[Huge economy exploit surfaces] - what will be BIOWARE's next move?

[Felioats]

They could go the SWG route and ban everyone who has exploited credits on them, regardless of whether they were the ones doing the exploiting. Edited January 6, 2012 by Felioats

[xhaiquan]

We're aware of your concerns regarding this issue, and are conducting a full investigation of the impact. Please rest assured that anyone found to be in violation of our Terms of Service will have appropriate action taken against them. We will provide more information as it becomes available. Thank you!

 

 

Please, then, make an official post--not a reply to this thread--on the forum that your company is aware of the concerns of the community and the impact that this exploit will have on the game.

[bunnyhop]

I disagree. I have seen what duping exploits have done to economis since days of Ultima Online, and there is no greater detriment to the viritual economy than this.

 

I'm not saying duping could not wreak havoc to an economy it certainly could. My comment was more the economy was already bleeding profusely from a shotgun wound to the chest at launch...another couple bullet holes isn't going to make that much of a difference.

 

With the poor GTN interface, planetary only GTN, most crafting not worthy compared to flashpoint and commendation gear there's wasn't much of an economy for duping to ruin....although I would agree that any economy there was has been snuffed out, at least temporarily until BW works out a rollback fix.

Edited January 6, 2012 by bunnyhop

[Tedstery]

Temporary or permanent bans depending on how much you took advantage of the said exploit. We saw that they banned a ton of gold farmers, and only temp banned people who slight took advantage of it. Edited January 6, 2012 by Tedstery

[Yukondoit]

And now the price for everything skyrockets.

 

It's called inflation.

 

Not if you don't pay the exorbitant costs for the item listings.

[xhaiquan]

Not if you don't pay the exorbitant costs for the item listings.

 

it is happening. i have noticed a 200-300% increase in the price of mats within the last 72 hours

[dexvx]

Whelp, I hope BioWare has implemented currency tracking. The right approach would be:

 

1) Take servers down for a couple hours to hotfix the issue. (I think this has been done). Ordinary subscribers should not be be locked out because a few exploiters did something bad.

2) Flag and investigate anyone with a large number of credits AND individuals who have had large amounts of credit transactions.

3) Meticulously trace each transaction to determine who the exploiters are and their accomplices. Be careful not to ban CasualPlayer_A because he sold an item for 100K to Exploiter_Z.

4) Remove all the excess currency from the game. Only remove the excess credits from exploiters and their accomplices. I don't think it matters that CasualPlayer_A has an extra 100K, even if that money was exploited.

5) Trace credit card information (first name, last name) on the exploiters and their accomplices. If they used a temporary card or paypal, get the address (along with a first+last name) and use that information.

6) Ban all EA accounts (including other games, such as BF3, Crysis, etc) associated to those credit-cards or address + first/last name.

[Harower]

23k for each bar of ciridium on the GTN -_-*

 

 

Things like this push this game further into the realm of an online interactive storybook.

 

Disappointing as to me the story was a minor part of this game.

[DarthSublimitas]

We're aware of your concerns regarding this issue, and are conducting a full investigation of the impact. Please rest assured that anyone found to be in violation of our Terms of Service will have appropriate action taken against them. We will provide more information as it becomes available. Thank you!

 

Yeah, we're so glad you're on top of it Oh I'm so sure you're going to be able to find all the bad guys who did this I have so much confidence in your amazing abilities I just feel so lucky that I can share with you in this experience And I must say your timely response on this is as always ever so amazing Something to inspire me to keep playing and renew my sub for 6 months at a time

Edited January 6, 2012 by DarthSublimitas

[hammarus]

Who gives one crap about exploiters! I mean really, the economy is torqued by the massive inflation as it is. Why bother crafting for profit at all? Why have a broker? When crafting to make 10,000 credits at level 30 is turned into a JOKE by making 100s of thousands at 50, what is the fraking point!?! Edited January 6, 2012 by hammarus

[hammarus]

Yeah like having general discussion threads not just closed but vaporized by a 500mm laser turret.

[hammarus]

Point remains, I contend its not the exploits that are crashing the economies, its the massive influx of credits at 50.

 

To create stability in the market you can do one of 2 things, reduce income or increase expenditures.

 

I suggest the latter, but not by making things cost more, but by creating incentives to craft. Allow complete item destruction not just the half baked damage crap with repair bills. Oh you could keep it going for a bit with repairs but ultimately gear should just break. Even raid and pvp gear.

 

Secondly, introduce new ships, new speeders and mods and "furniture" for these as ways of introducing new credit sinks.

 

I could elaborate futher but you get the point.

Edited January 6, 2012 by hammarus

[Shadowkai]

Who gives one crap about exploiters!

 

I do. And if Bioware doesn't take a strong stance (forget "temp" bans), I'm out.

[DarthSublimitas]

Lmao, but he has 1.4 MILLION CREDITS! that's like.......... average.

 

Hey good for him much better than my pittily 31k I'M SO POOR WHAAAAAA - at least I earn my money "legally" and that makes me value it more

[hammarus]

I do. And if Bioware doesn't take a strong stance (forget "temp" bans), I'm out.

 

I do as well, but in the scheme of things, right now there are bigger fish to fry. Perhaps not as it revolves around "game politics".

 

I was only saying such to point out that bothering to make any credits at lower levels beyond what is needed for skill ups is pointless when you can make 100s of thousands at 50

[Shadowkai]

I do as well, but in the scheme of things, right now there are bigger fish to fry. Perhaps not as it revolves around "game politics".

 

I was only saying such to point out that bothering to make any credits at lower levels beyond what is needed for skill ups is pointless when you can make 100s of thousands at 50

 

Level 50s aren't buying a whole lot of gear in the 1-49 range, so it in fact matters a LOT of there is rampant exploiting at all levels.

 

I don't want to pay 50k credits for a L25 blue robe, and that's where we are headed.

[rickyrockfish]

I would like to see swift punishment of all parties involved. Make an example of them. But punish your paid testors who allowed this to happen. Punish admins who are not parsing for huge credit gains attainable at thier level.

 

This is more than just a user base issue... That is reactive thinking. be proactive put systems inplace to insure this does not happen again, and if so the damage is limited.

 

I would like to see SW live long and prosper... damn I love this game

[anfo]

A good friend of mine has been using the credit exploit for the last week. There are still 2 exploits that he is using and sending credits to his other accounts.

 

There is no fixing this. No amount of banning is going to fix this problem. The only way is to roll the servers back. And I don't mean a couple of days. This has been going on since early release. He said he has known about it since BETA and that most of the elite guilds have been doing this nonstop since the game released.

 

There is no way this game will ever be right. Your not going to roll back the servers to day one. Which is the only way it would be fixed.

 

I reported my friend and the other exploits and so far nothing has happened to him or his account as of this posting.

Edited January 6, 2012 by anfo

[hammarus]

Level 50s aren't buying a whole lot of gear in the 1-49 range, so it in fact matters a LOT of there is rampant exploiting at all levels.

 

I don't want to pay 50k credits for a L25 blue robe, and that's where we are headed.

 

That's not what I am saying. Yes, exploiting is bad. We can agree on that. But, compare the number of exploiters let us say (2x) to the player base making gobs of credits at 50 (98x) and you see the point I'm trying to make.

 

I agree level 50s are not going to buy lower level gear. Except when they transfer some of those credits to alts! The issue is, why bother to craft for profit at low to mid tiers when you know that at 45+ you can rake in the credits at such huge amounts that it makes any previous credit gains pointless.

Edited January 6, 2012 by hammarus

[Cubanito-]

Point remains, I contend its not the exploits that are crashing the economies, its the massive influx of credits at 50.

 

To create stability in the market you can do one of 2 things, reduce income or increase expenditures.

 

I suggest the latter, but not by making things cost more, but by creating incentives to craft. Allow complete item destruction not just the half baked damage crap with repair bills. Oh you could keep it going for a bit with repairs but ultimately gear should just break. Even raid and pvp gear.

 

Secondly, introduce new ships, new speeders and mods and "furniture" for these as ways of introducing new credit sinks.

 

I could elaborate futher but you get the point.

 

I like the idea of equipment breaking as a logical high level expenditure. And it would promote crafting as long as crafting is made functional at high levels so it's > that PVP/Raid gear). Comming up with a balanced system could be tricky though.

[XxGudgeXx]

I reported my friend and the other exploits and so far nothing has happened to him or his account as of this posting.

 

You're not much of a friend D:

[Mannic]

You're not much of a friend D:

 

Maybe he decided friends who are selfish enough to harm a game by willfully exploiting it aren't the sort of crowd he wants to run with? I mean, there are friends and then there are "in-game acquaintences, and most people use "friend" to refer to both.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Mannic

[mikekdn]

Yes, it's sad that there are still other methods out there that is being kept behind closed doors by various small groups. Roll backs would only hurt the innocent people as exploiters will still continue until all the exploits are fixed.

[anfo]

You're not much of a friend D:

 

I use the term " friend " loosely when used in the context of gaming. I have been playing MMORPGS with this particular fellow off and on for the last 10 years.

[ghard]

Agreed. I would love to see them do what CCP does...remove the amount earned through these ill-gotten means, even if means putting the individual into a negative balance. Doubt BW will be that harsh, but it would be nice to see.

 

Actualy they remove double what was gained through exploit or real real money trading (ignoring there own legal system for it)

 

I think this is a great idea if someone Exploited 400Million credits remove 800Million credits from there character. and if it was done on an alt apply the credit removal against the main character.

 

if the person has spread the cash arround trace what you can and remove it without hurting the people who recieved it to badly I.E if someone reciever 20 Million from them remove that 20 million but dont put them negative you should always be wary of someone giving you free cash.

 

Temporary bans for everyone who used it and only permanent ban if the person has tried to make it so dificult to trace and rectify that they were obviousaly trying to avoid detection.

 

The reasons for this? Well a banned player does not tell people of the punishment for exploiting and people do talk, If someone said to you i have -400 million credits you would first know they had done something bad and second would have that in your mind should you ever find an exploit and chose to use it.

 

Banning is apropriate in alot of cases but i think letting players chose (in a game of choices) to publicaly disgrace them selves by talking of there punishment server as a better way of reminding the comunity of why it is wrong to exploit.