So Bioware, about people bypassing the locked part on Ziost to fight the OP Boss etc.

[dscount]

Again, for people accessing content 5 days early. Are you being serious? The way some of you talk you'd think these guys were hacking into people's accounts. The time to set an example was with Ravagers and they failed to set the example they should have. This is not even remotely close to being on the same level.

 

This is without a doubt a non-issue. In fact, so much so that Eric should not have even addressed it. Grats to those that figured out how to get to a hidden area a few days early. Let's move on....

 

I have to politely disagree with you. The only way folks are going to take BW seriously is IF and only IF they put big boy pants on and do what other MMO's do.. "BOOM HAMMER! BANNED"... they set the stage with Ravagers (Something they should have done before), but the ball is in motion. Those that did Ravagers and this one.. PERMA-BAN, but those first timers roped into should get the feather tickle like Ravagers 1-3 day.

 

Last time the only PERMA-BAN issued got changed to a 90 day. So yea.. I think they need to come down pretty hard on folks this time around after repeated "WARNINGS" of "Just wait until Daddy EA comes home...". This type of crap wouldn't fly in WOW, so why should it here in SWTOR?

[DawnAskham]

Eric, you probably lack this tech, but other MMOs that have had areas which were off limits for a duration after being patched to live used a teleport mechanic to instantly teleport any player character that enters the area back to a safe zone.

 

I guess in the guess of SWTOR, if you can't do that, maybe you could have put in place exhaustion zone in there.

 

We'd prefer you to patch again a week later than to have exploits live like this. Players will always find away around, so you need to make being there impossible.

 

They do have the tech, they just didn't bother to use it.

 

For example, the area for the Rakghoul event exists (or used to) on live, even when the event isn't active.

 

If you enter the zone (like by logging into a character which was logged out in the area while the event was running), your character will be teleported out of the zone.

 

Of course even that isn't perfect as it is still possible to access the event instance (boss) before being teleported out, and nothing in the instance prevents players from pulling or killing the boss.

 

They should think about having event NPCs or bosses set to immune, or even better, give them a super power buff that lets them one shot anyone in the zone, and leaves the player with a week long debuff similar to the Nightmare Pilgrim.

Edited April 29, 2015 by DawnAskham

[Ardarell_Solo]

I echo Jerba's comments. If anything the relative slap on the wrist people received for the Ravagers' exploit only incentivized future exploitation. In my opinion, whatever action you take for this will greatly influence future behavior.

 

I assumed all gear that was gained by any player exploiting Ravagers had been taken away anyway. It's just reading this thread that I realize that hadn't even happened.

 

By all means, if you want to be taken seriously and if you want any spirit of fairplay to even exist in this game and the players who play it to trust in that spirit: Delete ANY loot ANY player has gained from exploits instantly. No excuses. No exceptions. No BS "explanations" for it.

 

Anything else will just be a slap in the face of players sticking to the TOS you issued and everoney agreed to by installing the game and logging in. TOS clearly state what is an exploit (which is why 75% of this threat discussing that are absolutely ridiculous) and I expect you to act accordingly.

 

Things like that happening again and again is plain annoying. The least thing that needs to be done is deleting any advantage taken from those violations instantly.

 

And me, I don't want to play this game with cheaters. So for all I care eliminate them for good and this game will be a better place.

[Jerba]

I assumed all gear that was gained by any player exploiting Ravagers had been taken away anyway. It's just reading this thread that I realize that hadn't even happened.

Well, for Ravagers, it was not just the mods (those could be pulled out and sent to alts, and CS is not able to track mods once they are pulled out of an item, so those were not taken away), it was also the purple mats. Those could be sent to other characters, sold on the GTN or via direct trade, which made it impossible to trace back where each item came from, especially when the item was given to a crafter who already had a stack of the purple mats.

Supposedly, some crafters were even punished because they crafted a purple mat they bought on the GTN, so they were not only some players left unpunished, but there were also a few false positives.

 

Now, the situation is a little easier because 204 gear cannot be gotten legitimately. But they'd also have to remove the achievement, the codex entry and decoration attached to it to do a perfect job. And like we mentioned earlier, also remove the credits from players who summoned other players.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Jerba

[Infernixx]

Well, BW has a set of options sitting in front of them now. If they don't severely come down on these exploiters, then it'll mean all their talk about punishing future exploiting was just that. Just talk. And people will be exploiting all over the place without fear cause BW doesn't mean what they say.

 

Or they can bring the hammer down and that'll prove that they're serious about not exploiting the game. And people will realize that they're serious and they'll avoid exploiting out of fear, if nothing else.

 

Simple choice, really.

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

I have to say, while I'm not against this being treated as an exploit or the people participating getting their loot taken away, I don't think this should be considered on the same level as the Ravagers exploit. If somebody participated in both then sure, ban them since they didn't learn their lesson, but the idea of somebody being banned for this seems wrong to me. They still had to beat the boss fair and square as far as I can tell so it's not as if they're being handed free loot like with the Ravagers exploit, they're just getting it early.

 

Cheating is still cheating and they should face some kind of punishment, but nothing on the level of the bans that were talked about for Ravagers. That's a bit excessive in this case (again, unless they used the Ravagers exploit as well at which point that's their second chance blown).

[oofalong]

*snip*

Now, the situation is a little easier because 204 gear cannot be gotten legitimately. But they'd also have to remove the achievement, the codex entry and decoration attached to it to do a perfect job. And like we mentioned earlier, also remove the credits from players who summoned other players.

 

If anything the fact the achievement should not be obtainable at this time makes identifying the culprits easier.

[Magvay]

Problem is not with exploit getting in zone, problem is **** boss with difficulty of Underlurker HM drop BiS weapon, top guilds working hard on Revan kill and now that was just for nothing every casual player can get weapon and pretend that he is cool that is just not fair for all progression guilds, BW should remove this weapons or made Revanchist title not obtainable in game at may 4 that would be something atleast for guilds that down him before this 204 bs.

[azudelphi]

There was a time to severely punish exploiters. It was with Ravagers. There will be future exploits to punish people for, and perhaps actually seriously for a change. This isn't one of them. I see it as more of an easter egg that Eric is foolishly calling an exploit. This really just isn't worth getting worked up about.

 

Yes and no. With the Ravagers they should have made sure the repercussions matched the action. But they also made it seem like they didn't want their first serious actions to be the worst; sort of a middle ground... not too hard, not too light, but favoring the light since it was the first real mass-exploit in a very long time. But they did say that moving forward they would be harder... this may be a case where yes they are.

 

I personally agree that a few days earlier access isn't the end of the world, but they want to promote a fair game environment and that is a reasonable expectation.

[Steelarion]

*nerdrage*...Bioware will NEVER respond

 

~Bioware responds

 

*nerdrage*...That post was BS and they wont do anything

 

forums will forum

[Bradypan]

What exactly is the difference between everyone getting free 204 MHs now and everyone getting free 204 MHs next week? This boss shouldn't drop anything more than random 192 unassembled pieces. The clear fix to this exploit is to fix the loot table so that a trivial boss doesn't give better loot than the most difficult fight in the game. Not that anybody on my server even bothered trying to get to this boss because we're too busy dealing with the invisible fire from Torque.

[Nickious]

Just take away their rewarded gear and let them be locked out for operations next week and move on. Seems about fair to me.

[Trimexxx]

People are already making pugs at fleet for this..

[dscount]

What exactly is the difference between everyone getting free 204 MHs now and everyone getting free 204 MHs next week? This boss shouldn't drop anything more than random 192 unassembled pieces. The clear fix to this exploit is to fix the loot table so that a trivial boss doesn't give better loot than the most difficult fight in the game. Not that anybody on my server even bothered trying to get to this boss because we're too busy dealing with the invisible fire from Torque.

 

LOL - those flames DO look like they are meant to tickle you and not the fire from hell that kills you.

[Danery]

I think you're trying way too hard to excuse this exploiting. I do wonder why.

 

also: 'easter egg' lol

 

Just like the Ravagers Exploit was a Christmas Present from Bioware. People who wanna cheat will come up with any excuse to excuse their actions and try to defend themselves in the hopes they can avoid punishment. If people arent reading the forums, and seriously think that having to get summoned or do some insane jumping and maneuvering to do end game content then I have to wonder how long they've actually been playing. Yes there have been some things in the game that required some really awkward jumping or terrain maneuvering to get to, but they sure as hell didnt get you to an op instance that dropped a BiS Weapon, so claiming that because its been required for a crappy datacron means it could have been intended to get a BiS Mainhand is just idiotic.

 

ESPECIALLY after Devs posted that it was INTENDED that we could not do the content until next week

Edited April 29, 2015 by Danery

[DarkLordSnake]

In all honesty, I find it funny how with any new expansion or whatnot, there will always be someone who tries to glitch their way through blocked off areas that publicly cannot go to yet, and they think they can get away with it.

I'm glad bioware is doing something about this exploit on Ziost, with this information aside, we now know that there is a operation boss either way for next week.

[Andrellma]

Whether Eric or you calls it an exploit doesn't mean it's an exploit. It's a matter of opinion. some people might see it as an easteregg, others will see it as an exploit. judging by your sig, it seems to me you worship everything the community manager says.

 

Eric's job is to act as a liason between the community and the developers. If he's calling it an actionable exploit, that's exactly what it is. It's not an opinion. What anyone else thinks is irrelevant, unless they are Eric's boss.

 

An opinion is something like me saying chocolate ice cream is better than strawberry ice cream.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Andrellma

[henriquecorseuil]

So let me get this straight.

 

there's a "locked" area that you're not supposed to get into without having "unlocked" it.

 

people found a way to bypass this "lock" to get to the area and whatever is in there..without having to "unlock" it like it is intended...

 

...and you NEED BioWare to actually come out and say whether it is or is not an exploit?

 

I guess for some 1+1=potato......

 

lowest common denominator indeed

 

The best.

[Atlanis]

It's good you take action against exploiters although in the future please don't randomly block off areas for a week because doing that is just asking for things like this to happen because the block is nothing but frustrating.

 

Hey remember the first rakghulevent they blocked off stuff and unlocked it day by day, its just the same, we started the evacuation operation.....and something will happen on monday that will developp the story. You know that cliffhangar is a legit method, I am hyped for what is going to happen on monday, the wait well it doesn´t bother me. I enjoyd myself a lot yesterday and today playing through Ziost.

 

Anyone using the exploit should get banned starting monday for a week and get all loot aquired removed aka the char reset to a point before the exploit.

[KortanVescalor]

There's a new exploit to in TOR?! What?! Bioware would never release a broken game to us.....

[Bluerodian]

There's a new exploit to in TOR?! What?! Bioware would never release a broken game to us.....

 

I am Jack's total lack of surprise.

[FerkWork]

What exactly is the difference between everyone getting free 204 MHs now and everyone getting free 204 MHs next week? This boss shouldn't drop anything more than random 192 unassembled pieces. The clear fix to this exploit is to fix the loot table so that a trivial boss doesn't give better loot than the most difficult fight in the game. Not that anybody on my server even bothered trying to get to this boss because we're too busy dealing with the invisible fire from Torque.

 

I agree it doesn't make any sense to begin with, if this is some indirect way to nerf the fights then why don't they just nerf them directly. While I haven't downed Revan, the people who have deserve to have it. Also, why is it a Mainhand with crap mods but super hilt/barrel? It's like BW is trolling everyone left and right.

 

Also, f that invisible fire. It's literally the dumbest thing ever.

[MJSCHNEIDER]

Just one question to satisfy my curiosity:

I think a while back I read (here or reddit) something about a way to acess a hidden area on PTS.

Since I haven't been on PTS for long (or even live Ziost yet) can anyone answer wether thats the same area ?

 

Ok, it's an exploit and there will be repercussions, that's established. I'd just like to know if the devs knew about this before Live and just didn't bother to fix it or players found another way in.

Stuff like that happens, and communication towards the players has improved greatly since last time but still...

If the devs knew of that exact way, the delay between launch of 3.2 and the statement that it is an exploit is a bit long imo.

[Danery]

There's a new exploit to in TOR?! What?! Bioware would never release a broken game to us.....

 

The Game isnt broken.

[Bobs_YourUncle]

Just one question to satisfy my curiosity:

I think a while back I read (here or reddit) something about a way to acess a hidden area on PTS.

Since I haven't been on PTS for long (or even live Ziost yet) can anyone answer wether thats the same area ?

 

Ok, it's an exploit and there will be repercussions, that's established. I'd just like to know if the devs knew about this before Live and just didn't bother to fix it or players found another way in.

Stuff like that happens, and communication towards the players has improved greatly since last time but still...

If the devs knew of that exact way, the delay between launch of 3.2 and the statement that it is an exploit is a bit long imo.

 

No, I believe Eric mentioned in his post here that PTS reported a way into the hidden area and they patched that before it went live, this is a new way.