The battle in question is this one (be sure to check the rosters):
http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=battlesparticipated#!?page=battledetail&id=2463Yesterday, I attacked a fief as an independent player. I was not in a faction at the time, nor was I previously a member of any faction. After asking around, I managed to get a full roster of 51 players and saved it before the battle began.
Proof:The defending side, by comparison, had only signed up a handful of players. It seemed like it was going to be a very routine affair. However, around a minute and a half before the battle was about to begin, everyone on my side was suddenly unhired. Due to the fact that the very same thing had occurred just a few days earlier under similar circumstances, (as detailed in this thread:
http://forum.meleegaming.com/strategus-issues/new-samarra-castle/), I had anticipated this would happen, which is why I screenshotted my roster ahead of time and had been mashing F5 nonstop with the roster management window open. I started rehiring people as soon as I noticed everyone had been taken off, only for the person on the other end to unhire them all again. This back-and-forth continued until the battle came up.
Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, whoever was tampering with the roster must have had a very high APM count indeed. Only a handful of the 51 people I hired were actually able to make it into the battle.
Proof:While the ones on my side who got in did manage to win in the end, it was not a very satisfying victory for me. I was the target of an exploit that would have seen me lose everything if I had been a little less vigilant than I was, and I was unable to fight in my own first battle. More importantly though, a large number of players who had set aside some of their time to help me out had that time wasted. If at all possible, I would like it if there could be an investigation into the matter that results in the exploit being fixed and the responsible parties brought to justice.
Incidentally, in the process of fact-checking and asking various people about the situation afterwards, I did get some leads on who might have done it.
See:I understand that the above should be approached with a measure of skepticism, due to the ongoing feud between one of the accused and the accuser, but there is some evidence that would seem to indicate that there is probable cause for suspicion. A different admin told me that one of the accused players claimed responsibility for using the same exploit in the Samarra Castle battle to unhire the roster of the attacking side, and several other players who are veterans of previous rounds of Strategus and have a general idea of how the exploit might work said that the player who did the deed in this case would need to have been in the faction that was being attacked (GForce Mafia) and then become factionless to be able to unhire my side. This indeed happened.
See:This image was taken immediately after the battle was finished. The player here was a member of the GForce Mafia immediately prior to the battle and factionless immediately afterwards for a few minutes, until he was accepted into the Heavenly Kingdom faction. The leader of the GForce Mafia faction, who is the other player being accused in the logs above, was actually still in his faction after the battle was over.
Proof:In short, if whoever it is that handles Strategus issues decides to investigate the matter, I would recommend first checking whether BADPLAYER or Giuseppe BlackRose had any involvement in altering the rosters for my side. I will issue both of them a formal apology if they were not.
