Well, there would be so much peoples on the PTS doing this, since there is so much bug, that people wouldn't have to buy CC ever again. Which would just ruin half of the income of this game.

Nah, there is a limit by the number of total people a server can hold, and besides, having more would potentially make the game's income actually go up, not down. Do you know why?

People would actually get a better game and that would mean more people would want to play it.

With the way things are currently, it literally is going down the road to a dead end eventually unless they do something drastic to change what has become an all too familiar scene of pactch release followed by re-patch after re-patch...

I mean this really is starting to look like a clown-show when they do a major game update each and everytime, and it is getting worse as time goes on.

However I am curious to see how you plan on dealing with the possibly 80% of the community that did the "exploit" seeing as you can't exactly ban half the game for it. **** dealing with people for doing something this small over a stronghold.

Well the simple solution is to remove access from those players who did gain the stronghold in this way and reset any tokens back to zero so they have to do it properly. As well as also doing the same to those who used the guild summons in the same manner.

I lost all interest in gaining the stronghold due to the conquest bonus not being the same as well as having to deactivate something else to gain it, when they resolve that part I'll get the rest of the tokens I need to access the room properly.

Hey folks,

 

There is an exploit which was introduced in Game Update 5.4 that we want to make you aware of, so that you avoid it. Currently, it is possible for someone to use the Guild Ship Summon feature to bring you into the room where you buy the Stronghold, therefore subverting the process of gaining access to the room. This is not intended and is considered an exploit. Do not participate in this exploit. This bug will be fixed in 5.4a tomorrow.

 

Following the bug being fixed we will begin to investigate the impact of the exploit and what action is required. I will post a follow-up once that has occured. We take exploits very seriously and want to ensure that SWTOR remains an even playing field. Thank you to the vast majority of you, who avoided this exploit.

 

-eric

So surely Eric in addition to patching this horrible game destroying exploit you've also added the ability to have this SH without deactivating any of the others that I own right?

I used a summons to get there - the guildie that summoned me didn't buy the stronghold because he would have had to deactivate another of his, but he had the room unlocked and we figured a summons might work to get us there (used that trick with many datacrons). I took his summons, used the terminal to visit a completed and publicly listed train because it's NEW and I wanted to see what they looked like - the two of us walked around pointing out the things we liked/disliked because we're active players, not cheaters. I didn't purchase one, he didn't purchase one, and until they remove the current limit to strongholds, I won't. I don't need another house I don't use, especially one that starts with a "U" that will be listed on the last page.

 

So yeah, I'm complaining because everything we did was 100% innocent and 100% a normal part of the game. I used ship summons to unlock the new Ops even...it's not an odd way to access places you otherwise couldn't.

It doesn't really matter, Bioware knows who did and didn't abuse the exploit. I'm sure they'll listen to the justifications and reverse any action they decide to take on it

It would NEVER have occurred to me to do this so I'm not sure it's all that obvious. Then again, I'll admit to not looking for ways to get around things by nature.

You're not the only one.

Nothing ever goes wrong when you take the path of least resistance or hope no one will catch you when you discover obvious exploits.

You're not the only one.

 

Nothing ever goes wrong when you take the path of least resistance or hope no one will catch you when you discover obvious exploits.

I got told that I'm not cynical enough nor am I competitive enough. Fair points, both. Whilst I am not crazy about the re-running of the FP (that train makes me a bit queasy) I don't think I'd feel right cheating to get the train thingie. Easy to say, I s'pose since I'm not exactly overwhelmed by the train thingie. I could see sticking things on there that I don't know what else to do with. I think some of the centrepiece items would look neat flying down the not-rails. Hmm, I wonder about clearance. Wouldn't want Saddow's head to get knocked off.

Hey folks,

 

As a heads up, the fix for this exploit did not get implemented along with the patch issues we had today. That means that this is still possible until we address it next week. I just want to reiterate that you should avoid this exploit until it is fixed.

 

Thanks everyone.

Is the offence bannable? I mean, I grinded to get access to the stronghold, so i know I am in the clear.

But I just wanted to ask openly in general. Exploits on Grand Theft Auto Online are usually dealt with by the head bodies by bans, so I am just curious as to which course of action will be taken should anyone choose to ignore your plea. Thanks Eric.

I don't even call this an exploit at all. INFACT, it's a simple line of code that you guys could of put in to prevent people from doing it, because you knew damn well they'd try to, but you didn't. However I am curious to see how you plan on dealing with the possibly 80% of the community that did the "exploit" seeing as you can't exactly ban half the game for it. **** dealing with people for doing something this small over a stronghold. You should be focusing on getting your players back, which at the moment all I see is EA's continued not caring about it's players, and only caring about how much money we give.

I'm with this guy, I hate when 'we reserve the right to ban people for exploits' becomes 'we're going to ban you for our incompetence.' You didn't think people would port there? Really? Planning on banning half your player base now?

Is the offence bannable? I mean, I grinded to get access to the stronghold, so i know I am in the clear.

But I just wanted to ask openly in general. Exploits on Grand Theft Auto Online are usually dealt with by the head bodies by bans, so I am just curious as to which course of action will be taken should anyone choose to ignore your plea. Thanks Eric.

What do you think will happen when Musco says no, you'll just get a slap on the wrist.? If it isn't banable, saying that it isn't on the forums isn't exactly a good idea.

Maybe ask yourself why people are even using an "exploit" that apparently is so incredibly bad, that you had to rush out a hotfix that led to 8h downtime.

- The weekly limit prevents access to the stronghold in the first week.

- The currency is character bound so you need to do all those flashpoint runs with the same character.

- A chance to miss out on the final bosses reward, making a veteran run barely worth more than a solo run.

- Terminal is locked behind the flashpoint grind for each character, making listing it publicly pointless.

And after you went trough all this:

- Total number of strongholds is still limited to 6, meaning you may not even be able to buy it.

QA was never their strong point.

If they'd made it 12 tokens legacy-wide , everything would have been fine. People wouldn't try to find a shortcut, and it would have saved embarrassing patching, rooting out the exploiters, deciding on actions, annoying the player-base, losing a day's play (for some people) and all that malarkey.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.... One should learn from one's mistakes. - Didn't it happen with Ziost some time ago.....?

I mean you cant be serious, do you really wanna tell me that people are soooo lazy that they dont want to run the new FPS a few times just to get the SH???

This is simply incredible, how many Master Mode runs do you need? 3? Ive done 25x runs of the SM and was at cap last week and bought the SH on day one next week. There wasnt anything else to do in game anyway!! I mean come on, yes its an exploit, but you gain nothing that awesome from it!!

Its not like its a credit exploit where you get billions, you just get a SH, which you can still get after a few FPS runs! I am very disappointed in the people using this.

Hey folks,

 

As a heads up, the fix for this exploit did not get implemented along with the patch issues we had today. That means that this is still possible until we address it next week. I just want to reiterate that you should avoid this exploit until it is fixed.

 

Thanks everyone.

So basically what you are saying is you actually did NOTHING yesterday? You broke something for 10 hours fixed it and achieved nothing. Great work guys.

I mean you cant be serious, do you really wanna tell me that people are soooo lazy that they dont want to run the new FPS a few times just to get the SH???

 

This is simply incredible, how many Master Mode runs do you need? 3? Ive done 25x runs of the SM and was at cap last week and bought the SH on day one next week. There wasnt anything else to do in game anyway!! I mean come on, yes its an exploit, but you gain nothing that awesome from it!!

 

Its not like its a credit exploit where you get billions, you just get a SH, which you can still get after a few FPS runs! I am very disappointed in the people using this.

for me I did not nor planned to use an exploit, but its not the laziness. the flashpoint itself is just... not fun. it gets slightly better once you get off the train, but the train section is several kinds of not fun. for me. I'm saying this as someone who ran star fortresses over and over for a chance at a few more standing lamps and is still running rakata prime flashpoint for a chance at a few more palms mostly. I have also, before the nerf ran old hardmodes a LOT to get the decorations from THEM before the scaling made it a pain to get them.

Umbara flashpoint is just... unfun. its a chore.

Hey folks,

 

As a heads up, the fix for this exploit did not get implemented along with the patch issues we had today. That means that this is still possible until we address it next week. I just want to reiterate that you should avoid this exploit until it is fixed.

 

Thanks everyone.

Thats great and all. Preach do the right thing as gamers waited for you to fix your mistake that accomplished nothing but if this so called offense carries a similar punishment as the companion gift exploit or the ravagers exploit or any of the others that I have ran across since the game started.

It wont be that big a deal in the end because your punishment is similar to being hit with a feather and in those past cases they got to keep their spoils as well. So no real punishment.

(Snip)

 

Umbara flashpoint is just... unfun. its a chore.

This, and some of us hate PvE, it's bad enough you make me grind bloody boring, repetitive, idiotic ops until I have the 242 pieces to turn in for 248 pieces with the pvp tokens that take for bloody ever to grind, you're going to make me grind a boring, repetitive, idiotic fp now too.

Look, this isn't hard. Does your game have a summoning mechanic? Yes? Well then if you want somewhere to be off limits to some then you bloody better disable the summoning mechanic. It's not like it's new... should've put the console on fleet and made the currency necessary to buy so everyone could view the public listing, but nooooo you had to try to be all fancy...

Lol ..... The excuses i see in this thread

Its a badly written Line of code. Why should i be punished for the mistakes bioware had made?

Using an exploit means you are using an exploit. It doesnt matter how bad a job bioware may have done.

Good example is that my bike has been stolen with my Keys in IT. Silly mistake on my part? Sure IT was. Was the thief performing a crime? According to a few people in here apparently not.

Why make us grind out this flashpoint? Its silly.

Regardless how much work unlocking might be. If you dont want to put in the effort than dont get the stronghold. How is this making IT correct to steal your way into the stronghold?

Stealing remains stealing.

All in all. When something has been classified as exploit there is no way to bend IT into An okey thing to do. Only possible excuse is when IT happened by accident.

About the possible 6th stronghold. Dont forget the official intent was 4 strongholds. After these 4 we would need to choose which ones we keep active. And when you think of IT. Where do you draw the Line? 5? 6? Or 10? Where does IT stop? Its perfectly fine to have a cap and choose the strongholds we really want.

What we do need is a way to conserve the deactivated strongholds. I personally didnt had the need to deactivate strongholds but a guildy told me the decorations would auto transfer to inventory.

Anyways. Please suck IT up guys and take responsability where its due.

Bioware for creating the easy exploit and the exploiters for being very naughty persons.

Ohw and Just run the fp with a stealther if you cant Stay alive at the last Boss.

Lol ..... The excuses i see in this thread

 

Its a badly written Line of code. Why should i be punished for the mistakes bioware had made?

 

Using an exploit means you are using an exploit. It doesnt matter how bad a job bioware may have done.

Good example is that my bike has been stolen with my Keys in IT. Silly mistake on my part? Sure IT was. Was the thief performing a crime? According to a few people in here apparently not.

 

There's a difference between "oh, we messed up the sell and buy back prices on an item that you buy with tokens thus making it possible to sell and buy back an item a thousand times to make two thousand credits" this is "we tried to make an area off limits and forgot to disable the bloody summoning mechanic, oh and btw, if you use the game as intended you can't ever view public listings unless you run the fp." How dense can you get?

And yes, if you leave the keys in your bike, stealing it is still a crime, but on the other hand you bloody deserve it

There's a difference between "oh, we messed up the sell and buy back prices on an item that you buy with tokens thus making it possible to sell and buy back an item a thousand times to make two thousand credits" this is "we tried to make an area off limits and forgot to disable the bloody summoning mechanic, oh and btw, if you use the game as intended you can't ever view public listings unless you run the fp." How dense can you get?

 

And yes, if you leave the keys in your bike, stealing it is still a crime, but on the other hand you bloody deserve it

I'm curious as well.

 

Last night there were offers everywhere to summon you there for a mere 2 million credits per person. They were building groups and summoning in mass.

I'm curious to see what happens to the so called exploiters. Will it be a simple 7 day ban? Will they have the SH taken away and thats it? You going to track down the credits that changed hands as well?

 

I'm excited and curious about the so called actions bw will take given the community doesn't seem to really care given it's a SH and the poor implementation in how it was added to start with.

As stated above, people were consciously exploiting for exploits sake and not just trying to view a stronghold behind a wall. Forget about the ones charging for a second, who would pay 2 mil credits just to view a stronghold? As to a reason why they might put the terminal behind a wall.

Well, easier to code a door that requires a specific item to be opened and a different terminal that requires 5k credits for purchasing AND reactivating the SH.

I doubt they figured how to make a purchase with credits AND a specific currency while making the reactivation cost only with credit. It was easier to do the door thing, but as people showed them, it wasn't the best choice to do.

Remember what a somewhat famous Jedi said ? The easy way leads to Sloth, who leads to the Dark Side. è_é

I hate bumping this but

There are many people whispering others who may be in their stronghold or just randomly hoping to use this exploit. I've recieved 6 of such whispers, asking for help getting to the SH room in under an hour tonight.

I hate bumping this but

There are many people whispering others who may be in their stronghold or just randomly hoping to use this exploit. I've recieved 6 of such whispers, asking for help getting to the SH room in under an hour tonight.

Yeah, I've been getting a few myself. I can honestly reply; not there yet and they leave me be. But they're trying.

As stated above, people were consciously exploiting for exploits sake and not just trying to view a stronghold behind a wall. Forget about the ones charging for a second, who would pay 2 mil credits just to view a stronghold? As to a reason why they might put the terminal behind a wall.

Oh I know but the whole way they announced the SH and then delivered it was all wrong. Just another mistake from bw.

However, I'm still curious as to what punishment the players will receive for doing the exploit as well as the ones selling access to it and if I'm right on my prediction of it being nothing more than a feathers tap on the wrist as punishment (if that), as they get to keep the SH anyway after a weeks ban from the game. (as if that was real punishment for doing the exploit).