SWTOR 1.1 update adds severe Valor exploit; BioWare investigating

The Star Wars: The Old Republic community is up in arms about recent camping and Valor-farming exploits caused by the recent 1.1 'Rise of the Rakghouls' update.

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The 1.1 update for Star Wars: The Old Republic launched today, bringing with it the "Rise of the Rakghouls," along with some unintended exploits that understandably have the game's community up in arms. The biggest problem seems to center around turret-farming in the high-level areas of Illum, which encourages large groups to camp the spawn-points of giant turrets. The problem seems to be exacerbated by the factional imbalances, wherein Imperial players still significantly outnumber those on the Republic side.

SWTOR community member DarkwingGT sums up the main problem fairly well on the game's official forums, stating, "The turrets give massive Valor, have no diminishing returns and respawn instantly." The upshot is that large groups are encouraged to farm these turrets, with some folks even claiming to have reached rank 100 Valor in a matter of minutes of such activity.

Problems with loading screens and hotbar icons have also been reported, following the 1.1 update.

BioWare has also noted in the SWTOR forums that it's working on an "official response," and though we're still awaiting said response, the developer has pointedly stopped using the adjective "potential" when referring to issues caused by the recent update.

To give you a better idea about just how problematic things have become for some players after the update launched, YouTube user suzpaz uploaded a video of the camping exploit, which we've embedded below.

(via Eurogamer)

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 18, 2012 2:00 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, SWTOR 1.1 update adds severe Valor exploit; BioWare investigating.

    The Star Wars: The Old Republic community is up in arms about recent camping and Valor-farming exploits caused by the recent 1.1 'Rise of the Rakghouls' update.

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      January 18, 2012 2:30 PM

      Let the shitstorm begin.

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      January 18, 2012 3:02 PM

      Perhaps they should take a page from other MMOs and have a beta server to test patches before they go live. It is obvious the internal testers are sleeping on the job if they messed this.

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        January 18, 2012 3:19 PM

        They actually have a test server but apparently no one caught this one.

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          January 18, 2012 3:23 PM

          How does the SWTOR PTR even work?

          People are saying you can't transfer your character onto it. Do you have to level an alt on the ptr to test some of the high level things? Or do they let you pick some high level characters to play?

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        January 18, 2012 7:01 PM

        The fact that the free month that everyone received at launch starts expiring tomorrow probably has a lot to do with wanting to get this patch out today.

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      January 18, 2012 3:17 PM

      Lets see how people will swarm in here and try and justify it as not an exploit. Im sure the developers wanted everyone at 100 valor in minutes.

      Wheres the popcorn?

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        January 18, 2012 3:28 PM

        it's not an exploit. they forgot about faction balance. I just went in there with my level 26 guy, which also isn't an exploit, because I just got on the flight point and got on my little speeder and got into the fray. in the FAR BACK. haha.

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      January 18, 2012 4:02 PM

      Logging in for this

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        January 18, 2012 4:03 PM

        get ready for a slide show. not much to see, but the valor gravy train is for real

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      January 18, 2012 5:26 PM

      the official response is out... http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=197991

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        January 18, 2012 6:09 PM

        lol, so no rollback? Kinda glad I didn't get this game now. Seems like it's gone downhill since launch... Are any of you folks who play going to resub?

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          January 18, 2012 6:21 PM

          My sub is up in a day or two. Not going back for now. The story stuff is a really cool change for a MMO, but, the game itself just gets old fast. Then again, every MMO I've tried for the last few years has less and less staying power with me. I loved Rift and it was good for about 3 months, SWTOR lasted about 3 weeks for me.

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            January 18, 2012 6:27 PM

            Of course as I type this, I'm downloading Age of Conan in the background.

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              January 18, 2012 6:49 PM

              I thought they shut that down

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                January 18, 2012 7:10 PM

                What? No, in fact, there was another recent expansion. There's a f2p model now or you can sub and get extra benefits.

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              January 18, 2012 7:14 PM

              Have they fixed all the v3.1 bugs, then? Hope you never need to use their support.

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                January 18, 2012 7:16 PM

                Oh I have no idea. Haven't kept up with it at all. Jut thought I'd try it out again. I know they finally added "House of Crom", a large social dungeon.

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            January 18, 2012 6:29 PM

            I tapped out as well. they should have made KOTOR 3.

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            January 18, 2012 7:45 PM

            my feelings exactly. got my money's worth of play time and story, but not enough else working for me to keep on at the moment.

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          January 18, 2012 6:29 PM

          I cancled my sub last night. Was hoping for more out of the game....the story is great but that's about all that is good in the game.

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            January 18, 2012 6:30 PM

            *canceled

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            January 18, 2012 6:35 PM

            agreed

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            January 19, 2012 2:55 AM

            I think my opinion on this game changed faster than any other MMO I have played. The beginning was cool but the game turned sour for me really fast. The story, when it's good it's good, but when it's bad it's like "OMG I JUST WANT TO GO DO A QUEST STFU!!!"

            PVP is horrible. Resolve bar is a joke. Crazy exploits and they keep adding in more each patch.
            The graphics engine is also a joke. It's ugly and runs like shit.

            I'd rather play Aion.

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          January 18, 2012 7:04 PM

          Canceling for the same reasons as said above

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          January 18, 2012 7:13 PM

          Playing this co-op with a friend through all the story missions is great. That alone is worth re-subbing for.

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            January 19, 2012 5:23 AM

            A mate and i have gone from 1-32 doing every mission together. Its been a blast.

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          January 18, 2012 8:17 PM

          Subbed for 3 months. I'm still enjoying the hell out of the game.

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          January 19, 2012 8:06 AM

          I'll resub. $15 just isn't a lot of money and I'm still only level 35 on one character, and having a really good time. People need to chill. Sometimes things get past the devs, and Bioware is new to the MMO biz. I'm willing to stick around and see what comes next.

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            January 19, 2012 8:51 AM

            You do know that Bioware has some of the most veteran MMO developers in the industry right?
            They took on Mythic and have various other vets from other companies and MMOs.

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              January 19, 2012 9:03 AM

              Nope, didn't know it. Loved DAoC. It's still the company's first MMO. I should hope they took some talent from other firms to make something as big as TOR.

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      January 18, 2012 7:11 PM

      AITOO who doesn't give a shit about this? My enjoyment of this game isn't dependent on how much pvp gear a bunch of schmucks got by exploiting a patch.

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        January 18, 2012 7:12 PM

        Agreed. No big deal to me. The game needs work but I definitely appreciate what I'm playing and getting. I'm not canceling for a long, long time.

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        January 18, 2012 7:19 PM

        It doesn't effect me the way I'm playing the game. I suppose if I was into pvp or in some competitive guild then it would matter. But from what I just read the rumors of people grinding to 100 valor in an hour isn't even remotely true?

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        January 18, 2012 8:26 PM

        i play for the PVP, somewhat competitively. So this does actually effect me and i've already unsubbed. Even just the act of unsubbing was a clusterfuck seeming they removed the unsub button from my account management page so i had to find the url through a forum post lol.

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          January 18, 2012 10:34 PM

          You showed them.

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            January 18, 2012 11:13 PM

            no, but im not giving them $15 for something i dont enjoy anymore? why the dick post man seriously.

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              January 19, 2012 2:06 PM

              I think it's completely ridiculous that you're expecting to compete in serious pvp matches in literally version 1.0 of ANY game. There are going to be HUGE bugs. You had to have known this? Did you expect otherwise?

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                January 19, 2012 2:14 PM

                I say just wait it out, plenty of awesome game for 15 a month!!!

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            January 19, 2012 5:17 AM

            Was there some other course of action he should take? >_>

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      January 18, 2012 10:19 PM

      For the HORDE!!!1!!!one!!!11

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      January 19, 2012 7:56 AM

      I'll give it another year before I even bother.... I'm still playing Rift and they actually can release patches without serious problems...

      But wait... didnt Bioware delay the patch to correct an issue ??? wonder what it was if this got through lol....

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      January 19, 2012 3:04 PM

      Nice framerate.

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