You bought this game Doggie???? This strat actually works its especially fun to play with because people don't understand the selling and rebuying techniques. I do!

Would love to see how this works out late game for you when high DPS heroes eat your hero alive, since you have nothing on you but idols.

I was on the recieving end of this and it is complete rape. Hats off for beating the system. That being said I'm fairly sure this is an exploit. I'm sure they have bigger issues to be working on at the moment but there really isn't much you can do to stop this early on, it's pretty much bend over and get analized, no lube.

How the hell is this an exploit?  I honestly don't see how it could be set up this way unintentionally.  The population caps literally have to be set up per subtype and the programmers would have to realize the implication that you could then have two of each subtype simultaneously.  Unless there's supposed to be another mechanism to prevent this(that's bugged and isn't working).  I can't see how this is an exploit.  Exploits require a bug and I can't imagine how this could be a bug, plus this is the only way idols can possibly be worth buying.  Could you direct me to a post of a dev saying it's an exploit and will be fixed?

On the topic of the strategy itself, I think the obvious counter is to try to take down the minions at first instead of the demigod.  Since each minion is an investment in gold that you lose when the minion dies, you cost the opponent gold by taking down his minions.

You're summoning them with the idol then selling the idol but keeping the minions. That doesn't seem like a bug? You lose out on a bit of gold, oh noes, you'll make it back in no time flat when you turn people into goo. This is the definition of an exploit, using something unintended to gain an advantage.

Easy fix would be once you sell an idol you lose all the minions related to it.

I don't think it seems like an exploit.  An exploit is using a bug to gain an advantage.  Unintentional byproducts of the game mechanics are fair play.  The fact is, someone made a conscious decision to put the limits on the subtypes instead of the generic types.  The direct implication of this in the game is that you'll be able to resell the idols and keep the minions unless there are other mechanisms to prevent it(and there aren't, unless they're completel defunct).  Now I don't know the history of the game's mechanics so maybe this is a relic from previous iterations and was supposed to be changed but it still had to be a conscious decision at some point to code it this way, making it a game mechanic and not a bug.  If it's not a bug, it's not an exploit.

Things can be exploits without being bugs. Releasing a game to the general population in effect gives you thousands and thousands (or even millions) more testers. People will find out ways to do things you NEVER intended and your beta testers never found or thought of. You can still be exploiting and taking advantage of something in the game without it being a bug.

An example from EQ1 is Feign Death pulling. They never thought it was a thing, no one ever came up with it in beta. Once the game launched people started doing it eventually to single pull any mob. This was an exploit of the system and was treated as such but verant eventually decided it was fine and built the game around it. But when first discovered it was classified as an exploit even though there was no actual bug involved.

People will figure out shit you NEVER EVER in a million years would have thought of. My motto in games is People are all idiots, but they're all criminal masterminds at the same time. 99% of the people you run into gaming are complete morons who you'd sooner smother than get a beer with, but if there's a way to beat the system they'll find it.

Also, if you look at Ke5trel you'll see that it isn't working as intended and should be fixed. Also classifying it as an exploit.

The definition of an exploit needs to be limited to bugs.  If any unintentional aspect of gameplay is considered to be an exploit, then the term exploit is essentially meaningless because every imbalance or unforseen synergy between gameplay elements will qualify(both of which are crucial to the continuing evolution of gameplay).

Frogboy's response in that thread was that he agreed with the poster of the thread.  The poster of the thread said it was cheesy, he didn't mention it as an exploit.  Therefore that does not qualify as a stardock post saying this is an exploit.  I don't know whether I agree that it should be changed.  As cerulean pointed out, minion spam is not anywhere near unstoppable.  In fact, at this point, I'd only consider using it with Sedna because you need the passive healing wind to keep minions alive when they're being slammed by area of effect.  I would also say the emphasis should be on archers and to a lesser extent healers.  The melee minions are far too susceptible to area of effect to be worth it beyond the first wave(I may even question their worth in the initial wave at some point).

If stardock thinks it's an exploit, they should explicitly state it.  The fact that it's on the list of things to change does not automatically make it either a bug or an exploit.  At most it's a design issue and possibly a balance issue.  These things need to go into lists too you know.

I'm not going to argue anymore about how to define an exploit.  I've stated my position on why it must be confined to bugs to have any useful meaning and I have nothing else to add.  I would like to know what games you're talking about in your third paragraph though.  That way I can avoid them, and their publishers.  I don't have any desire to play games that the developers are too lazy to fix and instead ban anyone who doesn't play the way they think you should.

Most demigods, if not all have an area effect ability that will wipe the floor with 10+ minions at a time, i'm going to treat this as not a biggy, but I can see where 20+ minions is a strong strat.

Well even by that logic, buying an item and using its ability, then selling it and still having accesses to its ability is most certainly a bug.
If you could buy boots of Speed for the 10% speed bones, then sell them and still retain the bonus, that would be a massive bug, this is essentially the same.

For a similar example, in WoW, when the Summon Felguard talent was first introduced, it was possible to spec for it, summon the pet, and respec without desummong and retain the pet, this was a huge bug, and Blizzard fixed it by desummoning the pet when you lost the talent, which is probably what will happen here.

But anyway, I could care less about this bug, I usually use players poor micro to kill off their minions whenever they start to retreat anyway.

No.  Exploit is just what the word says - "exploit," as in the verb "to exploit."  Anything that you are abusing is an exploit, any "trick" that you are using that is unforseen and unintended is an exploit.  Doesn't have to be a bug, in fact most exploits aren't.

IMO it's not exploiting. The totems only grant you the ability to summon the minions, once summoned they belong to you and not the totems. A smart player will know how to keep is minions alive for as long as possible while a dumb player will have them killed.