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

Um, I didn't do THIS, but is it okay to group with someone and invite them TO the stronghold itself? I just want to be sure, because I'm been inviting a guildie or two to my group and then inviting them to come see MY stronghold itself. I know it's okay with other strongholds, but since this one is a special one, I just want to be sure it's okay to invite them to my personal train stronghold that I own and am on. Thanks.

Um, I didn't do THIS, but is it okay to group with someone and invite them TO the stronghold itself? I just want to be sure, because I'm been inviting a guildie or two to my group and then inviting them to come see MY stronghold itself. I know it's okay with other strongholds, but since this one is a special one, I just want to be sure it's okay to invite them to my personal train stronghold that I own and am on. Thanks.

Should be fine. There is no problem inviting people to your SH, but the area he is talking about is where you buy the SH. This exploit allows people to bypass the key purchase that costs 60 tokens from the Umbara FP. That's what the exploit is about.

Should be fine. There is no problem inviting people to your SH, but the area he is talking about is where you buy the SH. This exploit allows people to bypass the key purchase that costs 60 tokens from the Umbara FP. That's what the exploit is about.

The question was asked for the same reason. I'm not going to elaborate.

...stuff that made me wonder...

There is a PM to explain what might have been the concern.

. the fact that this stronghold cannot be visited through normal means is just... what is the polite word I'm looking for... strange. odd.

poor design choice?

Eric. consider placing the terminal on fleet next to other terminals and simple disable purchase button on it. consider making that traders quarters key instead an actual stronghold key. the fact that this stronghold cannot be visited through normal means is just... what is the polite word I'm looking for... strange. odd.

Stupid. The word you're looking for is stupid.

Stupid. The word you're looking for is stupid.

I was trying to be polite

although

poor design choice?

seems pretty polite, so I'll go with that

but seriously though making this stronghold completely unaccesible to see through usual ingame means is a very questionable decision, in a series of questionable decisions surrounding this particular stronghold, starting with 2 week grind just to get acess to the terminal and ending with having to disable another stornghold to be able to decorate this one, with the excuse of "conquest bonus and we don't like strongholds filled with chairs to hit that bonus" as if somehow keeping it at 150% stops all the people who decorated their existing strongholds with chairs and commemorative meat trees from continuing to do so in their existing strongholds....

decorating and conquest should have been separate from the start.

No point in being summoned there anyway, you'll just get the same message as people who get there legitimately -

"You can only have 6 strongholds active at any one time. Please deactivate one of your strongholds in order to buy this one."

Stupid decision - up the SH count! Just give everyone 150% discount and decouple it from conquest.

This is correct. To clarify for any confusion, the exploit is someone Guild Ship Summoning you into the room where you purchase the Stronghold. This room requires an "Invitation: Trader's Quarters" to access normally. Being summoned into the room currently ignores that requirement, allowing you to purchase the Stronghold without the required currency or access.

 

-eric

So the exploit is using a flagship summons to get into a room that should be blocked unless you bought the access.

Access to that room/terminal gives you the ability to view public listings for the SH and visit those publicly listed strongholds. It is the only way, I know of, to access the public listings. Are you saying that just doing that is an exploit? (well, yes, you are saying that, but do you really mean it?)

So the exploit is using a flagship summons to get into a room that should be blocked unless you bought the access.

 

Access to that room/terminal gives you the ability to view public listings for the SH and visit those publicly listed strongholds. It is the only way, I know of, to access the public listings. Are you saying that just doing that is an exploit? (well, yes, you are saying that, but do you really mean it?)

The point is not viewing the public listings then maybe visiting one, the point is gaining access to that room without actually earning it will allow those to purchase the SH. I seriously doubt they start handing out punishments if all you did was view the SH.

I do agree with most that this was a very poor implemented series of events that just seam to be getting worse.

I highly, highly, highly doubt anyone complaining about this was "just looking at the public listings" and that was all the intent they had. If that was true, the guildie who summoned you could have just given you a key to theirs so you could see it before buying it.

my guild is dead. and no i didn't use the exploit and i haven't finished grinding the data yet, because I don't want to deactivate any of my existing strongholds. for me - the only way to even see this stronghold is via video. which is NOT the same as seeing it in person. oh and btw? keys are limited. you cannot just keep giving them away without removing a few people first.

I would say that most people complaining about the way this stronghold was set up, are NOT the people who participated in an exploit.

So, you're going to reset conquest again tomorrow?

This. What are the odds that this won't fk with Conquest?

I highly, highly, highly doubt anyone complaining about this was "just looking at the public listings" and that was all the intent they had. If that was true, the guildie who summoned you could have just given you a key to theirs so you could see it before buying it.

Yet people did exactly that. The guildie that summoned me didn't buy it, they were pissed they wasted 60 recon data and were encouraging me to not waste 60 recon data like they did.

If we want to talk conspiracies, maybe BW intentionally hid the public listings behind the 60 recon data pay wall to get more suckers to spend those 60 recon data... I'm not suggesting BW is that clever, I tend to think it is just a bad design with unintended consequences...

my guild is dead. and no i didn't use the exploit and i haven't finished grinding the data yet, because I don't want to deactivate any of my existing strongholds. for me - the only way to even see this stronghold is via video. which is NOT the same as seeing it in person. oh and btw? keys are limited. you cannot just keep giving them away without removing a few people first.

 

I would say that most people complaining about the way this stronghold was set up, are NOT the people who participated in an exploit.

I meant complaining about this exploit in particular. I am just as mad as everyone else about all the other things that weren't disclosed to us about this new stronghold.

Yet people did exactly that. The guildie that summoned me didn't buy it, they were pissed they wasted 60 recon data and were encouraging me to not waste 60 recon data like they did.

 

If we want to talk conspiracies, maybe BW intentionally hid the public listings behind the 60 recon data pay wall to get more suckers to spend those 60 recon data... I'm not suggesting BW is that clever, I tend to think it is just a bad design with unintended consequences...

It doesn't matter about the guildie who summoned. That person already got the 60 tokens or they wouldn't have been in there. Anyone who accepted that summons though...

All they would have had to do is get it then either give a key or invite (invites don't require keys) to those still locked behind the wall. Anyone who got past the wall without the tokens doesn't really have an excuse or can cry they weren't exploiting. There has been plenty of bad communication about the whole stronghold from the beginning, but the 60 tokens required to get through that wall was not ambiguous.

Is there any plan in the works to increase the number of strongholds from the max 6? You'd have to know that people would want all the things...

I'd get the train, but not if it means having to get rid of one of my fully decorated ones. Please consider make it max 10 or something.