Nov 2, 2021
"In an update to the ongoing issues that caused Amazon to shut down wealth transfers in New World, game director Scot Lane provided an update on the progress of the fix that has seen the economy come to a stand still in the new MMO.
The current crisis in New World surrounds a gold and item duplication exploit that has seen the developers effectively shut down the economy in the MMO. Wealth transfers have been disabled, meaning players can't even trade with other players right now in Aeternum, companies can't pay taxes on settlements, and players could deal with the ramifications of being unable to pay housing upkeep. Some players are reporting that the inability to pay taxes on a settlement is causing the territory to be downgraded.
No doubt Amazon is trying to get this fixed as soon as possible, and game director Scot Lane took to the forums to both apologize and provide a small update to fans waiting for a resolution.
"Hi Everyone,
We are still working on fixes for the exploits addressed in this notice.
First I’d like to explain why we shut things down. We became aware that a small number of players were using packet manipulation approaches to create invalid transactions. We do use a code approach known as two phase commit, and we also use packet shaping systems for debugging, but there was an edge case with very high packet loss we had not encountered that resulted in duplicated items/currency. Server telemetry provided data that identified this pattern and the people using it; those people were banned, as will often be the case for people who exploit to their advantage. With the transfer of coin disabled, it’s possible to generate an error in a town project improvement and get money returned that you didn’t spend - this gold will be removed during the upcoming maintenance before transfer is turned back on."
Lane also addressed the fact that while this is all happening, people are unable to keep up with taxes and maintenance as a result. Lane mentions in the post that any one affected by this will be compensated with a "make good."
The game director reiterated that the team is working hard to bring the MMO's auction house back online, and expressed appreciation for player patience. The MMO's economy has been under scrutiny in the last few weeks, and the damage being caused by wealth transfers being shut off is only going to exacerbate issues on many servers, especially since the current state of New World prohibits player trading, so the barter system is now out of the window.
As far as a time table as to when this will be fixed, one wasn't given. As of now the MMO's economy has effectively been halted for over a day while the team fixes the problems. We'll be keeping an eye out on this and provide any update as soon as one becomes available. As of now, according to another developer on the forums, a roll back of the server or a server wipe in general are both not being considered.
https://www.mmorpg.com/news/update-new-world-developers-provides-update-on-issues-surrounding-wealth-transfers-apologizes-for-frustrations-over-issues-2000123528
