I agree that this is an appropriate response and while I don't precisely how to bug Anvil out - I would say that it shows some significant gaps in their testing. I get regression bugs where fixing one thing causes something else to break, but this was new content. How could they not have tested this stuff (reminds me of 3.0)?

Well, I guess better late than never. Good decision on how to handle this BWA .... but these types of bugs shouldn't be there to start with. Really need to look at your investments in testing.

Just a FYI Eric this is not a exploit it just show how you guys cant code your game and don't test it.

But because you guys had to fix something that is not broke aka old gearing system for this great RNG system you should just look at yourself for this BEN because RNG is so exciting have to get command ranks as fast as possible.

Again, another....play the game and you got an exploit by simply running an uprising. I'm sorry but there really is no excuse here. Someone did not test it or did not put in the correct code at launch.

I thought this was a bug when first running it....doing the traditional saber throw from miles away...and boom the boss dies. The group was stunned for 10-12 seconds before we started fighting again...(pug group)...most were a bit upset as we knew this wasn't intended to die instantly (we think), one guy thought it might be intentional (I mean the logic is, surely an insta death would not have seeped through, would it)?....it is sometimes unavoidable also. As if some1 pulls straight away (ranged dps, healer)...the boss follows them (and anything can happen). I was on the fence....but leaning towards it's probably a bug. Since it has now been announced, 11 days before fixing it. I guess suspicions have been confirmed.

Also....I once died in the uprising and I could not get the CXP pack...it actually did not drop for me. I am sick and tired of writing tickets. It upset me....but hey 450 CXP...who cares.

I don't run this that often, as I haven't had much time since xmas.....but grinding it out quite a few times...most are doing 40-50 times per day. I personally can only handle a few hours (10-11 runs or so). It's mind numbing. I've done this maybe 2 or 3 times on various characters. I think it's totally ludicrous that this system makes gearing such a mountain...like the one guy said earlier, if you make gearing unrealistically hard, people will look for sketchy ways.

My guild has basically vanished, it's very depressing, 5.0 was the last straw for the remaining few it seems. Lives also have gotten more complex, but ye....ironic it happened on 5.0 launch.

My question really if any dev wants to answer....WHY...OH WHY....is this update totally focused on gearing? Surely people can enjoy the game content. It's all rush now when I join groups. Nothing is about actually socialising and having a laugh any more...(it's a MMO for goodness sake). This game feels more like bricks....endless... pointless...scoring until you get an update and reset with no1 to talk to because you have just focused on grinding.

But...i'm still here....

Kira....Kira...here girl???

e over other players.

 

Does this mean I am going to get banned for doing it?

In this case, we are not going to take action against individuals who use this exploit.

-eric

I should have exploited along with everyone else....................

Great to hear that you are fixing this bug, and that you are not taking action. While this is clearly an exploit, the bug gives at most 10-20% bonus to the CXP; therefore this is a very minor exploit because you still need to put in hours upon hours of play time. I read some players saying that Fractured is so popular because of the exploit but that's not true. Even if you don't exploit it, Fractured still gives the highest CXP at the moment.

 

In my case, I got roughly 10 ranks because of this exploit, so yes, I did profit from it, but any severe action (CXP reset, removal of gear, suspensions) would be an overreaction. I could have gotten those 10 ranks just as easily with 5 more hours of normal Fractured farming.

 

If I had to start from CXP rank 1 again and the 200+ hours I invested since 5.0 to level my Command Rank would have been wasted, I would have rather quit the game than accepted the punishment. Sadly, this does set a bad example (exploiters don't get punished) but look at it from the other side: Players are demotivated by CXP, and any CXP rollbacks would be the final straw to quit the game.

 

If anything, this highlights another issue: The design behind CXP is flawed because it encourages players to push the limit and use sketchy tactics to get the highest CXP rate possible. The 5.1 changes help because they shorten the gear grind and players are less pressured to farm CXP, but the original issue remans: New gear tiers should only be introduced along with new raiding content, otherwise players feel punished for having to grind gear just to get back to where they were pre-5.0.

Are you publicly admitting to exploiting on the forums? On the account linked to your game account? Really?!

Well this is one of the dumbest things I have read in a long time. I have seen the bug (one of the members of a system made group told the group to stay in a spot and he ran up, ran back and boss died apparently)...so to even suggest that I as a group member could have been banned for him doing that is just ridiculous. Don't try to police things that innocent people can be blamed for.

I'm glad that there has apparently been more harsh penalties for things that have been going on, but let's not get crazy here. Make things, test things, test things, test things and fix things....lastly, treat your paying customers with respect.

Although we will not take action against this exploit, the rules I outlined here are still in place. Should an exploit be discovered, please refrain from using it or you risk action being taken against you up to and including account closure.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

-eric

But this is precedent now.

Why shouldn't someone misuse a future bug/exploit that will run under same circumstances as this one?

There was a freebie with Nefra, now we get another one? So we should expect to get one per 4 major exploits?

Its an exploit, it should be treated as one. If not, future exploits should be treated as this one.

Why shouldn't someone misuse a future bug/exploit that will run under same circumstances as this one?

There was a freebie with Nefra, now we get another one?

 

Its an exploit, it should be treated as one. If not, future exploits should be treated as this one.

Got your answer right up there:

Second, it is possible that this bug can happen on its own without someone trying to make it happen. And although we could tell the difference between accidental use and constant abuse, we don’t want to punish people for simply playing an Uprising with no intention of exploiting.

 

-eric

Great to hear that you are fixing this bug, and that you are not taking action. While this is clearly an exploit, the bug gives at most 10-20% bonus to the CXP; therefore this is a very minor exploit because you still need to put in hours upon hours of play time.

With the bug, Fractured can be done in 8 minutes. That's a BIG time saving compared to doing it normally. I know a guy who went from CXP level 1 to 39 in a few hours of farming. If you do it in the victory period with a booster running that's over 1000 CXP a run.

I cant believe Bioware havent disabled it, but are letting people farm it until the 21st? Ridiculous.

I don't agree with opinion "Yes it is an exploit. You are using a bug to gain an unintended advantage over other players" because ALL players can or could play like this not only a few of choosen. In addition, you have to play this Uprising repeatedly for hours (to click on Planetary Missions and to get CXP for nothing is definitely an exploit but this is not). But it is right decision to don't punish the individuals who use this because if there would be any punishment, Bioware should punish himself for the bugs we are forced to play with for months or maybe years (for example Revanite Commanders in ToS, "cheaters" in PvP or GSF, etc.). Bioware should be glad the people plays new Uprisings and not several years old end-game content.

Maybe it is better to let them know about bugs as exploits so they fix that in few days and we won't have to play with these bugs so long.

Cant call lazy coding an exploit, sorry, your dev team are paid to do a job and the QA team are supposed to thoroughly test.

Anything that allows playes to get CXP faster is being fixed almost instantanously yet older bugs like missing clickable items inside class quests are being ignored.

Priorities! Ben just because you want to save face with the EA/BW for amazingly annoying the subs player base by introducing a system that is absolute garbage.

The only reason you are not sanctioning bans is because the people running these places are active subscribers, and lord knows how many you lost with your 5.0 clusterfk

For those that have exploited this system, and I am not one, good on em, they found something that makes the ballache of this not remotely exciting system less painful

With the bug, Fractured can be done in 8 minutes. That's a BIG time saving compared to doing it normally. I know a guy who went from CXP level 1 to 39 in a few hours of farming. If you do it in the victory period with a booster running that's over 1000 CXP a run.

 

I cant believe Bioware havent disabled it, but are letting people farm it until the 21st? Ridiculous.

Cut the hyperbole - it shavesl ike 1-2 minutes depending on your group off the whole encounter.

Whilst I have issue with the precedent being set here and a certain poster bragging about it ( please sanction him just to set an example ) to imply this is some sort of massive exploit as you are trying to do is out of line.

Cut the hyperbole - it shavesl ike 1-2 minutes depending on your group off the whole encounter.

 

Whilst I have issue with the precedent being set here and a certain poster bragging about it ( please sanction him just to set an example ) to imply this is some sort of massive exploit as you are trying to do is out of line.

Doing it normally as intended with a mix of players it takes 18 minutes or so. Doing it with the trash avoiding route & boss exploit it can be done in 8 minutes. Nuff said.

Doing it normally as intended with a mix of players it takes 18 minutes or so. Doing it with the trash avoiding route & boss exploit it can be done in 8 minutes. Nuff said.

Definitely not, I timed it. Without loading screens, a full run takes 8 minutes, with exploit it's 6 minutes, and that was with 2 DPS, 1 tank. If you take a 3 DPS group and add loading screens, the time saving via the exploit will be around 10-20%, so your numbers are way off. The first time you do the Uprising, it may take you 18 minutes but if you've run it a few times, you can get it done faster.

If you are doing it in 18 mins...you either have very poor dps or the wrong classes...when the boss didn't bug, it took my group 13 mins. Depends....slingers and mandos make it faster...as the mobs are the real time killer. Sents/shadows...etc take ages, lack of big aoes. The boss only lasts 60-90s...

Exploits are defined as people who knowingly or intentionally extort the game to gain an advantage (for example the credit vendor bug in 1.0, which I was gratefully unaware of until they fixed it or the win trading in PvP). In this case...when the fractured bug first arose...the boss dies unintentionally. Clearly there are people using it now...but to be sanctioning 4 players for the actions of 1....is really stupid. And on top of that, even doing this 40-50 times takes 6-8 hours depending on how many afks you have. So logically it still requires a huge amount of effort, you are not getting a freebie, as some like to dress it up. It's a bit like someone moaning about who gets on a theme park ride first...(who cares)

This is just tardy, tardy programming. The amount of exploits involved with the GC system has really soured my wish to play. As GC involves all game content.

1. And also...not wish to do ranked after the recent debacle with win trading (I am a very casual PvPer). Highest valour rank is still 63 or something. There are not many doing ranked...maybe 4 or 5 teams...so everyone knows each other. I don't know how many teams there were pre 5.0, as I haven't done ranked till this update.

2. On top of this OPS are rather pointless for the amount of effort put in. Bioware are not keeping true to their "if it is harder, more complex group content, you should receive more of a reward" mantra. A total contradiction. Fractured vet you get perhaps 4.5k in 44 mins, with a really fast group (3 Slingers and a sage). EV HM, takes roughly 40-60 mins depending on the group, and I think it's roughly 4k. So...they should not be equal, certainly not less. Ops should be at least double what they are now. They are 8 man. They have mechanics. They have specific rolls required (fractured vet, you don't need a tank). The boss fights take circa 5 mins, not circa 90s, as compared to uprisings.

3. It's a real disgrace to be contradicting yourself. I know uprisings are the new content, but surely operations should still be the AAA rated end game content. The amount of ops raids has declined greatly on every server, there is no1 in redleader looking for ops. It's frickin fractured all the time. So many guilds have said their raid teams have either left the game or are waiting for Jan 24th.

I am still scarred from the first few days of 5.0...I was scared to play my favourite game, the amount of exploits was extremely stressful. I'd rather not play if a company think that is permissible QA.

I think as good customer service BIoware and EA need to seriously think about incentivising players to come back. Nothing major...maybe a pet jawa that throws snowballs, a unique outfit or vehicle...whatever. I think subscribers deserve an apology from you lot. We are still here because it's Star Wars and KOTOR/SWTOR are our favourite games. You have upset a lot of players and soured the game so much. We are not your beta testers (although we expect some minor bugs in new updates). We as the consumer have been exploited and threatened since this update landed. I think it's time you at least apologise...if not, add an incentive for people to come back and thank the subscribers who are still with you after this traumatizing period. I can't believe a game is more stressful than life... This should never be the intention of game developers, certainly not for a family friendly game, which is the mantra of all of the Star Wars franchise basically.

Please sort out OPS rewards in 5.1 also, otherwise you may destroy the player base further.

Got your answer right up there:

But that's a non answer. Anyone can exploit accidentally. What you do against someone who is intentionally taking advantage of said exploit is what matters.

And BW is not doing anything against them in case they "harm" someone who accidentally exploited .

The problem is that in a future exploit i should take advantage and shouldn't get harm since those who accidentally took part in it shouldn't be harmed just because i cheated.

It's a cheat no matter how you phrase it, no matter how big or small an advantage you gain, no matter if everyone participated by accident or by intention (and everyone who did it did do it intentionally, doing it once is accident, twice maybe to check if its bug or whatever, more than thrice is exploiting).

It is precedent and a bad one.

So logically it still requires a huge amount of effort, you are not getting a freebie, as some like to dress it up.

You are getting a freebie. A 25% one. No matter how you dress it up it still is a freebie.

But that's a non answer. Anyone can exploit accidentally. What you do against someone who is intentionally taking advantage of said exploit is what matters.

In a group you can't even tell who is aware of the bug and who's just sticking with the group. I had numerous runs where people weren't aware the bug even existed when it ocurred. That's the way I learnt about the thing myself: I helped bug the boss by just doing what I would have done anyway. I don't believe any kind of data can differentiate those two cases.

You are getting a freebie. A 25% one. No matter how you dress it up it still is a freebie.

It's not 25%...unless you have never done fractured or are very slow. The boss takes 60-90s, and is worth 45 CXP. 45/1130, 1 min/12min.

I'm just saying that BW are not taking ownership of their poor testing....I mean seriously mate...the heroics clicking GC bug, ***, whoever left that in there needs a serious talking to. I would have got fired had I done that in any application. It's such an incredibly obvious bug, that could not have possibly gotten through if the game was actually tested (Beta). They should just disable fractured uprising now, or as soon as they knew of it.

This is why a test server, closed environment just to see how the interface worked should have been done and numerous other things.

You can't penalise people for just playing a game.

I would definitely say afking in PvP is a more serious exploit than skipping a boss. Why? Well because the reward/advantage is much greater. Nothing will be done though. There should be an auto kick in PvP if you are 30 seconds doing nothing. There is literally not a moment I am standing still in PvP.

its even pushing to call it an exploit.

Mostly, it doesnt change the fact you'd have downed the Uprising and gotten your cxp, it just shave off roughly 2 minutes of it.

And at the current state of cxp system? "Exploit" away I say.

I start considering something an exploit when you use a bug to gain something you couldnt have gotten otherwise. Ex: people oneshotting NiM boss with reflects as they got something they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Afaik they did not punish people for that, or one of the major guild on my server would have suddenly lost their GM and top ranking officer.

So having an uprising boss kill itself? pretty minor.

WE ARE GOING TO BE HARD ON EXPLOITING IN THE FUTURE!

Never bans anyone for any of the major exploits after that statement

Aw yeah.

if you are for banning these people,

ask yourself:

1.) who used it?

2.) how many used it?

1.) subs.

2.) the majority i know.

so happy banning whole servers.

this is why they don't take any actions.

punishing them, would be the same like

banning. you would unsub and leave the

game.

Is it an exploit to use this bug to progress quicker through the Uprising?

Yes it is. You are using a bug to gain an unintended advantage over other players.

 

Does this mean I am going to get banned for doing it?

In this case, we are not going to take action against individuals who use this exploit. There are two reasons.

At least you guys are consistant for not taking action against exploiters. Whats the point in making rules against exploiting in the first place when you demonstrably dont punish exploiters? There are obvious and long time exploiters in pvp... no actions. People are exploiting the uprising... no actions. Your reasons dont matter anymore. Either the rules are for everyone or for nobody. Everything else is hypocritical, dishonest and favouring one group of players.

I said it before and I say it again: I cant take yellow comments serious anymore. They must be joking. They must be! I have no other rational explaination for it otherwise!!

It's not 25%...unless you have never done fractured or are very slow. The boss takes 60-90s, and is worth 45 CXP. 45/1130, 1 min/12min.

 

You gain X CXP from factured. Cheating the boss rewards you with a 25% faster kill. Hence you get a 25% freebie. Unless you're too slow and do fractured in more than 6-8mins.

You are wrong to emphasize on the CXP the boss gives you. The completion time is what matters. You do it faster so you earn more in the long run. Someone who is not cheating and using the cartel CXP booster will gain the same amount of CXP with someone that is cheating and not using the cartel booster in the same amount of time. You focus on the CXP the boss gives so that your cheating seems small. Guess what, wasn't born yesterday.