PSA: About Star Fragment Trees (updated!)

[tybalt_cake]

I saw someone doing a giveaway of these on Twitter and they were like "each winner will be made known of the risks before receiving these!" and it's like.....you're still distributing them though. Just because they're being made aware of the risks doesn't absolve you of any responsibility, especially when you're gaining followers for it.

Well , to be fair , it's not like the people who are receiving the glitched trees have a gun pointing to them , forcing them to receive those.
In the end , it's also responsibility of the receiver for letting those enter into their island and making them viral.

Best thing we can do is , unless you REALLY REALLY want to and don't care about any consequences , don't use those trees.

 

[Nodokana]

That's scary... I've never heard of this until now. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Miss Misty]

It's because it's 6 dollar a tree. (source: Facebook) everyone's profiting real money with these so silencing any attempts to sabotage or warn others about the risk is a threat to them. It's not stupidity if it's deliberate. It's more of a malicious thing.

Okay this is literally the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. Charging people money for the privilege of having their saves compromised and deleting any attempts to warn people against it. I am so glad that out of all the AC communities, this is the one I landed in for NH. I don't even play online, but like it's nice to be around people who have basic human decency all the same. Thank you for the PSA about this.

I tend to believe him because, not only have I never seen him proven wrong, but the VILLAGERS comment on stuff you wouldn't expect them to. If I spend an hour in the catalog app on my NookPhone updating my item tracker spreadsheet, the villagers will comment sometimes that I've been looking at my phone a lot and wonder what I was doing.

Do yours ever get eerily accurate when they wonder? I spent about an hour making a train track design in my custom design app the other day, and the next day I was speaking to one of my villagers and they said 'you were spending a lot of time with your nose buried in your phone, I bet you were working on a custom design, because that's just so you!'

 

[QueenOpossum]

Well , to be fair , it's not like the people who are receiving the glitched trees have a gun pointing to them , forcing them to receive those.
In the end , it's also responsibility of the receiver for letting those enter into their island and making them viral.

Best thing we can do is , unless you REALLY REALLY want to and don't care about any consequences , don't use those trees.

As a few other people have said, many non-gamers play Animal Crossing, and don't understand that hacking is a thing at all, let alone something that could mess up your game.

 

[Lanstar]

As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.

 

[stiney]

Speaking from a software engineering standpoint, I would imagine that the only 'safe' way to get rid of them would be to plant them on a mystery island since that memory should be released as soon as you depart the island.

What about trashing them via a trashcan item?

 

[Aardbei]

They do. According to Ninji (one of the dataminers), Nintendo collects a LOT of data. I don't feel like going through his timeline of the last few months on Twitter to find the post again to see exactly what he said, but it sounds like Nintendo knows pretty much everything you do in your game. I tend to believe him because, not only have I never seen him proven wrong, but the VILLAGERS comment on stuff you wouldn't expect them to. If I spend an hour in the catalog app on my NookPhone updating my item tracker spreadsheet, the villagers will comment sometimes that I've been looking at my phone a lot and wonder what I was doing.

You're absolutely right that Nintendo could potentially see you doing these things and ban you. Even if you're not a hacker and just traded with a hacker to get these trees, it's still risky.

I'm not sure if the things that villagers say we did is reported to Nintendo I think this feature is more like the rumors in New Leaf like "flowers' friend" and so.

However, when we came back from May Day Tour, Tom Nook asked us if we liked or not the event. And it's probable that the answer went directly to Nintendo

 

[Miss Misty]

As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.

"Just don't Best Friend people you don't know 4head"

Never change, Reddit. but actually please change.

 

[Sicariana]

What about trashing them via a trashcan item?

I didn't know that was possible
It's likely safe, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure unless I looked at the game code. I wouldn't imagine there would be any reason to keep track of what has been disposed of in a trash can item...

 

[Dormire]

As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.

You should've attached the proof that is posted here. Redditors aren't exactly known for being smart unless there's a clear picture in front of them.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

Star fragment trees: meh.

Now, if they replaced the item in the tree with music notes (like a dropped KK song) that'd be AMAZING.

Still absolutely not worth corrupting your game though.

 

[littlewing]

this has me kind of nervous so i have to double check: are we 100% sure that strangers can't plant trees on your island? like most people, i was under the impression that only registered best friends can, but i've yet to see any actual proof... i mean, i know you can't use a shovel, but saplings can be planted without one.

if anyone with a decent amount of positive feedback wants to test this with me, i'd be willing to invite them to my island to see if they can plant a regular sapling or not.

(also, thank you Dormire for the warning. i see those trees everywhere on my twitter feed.)

 

[Dormire]

this has me kind of nervous so i have to double check: are we 100% sure that strangers can't plant trees on your island? like most people, i was under the impression that only registered best friends can, but i've yet to see any actual proof... i mean, i know you can't use a shovel, but saplings can be planted without one.

if anyone with a decent amount of positive feedback wants to test this with me, i'd be willing to invite them to my island to see if they can plant a regular sapling or not.

(also, thank you Dormire for the warning. i see those trees everywhere on my twitter feed.)

Only Bestfriends can BUT I'm not ruling out people who are unaware and designate that role willy nilly to get some fancy trees. My friend got a tree from a stranger and she let them have that role. Temporary but yeah.

No problem! Once I'm at the PC I'll attach the proofs given to this thread @ 1st post.

 

[stiney]

I didn't know that was possible
It's likely safe, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure unless I looked at the game code. I wouldn't imagine there would be any reason to keep track of what has been disposed of in a trash can item...

Makes sense.

Yeah, be careful with all the various trash can/garbage disposal receptacle items, because you can delete items that way. It used to be the only real way to get rid of trash items in New Leaf (you had to pay the Nooklings or Re-Tail to take it off your hands) that you fished up, and with no DIYs to use them, they were utterly worthless unless you wanted them as decor. You could also use them to get rid of fake art you bought my mistake if you didn't want to decorate with it.

 

[allainah]

Wow thank you for this because i was actually considering buying these yesterday night i too thought "oh well i doubt they'll corrupt my game, i'll be fine!" but now this!?!... no thank you ;--;

 

[PikaPika19]

Ah, geez! I heard about this but I assumed it was probably some scammer trying to pass around fake/hacked items to cheat people out of their hard earned bells, NMT, etc.. But this is way worse then I thought! Giving someone an item that corrupts their save? Geez. Why even do that except to just be mean?

I'm a bit ashamed of these AC "influencers" who are trying to claim that it's fine because nothing has happened to them. If you're going to show it off, at least make it clear that it's hacked and by trying to replicate it you run a risk of losing your save or something. Some kind of disclaimer should be put.

 

[Uffe]

I guess from now on I'll just go to a person's island to do sales, trades, and cataloging. I already have trust issues.

 

[idiotdoomspiral]

As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.

reddit is so bad LOL. referring to the posts on there, someone might add a stranger as their best friend for multiple reasons. it doesnt seem like it can do much on the surface. most people probably dont know or care to know that you can only plant trees if you are best friends with someone and they also probably wouldnt know about others being malicious with hacked trees either. there are multiple ways i can think of someone manipulating someone else into adding them as a best friend through trading. theyre acting like theyre so smart because they wouldnt fall for it when they were literally just given the info to protect themselves from this happening to them.

 

[Neechan]

They looked pretty, but I knew that they were hacked in as I saw those heart diys that weren’t in game yet....sucks for the unfortunate victims that don’t know better and were unaware.

Spoiler

Also, everyone talks about nh having glitches and saying It was rushed, but nl had it too? I recall hearing about save issues and corruption before it was released In june of 2013 as Japan got it first (sorry I know it’s off topic but I didn’t know where to put this)

 

[Bcat]

Speaking from a software engineering standpoint, I would imagine that the only 'safe' way to get rid of them would be to plant them on a mystery island since that memory should be released as soon as you depart the island.

Couldn’t you use the trash-can to throw them away? That’s what I would do.

EDIT: just saw you answered that. Nvm