You are welcome. But what does it matter how it is done. Bioware says they fixed it and are aware of the problem. That should be the end of it.

 

It is also against the terms of conduct on the forums.

 

Exploit any bug in the Service or in any BioWare product to gain unfair advantage in the game and/or communicate the existence of any such bug (either directly or through the public posting) to any other user of the Service.

 

http://www.swtor.com/legalnotices/rulesofconduct

 

So it is more than morality.

 

 

This for the truth of the words !

At first i was like

"OMG BAN THESE BASTARDS"

 

then i thought about it

and realized.

Theres nothing on the GTN worth buying anyways.

The first patch broke the slicing skill.

The second patch broke exploits.

The third patch broke more exploits.

 

Eight hours every time, at least, to resolve... NOTHING of the game itself. I don't care about exploits. I care about trying to play and if i can't harvest anything and Bioware is more troubled about the exploits... we've a problem. How many players are affected by the exploits? And how many about the lots of bugs?

More work for the players please.

 

None of the patches lasted 8 hours tho... So.... why you mad bro?

I don't understand why people are acting like this is a unique situation to this game. This kind of thing has happened in every MMO I've ever played, going back to text-based MUDs.

 

You can't make sure that a complex game is exploit-proof any more than you can make sure that a game is bug-proof. Even single-player RPGs have exploits, it's just that in that case no one cares because the exploiter isn't hurting anyone else.

 

There are always going to be people looking for ways to create money and items out of thin air using exploits. Clever people too, some are virtually professionals. You know those spam emails that have been popping up offering credits for real cash? Where do you think those credits are coming from? It's a big business in real life, a gray market where smart people work very hard to exploit MMOs to make real money.

 

This kind of thing is inevitable in an MMO. Even without exploits, sweat shops of credit farmers can inflate the economy by amassing and selling credits. The devs simply have to deal with it as best they can and try to prevent this type of thing from having too much of an impact on the game.

 

We don't know how much money flooded into the economy. We don't know exactly what BW has done about it other than to emergency-patch the exploits. We don't know what the impact has been or will be on the economy.

 

There's no reason to assume that the sky is falling because of this. It's unsurprising that the exploits happened, all we know is that they got patched quickly. Only time will tell how much damage has been done and how well the devs are dealing with it, it's a bit early to assume the worst.

Edited January 7, 2012 by SpringDrive

At first i was like

"OMG BAN THESE BASTARDS"

 

then i thought about it

and realized.

Theres nothing on the GTN worth buying anyways.

 

This is kind of true, but the credits may still be in the economy when that changes.

heya guys,

got some funny ideas to solve the problem... i think its little bit cooler then permaban them XD

well maybe its more like a joke, but i would love it:

 

id say make a live event out of it ;-)

1. fix all money exploits... some people on other boards posted that there are more working ones remaining...

2. ban them 7 - 30 days

3.strip them naked and rip off thsir credits... on all toons

4. force them to have an exploiter title over their head for some time (1-6 months)

5 make them attackable for all players for a while (same duration like the title)

6. once the char got killed by players for amount of x times, he wents to an ingame prison (which is visitable by all players XD ) for x days

now there are to ways to get your char free again

1. wait for the x days

2. pay 1-10% of the amount the character exploited

 

now there are 2 ways to get ur char uneffected again...

1. duration of the exploiter title ran out

2. the char payed all his duped credits for jail free passes

 

ah and... lock the possibility to create/delete characters on their accounts xD

 

now on the other side legit players have a new daily named "kill the sploiters" which gives them xp or. ;-)

something like that ;-)

 

advantages:

fun

exploiters are shown offically

sploiters got a punishment through that hard handicap... but they still can play... so no subs get lost

 

well maybe its more effictive then just ban them... cuz they just get a new account with a new key...

ah well... i forgot something... restrict the exploiter title duration to run only if there is an active subscribtion ;-)

 

just my two cents about this topic ;-)

 

... aww before i forget... dont strip all chars... i love my small treasure of 40k crds :-)

 

and excuse my terrible english skills :-P i know, they suck... just hoping the main idea of this can be understood :-)

Some people just believe they have a right to exploit a game for its flaws or mechanics. It's up to the devs to place boundaries so that even the dumbest things can't be taken advantage of, because someone somewhere will find it and use it. PVP in any game is a good example, as well as gold farming. There's just a lot of people that don't feel they have to work for what they get and they don't care who they hurt to get it. Because to them, exploiting is just part of the game. They don't bother with semantics or ethics.

Hold on take a step back, permanently ban them. There is money on the line they can't just say someone can't play the game.

Hold on take a step back, permanently ban them. There is money on the line they can't just say someone can't play the game.

 

Yes they can because they broke the EULA (the small print) so they have a right to ban them.

Don't permaban them.

 

Do the following permanently.

 

Give them perma title. Exploiter

Do not allow them to use the GTN

Don't allow them to trade with any other characters.

Don't allow them to use the mail.

 

This will keep there illegal ill gotten gain out of the economy.

 

Whether BW does it for any future characters. That is up to them.

They need to come down very hard on these exploiters if they are to have any credibility at all. I got over a dozen alts started....less than 20k credits on all of them...I worked hard getting them all through the start zones....I feel I have accomplished something

 

These exploiters don't care about accomplishment,..they just doing it for the lol's...they just criminals and hope they are perma-banned. Millions of credits already??? omg...that's crazy!

We're aware of your concerns regarding this issue, and are conducting a full investigation of the impact. Please rest assured that anyone found to be in violation of our Terms of Service will have appropriate action taken against them. We will provide more information as it becomes available. Thank you!

 

Thank you!

Good speed for this "operation". I hope you have all the data logged that are needed to track down all exploiters and credits launderer.

Edited January 7, 2012 by muleDArule

lol BioFail.

Okay, so far we got an official response (although not a full thread) that this matter will be dealt with. Good.

 

Now lets speculate what measures can be taken by BW.

 

From my point of view, those are:

 

1. (unlikely) Closing this thread, and ignore the problem*

 

2. Make formal reply, and ignore the problem

 

3. Make formal reply, temporarily ban those who responsible (ie practically ignore the problem, in my opinion)

 

4. Make formal reply, temporarily ban those who responsible, remove all ill-gotten credits and items from the game

 

5. Make formal reply, permaban those who responsible (including throwaways and such, maybe using IP bans), remove all ill-gotten credits and items from the game

 

6. Server rollback (and derivatives). Just simple as that.

 

 

*—by problem I mean, of course, the effects of this exploit, because patch affects only the tip of the dung heap

 

 

 

As a paying customer, I will only be satisfied with 4 and 5, and even 6 (lvl 46 with 500k),

 

but what are yours thoughts?

i dont think they will act like 1-3

 

6 isnt possible i think... somewhere i read that the exploit is in game since beta... means you have to rollback to the first day... its like a complete game reset...

 

well a game reset would be a possibility... but plz fix bugs first... and give double-xp-buff-items out (on quest xp effective too)

 

... tbh

i think the best would be:

remove all sploited items+credits on the sploiters accounts+throwaway accounts

temp ban these that used it lower --> less then 500k or something like that

perma ban these, that used it high and effected the economy -> 500k+

perma ban + ip ban these that duped 10.000k+ (maybe it hits some of the people that sell credits for real money...)

One of my guildies gave all of us 500k each today, he must have made millions during that exploit...sigh..

One of my guildies gave all of us 500k each today, he must have made millions during that exploit...sigh..

 

and this is the reason why you just cant ban people that just got money transfered...

see my post above...

bump until we get official response

I'd be ok with making a formal post and then permabanning the exploiters. If they can take away some of the credits, great, but other accounts getting caught in the crossfire for receiving gifts will just make more people unhappy.

 

If they rollback the servers, I'd be more upset than if nothing else happened.

Can't believe this thread has fallen to page eight. It needs to be boosted until we get an acceptable reply from Bioware regarding what action has been taken against the exploiters.

 

 

According to info from other websites, there are still TWO known un-patched exploits people are taking advantage of. And the ones that have been patched, have resulted in literally "billions" of credits being artificially introduced into the economy. On my server alone, I know of two large (60 people plus) guilds that have been taking advantage of this exploit for a long time, and many of those people have individually amassed 300 milllion credits + from it.

 

THis is a kill to the economy. Reports are that some people got a warning email from bioware but no action was taken against their account and they were allowed to keep what they made from their exploits.

 

One big problem is, and this is my guess, only 5% of players read the forums. So 95% of the population is not even aware that these exploits existed and the harm that they have caused on the economy.

 

 

Personal observations from my server:

 

 

A blue lvl 25 robe that cost 5K credits a few days ago now selling for 50K

a stack of "green goo" that sold for 2k a few days ago is now selling for 25K

a purple protype blaster, lvl 29, that sold for 7k a few days ago now selling for 55K

 

 

There is little doubt that this sudden spike of inflation is a result of exploted credits being introduced into the economy.

 

Bioware, just telling us, in a reply to this thread, that you are investigating the issue is not sufficient. A response must be made on the forum main page, outlining that you are aware of the problem, the implication it has on the servers, and, most importantly, what action you are taking against those that exploited this bug.

 

I realize that you would rather this thread die and pretend that the problem never happened, but you cannot do that. There are people who care about the survivability of this game.

The first patch broke the slicing skill.

The second patch broke exploits.

The third patch broke more exploits.

 

Eight hours every time, at least, to resolve... NOTHING of the game itself.

 

lolwut

 

Every single one of the latest patches has been under three hours, several under two.

bump until we get official response

 

You've had a response, they've said the will investigate and take action where required.

 

That's all you need to know. You are acting as if BioWare should report everything back to the players. They might give us an update on what the investigation found (if anything) but that's it, you aren't going to get a running commentary of everything they are doing on the matter.

Okay, so far we got an official response (although not a full thread) that this matter will be dealt with. Good.

 

Now lets speculate what measures can be taken by BW.

 

From my point of view, those are:

 

1. (unlikely) Closing this thread, and ignore the problem*

 

2. Make formal reply, and ignore the problem

 

3. Make formal reply, temporarily ban those who responsible (ie practically ignore the problem, in my opinion)

 

4. Make formal reply, temporarily ban those who responsible, remove all ill-gotten credits and items from the game

 

5. Make formal reply, permaban those who responsible (including throwaways and such, maybe using IP bans), remove all ill-gotten credits and items from the game

 

6. Server rollback (and derivatives). Just simple as that.

 

 

*—by problem I mean, of course, the effects of this exploit, because patch affects only the tip of the dung heap

 

 

 

As a paying customer, I will only be satisfied with 4 and 5, and even 6 (lvl 46 with 500k),

 

but what are yours thoughts?

 

 

They can't just close this thread. The issue is too big.

You've had a response, they've said the will investigate and take action where required.

 

That's all you need to know. You are acting as if BioWare should report everything back to the players. They might give us an update on what the investigation found (if anything) but that's it, you aren't going to get a running commentary of everything they are doing on the matter.

 

I am not asking that they specifically tell us what happened to each exploiter. I am asking that they make a REAL announcement---not just a canned reply to this thread--acknowledging the problem. Either as a headline post stickied or something in the launcher. The 95% of the people who DO NOT read the forums also need to be made aware of this issue.

They can't just close this thread. The issue is too big.

 

Really, I would love to see some hard evidence which shows this is a 'big issue' and not a tiny issue blown out of all proportion by a few exaggerators. You really have no clue what impact this has had on the economy of the game, so please stop pretending that this is a more important issue than it really is.

 

BioWare are going to investigate, it is my belief that there has been no significant or long lasting impact on server economies, and I expect BioWare to agree.