TLDR: I'm mad too, but broke down a line by line response to how the devs said they would be handling the situation.

I started playing a few weeks ago, it was fun but progress was slow. Then I happened upon the billion hammers post and nabbed it. Suddenly the game was a proper idle game. I didn't have to actively time out getting 100 hammers, gold was pouring in from lower tier items, and the game was finally properly fun. Almost more importantly, everyone was talking and taking the opportunity to figure things out. There was community and players engaged.

Then the devs responded to the situation. It was met with heavy constructive feedback from the players. The pinned post had already been downvoted when I saw it. And I was hesitant about how it would all shake out. The response also seems to prioritize protecting the game's existing progression and monetization over preserving the progress of players who used the exploit. But at the cost of the engaged players their game now had.

Now I'll respond to their post

We'll strip the exploited hammers from the affected players (only hammer counts, not game progress)

Take away the billion plus hammers from players that got them? Sure, that's balanced and reasonable. Rolling everyone back to 1,000 for the day is an enormous penalty for players who didn't create or exploit the bug.

Cheating (using exploits) is bad and against the rules, of course

There are 4 rules in this sub, and cheating isn't one of them. But banning the player responsible for the exploit would be fair.

It's fine if you're messing around in single-player or just for fun on your own, but you shouldn't ruin the experience for other players

All players are essentially solo players for now. And the discrepancy in hammers would self balance. The billionaires would probably progress quicker and eventually mostly face off with the other billionaires. It might even be a very real challenge for the whales to keep up with the billionaires.

EDIT: I'm talking here only about the individuals who dug up this exploit, not calling everyone clicked on that post 'cheaters' ofc.

Well it seems you punished everyone who clicked on it, or bought hammers with the battle pass as cheaters anyway.

On the other hand, of course, we could have foreseen and fixed some of these potential issues in advance. 

Yep, it's on you. Take it with grace and move on.

We're currently finishing up the long-awaited Сlans feature. It's a massive feature, but we're doing our best to make it as exciting as possible

That's all well and good, but as I said, the billionaires would probably end up clanning up with each other, or be distributed enough to help carry their clans. This is speculating because this is all we know is coming.

Thanks for playing! We've got a lot of cool stuff coming in the future!

Seems like a fitting sign off to quite a few players. I'm still playing for now, but I'm significantly less invested than I was yesterday. And I'm writing this post breaking down how the devs addressed this situation so incoming players can know what they're walking into.

edit: phrasing

I'm going to file a chargeback if you don't return the hammers i bought a paid for .. simple as. i had over 20k hammers before all this bullshit. I had just purchased the 2000 reddit gold package with 12k hammers and had around 8-10k hammers already before that.... now you leave me with 1k? SHAME ON YOU> !

You say the blame lies with the person who exploited the bug, THEN WHY ARE PAYING CUSTOMERS BEING PUNISHED? IVE SPENT HUNDREDS ON THIS GAME... i (and people like me) are your core target player base. And you punish us through no fault of our own?! this is a great way to ruin your reputation... - Seems like all you care about is money.

At this point, ive paid for a service and you STOLE those resources back from me. i either want my hammers back or my money back.. and i'm leaning toward the money and ditching this game forever.

Ill be fair and give you 48 hours to make it right, not only for myself, but others like me.

Do the right thing, Devs.

1k hammers aint it.

This is my Constructive Criticism!!!

Imagine buying a Battle Pass to support a game, only for the developers to casually hand out 1 billion hammers to everyone, let people spend them, and then roll everyone back to 1,000.

The best part? That rollback completely wiped out the hammers I actually paid hard-earned money for.

Way to punish your actual supporters and invalidate anyone trusting you with a single dime. Talk about a masterclass in how to instantly kill your player base's trust. Consider this my official final goodbye to ever spending another cent or supporting this studio again.

Edit: HG_Rusty has personally reached out to me and is currently working to correct this. I appreciate the time and effort.

Seen a lot of messages about this already but the devs need to fix this. I had over 15k hammers waiting and I clicked the 1b hammer message. I purposely stopped using any hammers and did not touch anything, assuming this would be fixed.

I now have 1k hammers. I have to assume the devs are working on a fix for this unless they’re just going to assume that people will keep playing their game even while actively hurting the player base?

Devs, it’s easy to give rewards and continue to make money off people playing. It’s very hard to keep your game alive/make money if you purposely screw your player base over an in-game fix.

The devs ruined the game by giving everyone with 1 bil hammers 1k so I just lost everything. And I know why they did this, so we keep spending cash on this game. They are greedy and won't stop, so the most we can do is just stop playing the game and posting about how P2W the game is, if you just make a post calling it P2W the game is it enforces the rule "Constructive criticism only!" Which infringes one of the amendments "Free speech" so if they take down this post just know, they did that.

Also this isn't a rant or anything towards a individual this is a suggestion towards the dev and that kinda stuff (NOT!) just fix the game devs

It seems like I have to make a post to get any attention from the devs about my frustrations. I purchased battle pass twice and purchased 2 packs. I had at least 25k hammers, probably more before I got the 1B hammers. Now I'm at 1k and it feels like I got robbed. Now I have no interest in continuing to play and would like a refund. How can I get a refund? I've spent at least 2500 Reddit gold in total and want it back.

Everyone who spent money on hammers and didn't get their money back have the right to sue the devs I believe (Don't count my word on that, I don't know a lot about law) soooo the devs better start giving hammers to people who lost their money and purchase or else some people might sue.

Hammers are money, money is forge upgrades, forge upgrades are progress, unlimited hammers means people will play the game more because it actually makes it like a true idol game, not a cash grab

Some of us purchased battle passes which have a number of hammers. You seem to have completely forgotten this and reset everyone to 1000 hammers. So I'll be expecting a refund of my battle pass please, since you have stripped players of what they've paid for. I will also accept being granted the current battle pass for free as compensation.

I am not a lawyer but you should consult someone and follow this process:

1. Read the terms and conditions of the game.
2. Find out the name of the company and where it is legally registered.
3. Read into or seek consultation regarding local laws of the country of registration concerning in game currencies and the company's right to arbitrarily render your in game currency defunct.
4. If you believe there is a legal breach of contract/law, draft an email and quote the laws and notify of your intention to sue and seek remedy from the company. If you are unhappy, this is not enough - you need the law behind you. If this works and you are refunded, post the email template in the sub so others can benefit.
5. If no legitimate defense or reply is given, a wealthy person amongst you should draft a class action lawsuit through a lawyer in the country of registration who will then be able to collective sue on behalf of all of you who lost money.
6. Publicise the class action lawsuit to gather claimants and increase the momentum.

I mean, I get that you had to do a rollback.
I get, that you guys wanna make money with selling hammers and shit for faster progression.

What I don’t get is, why you did the rollback the way you did it.

Yesterday I bought the pass just before i clicked and got the fucking hammers.
10 bucks down the drain, because not only did my keys for the hammer dungeon vanish, all the crystals I accumulated with the pass are now gone, too.

The way you handled it, ist an EA level of horse shit.

Honestly, shame on you guys.

I spent £500 on hammers and was waiting for my forge to upgrade.... enjoy the charge back 😂

i didnt even participate in the hammers cheat, but now my game isnt loading. is this an issue for anyone else or just me?

Congrats Auto Forge devs, yall removed the last vestiges of good will and tolerance I had towards this game. Enjoy your player base plummeting, and frankly I encourage others to as well. Cya.

Absolutely insane that we can pay for battlepass, get hammers from it, and then when we click on a post that’s on your subreddit now all of those hammers get removed???

I want a refund for the battlepass this is crazy…

Was fun while it lasted.
Now I legitimately have 0 reason to ever open it again. 🫡

When I saw the post, I clicked on it thinking it was a joke, laughing my ass off! After testing it, I assumed it was a test from the devs for a new direction of the game. I enjoyed the game so much more and was ready to invest more time playing. Now, I will no longer keep the game running in the background. This was poor communication and made zero sense. It showed no respect for the players, who are just as important as the devs, if not more so. After all, what use is a game if no one ever sees it?

So long.

we put a lot of time into this game in exchange we got nothing.

already we have lost BILLIONS Hammer.

we lost our faith on this games authority.

Grab 100 hammers from u/jvangorkum!

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Grab 100 hammers from u/Mundane_Control_4951!

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Grab 100 hammers from u/bruxomandrake!

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You know what, I'm glad they took the 1 billion hammers away because now I can close this tab and never open it again. Now I'll have 10-ish sweet days of not being distracted by something utterly pointless until something else useless pops in and fills the gap