Unless some bug was in place that made the chests appear right away, there was no exploit. Those that went to Illum at a low level could have gone at level 50 and still got the same chests with the same loot tables.

 

Exploits are a problem that BioWare needs to fix, but people should never get suspended the first time for doing them. It is the fault of the developer that these issues are not fixed. Exploits and hacking are very different, one is manipulating the game code, the other is finding a loophole within it.

Seeing as how the original post of this thread, written by a developer specifically uses the word "exploit" I think I'll agree that they were exploiting. No matter how skilled developers are players will always find a way to exploit some thing in some way at some time. It happens in every single MMO ever made. The developers are now taking steps to remedy that situation.

The original post also says these people were warned. Please keep in mind that even if they weren't given a verbal warning a temporary suspension itself is a warning. It's a harsh warning, but still a warning.

It seems to me you either didn't bother to read the posts by the developer or you are ignoring them to fan the flames of nerdrage.

I'm sorry that us reasonable people who read the OP and do not want our game to be ruined by RMT jerks and exploiters have come into the thread and ruined it for you.

Shhhhhh, you are bursting bubbles here and kittens will most likely cry.

Thanks and keep banning exploiters.

I can say SWTOR is easily the most spam free, gold farmer free MMO I have played at launch. I personally have seen zero, which is amazing.

I'd like to draw your attention to this part of the statement again:

 

 

The actions taken by these accounts - and again, this is a relatively low number - were not 'normal gameplay'. Everything you have listed above is what we'd consider 'normal gameplay'.

 

While we will not being going into further details of the accounts that were actioned against, suffice to say they were not conducting any activities similar to what you described.

Farming an open-world item isn't an exploit. If you go back and get something over and over because its good money its the same as constantly running around and looking for nodes. I fail to see how that is a problem at all.

Bioware's MMO already has enough rails on it to pave a bullet train to China, no need to make it even more restrictive than it already is.

Indeed there is a difference. The TOS team is god and has information that we as players will never know about. They obviously have proof of the wrong doing of the players that were warned and banned. There is nothing wrong with amassing wealth in game, but when you try to turn that in game wealth into a real world profit, the ban saber can and will cleave your account in twain. That my friend is sweet, sweet, sweet Justice!

I agree with you here, and since Stephen won't go into detail if these people were selling those credits, we will never know the truth behind it. What I want to know is how is farming chests an exploit? Did you have to be a lower level player to do this? Or just make it to Ilum with chests that contain the most credits?

I am level 50, I can farm these chests all day long. What I want to know is if I farm these chests to amass wealth, will my account get suspended for doing so? If not, Stephen's post needs to be very clear of that. As right now, it sounds like BioWare will suspend your account if you want to farm chests, mobs, and other aspects of the game.

Calling it exploiting without saying what was happening is very vague and misleading. I understand that if the exploit has not been fixed, that you want to keep it on the down low. Once it is fixed, you should share what the definition of an exploit it and what people can and cannot do.

This is a giant mistake MMO's try to do. STOP TRYING TO LIMIT YOUR PLAYERS. There's nothing you can do to balance ANYTHING. Stop trying, the game will eventually balance itself out the best it can. If the economy is out in a game for a period of time, it will take that period of time for it to balance itself again, you can't control players and people, and especially ban them. You have BORDERLINE players who aren't quite sure whether they want to play or not yet, and giving out stupid bans like this, is like pushing them back onto the other side of the fence.

That is...the dumbest thing I have ever seen posted on here today.

I agree with you here, and since Stephen won't go into detail if these people were selling those credits, we will never know the truth behind it. What I want to know is how is farming chests an exploit? Did you have to be a lower level player to do this? Or just make it to Ilum with chests that contain the most credits?

 

I am level 50, I can farm these chests all day long. What I want to know is if I farm these chests to amass wealth, will my account get suspended for doing so? If not, Stephen's post needs to be very clear of that. As right now, it sounds like BioWare will suspend your account if you want to farm chests, mobs, and other aspects of the game.

Selling credits was mentioned in the OP. There is a very specific exploit people were using, unless you're doing that you don't have to worry. What's the issue here?

Bingo, the person who posted on Reddit regarding this:

http://i.imgur.com/9COoY.png

"I was out there farming materials and getting slicing boxes to share with my guild as leveling 16 toons professions (2 toons a piece) is quite daunting".

"I found out about the no mob zone in Ilum via general chat".

Camping the slicing points while multiboxing with an armada of lv10s in a no-mob zone should be actionable imo. Not perm-disabled-cd-key imo, but not fair game.

To many Gold Farmers in too many MMO's burn em all.

GJ Bioware hunt em all down.

First off, I love the idea that I Ilum is open to any level, even if I will never go there until level appropriate, that is kind of cool.

However, it seems asinine to hold a player accountable for an 'exploit' that the game allows them to perform, such as go to Ilum and loot higher level items. Either take away the ability to loot these items unless they are 40+ or just let it go. I prefer the former honestly, a level 4 shouldn't be able to get level 50 gear to simply sell.

Banning the account just seems a bit harsh, unless they are selling credits to a third party site...in that case ban them

Thank you to Reddit for this insight. People were working together to flip the points in Ilum, after this is done a node will spawn, and credits/mats to be had. This is a fundamental design flaw and something I see often people do on my server. I do not see the node being farmed but both factions will allow the other to cap the point so they can get the weekly done.

People will win-trade to get the weekly done and in this case win-trade to spawn the node.

 

First, action was taken against a number of accounts for what's commonly known as 'gold farming' - or in our case, credit farming. These accounts were found to be exploiting the game in a variety of ways to maximize their credits in order to sell them to other players. Our Terms of Service team took action against these accounts and removed them permanently from the game.

 

Second, a smaller number of accounts were warned or temporarily suspended for exploiting loot containers on Ilum. To be completely clear, while players may choose to travel to Ilum earlier than the recommended level (40+) and may loot containers if they can get to them, in the cases of those customers that were warned or temporarily suspended, they were systematically and repeatedly looting containers in very high numbers resulting in the game economy becoming unbalanced.

 

I swear to god if ANY of you defend this...

Bingo, the person who posted on Reddit regarding this:

 

http://i.imgur.com/9COoY.png

 

"I was out there farming materials and getting slicing boxes to share with my guild as leveling 16 toons professions (2 toons a piece) is quite daunting".

 

"I found out about the no mob zone in Ilum via general chat".

 

Camping the slicing points while multiboxing with an armada of lv10s in a no-mob zone should be actionable imo. Not perm-disabled-cd-key imo, but not fair game.

Where did you get the multi-boxing part? Sounds to me that they are just leveling up all professions.

To many Gold Farmers in too many MMO's burn em all.

 

GJ Bioware hunt em all down.

 

Well, looks like i spook too soon.

Enjoy your ghost town servers next month

First off, I love the idea that I Ilum is open to any level, even if I will never go there until level appropriate, that is kind of cool.

 

However, it seems asinine to hold a player accountable for an 'exploit' that the game allows them to perform, such as go to Ilum and loot higher level items. Either take away the ability to loot these items unless they are 40+ or just let it go. I prefer the former honestly, a level 4 shouldn't be able to get level 50 gear to simply sell.

 

Banning the account just seems a bit harsh, unless they are selling credits to a third party site...in that case ban them

People make the decision to exploit a broken mechanic or not. They should be held accountable for it. It shouldn't matter if they are level 1 or 50.

That dont work if you can cc a mob without going in combat such as any stealth class can do.

Yes, but not out of your level range

So if my main account has slicing and I send hte profits to an alt account to level up their skills, will I get banned?

I hope so, then you can stop posting stupid things like this.

First off, I love the idea that I Ilum is open to any level, even if I will never go there until level appropriate, that is kind of cool.

 

However, it seems asinine to hold a player accountable for an 'exploit' that the game allows them to perform, such as go to Ilum and loot higher level items. Either take away the ability to loot these items unless they are 40+ or just let it go. I prefer the former honestly, a level 4 shouldn't be able to get level 50 gear to simply sell.

 

Banning the account just seems a bit harsh, unless they are selling credits to a third party site...in that case ban them

The accounts who exploited were suspended not banned, though I agree with you here.

This is why I did not agree with Blizzard when they banned some of the top guilds in the world for "exploiting" a mechanic during the Lich King fight. I would never ban or suspend people for exploiting the game, as it would be the fault of me, the developer, that this was in the game. I would fix it and warn those trying to do it again. If it worked, they had been warned and would be suspended. You should not be punished the first time for something the developers did not fix or know about. If it is broke in-game, the developers and company are responsible for that, not the player for finding or taking advantage of it.

Now if I am using a program that is changing code or files, that is hacking/cheating. Exploits are in-game, cheats and hacks (Generally) are out of game.

Farming an open-world item isn't an exploit. If you go back and get something over and over because its good money its the same as constantly running around and looking for nodes. I fail to see how that is a problem at all.

If you read my posts and there's you would see what he trying to say.

I stated in my post, if you or I(and friends), camp a spawn all day or run node to node.. its legal.

obviously they can not go in to details but its something way more then that. he stated it is a higher then normal rate. EI must be an exploit or mod allowing them to cheat the system.

I know there is one for WoW they have just recently been able to get ride of. it lasted 2yrs(roughly ish) allowing someone to zone into an area and port to the chests on the map, looting them and zone out. That is why only recently wow allowed open world chests to start showing up again.

Bioware's MMO already has enough rails on it to pave a bullet train to China, no need to make it even more restrictive than it already is.

totally agree with this statement.

So if my main account has slicing and I send hte profits to an alt account to level up their skills, will I get banned?

Try to read it again. This time try to actually understand what is being said. I know I know, reading comprehension is hard work, but one day it may prove useful.

I hope so, then you can stop posting stupid things like this.

I love how your encouraging Bioware to kick people off a sinking ship.

"But I want to explore.."

"BIOWARE! BAN HIIIIM"

Try to read it again. This time try to actually understand what is being said. I know I know, reading comprehension is hard work, but one day it may prove useful.

I read it, I figured I would ask and get an actually helpful answer instead of thinly veiled sarcasm.

People make the decision to exploit a broken mechanic or not. They should be held accountable for it. It shouldn't matter if they are level 1 or 50.

>Exploring high level areas in an MMO

>Broken mechanic

Oh ok, so it was Biowares PLAN to commit financial suicide