its funny and a study in humanity to read posts and see who exploited (who is afraid they will be banned) and who didnt...Personally PERMA BAN these offenders and their IP address....if they want to come back, let them purchase the game again and start over..im all for a second chance.. but this is after you PUNISH severly the first offense...

Losing these individuals will only strengthen the GAME in the long run any way...I hope BW sees this..

Not true. Unfortunately these new improvements to detect cheats with 1.2 just deal with speed hacks etc. This patch deals with an exploit and they don't have tools to deal with it nor will they do anything if the credits are transferred to different characters. The people involved may have simply been honest and reported it and some may have kept quite and moved the credits around. The second scenario Bioware can't really deal with....

I didn't realize you were a BioWare dev.

What makes you think they can't track transactions?

Ok, you have about 10 years on me. For me it was Final Fight and Double Dragon in the 9th grade.

 

Pinball of course.

Now when I think about it, Whack-a-Mole was a fun activity while out getting drunk lol.

Actually, the very first video game I remember after Pong (yep, Pong) was called Space Wars, and was it this huge upright 70s Sci-fi designed case in a metallic paint job big enough for two players.

Cheating is always exaggerated but that's why you have to make an example of people who cheat to counter this.

 

In an informal study people found that 1/3 of all Diablo 1 players cheat, but ask anyone who actually played Diablo 1 and they'll probably tell you they're the only person in the world that didn't cheat in Diablo 1 (and 1/3 of them are lying). You certainly can't be faulted to think 99% of the people cheated in that game, even though it's pretty safe to say that this is not the case.

 

The problem with Bioware is that they don't really make a big deal out of this. Most MMORPGs periodically have these announcement about how heads will roll for those who cheat. It's not clear if doing this stuff actually stops the cheating, but at least it gives players a piece of mind. Saying 193153 accounts have been banned for cheating at least sounds more reassuring than 'trust us, we're dealing with this problem'.

Single player games are not comparable. I cheat all the time in single player games. I have limited time and sometimes I just want to rush through the rest of the game to see the story. I remember hex editing my save games back in the late 80s. Ahh.. good times..

its funny and a study in humanity to read posts and see who exploited (who is afraid they will be banned) and who didnt...Personally PERMA BAN these offenders and their IP address....if they want to come back, let them purchase the game again and start over..im all for a second chance.. but this is after you PUNISH severly the first offense...

Losing these individuals will only strengthen the GAME in the long run any way...I hope BW sees this..

You can't really do the IP ban anymore. Since IPs switch often from the ISP. You can do MAC bans But closing the account and forcing them to purchase a new game is a solid way to go... But every time I suggest this, they ignore it, or give you 20 free levels, or free to play.

I never see how reporting someone will benefit you. Play your own game, if people want to use exploits then thats their business. Same with RL. If someones murdered someone then yea, they are a danger to the public and id probably snitch. But other than that its their business unless it directly effects me.

Spoken like a wannabe miscreant (or perhaps a successful one?). I've taken a sword off my wall and chased a burglar our of my home. I've run down two purse-snatchers..and that's in the last five years. I'm a regular real life white knight, and damn proud of it. More people in this world need to do what's right, rather than try to screw other people over.

pfft back in my day all we had was Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope

You mean Pong!

You mean Pong!

no I don't... pong wasn't till almost 15 years AFTER tennis for two...

This patch deals with an exploit and they don't have tools to deal with it nor will they do anything if the credits are transferred to different characters.

What?

What makes you think they can't track transactions?

^ This.

Sigh. Every MMO I've ever played has tracked transactions, down to the credit. In SWG, each credit has it's own unique "serial#" if you will, and could be tracked no matter who it went to, and where it went to. I can't prove that BW can track transactions, but historical evidence based on years of MMO's including indie companies with a fraction of this budgets, would suggest they can.

Please, please stop throwing out these outrageous claims.

There's a huge difference between saying the grass is green and explaining photosynthesis.

Saying there was an economic exploit allowing players to make as much as 500 million credits is the equivalent of] saying the grass is green. Asking for details on how they did it is asking for an explanation of photosynthesis.

This is why APB died. Basis for an outstanding game. A ton of ingenious things going on for the creative mind and shooter/driver alike. But the cheats got too be too much.

The cheating in APB was blown way out of proportion. I am constantly getting called a hacker when playing that game. Everyone assumes that if you are doing better than them that you are cheating. I've seen very few actual hackers in my time on APB.

no I don't... pong wasn't till almost 15 years AFTER tennis for two...

Yay somebody older than me!

I don't think I was around that far back since I was in the fourth grade when the home version of Pong came out. I remember seeing it in the arcades before this but Space Invaders was a long ways off.

So someone on the forums can't tell us if his guildmate gets banned? And we sit here having no idea whether or not our already fragile server "economy" has been flooded with an extra 5-10 billion credits at least?

Its really not about one guy getting banned tbh. They won't do anything to all that money that made it into the economy and that just ruins the crafting and money making for everyone else. Devs introduce huge money sinks that they want to drain this money, but that just makes it so the rest of us can't continually change out mods, but the things we want while the sploiters enjoy all of it.

I've been crafting and leveling trying to catch up and make money...this bullsheet makes me feel like i'm wasting my time for sure and until I see a legite way of ACTUALLY fixing whats been done as opposed to banning one guy thats already done the damage then I am considering unsubbing tbh.

TLDR version is that the sploiters end up getting more out of the game and what can they do about it now?

Yay somebody older than me!

 

I don't think I was around that far back since I was in the fourth grade when the home version of Pong came out. I remember seeing it in the arcades before this but Space Invaders was a long ways off.

tennis for two was new in 1958 and is considered one of the first electronic games with a graphical display.... and I was yanking your chain by using the oldest possible videogame I know of.... I'm only 29... so you're still much much older... grandpa

The cheating in APB was blown way out of proportion. I am constantly getting called a hacker when playing that game. Everyone assumes that if you are doing better than them that you are cheating. I've seen very few actual hackers in my time on APB.

You are right but not. There were a lot of hackers in APB. On both sides. I am not new at playing FPS, RTS, MMO, etc, not my first dance, but some of the moves that are pulled off are complete bs. Some folks were that good, and I loved facing off with them. But the cheaters, you just knew because they defied the rules of the game with their actions.

I cannot explain it. Experience lad. 'Nuff said.

Spoken like a wannabe miscreant (or perhaps a successful one?). I've taken a sword off my wall and chased a burglar our of my home. I've run down two purse-snatchers..and that's in the last five years. I'm a regular real life white knight, and damn proud of it. More people in this world need to do what's right, rather than try to screw other people over.

Quote from Cerion:" I never see how reporting someone will benefit you. Play your own game, if people want to use exploits then thats their business. Same with RL. If someones murdered someone then yea, they are a danger to the public and id probably snitch. But other than that its their business unless it directly effects me. End Quote"

Now that's partly right. I tried to get creds from a vender website and Bioware said that it was illegal. According to rule number 12 they say its illegal . But I wanted to say: For God sakes man. Its not illegal. Just let it happen!!!!.

I've seen people do it all the time. And they have any problem with it. It's kool.

Also, I liked it when people had 5 million creds. Made the game alot more easier to play. Instead of being ripped off

Like you said Cerion "but if someone murders another person then ya. Let me add this: or trading money for sexual favors, doing business with a drug cartel or selling something that really high level that could endanger people's lives.(Not about the game). NOW THAT'S ILLEGAL.

I do care, it just does not affect me... and the exploit has been patched today.

It affects 99% of players, however. You probably are affected and just aren't understanding it properly, as well. Regardless, it's an exploit, against the TOS, and harms other players. Why would you not care?

If you are aware of someone exploitng, you should report him. By not reporting him, this by proxy makes you as bad as him.

How do you know that he/she did not report their fellow guild mate?

They were simply letting us know a way the "exploit" was abused...not their choices after finding out.

What happened to the players who have 500 million credits?

 

that's what i want to know, i have been busting my toon's *** for credit's and here these people win from an exploit.

 

I normally do not care about this stuff, but i am irked by this.

 

 

How does everyone else feel about this?

Can someone please tell me what the exploit was?

Cheaters get Beaters. Nuff said

Fixed!

Can someone please tell me what the exploit was?

If we tell you we have to kill you.

The nature of the exploit cannot be discussed on the forums unless...

Can someone please tell me what the exploit was?

Not really explain, that's against the ToS. It allowed players to get large amounts of credits and it was clearly an exploit. That's really all I think I can say.