i performed a series of tests where i sent 6 max influence companions on treasure hunting lockbox missions

the missions consisted of the following

2 treasure hunting lockbox missions from grade 9

2 treasure hunting lockbox missions from grade 8

2 treasure hunting lockbox missions from grade 7

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

i then opened the boxes and recorded the amount of credits.

i then vendored the items from the boxes and recorded the amount of credits.

i then recorded the profits and reset the credits to 100,000 and repeated the test ten times.

average profit per six missions = 32,311.20

time to complete all six missions = 3 minutes, 27 seconds

3 minutes and 27 seconds = 3.45 minutes

60 minutes / 3.45 minutes = 17.39 runs of six missions per hour

profit per hour = (32,311.20 * 17.39) = 561,891.768

profit per day = (561,891.768 * 24) = 13,485,402.432

by removing the decimals

profit per hour = 561,891

profit per day = 13,485,402

if you did the same thing with slicing lockboxes and vendored the contents you would only get 8k profit per six missions which is much less harmful to the economy.

therefore, treasure hunting lockbox profits are severely imbalanced compared to all other crewskills such as slicing. this is likely being exploited by bots and is the main source of inflation in the game.

the cheap and easy credits generated from this by bots is likely causing a massive decline in cartel coin sales as it has to compete with this massive amount of exploited credits being generated and sold at prices cheaper than cartel coins.

a proposed solution is to have the items from treasure hunting lockboxes have a vendor value of 1 credit. the same should be applied to any item that comes from crewskills which isn't a material. if the items have value then they should be sold on the gtn to fellow players.

the problem exists with all treasure hunting missions, not just grade 9, 8 and 7

the fact that this generates pure credits on a massive scale and does not require any interaction with fellow players and the gtn is what makes this such a huge problem and easily exploited by bots.

the reason this problem exists is because the system was designed around these missions taking 30 to 50 minutes, not 3 minutes and 27 seconds with the new influence system with a companion at 50 influence. they were balanced at 30 to 50 minutes but at 3 minutes and 27 seconds they can be exploited to produce massive credits. the developers didn't realize this when they changed the system to operate so quickly.

the mission tests and their results are listed below

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

107,577 after opening the lockboxes

135,247 after vendoring the items

35,247 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 10 lockboxes

110,529 after opening the lockboxes

133,569 after vendoring the items

33,569 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

110,156 after opening the lockboxes

130,861 after vendoring the items

30,861 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

109,321 after opening the lockboxes

128,031 after vendoring the items

28,031 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 7 lockboxes

105,700 after opening the lockboxes

128,355 after vendoring the items

28,355 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 11 lockboxes

114,980 after opening the lockboxes

140,935 after vendoring the items

40,935 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 8 lockboxes

107,144 after opening the lockboxes

129,084 after vendoring the items

29,084 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

108,834 after opening the lockboxes

135,424 after vendoring the items

35,424 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

108,595 after opening the lockboxes

125,975 after vendoring the items

25,975 profit

100,000 initial funds

85,300 after sending off 6 companions

received 9 lockboxes

106,886 after opening the lockboxes

135,631 after vendoring the items

35,631 profit

Broski while we do appreciate your effort what about doing heroics with a 4 man group and getting 4 times the creds?

There is your real problem. And we're talking about a daily bugged 7-10m credits with moderate amount of play time needed

Broski while we do appreciate your effort what about doing heroics with a 4 man group and getting 4 times the creds?

There is your real problem. And we're talking about a daily bugged 7-10m credits with moderate amount of play time needed

but the problem with the treasure hunting lockboxes is that it can be easily exploited by bots 24 hours a day

but the problem with the treasure hunting lockboxes is that it can be easily exploited by bots 24 hours a day

You think it is not easy to make a bot that can run heroic missions ?

but the problem with the treasure hunting lockboxes is that it can be easily exploited by bots 24 hours a day

implying that heroics cant? i could personally demonstrate and write script for you. However i do not wish to get banned so just take my word for it.

the economy.

What economy? That poor thing which is exloited on left and right? And you want to nerf Treasure Hunting based on some cool calculations? LoL!

btw there is a Crew Skill section on these forums.

Who the hell has 6 MAX influence companions?

Someone with a lot of credits and time on their hands. Alternatively, keep in mind that Treasure Hunting gives companion gifts, so if they're running Treasure Hunting missions until they're up to their eyeballs in credits... they're probably also floating in gifts.

Edit: thanks for the credit making tip

Who the hell has 6 MAX influence companions?

people who exploit treasure hunting lockboxes 24 hours a day with a bot for profit and then spam your mailbox with credit sale advertisements. that's how they get their near infinite credits to sell.

1,000,000,000 credits is the new 10,000,000.

Wait, I'm supposed to have credits? what do you use those for?

All crew skills not just treasure hunting have lockboxes.There is nothing to stop bots from earning credits period. They will continue only earn slower and pissing off your player base.

Anything you do to bots affects players in regards to reducing player credit gain.

If people didn't use the bot service it wouldn't be a problem.

While that is very hard to do because your asking people to not use them that is the only way to really get rid of them. Every MMO from wow to rift to Swtor has bots, credit/gold farmers or whatever. They aren't going to go away. Suggesting to reduce the credits earned from them also affects your players which in turn may entire them use the service anyway.

Think about it. Make it harder for players to legitimately earn credits, they don't want to spend a lot of time earning 20mil for an item on the GTN so what theyay do is use their service to buy credits.

Simply needing credits earned on crew skills isn't a simple solution as it seems.

but the problem with the treasure hunting lockboxes is that it can be easily exploited by bots 24 hours a day

But the bots are not the only factor that ruins the economy on a large scale.

Think about it this way:

1. How many bots do you see advertising on the fleet for selling credits? (per hour)

2. How many people do you see advertising on fleet that are running the heroics in 4man groups? (per hour)

If 2 is higher then 1, then the Heroics are the bigger problem. There are are a lot less people who would actually dare to buy credits. But the amount of players doing the Heroics, which are like the new version of dailies (since you didn't used to do the dailies more then once, because you had the weekly together with the dailies. it was the same back then if you had enough characters).

Joke and logic aside, you are correct of course that it seems by your small sample size that the crew skill gives these results. But that alone will not be the reason why prices go up alone.

I believe it is mostly the Heroics who make it easier for any kind of player at any level to get a large amount of credits in an easily calculated time frame.

You need 2 Million Credits, go run these 12 heroics in 1h. You want more, how many alts you have that are BiS on all planets thanks to lvl-sync?

But the bots are not the only factor that ruins the economy on a large scale.

 

Think about it this way:

 

1. How many bots do you see advertising on the fleet for selling credits? (per hour)

2. How many people do you see advertising on fleet that are running the heroics in 4man groups? (per hour)

 

If 2 is higher then 1, then the Heroics are the bigger problem. There are are a lot less people who would actually dare to buy credits. But the amount of players doing the Heroics, which are like the new version of dailies (since you didn't used to do the dailies more then once, because you had the weekly together with the dailies. it was the same back then if you had enough characters).

 

Joke and logic aside, you are correct of course that it seems by your small sample size that the crew skill gives these results. But that alone will not be the reason why prices go up alone.

 

I believe it is mostly the Heroics who make it easier for any kind of player at any level to get a large amount of credits in an easily calculated time frame.

 

You need 2 Million Credits, go run these 12 heroics in 1h. You want more, how many alts you have that are BiS on all planets thanks to lvl-sync?

This. My characters have a lot more credits since they altered the heroics with KoftFE. I can run the easiest on several, and then send them all to my main for use on the GTN etc. The only reason I run the crew missions is to get gifts to raise influence on my comps.

So Friken Ladi Fing Da What?!?!!?

So tired of these wha wha boys claiming this or that ruins the game due to this action or that action.

Just play the damn game as intended and stop complaining about the good things that a common regular player can participate in. I will never understand people who whine and moan about the positive parts of the game. Yes, Treasure Hunting Lockboxes can bring in a nice profit. Hence the name "TREASURE". Now here's your sign.

Bots will always find ways to exploit anything and everything and there is NOTHING you, nor I, NOR Bioware will ever do about it so get over it. Please bear this in mind, I am no way endorsing Bots but I've just come to the realization over 15 years of playing a multitude of MMO's that it's all part of it. There in every game. It's one thing if the game is 100% subscription based but SWTOR is a FREE GAME to play. When they decided to go that route, they gave up a ton of restrictions and opened the floodgates to allow this and who knows what's next to take place.

So with your newly gained wealth of informative insight, rather then head to the forms to cry chicken little, take that knowledge you've discovered and apply it to yourself and perhaps make a ton of cash. Although, I'm sure you'll still find something to complain about that as well but it's your world, live in it as you desire.

P.S. Thanks for the tip. Logging on to send my companion out on some Treasure Hunting missions.

This old thing again?

This.. and why does every player think "they have the solution" it's never true,

As for inflation, if you're not looking for the FotM speculator item (unstable lightsabers, lightning tuning, whatever), there's some really quite affordable stuff on the GTN. I finally got off my fundament and cleared out some stuff I'd accumulated from old packs, nothing too outrageously expensive, and have been listing it for low enough to get it out of my hold and into someone else's collection. Took the money I got from that, realized I wasn't patient enough to build up to a Tuning, and started poking around. Got a bunch of armor sets and mounts cheap (and managed to snag a Unstable dualsaber at a relatively reasonable price as well).

There's more credits in the economy, but the chance cubes have put a lot more stuff to buy back into circulation as well.

The lower price per million for credits is as much and as likely to be a shortage of buyers as an oversupply of credits at the vendors.

people who exploit treasure hunting lockboxes 24 hours a day with a bot for profit and then spam your mailbox with credit sale advertisements. that's how they get their near infinite credits to sell.

No! Just no. It is NOT how they get their credits, but just keep thinking that way. *smh*

There in every game. It's one thing if the game is 100% subscription based but SWTOR is a FREE GAME to play. When they decided to go that route, they gave up a ton of restrictions and opened the floodgates to allow this and who knows what's next to take place.

Hmm in one sentence you say you have 15yrs of MMO gaming under your belt & it's in every game then right in the other sentence you blame it going Free to Play. Um...NO.

WoW, sub playable only! Had plenty of bots, gold farmers, etc....Even in SWTOR, you do realize the Bots/Farmers are subs right? That's the only way they can access certain areas, and amass credits.

Free to play is not even worth mentioning about this as it's nothing to do with it. lol

people who exploit treasure hunting lockboxes 24 hours a day with a bot for profit and then spam your mailbox with credit sale advertisements. that's how they get their near infinite credits to sell.

you are one of the people that spam our inboxes . you just want to get rid of a competitor and increase your profits. you tend to lie a lot in these threads and make things up as you go along. what ever happened to you "200 friends" meme? trying a different tack?

All crew skills not just treasure hunting have lockboxes.There is nothing to stop bots from earning credits period. They will continue only earn slower and pissing off your player base.

 

Anything you do to bots affects players in regards to reducing player credit gain.

 

If people didn't use the bot service it wouldn't be a problem.

 

While that is very hard to do because your asking people to not use them that is the only way to really get rid of them. Every MMO from wow to rift to Swtor has bots, credit/gold farmers or whatever. They aren't going to go away. Suggesting to reduce the credits earned from them also affects your players which in turn may entire them use the service anyway.

 

Think about it. Make it harder for players to legitimately earn credits, they don't want to spend a lot of time earning 20mil for an item on the GTN so what theyay do is use their service to buy credits.

 

Simply needing credits earned on crew skills isn't a simple solution as it seems.

that is the reason he wants to nerf all crafting skills. he is a gold farmer trying to increase his own profits

Hmm in one sentence you say you have 15yrs of MMO gaming under your belt & it's in every game then right in the other sentence you blame it going Free to Play. Um...NO.

 

WoW, sub playable only! Had plenty of bots, gold farmers, etc....Even in SWTOR, you do realize the Bots/Farmers are subs right? That's the only way they can access certain areas, and amass credits.

Free to play is not even worth mentioning about this as it's nothing to do with it. lol

He is right about the spam, if there's a paywall in place, it does stop them. I've played ESO for over a year now and i've never seen any spam nor got any mail.. Think about it, 40$ for every account they nuke, that's a lot of money to throw down the gurgler just to spam your message for a few hrs in the busy hubs, though I'm sure the devs wouldn't mind if they did; would be a nice money earner for them. GW2 is another that doesn't have the problem.

I'm sure you could buy the ingame currency for both those games on some site, but there's no ingame spam, and again, they would be very recluse and cautious because of the paywall in place.

He is right about the spam, if there's a paywall in place, it does stop them. I've played ESO for over a year now and i've never seen any spam nor got any mail.. Think about it, 40$ for every account they nuke, that's a lot of money to throw down the gurgler just to spam your message for a few hrs in the busy hubs, though I'm sure the devs wouldn't mind if they did; would be a nice money earner for them. GW2 is another that doesn't have the problem.

I'm sure you could buy the ingame currency for both those games on some site, but there's no ingame spam, and again, they would be very recluse and cautious because of the paywall in place.

Not true , I mean for GW2 . It is true for years they didn't have any spam , bot or anything . But it started . They have Spam whisper to peoples .