The only problem I have with it is the fact that exploit does not equal cheat. If they Modded the game then that is cheating but taking advantage of a glitch in the game is not cheating...its part of the game until its patched. I've read on some forums how some have received double or triple the rewards for arena battle and no one is complaining about them. for the most part, there will always be people buffed and dropping all sorts of money or even taking advantage of exploits...i for one probably would've done it, too. However, it's just a game. A free game. Get over it and just enjoy it.
I agree
People cheese shooters all the time. If I was playing GoH and I could get 400 Crystals vs 20 Crystals for doing the same thing, I would and I feel wouldn't we all? It would not make sense to just get the minimum about as you maybe exploiting the game. I do not have a 5* Darth Vader but as long as they are not hacking the code or using external software tricks, I don't feel they have done anything we would not all do?
Saying all this, least EA Sports are willing to admit the mistake from their side and through @EA_Jesse have tackled the issue, which I feel is more than reasonable and I say bring 7* Darth on! Where gaming will imitate the movies - he will die on my battlefield a broken man.
People cheese shooters all the time. If I was playing GoH and I could get 400 Crystals vs 20 Crystals for doing the same thing, I would and I feel wouldn't we all? It would not make sense to just get the minimum about as you maybe exploiting the game. I do not have a 5* Darth Vader but as long as they are not hacking the code or using external software tricks, I don't feel they have done anything we would not all do?
I knew about the exploit from Reddit and never used it to get Vader. So, I guess that throws out your argument about everyone would do it. I wouldn't. And, I didn't. Many others here knew about it and didn't use it either.
As some of you have noticed, there have been a number of players with a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader. This raised some flags with us since the highest star Darth Vader a player could obtain currently is 5, and that is only if all achievements are completed that are in the game.
There was an exploit that players were using to obtain extra Darth Vader shards, thus allowing them to Promote him to 6 or 7 stars. This exploit has already been fixed and will no longer allow extra Darth Vader shards to be obtained through the method that was used.
We have decided to not ban these players, but will be taking additional action in the near future with these accounts.
As a temporary solution, all 6 and 7 star Darth Vader characters will be lowered in power for all players so that they are the same as a 5 star version. So if you come across a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader in Arena or Galactic War, know that they only have the stats of a 5 star version. Once we are able to take the additional action referenced above, we will back out this temporary change to the 6 and 7 star versions of Vader.
We take cheating and abuse of exploits very seriously because it upsets the balance of the game and can give certain players an unfair advantage against the rest of the community who are playing by the rules.
Thanks.
I believe i used this exploit once on accident. I was trying to unlock the darth vader shards for my allies. All 35 of my allies slots were full becuse of pending ally requests. I went to delete my pending requests and i accidentally deleted ALL my allies. When i restarted trying to get 25 total allies for my darth vader shards i noticed it said that i got shards at 10 allies not 25. Ooooooops please dont punish divinewar. I love you. Add yoda.... and r2d2, please?
As some of you have noticed, there have been a number of players with a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader. This raised some flags with us since the highest star Darth Vader a player could obtain currently is 5, and that is only if all achievements are completed that are in the game.
There was an exploit that players were using to obtain extra Darth Vader shards, thus allowing them to Promote him to 6 or 7 stars. This exploit has already been fixed and will no longer allow extra Darth Vader shards to be obtained through the method that was used.
We have decided to not ban these players, but will be taking additional action in the near future with these accounts.
As a temporary solution, all 6 and 7 star Darth Vader characters will be lowered in power for all players so that they are the same as a 5 star version. So if you come across a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader in Arena or Galactic War, know that they only have the stats of a 5 star version. Once we are able to take the additional action referenced above, we will back out this temporary change to the 6 and 7 star versions of Vader.
We take cheating and abuse of exploits very seriously because it upsets the balance of the game and can give certain players an unfair advantage against the rest of the community who are playing by the rules.
Thanks.
I believe i used this exploit once on accident. I was trying to unlock the darth vader shards for my allies. All 35 of my allies slots were full becuse of pending ally requests. I went to delete my pending requests and i accidentally deleted ALL my allies. When i restarted trying to get 25 total allies for my darth vader shards i noticed it said that i got shards at 10 allies not 25. Ooooooops please dont punish divinewar. I love you. Add yoda.... and r2d2, please?
Lol I have the same experience. Couldn't figure out why It wouldn't let me max allies (pending requests). Removed everybody to try again. Got 2 or 3 extra shards.
Anyhow bugs/glitches are EAs fault. There are plenty more in game. .. just none profitable like this one was for some people. Banning people for exploiting bad game mechanics is /laughable. I would compare it to people using op heroes prior to a nerf.
My example. .. if you found a 100% rate drop shard mission, you would do it 3x everyday. Clearly it is not their intention to have shards drop 100% anywhere... You cheater? =p
I'm pretty sure someone already posted this but it seems people have forgotten.
As per the EA ToS:
" Abuse or exploit bugs, undocumented features, design errors or problems in the game."
This, among many other things, is enough to warrant deleting a player's account.
So whatever everyone's personal view of what constitutes cheating is, EA's own Terms of Service says what these players did was cheating.
How do you know that some players didn't simply, when they logged in one day, have a bug not recognize they'd already gotten an achievement and gave them shards without them doing anything deliberately?
At least unless or until devs can satisfy themselves that every single person affected had to deliberately do something dishonest, it makes sense to do a temporary fix first and not rush to judgment.
The first ally achievement gave 2 shards, the second gave 3 shards. Go ahead and math how many times they had to reset their allies in order to get 85+ shards and Vader to 6*. I think it's safe to assume that all having 6* and the vast majority of ppl having 5* did exploit the bug.
Also... Everybody keep talking about this as a glitch. It is in fact a bug.
A bug is typically an error someone made in the code. A glitch is less likely to be traced back to human error and might occur because something in the hardware randomly malfunctioned. A bug will usually reoccur. A glitch will not.
Such an unpleasant issue is this. @EA_Jesse very smart move taking care about the issue and taking actions against those players who did this exploit. You have done it correctly. Personally, I really appreciate that you are sharing this issue with us the community, explaining what has happened and what you are going to do to deal with it, instead of keeping it as a secret. Now moving of this unpleasant issue and enjoying the game as always!!
Honestly now i wish i did it now too, because right now it looks like worst that will happen is i end up with a 5* vader once the additional action is taken
If CG doesnt want future bugs to be abuse then they need to take a stand and at least do a temporary ban as the additional action as well as obviously revert all 6* to 7* vader to 4* (even if they could have gotten 5*).
As some of you have noticed, there have been a number of players with a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader. This raised some flags with us since the highest star Darth Vader a player could obtain currently is 5, and that is only if all achievements are completed that are in the game.
There was an exploit that players were using to obtain extra Darth Vader shards, thus allowing them to Promote him to 6 or 7 stars. This exploit has already been fixed and will no longer allow extra Darth Vader shards to be obtained through the method that was used.
We have decided to not ban these players, but will be taking additional action in the near future with these accounts.
As a temporary solution, all 6 and 7 star Darth Vader characters will be lowered in power for all players so that they are the same as a 5 star version. So if you come across a 6 or 7 star Darth Vader in Arena or Galactic War, know that they only have the stats of a 5 star version. Once we are able to take the additional action referenced above, we will back out this temporary change to the 6 and 7 star versions of Vader.
We take cheating and abuse of exploits very seriously because it upsets the balance of the game and can give certain players an unfair advantage against the rest of the community who are playing by the rules.
Thanks.
I believe i used this exploit once on accident. I was trying to unlock the darth vader shards for my allies. All 35 of my allies slots were full becuse of pending ally requests. I went to delete my pending requests and i accidentally deleted ALL my allies. When i restarted trying to get 25 total allies for my darth vader shards i noticed it said that i got shards at 10 allies not 25. Ooooooops please dont punish divinewar. I love you. Add yoda.... and r2d2, please?
This is my experience and ive now had a message calling me an exploiter! 5 extra shards! What an advantage!
I'm not sure I would ban them as it was a bug. But it is a bug they had to exploit if they got to 6 or 7. I say just take Vader away from them or reset him completely. Gear and all.
This is just one of many cheats being exploited right now, EA needs to start banning these folks and quickly. One of the other effects of this is that people who built their teams fairly over time or through money are being shorted reaping the rewards of winning in the squad arena. I was top 50 from the start until a couple weeks ago, and I now routinely lose to players with pretty much the same characters, no apparent synergies, and I have much more squad power. Fix quick EA or you will be losing players. Too much cheating.
Banning is overly harsh, but there needs to be more of a punishment than just taking away their boosted Vader. If you want to cheat at Solitaire, fine. But this game is a *competition*, and every player they defeated with an illegally-enhanced character received less arena awards than they should have, and is farther behind the power curve because of it.
If the only penalty for exploiting a bug is losing your exploit, then there's no reason at all *not* to do the next exploit. Maybe you won't get caught and have more power indefinitely, or maybe you will and still get to keep all the benefits the exploit got you. No harm done, so the door's open.
The only problem I have with it is the fact that exploit does not equal cheat.......i for one probably would've done it, too. However, it's just a game. A free game. Get over it and just enjoy it.
abusing an exploit = cheating. case closed. i am amazed to see they dont even get a temporary ban, i mean ppl have been banned for less in other games, i understand this is at EA and CG's discretion, GOH being their intellectual property, but in a online multiplayer game you want to keep the community happy, they are your bread and butter, i trully hope that a more harsh penalty is given to these cheaters after the temporary solution is updated, if not banned then atleast completely take away their vader or maybe downgrade him to a 4* remember its a penalty for cheating, EA doesnt have to be obliged to be lenient.
edited: i know im gona get heat for saying this, lol my shoulders are strong and my skin as tough as rhino hide, but these ppl defending the cheaters and saying no bann is good, makes me think, they themselves are part of the cheater group, doesnt make sense that a gamer doesnt want a harsh punishment, unless he is the cheater. lol ready steady... shoot... lol
First off, the language is typical TOS agreements regarding using exploits would never hold up in arbitration or a civil court case because someone that doesn't not modify the game in any way and uses only the client provided them by the developer is simply playing the game and cannot be expected to 'read the minds' of the developers to know which actions are valid or which actions are an 'exploit'.
Unless each process in the game is explicitly spelled out as to how it is intended to function and what action(s) taken would be considered exploitation there is no basis for punishment.
Software developers are notorious for their 'you should know what is intended and what is not' and 'players should be penalized for my programming oversights or errors' attitudes but that's simply unenforceable in the real world. Imagine if you tried to penalize your customers or clients in whatever industry you work in when they take advantage of or benefit from a mistake or error in your job function (except banking).
That being said glitching in video games is like lying about your score in golf, it doesn't make you a better player it just means you have no integrity. I would like to think that most people upon discovering a glitch would report the bug so that it would be fixed and not exploit it. What's the joy in winning when you don't do it on a level playing field?
While I whole heartedly agree with your post, @murton09 I must again point out that glitches and bugs aren't the same thing. Glitches are hard to reproduce and can also be a case of hardware faults, while bugs are software hiccups that can be reproduced over and over again.
I don't understand why people would want others to be in trouble over an issue that was EAs doing?? People act as if they've led perfect lives, always honest, especially when playing this game, as if the thought of utilizing this to better your game is unheard behavior. I work in a financial institution, in most cases, it's the wealthiest people who steal the most!!!
In the end, I can't totally judge people on this and the only reason for this is EAs disdain for their customers. They sure patched that Vader bug quickly because that was their income to lose. Take a look over in the Bugs section and see how many issues haven't been patched yet, so when you suffer, we'll fix it someday. When it's us and our cash flow, patched immediately...
I am glad that CG was able to fix the bug and maintain some transparency about the issue.
I would also like to add my voice to those who don't think the punitive actions are anywhere near enough.
I don't think those that got a few Vader shards did anything wrong as the ally system is very confusing in the beginning (still is lol) but those with a 6/7* Vader had to repeat the exploit dozens of times putting in real effort towards the goal. This was deliberate.
Netting them to a 5* still gives a much stronger Vader away for free. This Vader is strong enough to almost one shot many strong, legitimately earned heroes with proper debuff setup.
Also, think of the advantage to having a 7* Vader to help you level in the early days and boosting your arena rep for so long, easier GW, etc. it's arguably made the game much easier for them (not that it's hard) and awarded them with hundreds of crystals.
If banning them is impossible, there needs to be some strong consequences or every time a bug/glitch occurs, expect more widespread abuse. If my wife never got mad when I forget the trash or I am late to pick up our daughter then I'm sure I'd do it more...
IonCat, the problem is that this *wasn't* EA's doing. Was there faulty code? Sure. But as Dan just reiterated, the people exploiting this had to deliberately wipe their allies list and put them all back in again *dozens* of times! This isn't an accident, or something that was done by mistake cause you went and deleted the inactives.
No, we're not all in real life or this game. But there's degrees, man!
Dan, at least you're not forgetting your daughter and late to take out the trash. Just sayin'.
My ally code: 296-673-769. Wish we could have more than 35.
Netting them to a 5* still gives a much stronger Vader away for free. This Vader is strong enough to almost one shot many strong, legitimately earned heroes with proper debuff setup.
The exploiters also received thousands of Crystals and tens of thousands of ally points for bronzium packs
Netting them to a 5* still gives a much stronger Vader away for free. This Vader is strong enough to almost one shot many strong, legitimately earned heroes with proper debuff setup.
The exploiters also received thousands of Crystals and tens of thousands of ally points for bronzium packs
This is even starting to make me question all those threads of people saying that they pulled multiple 3* or 4* characters from bronzium
@EA Jesse
Just lock the their 6*-7* Darth Vader and unable them to use it in any field of Mission, arena and GW. And just release them when you implement a legit 7* Vader. Imagine when this game implement a 7* Vader for the next 2 years then this players have no Darth Vader for 2 years.
People with a 6/7 star vader should definitely have it removed or set back to 4* or less. Allowing them to keep it at 5* is unfair and not a real punishment for repeated exploiting.
Both the Vader exploit and force closing are as equally bad and I hope they are able to find those who do it next and punish them, maybe by removing their GW characters.
Both the Vader exploit and force closing are as equally bad and I hope they are able to find those who do it next and punish them, maybe by removing their GW characters.
Of course they are not.
-If force closing during a GW battle gave you a win (it doesn't, it only resets the battle), it would be closer.
-It would only be equal if you could do the same node again and again and get unlimited war tokens and gems.
What they have in common is that they both breach the terms of service, but to a very different degree
Both the Vader exploit and force closing are as equally bad and I hope they are able to find those who do it next and punish them, maybe by removing their GW characters.
Of course they are not.
-If force closing during a GW battle gave you a win (it doesn't, it only resets the battle), it would be closer.
-It would only be equal if you could do the same node again and again and get unlimited war tokens and gems.
What they have in common is that they both breach the terms of service, but to a very different degree
There is no scale when it comes to cheating, one method is not more acceptable than another. Period. There is no reasoning and justification. Cheating and abusing is flat out bad. You cannot sugarcoat one method to make it sound any less worse than it is.
Both the Vader exploit and force closing are as equally bad and I hope they are able to find those who do it next and punish them, maybe by removing their GW characters.
Of course they are not.
-If force closing during a GW battle gave you a win (it doesn't, it only resets the battle), it would be closer.
-It would only be equal if you could do the same node again and again and get unlimited war tokens and gems.
What they have in common is that they both breach the terms of service, but to a very different degree
There is no scale when it comes to cheating, one method is not more acceptable than another. Period. There is no reasoning and justification. Cheating and abusing is flat out bad. You cannot sugarcoat one method to make it sound any less worse than it is.
I disagree, there are shades to every action.
For example, hacking and manipulating code is much worse than abusing a glitch.
And purposefully abusing a glitch that is not required by normal gamesplay (such as this Vader issue) is worse than abusing a glitch that can't be avoided by normal gameplay such as using Leia.
It's only one character. I would have left the nerf open and just added Vader to a table for farming and replaced him with something better in achievements...
Both the Vader exploit and force closing are as equally bad and I hope they are able to find those who do it next and punish them, maybe by removing their GW characters.
Of course they are not.
-If force closing during a GW battle gave you a win (it doesn't, it only resets the battle), it would be closer.
-It would only be equal if you could do the same node again and again and get unlimited war tokens and gems.
What they have in common is that they both breach the terms of service, but to a very different degree
There is no scale when it comes to cheating, one method is not more acceptable than another. Period. There is no reasoning and justification. Cheating and abusing is flat out bad. You cannot sugarcoat one method to make it sound any less worse than it is.
Don't be ridiculous... So you are saying that if I used a glich that let me take control of your account and delete all your toons, that would be no worse than intesionally using Leia because of her gliches because cheating is cheating?
Cheating is cheating, but there is always a scale
Replies
I agree
People cheese shooters all the time. If I was playing GoH and I could get 400 Crystals vs 20 Crystals for doing the same thing, I would and I feel wouldn't we all? It would not make sense to just get the minimum about as you maybe exploiting the game. I do not have a 5* Darth Vader but as long as they are not hacking the code or using external software tricks, I don't feel they have done anything we would not all do?
Saying all this, least EA Sports are willing to admit the mistake from their side and through @EA_Jesse have tackled the issue, which I feel is more than reasonable and I say bring 7* Darth on! Where gaming will imitate the movies - he will die on my battlefield a broken man.
I knew about the exploit from Reddit and never used it to get Vader. So, I guess that throws out your argument about everyone would do it. I wouldn't. And, I didn't. Many others here knew about it and didn't use it either.
+1 for humanity.
I believe i used this exploit once on accident. I was trying to unlock the darth vader shards for my allies. All 35 of my allies slots were full becuse of pending ally requests. I went to delete my pending requests and i accidentally deleted ALL my allies. When i restarted trying to get 25 total allies for my darth vader shards i noticed it said that i got shards at 10 allies not 25. Ooooooops please dont punish divinewar. I love you. Add yoda.... and r2d2, please?
Lol I have the same experience. Couldn't figure out why It wouldn't let me max allies (pending requests). Removed everybody to try again. Got 2 or 3 extra shards.
Anyhow bugs/glitches are EAs fault. There are plenty more in game. .. just none profitable like this one was for some people. Banning people for exploiting bad game mechanics is /laughable. I would compare it to people using op heroes prior to a nerf.
My example. .. if you found a 100% rate drop shard mission, you would do it 3x everyday. Clearly it is not their intention to have shards drop 100% anywhere... You cheater? =p
The first ally achievement gave 2 shards, the second gave 3 shards. Go ahead and math how many times they had to reset their allies in order to get 85+ shards and Vader to 6*.
If CG doesnt want future bugs to be abuse then they need to take a stand and at least do a temporary ban as the additional action as well as obviously revert all 6* to 7* vader to 4* (even if they could have gotten 5*).
This is my experience and ive now had a message calling me an exploiter! 5 extra shards! What an advantage!
My sentiments exactly
First off, the language is typical TOS agreements regarding using exploits would never hold up in arbitration or a civil court case because someone that doesn't not modify the game in any way and uses only the client provided them by the developer is simply playing the game and cannot be expected to 'read the minds' of the developers to know which actions are valid or which actions are an 'exploit'.
Unless each process in the game is explicitly spelled out as to how it is intended to function and what action(s) taken would be considered exploitation there is no basis for punishment.
Software developers are notorious for their 'you should know what is intended and what is not' and 'players should be penalized for my programming oversights or errors' attitudes but that's simply unenforceable in the real world. Imagine if you tried to penalize your customers or clients in whatever industry you work in when they take advantage of or benefit from a mistake or error in your job function (except banking).
That being said glitching in video games is like lying about your score in golf, it doesn't make you a better player it just means you have no integrity. I would like to think that most people upon discovering a glitch would report the bug so that it would be fixed and not exploit it. What's the joy in winning when you don't do it on a level playing field?
In the end, I can't totally judge people on this and the only reason for this is EAs disdain for their customers. They sure patched that Vader bug quickly because that was their income to lose. Take a look over in the Bugs section and see how many issues haven't been patched yet, so when you suffer, we'll fix it someday. When it's us and our cash flow, patched immediately...
I would also like to add my voice to those who don't think the punitive actions are anywhere near enough.
I don't think those that got a few Vader shards did anything wrong as the ally system is very confusing in the beginning (still is lol) but those with a 6/7* Vader had to repeat the exploit dozens of times putting in real effort towards the goal. This was deliberate.
Netting them to a 5* still gives a much stronger Vader away for free. This Vader is strong enough to almost one shot many strong, legitimately earned heroes with proper debuff setup.
Also, think of the advantage to having a 7* Vader to help you level in the early days and boosting your arena rep for so long, easier GW, etc. it's arguably made the game much easier for them (not that it's hard) and awarded them with hundreds of crystals.
If banning them is impossible, there needs to be some strong consequences or every time a bug/glitch occurs, expect more widespread abuse. If my wife never got mad when I forget the trash or I am late to pick up our daughter then I'm sure I'd do it more...
No, we're not all
Dan, at least you're not forgetting your daughter and late to take out the trash. Just sayin'.
The exploiters also received thousands of Crystals and tens of thousands of ally points for bronzium packs
This is even starting to make me question all those threads of people saying that they pulled multiple 3* or 4* characters from bronzium
Just lock the their 6*-7* Darth Vader and unable them to use it in any field of Mission, arena and GW. And just release them when you implement a legit 7* Vader. Imagine when this game implement a 7* Vader for the next 2 years then this players have no Darth Vader for 2 years.
It will be interesting to see what the penalty is, my guess is nothing or virtually nothing. That will basically green light cheating in this game.
On that note, they only caught this because it's impossible to 6 star a Vader. I wonder how many shard exploits are going unnoticed.
-If force closing during a GW battle gave you a win (it doesn't, it only resets the battle), it would be closer.
-It would only be equal if you could do the same node again and again and get unlimited war tokens and gems.
What they have in common is that they both breach the terms of service, but to a very different degree
There is no scale when it comes to cheating, one method is not more acceptable than another. Period. There is no reasoning and justification. Cheating and abusing is flat out bad. You cannot sugarcoat one method to make it sound any less worse than it is.
For example, hacking and manipulating code is much worse than abusing a glitch.
And purposefully abusing a glitch that is not required by normal gamesplay (such as this Vader issue) is worse than abusing a glitch that can't be avoided by normal gameplay such as using Leia.
Don't be ridiculous... So you are saying that if I used a glich that let me take control of your account and delete all your toons, that would be no worse than intesionally using Leia because of her gliches because cheating is cheating?
Cheating is cheating, but there is always a scale