By repeatedly using the /who-command, the resulting x/y-numbers leak information about troop movement to other realms.
If server population displays as 10/30 when using the /who-command and people teleport to another zone (e.g. from Castle Sauvage to Emain Macha) or log to another character, for a short moment the server population will display lower numbers when characters are transfering from one zone/character to another.
Albs would see a group of Hibs teleporting as: 10/30, 10/30, 10/22, 10/23, 10/30, thereby knowing that Hibs changed the zone.
This gives other realms information that they couldn't possibly know via ingame methods and as far as I know Hibs are using this bug to learn about Albs porting to another realm all the time.
Information about troop movements should only be gathered via stealthers or other people who actually see an army somewhere.
1. Use /who and note the displayed total server population
2. Ask somebody to teleport to another zone/log to another character, preferably ask multiple people to port simultaneously to see the effect better
3. Use /who repeatedly before, during and after the port and see the total server population decrease during a teleport/logging to another character
Possible remedies:
a) Don't display total server population at all
b) Display total server population with a delay of at least 10min, similar to Server Rules 2.10
c) Display only smoothed total server populations, averaging displayed total population over the last minute, to hide troop movements that would decrease the number by a large number but only for a very short time.
d) Limit the number of /who-commands per minute per character or investigate people spamming this command
The reported behavior is on the line between bug report and feature request. I have no way of researching if behavior on Live was the same as the issue reported but the issue gives enemy realms information (especially with only 2 active realms on Uthgard currently) they shouldn't have, just short of displaying names and locations of enemy players via /who all-command.
As this issue overrides other methods of spying-prevention like using /anon (/anon-players are still displayed in total server populations and thus movement of large /anon troops can still be deduced from the behavior) it is very likely a behavior that was never intended by Mythic.
issue is new, and needs confirmation |
requires 2 more confirmations |
votes (priority): -2 |
| 1 player says this report is valid, 1 disagrees |