The game is being exploited by multi boxing programs and how to fix it.

[Transcendent]

When there are hundreds of characters standing in front of vendors 24 hours a day then yes they are bots. You say "Spamming the forum over suspicious behaviors achieves nothing, hence non-productive and a waste of time" and you are wrong about that. Through posts on the forums we discovered the skill they were exploiting "Treasure Hunting lockboxes" and got it fixed and learned the skill they moved on to after it was fixed "Slicing crewskill lockboxes" and now we know how the exploiters ran hundreds of accounts, multiboxing programs.

 

The exploiters can run dozens of accounts on just one computer. I saw video of a guy running 80 world of warcraft accounts on just one computer with the same multiboxing program

.

 

Your post history is quite telling. Nothing you say is constructive to the normal player, only to credit sellers.

 

Personally? I think BioWare should remove credits from the lockboxes and only have them provide materials / missions. Remove credits from the nodes in the game as well and only have those provide materials. Adjust the resell value of all materials gathered by any means to 1 credit if vendored (same as any item gathered via missions).

 

Also remove credit drops from all mobs, and adjust the resell value of items dropped to 1 credit if vendored. Randomise all of the flashpoint mobs, so they can't be multiboxed as well. Randomise the mobs in all operations, so they can't be multiboxed. Randomise mobs in the open world, so they can't be multiboxed.

 

That way, all those lovely multiboxing programs the credit sellers use? Not going to work.

 

/sarcasm.

 

However by doing all of these things, two things happen.

 

1) BioWare don't get the steady revenue stream from credit sellers multiboxing the game.

2) Players get unfairly penalised for the minority of players who actually place themselves at risk by buying off the credit sellers.

 

The only good thing that may happen is we may see a decline is the god awful annoying as hell spam mails. If anything, BioWare just need to shut down the spam emails (by allowing mails only from guild members / legacy characters / friends / GTN sales options), as well as actually get moderators into the game and make sure someone kicks the spammers off and automatically bans the accounts the instant they spam on fleet (or receive reports of spam).

 

Actively stopping the advertisement of the credits sellers, will slow the revenue credit sellers make, reducing the requirement to harm legitimate players within the game by constantly patching and nerfing out rewards for participation.

[Transcendent]

But the proposal is that the *MAC* (all-caps) address should be used. This address is unique - no two Ethernet or WiFi adapters have the same MAC address

 

No, they are not unique, you can spoof any MAC address with ease.

[alginnzor]

No, they are not unique, you can spoof any MAC address with ease.

 

The point is that each computer has a mac address which is not modified by the multiboxing programs. So even if they change it, all 20 instances or however many they run on the computer will still have the same mac address. This is an easy way to stop them. Most of the suggestions put forward to stop them are good but i would add one more suggestion. They should scan for the names of the well known multiboxing programs and ban the accounts running it.

[Sharkhonn]

Multiple fixes have already been suggested. Randomizing the crewskill mission list would be a good start.

 

Tell me why would they would fix treasure hunting but leave slicing broken. All those bots always have two crewskills, treasure hunting and slicing. They are still standing all over the planets in front of vendors so they are obviously exploiting slicing crewskill lockboxes now.

 

You are mistaken. Multiboxing IS against the TOS is this game. There is an old thread about it and it is illegal. I am not going to bother linking the thread because most honest players know it is against the rules.

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

Through posts on the forums we discovered the skill they were exploiting "Treasure Hunting lockboxes" and got it fixed and learned the skill they moved on to after it was fixed "Slicing crewskill lockboxes" and now we know how the exploiters ran hundreds of accounts, multiboxing programs.

 

See, you're once again pointing out the huge flaw in the approach you're taking with this. They "moved on" to Slicing. What do you think they're going to do if Slicing gets nerfed? If you guessed move on to something else, you're correct. They will always find the next best way to make credits and they'll run it over and over and over.

 

Playing Whack-a-Nerf with crew skills is only going to hurt legitimate players in the long run and it already has. Slicing was nerfed before Treasure Hunting became the new "big thing", now Treasure Hunting has been nerfed and Slicing is back in the top spot. Nerfing them into the ground will just push credit sellers to a different aspect of the game, which will also then be nerfed (see chests and open world credit drops), and it won't stop until credits no longer exist in the game.That won't even stop the sellers, as they'll find something else to sell. The only way to prevent credit sellers and farmers is to completely disable trading in all forms and guess who that hurts the most? You got it, legitimate players.

Edited August 29, 2016 by The-Kaitou-Kid

[alginnzor]

See, you're once again pointing out the huge flaw in the approach you're taking with this. They "moved on" to Slicing. What do you think they're going to do if Slicing gets nerfed? If you guessed move on to something else, you're correct. They will always find the next best way to make credits and they'll run it over and over and over.

 

Playing Whack-a-Nerf with crew skills is only going to hurt legitimate players in the long run and it already has. Slicing was nerfed before Treasure Hunting became the new "big thing", now Treasure Hunting has been nerfed and Slicing is back in the top spot. Nerfing them into the ground will just push credit sellers to a different aspect of the game, which will also then be nerfed (see chests and open world credit drops), and it won't stop until credits no longer exist in the game.That won't even stop the sellers, as they'll find something else to sell. The only way to prevent credit sellers and farmers is to completely disable trading in all forms and guess who that hurts the most? You got it, legitimate players.

 

The point is that it's another crewskill that is rewarding credits. That is what this series of exploits is all about. Multiboxing used to exploit crewskills that give credits. Huge numbers of accounts running per computer with multiboxing, taking advantage of the really short duration of crewskill missions, especially ones that reward credits plus easily vendorable items for a profit.

 

Crewskills should reward items which you sell on the gtn or craft with and sell on the gtn for profit, not direct credit generation through npc vendors or lockboxes.

[TUXs]

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.

EXACTLY!

 

If people are exploiting anything, it should be easy as hell to track down. EVERY action in this game leaves a digital fingerprint...go after the abusers, stop making it difficult for the average player.

[ikinai]

The more you tighten your grip, Bioware, the more credit making systems will slip through your fingers.

[TUXs]

The more you tighten your grip, Bioware, the more credit making systems will slip through your fingers.

Not after we demonstrate the capabilities of this teams ability to nerf missions!

[CaptRogue]

Not after we demonstrate the capabilities of this teams ability to nerf missions!

 

You two ain't right! LOL

 

Now seriously, lets let this thread die. We don't need another massive page thread bc then next month we will get a new nerf.

[Transcendent]

Not after we demonstrate the capabilities of this teams ability to nuke anything!

 

Corrected for you.

[TUXs]

Corrected for you.

Your correction is APPROVED

[Transcendent]

Your correction is APPROVED

 

Why thank you kind sir!

[Andryah]

You are mistaken. Multiboxing IS against the TOS is this game. There is an old thread about it and it is illegal. I am not going to bother linking the thread because most honest players know it is against the rules.

 

Uh.... no. Multi-boxing per se is legal, as long as the boxer follows the one keystroke = one action. But if they macro or gang-key, or any form of automation.....then they are in violation.

 

The studios stated position (from the head of security at the time):

http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=5971238&postcount=45

http://www.swtor.com/community/showpost.php?p=6455899&postcount=94

 

It's simple here.... any form of automation = ToS violation. Multi-boxing that does not use any form of automation.. so far.. OK here.

 

Of course this is a possible gray area in forum discussion because everyone interprets what a studio says/does-not-say to their own bias. But back when WoW clipped /follow (key to easy multi-boxing) this got discussed here as some WoW players said they would just move to some other MMO.

 

Now.. do all multi-boxers do one keystroke = one action? No.. I seriously doubt it. So if you observe it and are concerned... report it and move on. It's a big temptation to automate would be my guess.... so they do deserve careful scrutiny by the studio.. hence report them so the studio can evaluate what exactly they are doing.

 

Personally, I don't really grasp what the big advantage would be to multi-box in this particular MMO, but It is clear from forum discussions over the years that some people do it and are really into it.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Andryah

[Thoronmir]

Personally, I don't really grasp what the big advantage would be to multi-box in this particular MMO, but It is clear from forum discussions over the years that some people do it and are really into it.

You can't grasp the advantage inherent in using a single set of keystrokes to execute a given action ten times as opposed to once? Unless you meant to limit the scope of any advantage to actually playing the game. But, yeah, even if the player isn't auto-stroking, as long as running Crew Skills = profit, then running ten at a time rather than one seems more profitable.

 

I agree that simple multi-boxing is neither prohibited nor evil. I multi-box on occasion ... specifically so I can use the level 1 Guild alts on my lone F2P account to invite new alts on my paid account into my private Guilds.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Thoronmir

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

The point is that it's another crewskill that is rewarding credits. That is what this series of exploits is all about. Multiboxing used to exploit crewskills that give credits. Huge numbers of accounts running per computer with multiboxing, taking advantage of the really short duration of crewskill missions, especially ones that reward credits plus easily vendorable items for a profit.

 

Crewskills should reward items which you sell on the gtn or craft with and sell on the gtn for profit, not direct credit generation through npc vendors or lockboxes.

 

Again, taking this stuff away isn't going to remove multiboxers or credit sellers it's just going to move them to a different aspect of the game. In the short term they may be inconvenienced but in the long term they'll find something they can take advantage of to get large amounts of credits. The only people this really hurts in the long run are the legitimate players who lose yet another way to gain credits, on top of the nerfs to open world credits and removal of credits from chests.

 

What the point really should be is going after the credit sellers and multiboxers themselves, not making the progressively worse for everybody in a futile attempt to drive them out. As I said before, you and the OP are pretty much playing Whack-a-Nerf with the game's credit sources and at the end of the day the only people that'll truly lose out are the legitimate players who will have a harder time getting credits.

[Thoronmir]

As I said before, you and the OP are pretty much playing Whack-a-Nerf with the game's credit sources and at the end of the day the only people that'll truly lose out are the legitimate players who will have a harder time getting credits.

One could argue that the changes championed by these posters accomplish nothing other than making credit-sellers' lives easier.

[Andryah]

You can't grasp the advantage inherent in using a single set of keystrokes to execute a given action ten times as opposed to once? Unless you meant to limit the scope of any advantage to actually playing the game. But, yeah, even if the player isn't auto-stroking, as long as running Crew Skills = profit, then running ten at a time rather than one seems more profitable.

 

I agree that simple multi-boxing is neither prohibited nor evil. I multi-box on occasion ... specifically so I can use the level 1 Guild alts on my lone F2P account to invite new alts on my paid account into my private Guilds.

 

Correct.

 

I can see some small advantage for crafting perhaps (at the expense of hardware, and multiple subs) ... but even then... it's not hard to simply log-in/log-out of multiple characters in the same account to set-up and run multiple companions on various crafting missions at any given time.

[Transcendent]

One could argue that the changes championed by these posters accomplish nothing other than making credit-sellers' lives easier.

 

Agreed, all it does is push more players towards credit sellers. Which is why you have to question the motivation of the people making these threads (especially when you start looking at posting history of certain posters championing the nerfs).

[Captain_Zone]

The OP and the other one in this thread are obvious credit sellers/goldspammers. If ANYTHING needs to be nerfed, it's the goldspammers' accounts. Every one of them should be banned and their IP addresses blocked. Oh, and it IS possible to track and block a MAC address through an IP. Be it IPV4 or IPV6, it doesn't matter. It's still possible, if somewhat difficult.

 

Anyhow, seeing as how goldspamming/credit-selling is in direct violation of the TOS/EULA, then BioWare and EA are really dropping the ball here.

 

Get with the program, EA. Don't mess up the game for the honest crafters. That's what the OP wants, nothing more.

[DarthSpuds]

But the proposal is that the *MAC* (all-caps) address should be used. This address is unique - no two Ethernet or WiFi adapters have the same MAC address

 

A MAC address isn't unique.

 

When I first started playing online games I became involved with two anti-cheat communities using Punkbuster within the America's Army game franchise, I was personally responsible for detecting and identifying over 300 hackers - all of whom were subsequently banned by those groups (luckily the bans I submitted we banned via PBGUID). At one point we had to overturn thousands of MAC bans when it became clear that some manufacturers were "batch MACing" - giving several adapters the exact same MAC address. Add in how easy it is to spoof a MAC address and the whole concept of banning by MAC address becomes almost untenable.

 

All The Best

[DarthSpuds]

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.

 

Has Bioware definitively stated that multi-boxing is an exploit?

 

I ask because similar claims of multi-box exploiting were made on the LOTRO forums, and Turbine basically said that multi-boxing in and of itself wasn't an exploit, and wasn't against the EULA.

 

All The Best

[SteveTheCynic]

A MAC address isn't unique.

 

When I first started playing online games I became involved with two anti-cheat communities using Punkbuster within the America's Army game franchise, I was personally responsible for detecting and identifying over 300 hackers - all of whom were subsequently banned by those groups (luckily the bans I submitted we banned via PBGUID). At one point we had to overturn thousands of MAC bans when it became clear that some manufacturers were "batch MACing" - giving several adapters the exact same MAC address. Add in how easy it is to spoof a MAC address and the whole concept of banning by MAC address becomes almost untenable.

 

All The Best

Fair point. Sorry. A MAC address is supposed to be unique, then. And it's more likely to be unique than a public IP address. (Also: non-unique MAC addresses in the same LAN will cause problems once IPv6 becomes widespread, since a common method for determining the default "Link-local" (FE80::*) IPv6 address on an adapter involves a simple and deterministic manipulation of the MAC address.)

[dr_mike]

Takes 3 seconds to change a MAC address.

 

And changing a MAC address to get around a ban is a rather simple method along the level of kiddie scripters.

 

edit: Sorry and not trying to be negative. I work for a webhosting company and keep a toe in on the hacking side. Suggesting changing a mac address would only get you laughed at.)

Edited August 30, 2016 by dr_mike

[alginnzor]

Takes 3 seconds to change a MAC address.

 

And changing a MAC address to get around a ban is a rather simple method along the level of kiddie scripters.

 

edit: Sorry and not trying to be negative. I work for a webhosting company and keep a toe in on the hacking side. Suggesting changing a mac address would only get you laughed at.)

 

It doesn't matter what the mac address is or if you change it. What matters is that it is the same across multiple accounts at the same time when they are multiboxing on a computer.

 

If they change the mac address and then run 20 accounts on the computer it shows the same "new" mac address on all the 20 accounts. Very easy to catch them this way.

Edited August 30, 2016 by alginnzor