Hi there! These are really great questions and examples you brought up. This thread has also lead to internal discussions about this topic and Iām going to see if I can get more clarity around whether these strategies will be fair use or not.
Hi Drexen, thanks for the post!
To directly answer the question, we have reviewed the behaviors listed and we will be taking action to cleanup and fix most issues over time. None of the listed behaviors rise to the level where we would consider them exploits, unfair or bannable behavior.
With the release of Leaderboards we have had discussions internally about the behaviors listed and decided to continue forward with the release as planned, deciding that none of the issues presented should stop either the enjoyment of our players for timed Expedition runs or Leaderboard Rewards. Leaderboards are refreshed Weekly. As changes are rolled out teams will have an opportunity to evolve new strategies.
To our community of speed runners, we want say we value the time and effort put into our game. We appreciate the question about what rises to a level of bannable behavior since it is ultimately a judgement call that needs to be determined. In the extreme - if an exploit was found that allowed players to gather the rewards from an Expedition in almost no time it would break the economy and we would need to take the Expedition offline. What would be questionable behavior is continuing to exploit something this extreme and not report it.
We expect our speedrunning community to push the boundaries of what is possible and to utilize the tactics available in game where they exist. We ask primarily for transparency, so that we can help manage any bugs that do rise to the level where we need to take larger action like hotfixes or in the extreme red button removal of an expedition.
Thank you very much for the question, and the specifics.
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