The game is being exploited by multi boxing programs. These programs are used to run 15 to 20 accounts per computer. They then use a third party program to automate one of the accounts and then the multi boxing program sends the same mouse movements and keystrokes to all the other accounts running on the computer.

This method was used to create tons of credits from treasure hunting lockbox missions which are now fixed but the exploiters just moved their hundreds of accounts on to the next best thing which are slicing lockbox missions and vendoring the items. The slicing lockbox missions give them about 40% of the profit that they got from exploiting treasure hunting lockboxes.

The following changes must be made to fix this.

(Fix number one)

Remove all credit generation from crewskills. Crewskills should generate items not credits. This way it is impossible to cause inflation.

(Fix number two)

The timing on crewskill missions should be increased, at least for new crewskills. When the new grade 10 missions are added to the game they should require around 20 minutes for every grade 10 mission at maximum affection.

The developers who made the decision to massively reduce the mission times did not understand that the system was designed around a time gating of the crewskill items. Developers who made the decision to reduce the time gate by around 95% and did not understand that it was designed this way on purpose to protect the economy and the value of crewskill items.

(Fix number three)

One change that would make it harder for the multi boxing program is to randomize the order of the missions in the crewskill mission window. This would make their method more difficult since it relies on all the game accounts showing the same options on each screen when they open the crewskill mission list.

The crewskill mission list used to be in a somewhat random order because in the past not all missions were available all the time. The developers who made the decision to change this probably did not understand that the randomness of the mission list was done intentionally to prevent this sort of mass exploitation by multi boxing programs.

(Fix number four)

Swtor only allows one account to be connected per computer at a time. Anyone doing otherwise is using a third party program to get around this limit and violating the EULA. Every computer in the world has something called a mac address. The developers should notice things such as multiple accounts running from the same mac address at the same time and flag them for investigation. They would soon discover that almost all of them are bots.

If the developers monitor this they would start noticing things such as 15 different accounts all connected at the same time with the same mac address means 100% that this person is exploiting the game.

Multi boxing programs is also the method used by the credit spammers to level up characters to spam on the fleet. Noticing and banning multiple accounts connected through the same mac address at the same time would eliminate nearly all credit spammers.

Normal players would not be affected by any of this because they only connect to the game with one account at a time.

In conclusion, it looks like what has happened to the economy of the game is that the original developers of the game made some good decisions about how the crewskill system should work to avoid exploitation by multi boxing programs. The original developers probably intentionally added things such as long timers for the missions and randomness of the order of the missions to prevent exploitation on a mass scale.

Different developers came along years later and tried to give the players what they were asking for and made major changes to the crewskill system without understanding why these systems were designed this way in the first place to protect the economy and the value of crewskill items. Even a seemingly innocent change such as displaying all missions in the mission list in the same order had a huge negative impact on the economy as it makes it perfect for a multi boxing exploiter to take advantage of it to create massive inflation.

The game is being exploited by multi boxing programs.

Proof? How do you know?

These programs are used to run 15 to 20 accounts per computer. They then use a third party program to automate one of the accounts and then the multi boxing program sends the same mouse movements and keystrokes to all the other accounts running on the computer.

Proof? How do you know?

This method was used to create tons of credits from treasure hunting lockbox missions which are now fixed but the exploiters just moved their hundreds of accounts on to the next best thing which are slicing lockbox missions and vendoring the items.

Proof? How do you know?

The slicing lockbox missions give them about 40% of the profit that they got from exploiting treasure hunting lockboxes.

How, exactly, is running a crew skill repeatedly considered an exploit?

I swear I think some people just want to intentionally screw any type of gathering missions with these posts. First TH, now they post yeah another conspiracy post about another gathering mission.

they are probably being paid as posters BY the credit sellers, to make it impossible to make credits without purchasing them. Enjoy that theory.

Wait a minute...Rozaraan is that you?

Ugg.

No.

Just no.

As a dedicated Altoholic it takes me long enough to craft up the gear I want for a new toon, and my current 12 toon stable (soon to be more as I grind my way towards Legendary for the current event) is paltry compared with a lot of the people playing this game long term. I can't imagine the literally DAYS of wasted time your scheme would cost me over the course of the next several months.

......

Treasure hunting, slicing, they will always find other ways to make credits, you shut one down 2 more appear. Taking more and more things down you will kill players who craft to make a profit by crafting older items, etc. driving those prices up further.

At fix #'s 1 and 2, you screw over the players who aren't doing the multi accounts.

At Fix #3 they gave all of the missions available for a reason, because people were sick of not getting their rich and bountiful yields of crafting materials for their crafting, this should not be reverted back.

At Fix #4, you can disguise your Mac IP addresses through multi server programs, will not work, also it would backfire on actual players. Like if you have 20+ people on a college dorm all using the same wi-fi to play SWTOR... ya they would all have the same IP adress potentially on that dorm, ik this because i was an RA at one and a MMO banned us all out because we had the same IP address, so you screw over actual players. Same at homes, me and my brother both play this game, if they see 2 people with the same IP address same thing can happen. So furthermore it screws legit players over.

Your fixes will hurt actual players, so ya not going to happen.

Oh... look.. just in time for the weekend.

I honestly thought we were done with these conspiracy theories threads as causative action to keep nerfing normal play mechanics.

Here's a tip for the OP.... if you observe suspicious behavior, report it and move on.

Or, you know, they could hire a guy or two whose job it is to manage reports of exploitation and figure out ways to ban them en masse, instead of giving people more reasons to go to the exploiters themselves for credits.

Or, they could put a way to directly buy credits in the CM to out-competition the credit sellers, like GW2 does. And then they wouldn't need so many pack sales and would be able to put stuff up directly for sale more.

Some of your proposed solutions are not completely over the top, don't get me wrong, but A) you're supposing that this is real and an issue, with no proof. And B) here we go again, with what happened with TH. Is there someone with an agenda board trying to get all of the credits out of crew skills? It's starting to feel that way.

Trying to stop credit sellers by nerfing their sources of income is a game of whack-a-mole that does more damage to legit players than the credit sellers themselves. In the short-term, you get a bunch of credit sellers who have stockpiled credits through exploiting and are ready to do business with the legit players whose income just got hurt. In the long-term, you might slow them down, but how much does the ratio actually change? Meaning, both legit and non-legit can potentially gain money from these sources. Are you actually making progress by nerfing it for both?

Also, why post something like this publicly when it could be sent in a PM? All you're doing is calling attention to it, which will get more people to do it, so that it will be more of an issue and thus will be more likely to get nerfed. Which brings me back to the agenda board point... it's like there's a strategy written out for this ****.

missions and vendoring the items.

Remove all credit generation from crewskills. Crewskills should generate items not credits. This way it is impossible to cause inflation.

 

You already stated they are vendoring items and then you propose a fix is to only give items?

Here's the deal, the "exploiters" will still make credits albeit at a slower pace. This hurts the average player a lot more than the ones who "set it and forget it"

No thank you.

The game is being exploited by multi boxing programs. These programs are used to run 15 to 20 accounts per computer. They then use a third party program to automate one of the accounts and then the multi boxing program sends the same mouse movements and keystrokes to all the other accounts running on the computer.

 

This method was used to create tons of credits from treasure hunting lockbox missions which are now fixed but the exploiters just moved their hundreds of accounts on to the next best thing which are slicing lockbox missions and vendoring the items. The slicing lockbox missions give them about 40% of the profit that they got from exploiting treasure hunting lockboxes.

 

 

 

 

 

The following changes must be made to fix this.

 

 

 

(Fix number one)

Remove all credit generation from crewskills. Crewskills should generate items not credits. This way it is impossible to cause inflation.

 

 

 

(Fix number two)

The timing on crewskill missions should be increased, at least for new crewskills. When the new grade 10 missions are added to the game they should require around 20 minutes for every grade 10 mission at maximum affection.

 

The developers who made the decision to massively reduce the mission times did not understand that the system was designed around a time gating of the crewskill items. Developers who made the decision to reduce the time gate by around 95% and did not understand that it was designed this way on purpose to protect the economy and the value of crewskill items.

 

 

 

(Fix number three)

One change that would make it harder for the multi boxing program is to randomize the order of the missions in the crewskill mission window. This would make their method more difficult since it relies on all the game accounts showing the same options on each screen when they open the crewskill mission list.

 

The crewskill mission list used to be in a somewhat random order because in the past not all missions were available all the time. The developers who made the decision to change this probably did not understand that the randomness of the mission list was done intentionally to prevent this sort of mass exploitation by multi boxing programs.

 

 

 

(Fix number four)

Swtor only allows one account to be connected per computer at a time. Anyone doing otherwise is using a third party program to get around this limit and violating the EULA. Every computer in the world has something called a mac address. The developers should notice things such as multiple accounts running from the same mac address at the same time and flag them for investigation. They would soon discover that almost all of them are bots.

 

If the developers monitor this they would start noticing things such as 15 different accounts all connected at the same time with the same mac address means 100% that this person is exploiting the game.

 

Multi boxing programs is also the method used by the credit spammers to level up characters to spam on the fleet. Noticing and banning multiple accounts connected through the same mac address at the same time would eliminate nearly all credit spammers.

 

Normal players would not be affected by any of this because they only connect to the game with one account at a time.

 

 

 

In conclusion, it looks like what has happened to the economy of the game is that the original developers of the game made some good decisions about how the crewskill system should work to avoid exploitation by multi boxing programs. The original developers probably intentionally added things such as long timers for the missions and randomness of the order of the missions to prevent exploitation on a mass scale.

 

Different developers came along years later and tried to give the players what they were asking for and made major changes to the crewskill system without understanding why these systems were designed this way in the first place to protect the economy and the value of crewskill items. Even a seemingly innocent change such as displaying all missions in the mission list in the same order had a huge negative impact on the economy as it makes it perfect for a multi boxing exploiter to take advantage of it to create massive inflation.

Ok, slowly remove your tinfoil hat. Now, doesn't you feel better?

I'll give credit where credit is due, though. This is one of the most entertaining conspiracy theories I've ever seen.

Treasure hunting, slicing, they will always find other ways to make credits, you shut one down 2 more appear. Taking more and more things down you will kill players who craft to make a profit by crafting older items, etc. driving those prices up further.

 

At fix #'s 1 and 2, you screw over the players who aren't doing the multi accounts.

 

At Fix #3 they gave all of the missions available for a reason, because people were sick of not getting their rich and bountiful yields of crafting materials for their crafting, this should not be reverted back.

 

At Fix #4, you can disguise your Mac IP addresses through multi server programs, will not work, also it would backfire on actual players. Like if you have 20+ people on a college dorm all using the same wi-fi to play SWTOR... ya they would all have the same IP adress potentially on that dorm, ik this because i was an RA at one and a MMO banned us all out because we had the same IP address, so you screw over actual players. Same at homes, me and my brother both play this game, if they see 2 people with the same IP address same thing can happen. So furthermore it screws legit players over.

 

Your fixes will hurt actual players, so ya not going to happen.

Only flaw with your response is that IP and Mac addresses are completely different. IP address is provided by your gateway to the internet. Mac address is assigned by your nic card. So while yes you can have multiple IP addresses with 5 or more different computers, each computer will have its own MAC address. The only way around that is to mask your MAC.

He doesn't want people banned - he wants to make it too difficult/tiresome for real players to use this to make credits so he can sell them. Bots don't care how tedious a task is, but people will get pretty p'd off if the QoL things like having the missions in order are removed. His bots will just keep farming his credits while the real players will give up. And pretty sure the responses form the OP will become exactly like his sock puppets previous posts - insisting he has proved that it's happening, without ever providing the proof, and ignoring any actual factual (hey, that rhymes) evidence that disproves his points.

And even though I know this is slightly ironical, but even posting in his threads gives him something to springboard off and keep throwing in his occasional comments to keep this post returning to the front page.

If any IP/MAC addresses need banned, it's people who continually flout the forums rules, abusing alternative accounts to get past bans.

He doesn't want people banned - he wants to make it too difficult/tiresome for real players to use this to make credits so he can sell them. Bots don't care how tedious a task is, but people will get pretty p'd off if the QoL things like having the missions in order are removed. His bots will just keep farming his credits while the real players will give up. And pretty sure the responses form the OP will become exactly like his sock puppets previous posts - insisting he has proved that it's happening, without ever providing the proof, and ignoring any actual factual (hey, that rhymes) evidence that disproves his points.

 

And even though I know this is slightly ironical, but even posting in his threads gives him something to springboard off and keep throwing in his occasional comments to keep this post returning to the front page.

 

If any IP/MAC addresses need banned, it's people who continually flout the forums rules, abusing alternative accounts to get past bans.

I agree. That is how that one guy got the Treasure Hunting missions nerfed. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is the same guy either. I won't post again in this thread, and I recommend no one else does either, so that this thread can die.

This video explains multiboxing swtor. The man in the video runs three accounts on one computer with ease and that is just for a demonstration video. He calls himself Joe the multiboxer.

I swear I think some people just want to intentionally screw any type of gathering missions with these posts. First TH, now they post yeah another conspiracy post about another gathering mission.

 

they are probably being paid as posters BY the credit sellers, to make it impossible to make credits without purchasing them. Enjoy that theory.

 

Wait a minute...Rozaraan is that you?

Actually, Slicing was first, then Heroics, then TH. *adjusts her tinfoil hat* But I'm starting to agree with your hypothesis. But fare thee well, I follow the others who are leaving before this gets too big as well...

Exploits need to be dealth with by a human administrator looking into a system that flags accounts. Pop a few "hey are you here" messages, no response = bot.

The way they've made crafting frustrating, simply effects real players, and not bots, that just reprogram inputs.

I like when he says the devs were too incompetent to consider how the changes they were making would effect the economy. Because developers never consider the overall health of their games.

I know for fact the devs always appreciate being called incompetent.

The game is being exploited by multi boxing programs. These programs are used to run 15 to 20 accounts per computer. They then use a third party program to automate one of the accounts and then the multi boxing program sends the same mouse movements and keystrokes to all the other accounts running on the computer.

 

This method was used to create tons of credits from treasure hunting lockbox missions which are now fixed but the exploiters just moved their hundreds of accounts on to the next best thing which are slicing lockbox missions and vendoring the items. The slicing lockbox missions give them about 40% of the profit that they got from exploiting treasure hunting lockboxes.

 

Just one words. The profite of Slicing crew mission could't pay for the time card fee. If I have multi boxing programes, I will never choose slicing mission to make credit.

I swear I think some people just want to intentionally screw any type of gathering missions with these posts. First TH, now they post yeah another conspiracy post about another gathering mission.

 

they are probably being paid as posters BY the credit sellers, to make it impossible to make credits without purchasing them. Enjoy that theory.

Sadly I concur.

BioWare need to leave slicing alone, especially with the stealth nerfs they keep making to things like Heroics / Treasure Hunting. Instead, how about going after the credit sellers directly, get their websites shutdown and actually put some effort into resolving the issue instead of playing whack-a-mole, while punishing the genuine players in doing that.

Otherwise we may all end up having to multibox just to earn enough credits in the game.

 

Just one words. The profite of Slicing crew mission could't pay for the time card fee. If I have multi boxing programes, I will never choose slicing mission to make credit.

**Credit seller 2 has entered the game**

Seriously, how would anyone be able to make a comment like this without actively participating in botting/credit selling? The broken english doesn't help either rofl.

For some quick math if you gained a measly 2 million credits from slicing missions a day. Based on spammers that would be $1 x 30 days = $30. Basically doubling any money put in to game time cards.

I'd be willing to bet that credit seller 2 if afraid credit seller 1 might get his credit farming method nerfed with this thread LOL.

GOGOGO OP! Put this chinese guy out of business!

**Credit seller 2 has entered the game**

 

Seriously, how would anyone be able to make a comment like this without actively participating in botting/credit selling? The broken english doesn't help either rofl.

 

For some quick math if you gained a measly 2 million credits from slicing missions a day. Based on spammers that would be $1 x 30 days = $30. Basically doubling any money put in to game time cards.

 

I'd be willing to bet that credit seller 2 if afraid credit seller 1 might get his credit farming method nerfed with this thread LOL.

 

GOGOGO OP! Put this chinese guy out of business!

I'm not a native English speaker. Sorry for my English. However, who told you slicing missions a day could gained 2 million credit? Have you ever test it? If not, please test and post your result. My charactor has just earned 600K per day. There is no profite for doing this. I just want to say, slicing mission is not the reason that cause the inflation of game economy.

I swear I think some people just want to intentionally screw any type of gathering missions with these posts. First TH, now they post yeah another conspiracy post about another gathering mission.

 

they are probably being paid as posters BY the credit sellers, to make it impossible to make credits without purchasing them. Enjoy that theory.

 

Wait a minute...Rozaraan is that you?

Agreed. I can't see any other reason for ledgitmate players to want to nerf themselves. Not everyone plays 40 hours a week. Some people are casual and maybe play a total of 4-6 hours. Why should they be penelised because of credit farmers.

These threads make me really mad.

Every time I see one of these threads I think it's got to be the credit sellers starting them. They have other means to farm credits that are boring to ledgitmate players. By constantly calling for crew nerfs, it works in their favour. People need credits so they turn to the credit sellers.

Its the only logical reason that players would ask for nerfs on themselves. Ledgitmate players wouldn't want to make it harder to get credits. Only credit sellers who benefit from it.

If Bio wanted to really stop cheating, wether it's exploiting, multiboxing, credit selling and buying, pvp hacks and lag switching, they could.

But they don't care, it's so far down on their to do list or care factor scale, that hell would freeze over first.

It's not that hard for them to do. First make the report cheating process much easier and stream lined. Second have a fast, live response from CS in the game. Third, have moderators playing the actual game instead of them relying on meta data and reports, which face it, can be duped.

I actually watched a bot farming mobs to get credits using multiboxing. I reported it and even recorded it. 2 days later the bot was still in the same place and doing the same thing.

So if you want to fix multiboxing and cheating in this game, don't ask them to nerf ledgitmate players. Ask them to police the in game action and get off their butts and put live moderators in the game and hire enough proper CS staff to deal with it.

Lastly, if you really want to stop credit selling. People need to Stop buying credits from those fools. Anyone who supports them by purchasing credits from farmers is only making the problem worse. How about starting threads and social action against those people who are by passing the rules and are actually cheating by doing so. I never see any pressure on them. They are the reason these credit farmers are here. Supply and demand. The more customers, the more farmers.

DONT BUY CREDITS. Simple, problem fixed and STOP ASKING FOR NERFS