Hmmmmmm

[tnexus]

Judging by the fact that we've been seeing them sold in multiple starting zones, it's probably a dupe that can be done anywhere, though it might involve a specific type of NPC or something like that. I wonder if SOE has GMs staked out in specific zones to monitor any suspicious activity.

[Diani]

One of the things that strikes me as odd is that I see huge amounts of high end gems on merchants that arent high on my trashcanraiding priority list. Either when I get to them high traffic vendors have been cleaned out already or someone is definitly trying to avoid detection by using low traffic vendors (example...fletching merchants in Felwith..usualy no-one sells anything there)

[Bobaten]

The thing that confuses me is it appears people are trying to hide it by selling to different vendors...but that is a really bad (and ineffective) way to hide things sold to vendors. Between vendors in instances (guildhall), vendors you can despawn with simple quests (ore vendors in newbie zones), and vendors that either start with nearly full or full inventories (or fill up fast in high traffic areas), there are multiple ways of truely hiding what you sell to a merchant (all of which I have used to dump items I made while skilling up that I didn't want to flood the market). While I might expect some people to not think of those methods of hiding things, I don't understand why lots of servers are seeing the same spreading of gems on lots of different merchants.
Either:
1. It's one person doing this on multiple servers(plat seller).
2. There is some dupe guide somewhere that instructs the user to spread the gems.
3. It is not an attempt hide, and people are just selling the gems wherever they generate them.
4. There isn't really any duping going on, and it is some sort of server side error/corruption that is randomly adding these gems to vendors.

[KyrosKrane]

I'd discount #4, just on general principles -- the merchant code is quite mature, and I'd guess that any problems with it would have become apparent long ago and on more vendors than just the obscure ones in home cities.

My guess would be #2. There are a number of hack and dupe sites out there where hackers can gain stature within the community by discovering or creating hacks, scripts for third-party programs, or other nefarious tools. Someone probably stumbled across some way to dupe or create items, created a mini-guide, and posted it. The script kiddies that follow in his wake would have very little creativity or imagination; they'd just follow his guide to the letter. The original post probably said something like, "sell a few of your gems to many vendors. That way, people won't notice a large quantity of gems on any one vendor." I'll bet he didn't count on the script kiddies creating thousands upon thousands of gems -- it's pretty darn hard to hide those kinds of numbers. A few gems on odd vendors will blend in with other trash. A hundred gems will stand out like a sore thumb. Hundreds upon hundreds of different types of rare gems is a dead giveaway.

People who use third-party tools have a similar mentality. They create a script or tool that allows them to do something others can't. So long as they're discreet about it and don't advertise or use it blatantly, they can often fly under the radar and not be discovered. But if a script kiddie gets his hands on their script or tool, he'll probably show it off to his friends, or use it in heavily populated zones where his actions are quite visible. Then the legit players of EQ get ticked off and start complaining on message boards or filing petitions, and the devs cotton on to the hack pretty quick and put a stop to it.

[Fox the Clever]

KyrosKrane speaks the truth. For all we know, this exploit might have been in effect for quite some time now, and as long as only a few people knew about it and acted with the upmost of discretion, they wouldn't be detected.

The numbers and locations of where these gems are showing up at once alerted me that a cheater had been in the zone that I visited today. When I dropped into Thurgadin in order to break down some velium weapons and make velium studs, what did I discover? About 800 or so black sapphires and approximately 600 jacinths spread out on vendors throughout the zone in stacks of about 50 gems per vendor. Oh right, Mr. Cheater, that's really going to fool people! It's the work of brainless fools who can't think enough to cover their tracks in a more effective way.

I sincerely hope that when this cheat is finally uncovered and the people responsible are found, Sony does something to truly demonstrate that cheating in this manner is strictly forbidden (i.e. ban them). I would venture to guess that the people engaged in this exploit are repeat offenders.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Maybe these are just becoming more common?

I am not discounting that there may be a problem, but i think the gems I have heard of are gems that I used for "cash loot" in TSS.

I will try and take a look at drop rates and see if maybe I have a broken table somewhere and am dropping it like 100% or something.

[binlaen]

Yea, Ngreth, lots of things are dropping more.
Even since the new expansion (which is one of the best expansions btw) the drop rate of the gems hasnt been that much increases in the bazaar. heck the demand for a few gems has increases thanks to your great charm (yes. have it maxed out). so when you see 800 plus bought in bazaar on buyer in less than 24 hours and another purchase another 750 off a vendor (yes, i know ciane as a legitimate trader) then somethings probably up. also blue diamonds have seldom ever been used as cash loot.
Personaly hope that we do figure it out and ban the people or block the macro.

binlaen

[Ursawraith]

Maybe these are just becoming more common?

I am not discounting that there may be a problem, but i think the gems I have heard of are gems that I used for "cash loot" in TSS.

I will try and take a look at drop rates and see if maybe I have a broken table somewhere and am dropping it like 100% or something.

Aye I agree the are becoming more common, but what really alerts me to a dupe of sorts is that you see the same gems in the same quantities on the vendors. For instance I see 100 Diamonds, 100 Black Sapphire, 100 Serpent Spine Diamonds and 20 Blue Diamonds commonly while vendor diving. Its as if somebody ran by all the vendors and sold exactly 1 stack of each of the gems. Were it not so precise and predicatable I would just think that the drops were really common now.

[max76487]

Except, one of the gems turning up are flawless diamonds. I thought flawless were a Velious only drop. And, like some others, I have yet to run across any blue diamonds, in any quantities other than the usual 1-3 on occasional vendors. The 5 under suspicion, however, are repeated all thru the zone vendors, mostly starting zones, but I think that is because they have portals to get there quickly from PoK. Black sapphires, Diamonds, Flawless Diamonds, Raw Diamonds, and Serpent Spine Diamonds.

[rarrazz]

Well, it's interesting that corathus stuff was mentioned- the other day in cabilis I saw 100s of clockwork shafts, and some of the items like that..

Then, later I ran into the shaman spell vendors in Cabilis, and each person in that room had 100s of those diamonds.. fishy for sure

[Tiroon]

The numbers and locations of where these gems are showing up at once alerted me that a cheater had been in the zone that I visited today. When I dropped into Thurgadin in order to break down some velium weapons and make velium studs, what did I discover? About 800 or so black sapphires and approximately 600 jacinths spread out on vendors throughout the zone in stacks of about 50 gems per vendor. Oh right, Mr. Cheater, that's really going to fool people! It's the work of brainless fools who can't think enough to cover their tracks in a more effective way.

Same here and same zone about the same total (on Stromm). Always an odd number, usually 43 to 65 each on a vendor.

While high value gems may be more common I see too many raw diamonds in this thread and on vendors for a normal increase.

[Siddar]

The thing that screams exploit to me is the flawless diamonds.

Note no one is mentioning seeing blackmarbles and pristine emeralds those three gems drop in roughly same amounts in velinus zones. If the gems were legit there would be equal amounts of all three on merchants not just one type.

[Ddemons Ddemise]

Indeed, thats what gets me as well, ANY time that I see one of those gems I always see nearly every other type of velious gem on the same merchant..
Any time I sell any of those gems I have another couple of types of those gems..

having 150 + Diamonds and none of the others screams out to me ..

[Shaddowhawke]

I've also been seeing 50+ stacks of Imbued Diamonds on Cazic...and who in their right mind would imbue that many diamonds (on multiple vendors) and sell them!?

[Syuni D'zpecyzczn]

I can see someone doing it for the spellcasting skillup, but I'm sure the caster has other, easier spells to accomplish the same.