Cheater & hacker update 11/18

Replies

  • "for the most part yes"

    my comment still stands. people just have to trust the wording like they did the clone wars anniversary announcement.

    go get your grevious, gk, and jango shards.

    im not fooled by the wording.
  • I'm honestly a bit curious why everyone seems to be so happy about this. Do you guys really dislike other players buying an account or getting crystals cheaper so much? I mean, i get that you don't want other guys to get things cheaper or still face an account of a player who stopped playing because they're your competition in arena, but it's not like you can notice a difference while playing between a legit whale and a crystalfraud/bought whale account. What leaderboard you're placed on when you started playing most likely plays a far bigger roll in your ingame performance than these accounts that are getting banned ever did.
    Maybe i'm completely wrong about this, but the way i see it is that ea/cg are mostly protecting themselves against theft instead of banning cheaters who're actively ruining the game by hacking.
    Don't get me wrong, i do think "thiefs" should be punished, but it's not like i'm cheering when the local supermarket busts a thief or anything like that (eventhough pricess may go down if theft goes down, wich would be in my interrest).
  • @CG_LucifersDaddy thanks not only for the actions taken but for taking the time to randomly converse with the player base in this thread. Cheers mate 👍
  • Keithkia wrote: »
    Are these bans permanent?

    For the most part yes.

    In the past we've tried to rehabilitate these types of abuses with intricate and severe account adjustments... but with so many this go round we're just going to a perma-ban.

    We may entertain reevaluations in a few months, but I can not emphasize enough how low of a priority it is to set aside time to accommodate cheaters. They cheated, they're gone.

    LD

    @CG_LucifersDaddy who the hell are you man and why haven’t you been on the forums more? Bringing some life around here... it’s great!!!
  • ... The Carpenters? A Rock Band?

    My question exactly.. lol
  • I'm too dumb to get how someone can cheat a server based game lol like giving out your info and letting others play or something with gem buying from those "hey kids look here 1 million free"ads lol ... cant they just be like the rest of us and have Amex separated for Star wars hobbies lol.
  • Ultra wrote: »
    Jokes aside, glad to see more action is being taken (at least verbal affirmation). It would be great if we can get visual confirmation in-game with things like in-game logs of attack teams used and the time of battle for opposing team to defeat your team for Grand Arena. That seems to be something that can be implemented (according to my assumption). Making it easier for players to identify hackers.

    In SWG, bots etc caused a Dark Lord of the Sith to appear and slay the offenders. It was fun watching :)
  • Boov wrote: »
    I'm honestly a bit curious why everyone seems to be so happy about this. Do you guys really dislike other players buying an account or getting crystals cheaper so much? I mean, i get that you don't want other guys to get things cheaper or still face an account of a player who stopped playing because they're your competition in arena, but it's not like you can notice a difference while playing between a legit whale and a crystalfraud/bought whale account. What leaderboard you're placed on when you started playing most likely plays a far bigger roll in your ingame performance than these accounts that are getting banned ever did.
    Maybe i'm completely wrong about this, but the way i see it is that ea/cg are mostly protecting themselves against theft instead of banning cheaters who're actively ruining the game by hacking.
    Don't get me wrong, i do think "thiefs" should be punished, but it's not like i'm cheering when the local supermarket busts a thief or anything like that (eventhough pricess may go down if theft goes down, wich would be in my interrest).

    My take on this is... why not do both?

    Frankly this fraud stuff took over a year to investigate to the point of this weeks actions because we spend the vast majority of our time on arena/ raid / TW / battle cheaters. As gamers, we 100% agree that those cheats are the most impacting to a good game experience.

    As the fraud investigations slowly unfolded in front of us we could not ignore. And this week we found ourselves in a position to take the first of what will be several waves of action.

    The original post is intended to answer the question that others began posting Monday: Why are so many accounts being banned all of a sudden?

    And a little fun/sad fact (coming from someone who has tracked cheaters, hackers, and fraudsters for years): rarely does one just violate the covenant of trust once, or in only one realm of play. We consistently see that a player willing to cheat a raid will soon escalate to cheating TW. Or a player willing to cheat to get crystals, will soon cheat to take first place in the arena.

    I hope our actions in our little slice of the studio have a positive impact on your gaming experience.

    LD
  • Shadroth wrote: »
    @CG_LucifersDaddy thanks not only for the actions taken but for taking the time to randomly converse with the player base in this thread. Cheers mate 👍

    You kidding? Crumb would hunt me down if I dropped this post and went back to my cave without making sure all is understood.

    But really it is my pleasure... I fracking love games and the communities they build. No way am I gonna not take this chance to converse.

    LD
  • Thats exacty what Crumb does without even putting it in the general section. You have gone above and beyond.
  • This reminds me of the old world of warcraft days. Man you'd see entire guilds fall to the Chinese farmer engorged accounts.
  • Boov wrote: »
    I'm honestly a bit curious why everyone seems to be so happy about this. Do you guys really dislike other players buying an account or getting crystals cheaper so much? ...

    A 1-word answer? Yes.

    I can then summarize the reason in another 1-word answer. Fairness.
    what an ugly thing to say... does this mean we're not friends anymore?
  • Shadroth wrote: »
    @CG_LucifersDaddy thanks not only for the actions taken but for taking the time to randomly converse with the player base in this thread. Cheers mate 👍

    You kidding? Crumb would hunt me down if I dropped this post and went back to my cave without making sure all is understood.

    But really it is my pleasure... I fracking love games and the communities they build. No way am I gonna not take this chance to converse.

    LD

    Interactions with devs like you are vital to a healthy community :)
    #CloneHelmets4Life...VICTORY!!!! :smiley: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." The more you tighten your grip, CG/EA, the more whales will slip through your fingers (and go F2P or quit).

  • So you banned a large group of giant whales, who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in this **** game, just because they are said to have "purchased third-party crystals".

    And leave a player like me, who hasn't spent a penny in three years and don't even have Raven, to get the first place in the arena.

    You know that some countries and regions have blocked Google and Apple. Many people have no other channels to buy stuff but through third parties and VPNs, right?

    You know that, right?

    What can I say?

    Respect, man, respect.

    No matter what your shareholders and bosses will do to you in the future as EA's stocks continue falls down, you will always have my respect.

    And I will keep playing without buying anything until the day this game shutdown.

    I will always remember to press F button for you.


    Yours,
    F2P player who played this game for 3 years.
  • Good riddance. Eradicate them forever. Zero tolerance.
  • @CG_LucifersDaddy I for one applaude what you’re doing.
    I see both the cheers and boo’s in this thread. APK hacks are particularly destructive to this game. I clearly remember tournaments. For those that don’t understand, the APK hack “fog” out now allows your TW opponent to see your defense before TW starts. The apk “god mod” allows your best mods on every one of your toons, it takes your plus 26 speed mods and put them on every toon. It’s ridiculous. All those times you say to yourself “ how’d they clear that zone so fast?” They knew what was there. I’m in a the guild Wallet warriors, we’re probably the guild with the most rumors about requirements to get in and rumors of cheating. I’ll bet none of us get banned. The truth is I’m probably what is considered a legitimate whale. Nearly 5 million GP, and I’ve spent probably $40,000 on this game. I’m very bothered by both cheaters and those hacking crystals it drives the cost of the legitimate crystals up. Just like theft in a store or insurance fraud. Believe me someone is paying for it. Us.
    Thank you for your efforts and please stay on top of this when grand arena comes out.
  • Boov wrote: »
    I'm honestly a bit curious why everyone seems to be so happy about this. Do you guys really dislike other players buying an account or getting crystals cheaper so much? ...

    A 1-word answer? Yes.

    I can then summarize the reason in another 1-word answer. Fairness.

    Fair enough. I'm glad you're happy for the right reason.
  • if you are happy to conversate with the community can you answer one question for me.

    for the sake of trust in the game why were these accounts not removed from the game and just left in their arenas?

    based on conversations ive had with people about these cheaters over time the action ea/cg has taken up to this point has always been very unsatisfactory for a ethical player like myself who has sat in the bushes and watched all this unfold.

    some of the whales who half spent on both sides are too much money to lose is my guess. so removing the accounts for this type of action to me would be the one way to put some trust back in the community. these temp bans dont cut it
  • Hey lucifer. How long does it typically take to respond to a guild that may be effected by a cheater? Thanks for the reply ( this is my first post here)
  • Good thought it would take a rocket scientist for u to figure out nobody is buying ur packs and equipment at a rate that would have then 2.5 GP with like 5 G12 teams when they just hit 85 less than a month lol.
  • I dont understand how anyone can cheat in this game but if its posible i would like a permanent ban for those who do that .
    they “cheat” buy not buying crystals use a hacking app to get for free which u could call cheating or being smarter than whales that spend real money on packs lol

  • @CG_LucifersDaddy
    Check your PM please thanks
  • 2smooth wrote: »
    I dont understand how anyone can cheat in this game but if its posible i would like a permanent ban for those who do that .
    they “cheat” buy not buying crystals use a hacking app to get for free which u could call cheating or being smarter than whales that spend real money on packs lol

    Wrong, the key word is fraud, Its much like what is going on in a lot of games, on dragonstone kingdoms a player bought a few thousand of gear, and requested refund via googleplay (which is automated) and got massively ahead of everyone.
    Same with the revan event, big purchases and refund.
    Thats what these 3rd party services are doing on behalf for you, big buys and refund, you think it works because you got away with it for a while, but sooner or later the ban hammer comes, and the thailand guys keep your money :smile:
  • Dk_rek wrote: »
    Keithkia wrote: »
    Are these bans permanent?

    For the most part yes.

    In the past we've tried to rehabilitate these types of abuses with intricate and severe account adjustments... but with so many this go round we're just going to a perma-ban.

    We may entertain reevaluations in a few months, but I can not emphasize enough how low of a priority it is to set aside time to accommodate cheaters. They cheated, they're gone.

    LD

    Just so you know on Reddit they are posting something like 2 week bans...or even in the past..

    That's crazy they can buy themselves to first by cheating get 2 weeks off then get to go right back to first place.....

    That would almost BE AN INCENTIVE to go out and try to cheat....that would be INSANE..

    It HAS to be permanant or everyone in their brother is going to go out and try to do this..

    I know better than to let reddit rile me up but those guys have a point about temp or suspensions that woudl allow them to come back would just encourage more people to cheat.



    Yeah I read those reports. It gives me pause, knowing the truth and such.

    We don't share specific account information, but I can tell you that at no point has an account that was found guilty of crystal fraud been released back into the game without a serious, and I mean serious adjustment.

    This can and often would include the removal of event exclusive characters. Which in the case of our game means they will never be able to obtain them (e.g. BB8, Yoda, CLS...) Oh and all currencies, items, a bunch of gear and a smattering of high value heroes.

    But really, if they got back into the game in a couple of weeks, the account was a shell of its former self.

    Also this was likely during a time when we were still grasping at the magnitude and reach of such violations, thus release said accounts for further monitoring helped to yield much needed information.

    LD

    @CG_LucifersDaddy This isn't true at all. I know a bunch of people last year that you caught cheating using the very same method, and a soft ban was sanctioned. They're still very much playing today.
  • ... The Carpenters? A Rock Band?

    That was my first thought as well LOL

  • Gorem
    1190 posts Member
    Ah, good timing for this to come before grand arena, the most concern I saw was people complaining about cheaters ruining that mode, after they apparently ruined tourney's before... Luckily I missed that but didn't want to experience it in this mode, and now with this there is hope :)
  • Ultra
    11452 posts Moderator
    Sicnyc wrote: »
    @CG_LucifersDaddy I for one applaude what you’re doing.
    I see both the cheers and boo’s in this thread. APK hacks are particularly destructive to this game. I clearly remember tournaments. For those that don’t understand, the APK hack “fog” out now allows your TW opponent to see your defense before TW starts. The apk “god mod” allows your best mods on every one of your toons, it takes your plus 26 speed mods and put them on every toon. It’s ridiculous. All those times you say to yourself “ how’d they clear that zone so fast?” They knew what was there. I’m in a the guild Wallet warriors, we’re probably the guild with the most rumors about requirements to get in and rumors of cheating. I’ll bet none of us get banned. The truth is I’m probably what is considered a legitimate whale. Nearly 5 million GP, and I’ve spent probably $40,000 on this game. I’m very bothered by both cheaters and those hacking crystals it drives the cost of the legitimate crystals up. Just like theft in a store or insurance fraud. Believe me someone is paying for it. Us.
    Thank you for your efforts and please stay on top of this when grand arena comes out.
    Thanks for the insight. Genuinely curious if CG has any tools to determine if someone is using the 'fog' hack or not since its harmless on the surface (easy to slip past the radar) but allows a team to win the war
  • It's been mentioned a few times in different ways and I want to reiterate it: one of the best / most positive things coming from this thread is the glimpse of @CG_LucifersDaddy 's personality. Always fun to get to know the people behind the game.

    Keep up the good fight Mr. Daddy!
  • Fantastic job weeding out those that are cheating!!! I'm pretty sure this is the best news I've ever seen on the forums here! I did have one arena mate recently banned permanently. He was using a 3rd party program and soloed the Hstr in about 10 minutes. His guild reported him and he was never heard from again
This discussion has been closed.