PuGs also choose tanks based on HP.... I wouldn't sweat it.

It doesn't matter what they choose to do. They will hurt BOTH the playerbase and their revenue. If they over-punish? They will lose the players they punish. If they under-punish (or not at all)? They will lose the players who felt the others should have been punished. Either way, it will result in lost revenue AND lost players. It's a lose-lose at this point... unless there's an angle I'm just not seeing as a possible 3rd option?

You are correct in that, all software has bugs. Everyone person whether they are buying Photoshop or Office, or CAD software, or a game... There's an understanding that no product is PERFECT. There will be bugs, there will be patches and hotfixes and updates. The ability delay we are experiencing now? That's a bug. It's annoying, it's problematic... It's going to be fixed eventually, but it isn't "game-breaking" in the meantime for the MOST part. What THIS is... while technically a "bug" it's something that was created. There was a previous bug that existed in which the encounter in question provided NO loot. It was fixed. And as happens many times in the software world, fixing one thing can break ten other things. And it's highly likely that is what happened in this case. Also..... any MMO game developer has to realize: Gamers will ALWAYS find a way. They will find a way to break things, skip things, find workarounds... It has, and always will be the case. So when something like this comes along? Why not revert the patch back that "fixed" the previous looting issue? Why not temporarily close down the encounter for a week or 2 (since it happened over Christmas when they likely had barebones staff to actually FIX the problem.) Bioware (or any game dev) would be foolish to think that the playerbase would just "do the right thing" and not take complete advantage (whether they think it's right or not) of this situation. They should have locked it down immediately. Think about it.... if the lock on the front door of your house broke on Christmas Eve as you were getting ready to spend 2 weeks on vacation at your sister's house, would you fix it as soon as possible? Or would you just say "Eh.. this will be fine until I get back. I'm sure that either no one will notice my house is completely unlocked, and even if they do, they will probably just do the right thing and not come inside and steal my television." The person who steals your television is STILL wrong... But you could have very easily avoided having your television stolen, if you had fixed the broken lock.

^ this.

I never said it wasn't an exploit, or justified the actions of any person using it, selling it, or starting it. If you read my post, and actually understood it's context, you'd have realized that the problem here is NOT an exploit anymore.... It's what the repercussions from whatever action/non-action Bioware takes NOW, 3 weeks after the fact, will have on the game and the playerbase given the massive polarization that's occurred as a result of the rampant nature of the exploit. I honestly couldn't care less about the actual exploit... what I DO care about, is what the delayed reaction from Bioware is going to mean to the game that I enjoy playing and how it WILL negatively impact it. That was the point of the post, which sadly, you've appeared to have missed.

You love me TUXs

Bioware has a conundrum on their hands..... Problem #1 - They did not react in ANY fashion to the exploit, whether by disabling the operation when the exploit surfaced until they could fix it, or by simply acknowledging that they knew it existed and would get it fixed asap and warned of punitive action ahead of time. Problem #2 - Because of problem #1, the exploit has been allowed to remain on the live servers, with NO response from the developers/CM team for a long time. This has caused the reach of the exploit to make it to a large population of the playerbase. Problem #3 - Because of problem #2, most of the playerbase either KNOWS about the exploit, or has done it themselves. This has caused a polarization of the playerbase, with two very different opinions: Opinion 1- The game lets me do it, so I am going to use the loot pinata. Opinion 2- You're using something obviously not working as intended, so you should be punished for what you're doing. Problem #4 - Because of problems #1 & #3, Bioware has been "forced" into a position of having to REACT instead of being able to be PROACTIVE. Problem #5 - Because of problem #4, Bioware has to now scramble with a way to both fix the exploit so it doesn't keep happening, AND find a way to appease the population of the playerbase who hold Opinion 2 by "punishing" the people who exploited, while at the same time, not enacting a "punishment" that is so harsh that they lose the people who hold Opinion 1 in the process. It's a rough spot they put themselves in, as they are not going to make anyone "happy" without losing paying customers, which isn't something Bioware wants to do. I don't have any sympathy for Bioware with the position they've put themselves in, for the sole purpose that you can trace everything back to PROBLEM #1. The Story Mode exploit in MY mind, is not as a big of a deal. It's not top-end gear, and clearing the operation is something that most of the raiders in the game are capable of doing. So it's not "cheesing" or "exploiting" content you can't clear.... It's shortening the gear grind. Still questionable if you ask me, but not so "devious".... The Hard Mode exploit is a little more interesting.... Because, there are SO FEW people that have cleared the content to even have access to the lockout. Also, someone (or someones) have transferred that lockout across servers and there are many instances of it being sold. It's for top-tier gear, that 99% of the game's population isn't capable of clearing right now.... Who is to blame for that? Well.... there's only so many people who have cleared the content legitimately, so that wouldn't be hard to figure out. All that said.... It still comes back to the simple statement that: All of this could have been avoided, if Bioware had addressed the issue early on, instead of pretending like it didn't exist. And fresh on the heels of being told that the "Early Access" that we all paid actual real-world money for, they viewed as "Pay-to-Beta" and released a buggy, partially finished product to us and called it "done" and that we got what we paid for. I'm still a SWTOR fanboy... But... this whole situation that they let go on for far too long... No matter what they do, it's going to end badly.

You could very well be correct... Tanks are indeed hard to find in the GF, and typically you need a really good reason to either vote kick one, or make one agitated enough to leave, so there is a balancing act that does occur in the GF to not lose a tank once you get one. You could also very well be correct that the person may have been unaware of the past rift, and he could have not known who I am. That said.... The rift, happened on the official forums, on the TOROCast website and on Reddit. It ultimately ended up involving large portions if not the entirety of both of our guilds... For him to have not known about it at all is unlikely, although its possible he didn't notice my guild tag... About him possibly not knowing who I am, that's possible too. However, as you'll notice from my signature, I have a rather unique legacy and name all of my toons after punctuation and use that moniker with my interaction on TOROCast. To a certain extent, none of that bothers me. I think at the end of the day, whether it was for personal gain to keep a tank from leaving the group, or being unaware of the past situation, or if it was none of those things and it was a player stepping above the pettiness? It was still the "right" thing to do, and it stood out to me.

For every time there's a rift between players/guilds... For every time there is complaining and negativity - Sometimes, members of the community step up. Also - remember when you're in a guild, for better or worse, your actions are done with your guild tag above your head, and form opinions of your guild based on YOUR individual actions, be it good or bad. (We are all guilty of both.) http://www.torocast.com/4083/apostrophes-adventures-puging-ep-12/ -Copied below for those that don't follow the link-

It started as a joke back at launch... I saw all these toons running around with an apostrophe in their name, so I figured the MOST Jedi-thing you can do, to make a normal name "Star Warsy" is to just add an extraneous apostrophe. So I rolled a new toon, and named him Apos'trophe... Which is TWICE as Star Warsy, because there's 2 apostrophes in there. Somehow it morphed, and became general Punctuation, and the rest is history. Although, being able to have a female character + displayed title of "Period the Furious" is pretty amazeballs... (Period the Unlucky isn't half bad either ha!) I used to have an "Ellipsis" but no one knows what that is, and I thought Comma, but figured people would think I misspelled Coma... I guess I could make a Colon, but that's just begging for toilet humor.

So yesterday... this happened: OMG Swirly Pink & Purple Shiny Armor!!!!! Need.

OK Devs...... I am sure this isn't the first time this suggestion has been made, but it's the first time it's been made by ME. We need, (actually NEED, this isn't a want or a desire, I am quite certain that myself and many of my gaming friends lives will be incomplete if we do not have access to..) AT-AT mounts. Make it a drop, make it a reward for conquests, make it something craftable, put it in the Cartel Market.... I really don't care... Just make it happen.

You have to appreciate the little things in life TUXs.

I'm just happy that someone invoked Godwin's Law.

At peak my guild has 35ish people online, and that's usually on nights when there's two raid teams running. The most I think I've ever seen was 40, and that's been since Conquests released. We are at the 500 member cap, because of alts. Just myself, I have 5 toons in the guild. (Four 55s and a 44 I've been leveling) I try to hit my personal cap on all of them if I can, but real life doesn't always permit that. We are not a "mega guild", we are just an ACTIVE guild with enough people that want to partiticpate in Conquests and get the titles and unlock the rooms on our guild ship. When we run GF operations, if we fill a spot or three with the group finder, by the end of the run, someone usually asks if our guild is recruiting and if they can join. We recruit by gameplay and interaction with players in the game, not blindly to boost member numbers and be Too Big To Fail in conquests by sheer numbers. There is nothing wrong with small guilds. The tight knit friendships you make in a small community can be priceless. However, you can't expect to take 5 people to a tug of war match, and expect to win against a team of 20. And you can't expect for the rules of tug of war to be changed, because you don't have enough people (by your own decision) to compete with a team that outnumbers you 4 to 1.

Commanders aren't instanced... So you CAN bring as many people as can fit in an Ops group.

All sarcasm, snarkyness and joking aside.... THAT right there? Is getting in the spirit of CONQUEST. Conquest is war, you do whatever it takes to win. Whether that means you make a "deal with the devil" and have an alliance with an opposing faction, or you sheer brute force, or you find a way (like healing commanders) to simply thwart the goals of a competing conquesting guild?

I love it when PvE'ers come into PvP..... Why? Because winning is fun when they are on the other team, and losing is fast if they are on your team.

Have to say... I'm starting to get a little excited over this new-found, amazeballs power that I apparently have to bend the devs to my every whim... My Forum post: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=7648777&postcount=10 Dev Maintenance Notice: http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=7652692&postcount=1 Patch Notes: http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/942014/2.9d-patch-notes I am definitely claiming responsibility for this one. Yeahup, was all me. I guess, to quote Uncle Ben "With great power comes great responsibility." - So, I'll ask the community.... Since the devs apparently do everything I say, because we're all childhood friends: What does everyone want me to "fix" next? Who wants Hood Toggles? Or Global Friends List? Bring on the suggestions... I'm sure I'll get it added/corrected/fixed/patched within a few hours. (Because it's simply preposterous to think that maybe the devs monitor the forums, the game itself, maybe even QA, and fix issues on their OWN timetable that at times may coincidentally coincide with an occasional forum post here and there. Heh..) As to the content of the OP - Guilds/Players will always find the best ways to win. If that means creating alliances? Then so be it. Allies work in the real world, so why not in the digital one? My guild has had other guilds swoop in and "steal" commanders from us... From getting there first, or healing the commander, or pulling before the shield was down and holding until it drops off. But are they really "stealing" ??? Did the commander have MY GUILD'S NAME on it? Or did another guild come in, and out-maneuver/out-think us and take it? It's all part of the game. If what you are doing isn't working, find another way. Outsmart the competition, overpower them, or give up.

It kind of removes the benefit of conquering a planet... Why? Well, because one of the biggest reasons to WIN a planet, is to get the Flyby so you can drop the 6 hour shields off the named Commanders. So if you conquer a planet in one cycle, and in the next cycle want to compete on another one, you have to abandon the rewards from your previous week and lose the flyby on the conquered planet? I suppose it's possible that it IS working as intended, and this is Bioware's way of hoping that especially larger guilds, will conquer a planet, and STAY ON THAT PLANET during the next cycle/cycles in order to take advantage of the benefits of retaining the benefits of a conquered planet, which would open opportunities for other guilds (especially smaller guilds) to compete in subsequent conquest events. In practice however, I'd imagine that guilds will prioritize winning a new planet, over retaining the rewards from the previous one, which not only keeps the competition prospect for smaller guilds at a minimum, but also makes winning a planet outside of the titles, completely useless. Bioware/Devs... can we get an answer on whether or not this is working as intended? Or is it a bug?

Teamspeak: http://www.teamspeak.com/ Ventrilo: http://www.ventrilo.com/ Mumble: http://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Main_Page Skype: http://www.skype.com/en/ To name a few..... Either get one setup, encourage your guild to get one setup, find a guild that already uses one, or learn how to type/run/attack/multitask/etc.

I see nothing wrong with that. I think guilds SHOULD be fighting over commanders.... Shoot, last week, a named was up, with 15min left on the shield. A group was there to take it down, and they were just waiting.... We assembled a team, mass teleported to the location and pulled the commander with 12 minutes left on the shield. Had to deal with turret respawn, and tank the boss at 50 stacks for a while, but it was doable. Someone did it to us previously, and it was actually pretty genius.

First round at Mos Eisley Cantina is on me.

^ In all honesty, this is probably the most intelligent and well thought-out post that's been in this thread since it started. I'll claim my own responsibility, but I cannot speak FOR my guild: I have four level 55 republic toons. They currently have all hit their 35k personal conquest cap. None of them has more than maybe 37-38k tops? My level 42 Shadow that I've been leveling has around 15-20k all from warzones and group finder. About half of my points on my 55s came on Tuesday and early Wednesday after all of this started, running Battle of Ilum, and I hated it with a bleeding passion, so I moved on to my Shadow and just puttered along leveling, and gaining whatever points I could at-level. (Shoot, I wasn't even online between 6-ish-pm and Midnight last night, and when I did get on, we killed a Commander, then I was leveling my Shadow.) The rest of my overall points, are from Group Finders and PvP and Heroics. Personally, running False Emperor Hard Mode from the Group Finder I found to be the best, since it required a full clear, and all of the bonuses... but it yielded 9,500 points with my Stronghold Bonus. (Some of that was repeatable, some not - however, always requiring a full clear with bonuses for the full benefit.) At this point, I'd very much like to bury the hatchet, move on.... and see what the next conquest event brings, and hopefully it will be more of an overall enjoyable experience for everyone.

You're all welcome. One of my long-distance paper airplanes must have made it to the devs in Austin, who were all in the bridal party at my wedding. /end sarcasm In all honesty, thanks for the response Tait, and I am sure the community is excited to see what sort of balancing the minds at BioWare come up with for future conquest events.