Not 100% sure a permanent ban will help or is the way to go.

Maybe, apart from taking back cash, items, influence etc, I'd suggest a debuff (-5% on all stats) , ban from gtn (for 1-8 weeks), and a "Cheater" title always visible! Rather than losing your subs, make them suffer in-game!

• Suspension, up to and including permanent suspension
  
• Removal of credits
  
• Removal of Commendations and other currency
  
• Removal of Companion affection
  

Oh, hell yeah! I hope you guys crack down hard on the cheating jerks that exploited the hell out of this and benefited from it!

There are few things worse, and more demoralizing for honest players than seeing people like this getting away with it and keeping their advantages. So I hope for those that exploited it, that they lose more than what they started with.

Otherwise they'll just shrug it off and try their luck again whenever the next exploit comes along. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" as the saying goes. And if the only thing they risk each time is losing their ill gotten gains... well, nothing to discourage them from trying again until they get away with it.

While winding up more poor, or losing their account entirely is a pretty good motivation to behave and not try their luck, because the price to pay for getting caught would be high enough to not make it worth the risk.

On other MMOs I've played in the past, every player knew that the devs were so lax when it came to repercussions that just about everyone jumped on the exploit train the moment one happened. Players knew at that point that not participating and being an honest player would only punish -them- in the end when those who exploited came away with tons of cash and exclusive mounts.

Sure, they couldn't log into their accounts for three days... but come on... who the hell cares about a stupid three day ban when you just got away with getting stuff that would normally take years to acquire through regular play? (Or a great deal of dollars in that particular game's case )

TL; DR version: Letting these guys off easy will only encourage more people to do it in the future. So I hope they really get what they've got coming there.

Wow, very crafty.

And here I'd have just implemented a hotfix three weeks ago.

Wow, very crafty.

 

And here I'd have just implemented a hotfix three weeks ago.

 

Because we all know that every dummy can code, and tracking down and fixing bugs is childsplay! Right?

Permanent bans are the right answer to this, do not let this suckers get of easy. Of course for the accounts doing the exploits and to the accounts the profit was transfered too.

And here we go again. The pitchfork witch hunt in full hunter mode. No, simply banning everyone who participated in this once for life isn't the answer. No, it's not as easy as that. Credits could be transfered via the GTN, making it impossible to put forward substantial evidence that the receiving end is somehow connected. No, removing all affection from illegitimately created companion gifts on other accounts doesn't work.

And most important of all: No, I don't think removing credits the person has previously earned fair and square is a solution. It sends bad PR and isn't the best advertisement to entice new players.

I can also predict people will go into full: "YOU PARTICIPATED! YOU JUST WANT TO SAVE YOUR HIDE!" mode now. Yeah, we know. Everyone who advocates reason is always guilty.

And here we go again. The pitchfork witch hunt in full hunter mode. No, simply banning everyone who participated in this once for life isn't the answer. No, it's not as easy as that. Credits could be transfered via the GTN, making it impossible to put forward substantial evidence that the receiving end is somehow connected. No, removing all affection from illegitimately created companion gifts on other accounts doesn't work.

 

And most important of all: No, I don't think removing credits the person has previously earned fair and square is a solution. It sends bad PR and isn't the best advertisement to entice new players.

 

I can also predict people will go into full: "YOU PARTICIPATED! YOU JUST WANT TO SAVE YOUR HIDE!" mode now. Yeah, we know. Everyone who advocates reason is always guilty.

I am talking about accounts involving in doing the exploit, not about accounts that happend to get exploited stuff. Of course BW has to determine the right accounts. But those accounts needs to be permantly banned. Everything else just sends out the message: Exploit early and exploit often because when it goes bad, well 1-7 days suspension and maybe some stuff removed. If it goes good, yay HUGE profit and the next exploit will be used by even more players.

I would say a lot more players will leave if the exploiters get away easy. I left Archeage because TRION handling of exploiters was a joke.

It's great to see action taken, but being upfront about it or not won't do much, when you let an exploit like this run for 6 weeks. I don't care what it takes, but your reaction to exploit reports should really be instant. Take the servers offline if need be, just do something. I refuse to believe it's taken you 6 weeks to figure out how to fix it this time around, and warning about an exploit then leaving the servers up for a week before you roll out a fix is just not thinking.

Also, why don't you guys use your PTS more? 99% of exploits aren't found in story content anyway, so don't give us access to that part, but let the player base help test the rest of your updates! I'm not saying your QA is bad, stuff like this slips through the cracks, but with more eyes and testers you reduce the chance of it happening.

Crack "That" whip...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4WUo

Glad to see this problem has been resolved.

Not 100% sure a permanent ban will help or is the way to go.

 

Maybe, apart from taking back cash, items, influence etc, I'd suggest a debuff (-5% on all stats) , ban from gtn (for 1-8 weeks), and a "Cheater" title always visible! Rather than losing your subs, make them suffer in-game!

They give people plenty of time with he last 2 exploit to tell them enough is enough so yes permanent ban to finally tell people you hear some thing about a exploit weather it is pvp or pve don't do it

I am talking about accounts involing in doing the exploit, not about accounts that happend to get exploited stuff. Of course BW has to determine the right accounts. But those accounts needs to be permantly banned. Everything else just sends out the message: Exploit early and exploit often because when it goes bad, well 1-7 days suspension and maybe some stuff removed. If it goes good, yay HUGE profit.

The issue here is many created separate accounts to participate in the exploit and then through gtn or other channels, got the items or creds back to their main accounts. Then it becomes very difficult for BW to say you exploited and sold to yourself, vs you bought a stack of exploited items off the gtn. Their credits made their way into the economy already. They took those exploited credits and bought legitimate items off gtn as well. Cant go back and reverse all sales - don't know which are legitimate or not. It's a giant web that can't be cleaned up.

This is why these exploits should be disabled (vendor temporarily removed from game, etc). It is too difficult to fully trace all the accounts and gains to the cheaters. And they will persist. Permaban their alt account- no biggie. It was all done for their main with the alt account being expendable.

The issue here is many created separate accounts to participate in the exploit and then through gtn or other channels, got the items or creds back to their main accounts. Then it becomes very difficult for BW to say you exploited and sold to yourself, vs you bought a stack of exploited items off the gtn. Their credits made their way into the economy already. They took those exploited credits and bought legitimate items off gtn as well. Cant go back and reverse all sales - don't know which are legitimate or not. It's a giant web that can't be cleaned up.

 

This is why these exploits should be disabled (vendor temporarily removed from game, etc). It is too difficult to fully trace all the accounts and gains to the cheaters. And they will persist. Permaban their alt account- no biggie. It was all done for their main with the alt account being expendable.

Sure, a lot of stuff that was created with the exploit will remain in the game. But not everyone is putting much effort into hiding his ***. If BW can come up with a clear connection between Account A that exploited and Account B that did get all the profit, both accounts must be banned (for example: same IP, same billing information).

And here we go again. The pitchfork witch hunt in full hunter mode. No, simply banning everyone who participated in this once for life isn't the answer. No,.

They have been generous with the last 2 exploits yet people seem to not get it. SO yes time for permanent bans for the extreme cases so the one that only did it a little realize not to do stuff like this. SO while i agree witch hunts are bad they need to teach people a lesson you exploit you pay big time. Then when a exploit comes out again people will just say pass no thanks and you will have only a few cases of bans

Here https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/97/33/5a/97335a4ed692dcfdd0f1b80efe7e241a.jpg

This is why these exploits should be disabled (vendor temporarily removed from game, etc).

I totally agree with this. Not sure why they don't instantly "HOTFIX" exploits the second they are found/validated. As a START LOCK it down so nobody can use.

I mean Ravagers exploit... LOCK down the instance so nobody could run that Operation. Sure lots of folks upset, but it would have stopped Loot X-mas last year. This year for X-mas we get Deco X-mas and the bad vendor in question could have just been locked down as well (not sell anything). Chair exploit - same thing (Lock it until hotfix).

I totally agree with this. Not sure why they don't instantly "HOTFIX" exploits the second they are found/validated. As a START LOCK it down so nobody can use.

Soup sandwich is why

I'm glad this is finally closed. I want to trust Bioware to do what is right about this. Some players who exploited probably did so a little on their own accounts, taking advantage of some bug without thinking of the consequences to the economy or the game in general. They probably deserve less punishment than those who purposefully and maliciously used this exploit to stockpile billions of credits. Those accounts, and those accounts that have participated in multiple exploits in the past, should probably be banned outright.

And before anyone asks, no I didn't take part and don't even know how people were doing it other than it had to do with companion gifts.