The best solution to this is a weapon slot in the outfit designer. Then color crystal and tunings are tied to your outfit and you can transfer your legacy weapon with any crystal and without tuning. Bioware ITS TIME for the armed outfit designer!

Good to hear Keith, sad that we'll have to wait a month to get it though. Would've been nice if it was done in the first place or reverted until 5.4.

lol at bioware answer....greed

Shouldn't have done anything until you fixed the Account Wide unlocked items to work properly.

 

So basically... because you deployed Tunings without properly implementation the rest of the players got shafted. Your team KNEW people would use that unlock on tunings like that. WHY would you have deployed it in 5.2.2? Now we all get to wait a MONTH for you to fix this mess up. Thanks - I'll just move back to legacy bound crystals or crafted.

 

Now it's going to cost you even more to get people to even USE CM crap anymore. Less CM money inbound.

I won't be using them (CM Crystals) and certainly won't bother with Tunings (Don't even have one yet).

 

BAD PR move Keith. You lost money in this roll out not just in the last month but going forward.

Edited July 11, 2017 by dscount

lol at bioware answer....greed

 

 

Got it in one.

 

 

Also funny how Keith is calling it an exploit now when Eric explicitly stated in the past it was not an exploit. Basically they just realised they maybe can squeeze a few more dollars. How many of us are going to redo all our weapons back to cartel things though.

 

I still feel cheated and disrespected after unlocking so many crystals and things for my account and no longer being able to use them.

Hey all,

 

Let’s review today’s Crystals and Weapon Tuning change and what caused it. With Patch 5.2.2, we made a change so everyone could take advantage of the Weapon Tunings across their account. We did that by adding them into Collections. This is the same process we use for Flairs, Armor Sets, Mounts, Crystals, Weapons, Pets, and more. This appeared to be a very welcomed change, but over the past month we found out players were subverting the collection system by using an exploit related to Legacy Weapons. Sure, you can argue it’s been that way for a long time, but Weapon Tunings were new and being able to use them across your entire account is a cool benefit.

 

What happened is some players would add the Tuning to a legacy weapon, send to an Alt, remove it on that Alt, re-add it to the weapon, which would then incorrectly unlock it in Collections on that toon. They would then send that weapon to all of their toons and perform the same process. Thus circumventing the entire collection system and obtaining Weapon Tunings for their legacy without having to pay for it. As everyone has pointed out, Crystals sold via the Cartel Market could also be collection unlocked this way, and in fact, as players have clearly stated in this thread, they’ve been doing that for a very long time.

 

We did not impact the ability to use Crystals and Tunings in Legacy Weapons and we did not prevent you transferring mods, hilts, barrels, augments, or enhancements, through your legacy weapons (which I do all the time). This change did create a situation for all of us who are using Collections properly where there is an added step (and credit cost) to moving weapons. Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

 

As most of you already know, we do not communicate details about exploits and typically only acknowledge their existence after a fix has been deployed. In this case, we included it with our Patch Notes yesterday so you knew ahead of time what we were doing today. I also know this makes some of you unhappy, but the loophole needed to be closed and we did that in today’s patch.

 

---Keith

 

So you just proved everyone that all you guys need is money grab. I wish u could fix buggs, make class balance,listen to players complaints as fast as you implement new changes for money grabs.

 

Why UC are still not legacy wide?

 

When you do something with pt/vanguard defenses? They are squishy as hell

 

When you fix numerous buggs?(bugged panel after warzones, bugged companions, tap-phase walk on novare etc)

 

When you do something slow pvp gearing progression/bolster?

 

If you want money grab - pls work FOR IT.

And why pray tell, are the DvL tunings labeled as cartel market items???

So now it is considered an exploit after you all listed how to do it on the forums. The ban hammer is now inbound for August then?

So I'll put my good crystals back in 3 months lol okay.

Hey all,

 

 

 

As most of you already know, we do not communicate details about exploits and typically only acknowledge their existence after a fix has been deployed. In this case, we included it with our Patch Notes yesterday so you knew ahead of time what we were doing today. I also know this makes some of you unhappy, but the loophole needed to be closed and we did that in today’s patch.

 

---Keith

 

Hi Keith,

 

Thanks for the explanation. I have a question if you'd indulge me:

 

Was it your intention to allow a character to place a tuning in a legacy weapon, and then to allow other alts to use that weapon - just not to get a free unlock of the tuning as well?

 

If the answer above is yes, wouldn't the better way to close that loop/exploit to be to not grant collection unlock for a tuning removed rather than require the tuning is unlocked via CC for the entire account?

 

If the answer was no, then disregard.

Hey all,

 

Let’s review today’s Crystals and Weapon Tuning change and what caused it. With Patch 5.2.2, we made a change so everyone could take advantage of the Weapon Tunings across their account. We did that by adding them into Collections. This is the same process we use for Flairs, Armor Sets, Mounts, Crystals, Weapons, Pets, and more. This appeared to be a very welcomed change, but over the past month we found out players were subverting the collection system by using an exploit related to Legacy Weapons. Sure, you can argue it’s been that way for a long time, but Weapon Tunings were new and being able to use them across your entire account is a cool benefit.

 

What happened is some players would add the Tuning to a legacy weapon, send to an Alt, remove it on that Alt, re-add it to the weapon, which would then incorrectly unlock it in Collections on that toon. They would then send that weapon to all of their toons and perform the same process. Thus circumventing the entire collection system and obtaining Weapon Tunings for their legacy without having to pay for it. As everyone has pointed out, Crystals sold via the Cartel Market could also be collection unlocked this way, and in fact, as players have clearly stated in this thread, they’ve been doing that for a very long time.

 

We did not impact the ability to use Crystals and Tunings in Legacy Weapons and we did not prevent you transferring mods, hilts, barrels, augments, or enhancements, through your legacy weapons (which I do all the time). This change did create a situation for all of us who are using Collections properly where there is an added step (and credit cost) to moving weapons. Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

 

As most of you already know, we do not communicate details about exploits and typically only acknowledge their existence after a fix has been deployed. In this case, we included it with our Patch Notes yesterday so you knew ahead of time what we were doing today. I also know this makes some of you unhappy, but the loophole needed to be closed and we did that in today’s patch.

 

---Keith

 

Something BW said is NOT exploit and has been there for 5 + years is suddenly a exploit? BW/EA is showing how petty and greedy they are.

 

People scream not to do in first place and now you saying you's will revert it in months time?, why did you even bother to do it first place? you give your self works and issue to fix by doing stupid stuff like this in first place

Edited July 11, 2017 by Kyuuu

Keith, the thing is, you fixed a "loophole" that had been around for 4 years, which is a feature after that long. You've, once again, made this game more alt unfriendly.

 

I don't care about the Tunings... The crystals are an issue though. The fact that they unlock in collections should have been chalked up to a learning experience for you, or do what you did for Tunings only... Including crystals was just absurd and makes the little things annoying about this game just pile up.

 

Revert this change for crystals... They're junk CM items anyway... Meet your customers half way... It's only reasonable.

So now it is considered an exploit after you all listed how to do it on the forums. The ban hammer is now inbound for August then?

Unlikely as they even validated in a past post by Musco that it was NOT an exploit.

 

Bioware should not have deployed 5.2.2 with Tuning having the same cut/paste approach as crystals. That was just piss poor management of the patch release and failure to mitigate the risks associated with not plugging that hole then.

 

Fast forward to this patch and the approach used basically BROKE anyone that actually did unlock this stuff account wide. (I tried one of my Account Wide unlocked crystals and it didn't work).

 

To be blunt here - they could have waited and implemented the same solution they will in August. If your CM items are NOT account unlocked it would not allow you to place into Legacy Cargo or Email. All those Cut/Paste folks would have been SOL and useless since they wouldn't work. Instead the approach they just took smells of Johnny Intern is running the development shop in Austin. This was GREED and sadly greed that could have kept people happy and mitigation of the issue long term if they did it right. NOPE that would have made sense.

Edited July 11, 2017 by dscount

Something BW said is NOT exploit and has been there for 5 + years is suddenly a exploit? BW/EA is showing how petty and greedy they are.

 

this. suddenly making something an exploit to squeeze money is nothing but greedy and cashgrabbing. you should revert the change, or make this change apply ONLY to tunings. you said the change was due to the tunings, why cripple crystals too? i am a collector and collected half the crystals in game, i would never be able to buy account wide unlocks for *all* of those. now you removed my motivation to give any more money into getting the crystals themselves

Edited July 11, 2017 by MotherCrusher

Keith, the thing is, you fixed a "loophole" that had been around for 4 years, which is a feature after that long. You've, once again, made this game more alt unfriendly.

 

I don't care about the Tunings... The crystals are an issue though. The fact that they unlock in collections should have been chalked up to a learning experience for you, or do what you did for Tunings only... Including crystals was just absurd and makes the little things annoying about this game just pile up.

 

Revert this change for crystals... They're junk CM items anyway... Meet your customers half way... It's only reasonable.

 

Exactly. Crystals have stats we have to have. Tunings aren't a requirement for gearing.

I use only legacy weapons. And i dont need to get crystals out of legacy weapon.

So why dont make crystal or tuning destruct if it gets out of weapon?

No one will be able to move it trough legacy bank or mail to other chars.

Hey all,

 

Let’s review today’s Crystals and Weapon Tuning change and what caused it. With Patch 5.2.2, we made a change so everyone could take advantage of the Weapon Tunings across their account. We did that by adding them into Collections. This is the same process we use for Flairs, Armor Sets, Mounts, Crystals, Weapons, Pets, and more. This appeared to be a very welcomed change, but over the past month we found out players were subverting the collection system by using an exploit related to Legacy Weapons. Sure, you can argue it’s been that way for a long time, but Weapon Tunings were new and being able to use them across your entire account is a cool benefit.

 

What happened is some players would add the Tuning to a legacy weapon, send to an Alt, remove it on that Alt, re-add it to the weapon, which would then incorrectly unlock it in Collections on that toon. They would then send that weapon to all of their toons and perform the same process. Thus circumventing the entire collection system and obtaining Weapon Tunings for their legacy without having to pay for it. As everyone has pointed out, Crystals sold via the Cartel Market could also be collection unlocked this way, and in fact, as players have clearly stated in this thread, they’ve been doing that for a very long time.

 

We did not impact the ability to use Crystals and Tunings in Legacy Weapons and we did not prevent you transferring mods, hilts, barrels, augments, or enhancements, through your legacy weapons (which I do all the time). This change did create a situation for all of us who are using Collections properly where there is an added step (and credit cost) to moving weapons. Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

 

As most of you already know, we do not communicate details about exploits and typically only acknowledge their existence after a fix has been deployed. In this case, we included it with our Patch Notes yesterday so you knew ahead of time what we were doing today. I also know this makes some of you unhappy, but the loophole needed to be closed and we did that in today’s patch.

 

---Keith

 

So Eric Musco lied several years ago when he said it wasnt an exploit? I am sorry but you have something we were specifically told wasnt an exploit, so if you are gonna change that definition and suddenly classify it as an exploit yea i think that deserves a much different response than someone finding a new bug in the game and exploiting it for an unfair advantage over other players.

I use only legacy weapons. And i dont need to get crystals out of legacy weapon.

So why dont make crystal or tuning destruct if it gets out of weapon?

No one will be able to move it trough legacy bank or mail to other chars.

 

basically cripple anyone using non-CM crystals? no thank you. i make plenty of money by crafting crystals, i do not want my money income crippled by this.

Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

Thanks, Keith! While I wish this hadn't happened in the first place (and I wonder why no developer saw this coming), and I wish we had received a reply yesterday already (even if it's just "thanks for the feedback, we'll put out a reply tomorrow"), it is great that you are fixing the issue so we can once again use legacy weapons with any crystals and tunings.

 

In the end, this still means that we can no longer transfer crystals like we used to for years, but I trust that this wasn't your plan all along (overshadowing that controversy by creating an even bigger controversy) and that it was a real oversight.

Edited July 12, 2017 by Jerba

Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

Most important part of the post. Thanks for this, Keith. Good to know that it's only a temporary problem.

 

I do think it's unfair to say that people's previous use of cartel modifications with legacy weapons was an exploit, as we clearly had it on record that Bioware did not consider it an exploit.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Estelindis

What happened is some players would add the Tuning to a legacy weapon, send to an Alt, remove it on that Alt, re-add it to the weapon, which would then incorrectly unlock it in Collections on that toon.

See, the real problem here is that you should have anticipated this.

WE certainly knew this is how it worked, why didn't y'all?

 

Now, the *PROPER* fix for the problem is to prevent the free unlock from all except the character that did it first.

Then everyone who was using the system as intended gets to be happy, and the only ones left unhappy are the ones who were circumventing the account unlock system.

Hey all,

 

Let’s review today’s Crystals and Weapon Tuning change and what caused it. With Patch 5.2.2, we made a change so everyone could take advantage of the Weapon Tunings across their account. We did that by adding them into Collections. This is the same process we use for Flairs, Armor Sets, Mounts, Crystals, Weapons, Pets, and more. This appeared to be a very welcomed change, but over the past month we found out players were subverting the collection system by using an exploit related to Legacy Weapons. Sure, you can argue it’s been that way for a long time, but Weapon Tunings were new and being able to use them across your entire account is a cool benefit.

 

What happened is some players would add the Tuning to a legacy weapon, send to an Alt, remove it on that Alt, re-add it to the weapon, which would then incorrectly unlock it in Collections on that toon. They would then send that weapon to all of their toons and perform the same process. Thus circumventing the entire collection system and obtaining Weapon Tunings for their legacy without having to pay for it. As everyone has pointed out, Crystals sold via the Cartel Market could also be collection unlocked this way, and in fact, as players have clearly stated in this thread, they’ve been doing that for a very long time.

 

We did not impact the ability to use Crystals and Tunings in Legacy Weapons and we did not prevent you transferring mods, hilts, barrels, augments, or enhancements, through your legacy weapons (which I do all the time). This change did create a situation for all of us who are using Collections properly where there is an added step (and credit cost) to moving weapons. Our plan with Patch 5.4 in August is to resolve this new issue by allowing Collection Unlocked Crystals and Tunings to be transferred using your legacy weapons as you did previously (no cost/no removing of the items first).

 

As most of you already know, we do not communicate details about exploits and typically only acknowledge their existence after a fix has been deployed. In this case, we included it with our Patch Notes yesterday so you knew ahead of time what we were doing today. I also know this makes some of you unhappy, but the loophole needed to be closed and we did that in today’s patch.

 

---Keith

 

...except that Eric Musco told us years ago that transferring CM crystals through legacy gear was explicitly NOT an exploit. So this really makes it sound like you've decided to call it an exploit only now that something more expensive to unlock (weapon tunings) has come around. The only motivation seems to be squeezing more RL money out of players.

 

I'm very disappointed in this decision, Keith. Why couldn't you have only treated tunings as un-tradeable through legacy weapons? Why couldn't you have waited until the fix you say is planned for next month to allow unlocked items to transfer? All you're doing with this change is generating ill-will in your player base, and causing people to decide to simply not buy Cartel Market crystals and tunings anymore! Is that really worth a few extra bucks in the short term?

 

I've been cheerleading for you since you were promoted. This has put a damper on my enthusiasm in doing so, I have to admit.

Edited July 11, 2017 by AscendingSky

Patching something you' said over there years WAS NOT EXPLOIT after 5+ years and saying it EXPLOIT show how bad management is and how stupid they really are.

 

THis change was done after all this time was done purely out of greed, The fact that you trying to rationalize this change after 5+ YEARS make it look that much worse.

 

IF it was EXPLOIT 5+ years AGO and KNEW about it why it only gett fixed after you's added tuning to collection? oh i know cause your charging 500+ cc for the account unlocks for them.

 

Again this was changed after all this time out pure greed, you know and we know it. you's need to stop trying find new ways to piss off what left of population

 

This need to be reverted at the very least the color crystals changes need to be undone. this change only benefits BW greed, and inconvenience the individual,, IT not like we could take the unlocks and then sell the item to other people.

 

THen again last few years has been all about how can we milk people with CS.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Kyuuu

-snip-

 

Thanks for the update and it looks like pretty much everything on the issue has been addressed in your post.

 

Glad to see you hadn't been scared off from posting as I thought might have been the case after that recent issue around criticism etc.