Ruin what? Game balance is pathetic. You can split stacks, use charm and etc. But even without it you have SO MUCH gold that you can buy everything. I have like 20 potions of strenght in act 1. Permament 23 srt for characters.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Wyrtt:

Originally posted by Evangeline:

Why do you have to explain it and ruin it for the rest of us?

Even put it in the title.

Ruin what? Game balance is pathetic. You can split stacks, use charm and etc. But even without it you have SO MUCH gold that you can buy everything. I have like 20 potions of strenght in act 1. Permament 23 srt for characters.

I gotta do this wtf

[AnonymousWizard]

Originally posted by Wyrtt:

Originally posted by Evangeline:

Why do you have to explain it and ruin it for the rest of us?

Even put it in the title.

Ruin what? Game balance is pathetic. You can split stacks, use charm and etc. But even without it you have SO MUCH gold that you can buy everything. I have like 20 potions of strenght in act 1. Permament 23 srt for characters.

I never got that far into the gold generation game, I don't want to break the balance that much, but the only times I struggled with limited gold were the beginning of Act 3 (although I was jumping to endgame equipment) and the time I installed a 'remove all starting equipment' mod (did you know that Act 1 has a limited supply of mundane leather boots).

[id795078477]

The saddest part of it is that "exploits" like these are lying on the very surface - if not screaming into player's face "I am here, try me!". Which means that either one of the two things is true:

1. Devs are really that incompetent when it comes to settling balance and have less foresight than anyone who played CRPGs for even a brief time
2. Devs are aware about all of it and just don't care at all what happens with the balance.

And I'm personally not sure which of these two is worse.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by id795078477:

The saddest part of it is that "exploits" like these are lying on the very surface - if not screaming into player's face "I am here, try me!". Which means that either one of the two things is true:

1. Devs are really that incompetent when it comes to settling balance and have less foresight than anyone who played CRPGs for even a brief time
2. Devs are aware about all of it and just don't care at all what happens with the balance.

And I'm personally not sure which of these two is worse.

How is this even remotely "on the surface"? Who even thinks to put their wares in a backpack when you can already mark and immediately sell all your wares with the push of a button, and THEN decides to steal the items back just for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles?

This is the result of people looking for an exploit, it's not normal player behavior.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

How is this even remotely "on the surface"? Who even thinks to put their wares in a backpack when you can already mark and immediately sell all your wares with the push of a button, and THEN decides to steal the items back just for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles?

This is the result of people looking for an exploit, it's not normal player behavior.

You clearly didn't program systems that have to deal with user input. Actions like these are placed on the spot every time. The stackable items and containers is probably a(n) (un)holy grail attracting various manipulations. If the mechanics that go into the exploits were new - I could get it. But containers, stacks, trading and PP exist for decades. None of this is new. And the exploits like these in particular aren't new either.

Treating any user input as a nuclear waste and doing checks at each and every step is a staple when it comes to these things. It could be (somewhat) "redeemable" if the game didn't have multiplayer - but it does, meaning that an extra degree of scrutiny must be applied even on top of what I've already mentioned.

Exploits are not normal behavior but you're missing the point. We don't live in the 98 and the era of CDs anymore. It's not like "well, maybe 0.1% of players will find it so who cares" (though devs back then cared and a lot). This is "it's enough for several people to find it ending up with the entirety of the Internet being aware and soon". And again = worse of it = the fact that these exploits are really obvious. And even more "worse-worse" is that they aren't fixed for months.

P.S. And before you try to flip it with "but you didn't program it too": I did. Both in the context of production-ready e-commerce projects dealing with payments & checkout as well as in the context of CRPG. The former - both in the roles of an IC and a responsible manager for it, the latter - in the form of implementing custom currencies and exchanges as part of my NWN PW.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by id795078477:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

How is this even remotely "on the surface"? Who even thinks to put their wares in a backpack when you can already mark and immediately sell all your wares with the push of a button, and THEN decides to steal the items back just for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles?

This is the result of people looking for an exploit, it's not normal player behavior.

<snip>

So... this is indeed people looking for an exploit and it's not normal user behavior?

Yes, I know this kind of stuff is old and I agree it shouldn't have been an issue in the first place, but that's not what you said. You said it was "on the surface" when, in fact, it isn't. It's not normal user behavior.

And yeah, this exploit isn't a priority. It only affects the players who use it and is explicitly beneficial to them. If it were up to me, I'd just leave those in (unless it just didn't make sense, like tossing flying characters off a cliff). Because, honestly, there's little difference between this and just installing a mod to give yourself a ton of gold.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Originally posted by id795078477:

<snip>

So... this is indeed people looking for an exploit and it's not normal user behavior?

Yes, I know this kind of stuff is old and I agree it shouldn't have been an issue in the first place, but that's not what you said. You said it was "on the surface" when, in fact, it isn't. It's not normal user behavior.

And yeah, this exploit isn't a priority. It only affects the players who use it and is explicitly beneficial to them. If it were up to me, I'd just leave those in (unless it just didn't make sense, like tossing flying characters off a cliff). Because, honestly, there's little difference between this and just installing a mod to give yourself a ton of gold.

There are different gradation of "normal" and "unintended". For the exploits OP mentions - there's a good chance some folks discover it by accident. Because people could accidentally sell stuff to a vendor and then PP it - either because they wanted to get their stuff they sold by mistake, or, most likely - they forgot that they sold anything and the two are independent events at all - but leading to the realization of "wait, I can always do that".

It's not what people would do intentionally, but there's a high chance of it happening even without any malice involved. And if there is an intent of "let's see if I can break some rules" - then this is as good as found during the first hour of "fooling around". There is also now an insensitive because HM is there and it seems that devs try to tighten some screws around it as patches go by.

So it is exactly as I said. Whenever security and mechanics is involved in the games - excellence is an expectation, not a privilege. Because anything else means that whatever effort went into said security is pointless. As such - again, there are only two reasons for this to exist: incompetence or negligence. Both are terribly bad.

[northernwater]

Bugs, bugs and more bugs ...

[northernwater]

Originally posted by Extal:

Just tried it and had to roll a 29 to succeed, did they finally patch it?

If you're not aware, the exploit was that you sold any trader a backpack and then put your desired items into it, then you just pickpocket the backpack easily.

The last bug fix was in January. I'd say we are overdue for more fixes.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Patch_Notes#Hotfixes

[KRON]

Originally posted by Extal:

Just tried it and had to roll a 29 to succeed, did they finally patch it?

If you're not aware, the exploit was that you sold any trader a backpack and then put your desired items into it, then you just pickpocket the backpack easily.

Or you can just enter the barter mode with the trader and move their inventory between theirs and yours directly(istead of the fields in the middle) and you'll both get lots of money out of thin air.

[Teskal]

If you just tried it successfully, why asking if they patched it?

So there is an exploit to steal something in a game which throws money at you. Enough money so you do not need to steal anything, at least not from a trader. This exploit is not really gamebreaking or important. Not with several 10k gold in the pockets.
Report it to Larian, so they could put it on their to-do list. But it may not be on a solve-at-once list or solve-soon list.

[Demo Dude]

Originally posted by id795078477:

The saddest part of it is that "exploits" like these are lying on the very surface - if not screaming into player's face "I am here, try me!". Which means that either one of the two things is true:

1. Devs are really that incompetent when it comes to settling balance and have less foresight than anyone who played CRPGs for even a brief time
2. Devs are aware about all of it and just don't care at all what happens with the balance.

And I'm personally not sure which of these two is worse.

I mean, at the end of the day, if it's the first option then fair enough they just didn't notice (but it's been going around a lot so it's probably common knowledge by now). But even if it's the second option, they're probably just leaving the players with the choice, maybe they're particularly struggling at a section so they wanted to leave it in there as a little crutch whether it is to get some REALLY good doodads like weapons or armour or for a little money. If you have a problem with it... just don't do it.