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Aug-22-2007 23:45

I just found a post on the recruitment board looking for recruits for an agency in Cairo!!

Aug-23-2007 06:07

Hmmm, cheat code?

Aug-23-2007 07:06

If you absolutely must know, I can tell you how it was done. Of course, by PM only. The means were unorthodox, but I wouldn't call it a cheat code.

I did it out of curiosity, and was surprised that it worked at all. I haven't decided in the long run what to do with the agency yet. It is located in the city where an agency is the least effective.

Aug-23-2007 09:11

There seems to be no point opening one there... unless it's the heart of the elusive secret 1....

Aug-23-2007 09:13

Cow Ward, I believe I know how you got an agency in Cairo, and while it is not a cheat code, I do believe it goes against rule #2 in the honor code of Sleuth. (manipulation of a URL)

Ben says:
"2) Taking advantage of bugs or exploits to gain an advantage in the game is forbidden. This includes URL manipulation, cookie editing, server attacks, network sniffing, etc. "

Taken from the second post in this thread:
http://noir.playsleuth.com/map/cityhall/post.spy?id=17427

Aug-23-2007 09:34

Fair enough. You're right about how I did it though. I also told Ben about it, and here's his response:

I guess I'm not that surprised that it works. I suppose I should just put the link in Cairo so others can open agencies there as well.

Thanks for telling me.

Aug-23-2007 09:43

Nevertheless, in the future I'll keep this in mind. I didn't consider my actions to be anything like hacking, server attacks, etc, but I know it wasn't exactly by the book. I didn't believe it would work when I pursued it, which I did out of curiosity more than anything else. I was surprised (and I'll admit amused) when it did work though. I also immediately told Ben of it, and I thought the worst that would come out of it was my closing the agency and Ben's patching up the loophole.

As you can see from his reply, he seemed OK with it. I apologise if this was reckless and if any harm came out it.

Aug-23-2007 09:57

I did not mean to imply that you did anything harmful to the game. I am just someone who likes black and white rules and consistency. If it is against the rules, then it should apply to every instance, not just an instance that would improve your stake in the game. Making an agency in Cairo does not seem to be too useful, and making one in Shangri La seems pointless. But the fact is, the only way to create or move an agency to either city is to manipulate the URL's. And that is either against the honor code or isn't.

Sep-7-2007 16:40

Hi all,

Cairo Agencies (along with some unique properties) are now available to all without use of URL manipulation.

By the way, Cow Ward let me know about the exploit immediately after he successfully created the first agency there, so I don't consider it to be cheating. It is probably mostly my fault for waiting so long to address the situation after learning about it.

Sep-8-2007 00:52

Is there any advantage to being based in Cairo eg. are there Treasure Hunts etc.?

Sep-8-2007 06:18

They have coffee, silly! ;)

Seriously, tho - haven't seen any treasure hunts yet, and no factions. Just a nice change of scenery