Secret World Legends bans weekend currency exploiters
Yesterday’s Secret World Legends downtime turns out to have been a serious one indeed. Players began noticing that the price of Aurum on the Exchange was fluctuating oddly over the weekend, and Funcom confirmed the issue last night and indeed rolled back everyone’s Aurum totals.
“We discovered an error that caused the Exchange to break which made quite an impact on the game,” Funcom writes. “When you log in you will find that your character’s Aurum has been reverted to the amount it was at before this occurred. Any valid purchase of Aurum made after this point will also be applied. Marks of Favour / Cache Keys will be also be reset for some players that used the Exchange after it was broken.”
Don’t think you’re getting off easy if you exploited the crap out of this one.
“We have also banned a large number of players that took advantage of the broken Exchange. The Auction House and the Exchange are temporarily disabled to give us more time to test the fixes to them. We hope to have both features back and working very soon!”
Compensation is planned for those affected by the downtime, though the details aren’t clear just yet.
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It teminds me of Neverwinter’s launch, where a similar exploit was severely abused and the economy was trashed. The difference was, of course, that there was no currency rollback and suddenly some people were millionaires. Ah, good times.
Good to know that bans went out to people abusing this.
I’d forgotten that I’d been sitting on a lot of weapons skins. So since the auction house is empty I’m out in the game world killing stuff and repeating quests with one of my characters in order to get enough mats to build weapons in order to make the skins that were in my storage. That way if/when I do play SWL I can get all those skins transferred. ( think I’m down to 6 more more skins I need to make into weapons.)
So many MMOs these days seem to have currency exploits at launch. And so many idiots refuse to learn that taking advantage of the system will lead to punishment.
Typical Funcom release shenanigans aside, I’m having a lot more fun than I had anticipated, which is good.
I have a SWL horror story for you from this weekend:
After I unsubscribed to General chat, I zoned out of a private instance and …. General chat was tripled and I couldn’t get out.
/shudder
My mom used to assure me there was no such thing as general chat.
That is a true horror story, would make a good side quest for the game.
I saw about 5 lines of general chat after logging in and thought “aw, it’s like a real new MMO launch in there” and then switched to the combat tab as it had more interesting topics of discussion.
It wouldn’t be a Funcom launch without some form of exploit like this causing servers to go down. Hope all the folks that exploited got permabanned, that shit was obviously not intended.
Oh well, still enjoying myself for the most part, though I think that’s more that I love TSW than the changes they’ve made. Overall the changes come out with a positive balance so far, but the added monetization sure does hit pretty hard at times. Especially without the cash shop stipend as a sub : /
Still trying to figure out what the specific GM perks are, if there are any anymore. Oh yeah, and when the ARG rewards get handed out, those weapons seem rad.
I’ve never seen any mention of GM-specific perks other than getting Patron status for life.
I feel like I remember them specifically mentioning GM separately from subscribers during their million “We’ll talk about sub/GM perks soon!” comments that ended up with them telling us the sub perks on launch day. Still not sure if there are actual GM perks or if they were just BSing/playing it loose with their words.
I think gm and sub are just being used together as gms are subs who don’t actually sub. So same rewards.
I have not seen any indication that we get anything as GM other than patron-for-life. I’m ok with that, but if I could ask for another perk, it would be the ability to transfer items over from TSW one more time. There are still a few exclusives I’d like to have gotten, but without linking, no patron. And I wanted the keys and the 8-hour cooldowns more. :)
Encourages me to see so many positive remarks. Was on vacation and just getting started.
Also, I apologize for being so salty the other day.
Damn all that salt was killing my blood pressure too! ;)
Hey, if there wasn’t saltiness on both sides, it would mean nobody cares. Plus commenting would be really really dull. Cheers!
Never understood why ‘Salty’ became an insult. ‘Neener Neener’ and ‘Cry Baby Pee Pants’ are so much better.
Besides Salt was highly valued throughout the ancient world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt
I guess it’s just…
I’m new to the Secret World and I’m really enjoying it. I’m going to have to but ESO on hold for a little bit to make more SWL time. Thank you to the devs who worked a very long Sunday.
What’s the size of the installation please, and how does that compare with the original version?
Any advantage or disadvantage in jumping in ahead of the Steam release?
Download size is about 20 GB for full install, install size is 43 GB. Probably smaller than TSW because Tokyo content isn’t in yet.
Oh hey Hirku just want to say thanks for the info about the UI tweaks mod you mentioned the other day. I got round to trying it this morning and being able to scale mission / reward windows helps immensely. Thanks again :-)
Thanks for the prompt info!
You’re both welcome!
Wow, that sure didn’t take long for the cheater/exploiters to start infesting a game launch. Hopefully the bans are decisive (read: final/permanent) and not just one-week slaps on the wrist.
Am I the only one that thought Secret World Legends was a new game? I was shocked as hell to find out (after downloading and logging in) that it was just Secret World with a different combat system implemented. I really had thought this was a new game like as if it was Secret World 2 or something. Doh!
Just you and everybody else in the fantasy land where building a brand new MMO in a year is routine. ; )
Yes, you’re the only one. Had you read any of the articles in the past 6 mnths leading up to this, you would have known.
For anyone that actively keeps up with this game, I can see this as a “no duh” moment.
Here’s the thing though… I don’t play Secret World often if ever. It had been years since I played Secret World.
When I saw an article here about Secret World Legends, I didn’t go back and read everything up to that point. All I saw was that it was coming out soon, head start coming, etc…
So, I thought they had been working on a replacement for Secret World for a long time, and it was finally coming out.
People here jumping on me for not being in the know is meh. What ever.
David, be sure to convert your old account over for the perks.
Check MJ streams or videos from time to time, or the developers videos, the game is the same one, just new combat and business model.
Really?
REALLY?
So all BS aside. Are you guys having fun despite the bumpy start?
I am for one, some things annoy me as with any (Funcom) game but overall I’m enjoying my time in there.
Just have to find the balance between this and LOTRO.
Absolutely. Is it the total revamp that a money fairy would’ve bestowed? No. But given the resources available. they made it a much more smooth experience.
Yeah its fun but Secret World always was for me. It boils down to some good, some bad and a lot of indifference from me as far as the specifics go. Fortunately the good and indifference outweigh the bad so I will sub and keep playing for now :-)
I’m away from my gaming PC, sadly, so I’m not. :(
But I did enjoy what I saw during beta and the little bit I played on Friday night.
Hell Yeah! Huge!
Its been to easy so far. The new combat system seems interesting on paper, but all I do is run around and spam the same AOE over and over and over. While watching 10+ mobs fall over dead.
Hopefully the difficulty ramps up at some point.
Depends on your definition of hard. Yeah, you can run around and wreck pack mobs now because they’ve made AOE default for all the weapons. But you can’t just spam AOE at solo mobs at appropriate levels. And soloing dungeons in story mode certainly requires you to understand your build and use self healing to complete.
However, if you are careful and know what you are doing you won’t have issues. Of course, that’s because you are careful and know what you are doing.
Very much so.
Long story short, pretty much every thing they changed, gameplay wise, feels either intuitive or a big improvement over what was. It has been a LONG time since I have done Dawning of an Endless Night, but it feels like they changed it up some. they did say that it would flow different, so maybe that it is it.
It is still the same game I liked, but plays a lot better, though I do have a few gripes about what is and is not in the game for content currently. And I feel that the grind will get on my nerves eventually.
Geoffrey, I’m happy to read your account – felt the same way about combat during beta. It is a better game.
Yes, I’m enjoying the new system much more, especially the weapon upgradeing, great way to handle inventory clutter.
I am. I do genuinely feel that things work better then they did. And not just combat but little things too. Some of these changes might of happened before and I just missed them (i hadn;t played for a year or so) but I like seeing the quests on the map and having them gray or blue to show me that I did them before or not.
Not completely sold that a new launch was needed versus just a gigantic patch. But that was probably more of a business decision where they can market it as a new thing.
One thing I forgot. I was worried that the investigation missions would get dumbed down after I did my first one. I remember the one I did involved more internet searching and now it seemed like all the clues where in the room. But after that first one the rest seemed as hard as I remember. Probably was just to get people into the flow of things. So now I am stuck on one that I did in the past but don’t remember the solution. But that makes me happy as I want the investigation missions to be hard.
Yeah, they just added a training one, and made a few improvements to them to make clues more built in to the game. But some of the latter ones are still as hard as you remember (Hell and Bach and Digging Deeper come to mind).
Digging Deeper, ugh. I will never not use a youtube video for the music part and I will never feel bad about it.
I’m just utter pants at the game’s music puzzles. I think the only one that didn’t drive me insane was the Christmas one.
It was hopping Saturday night. a LOT of folks running all over Kingsmouth.
Too bad there were some serious jerks in map chat. They did not give new players the best impression of what is supposedly a ‘mature’ game.
yes, kind of early on i switched to just seeing combat chat. I’ll have to remember to switch back to general or I will forget I am playing with other people.
Outside of the extra long delay yesterday and some awful personages in Kingsmouth Map chat Saturday night I am still having fun.
They had changed around some quests in Kingsmouth, level locked some stuff but as far as I can tell it’s all still there.
I am liking the Trickster, Chaos/Pistols and I can usually down a single zombie in one shot now. Does this detract from that sense that the ineffable evil all around me is invincible and I might just die? Yeah, a little but I am ok with that. I kinda always thought Kingsmouth should be a little easier to let people get their feet wet and get gud.
They added a club and market area in Agartha just after the first jump complete with dance floor. Considering how much time some folks spent in Agartha it’s probably a good idea.
The upgrading thing is OK by me as I never liked the Minecrafty crafting system before and the need for a bajillion scrap. This just feels way more intuituve.
They added some visual tracking device for quests like the one where you have to follow blood splatters to the wendigo… may be dumbing down for some but for folks who cant see well or have color blindness I am sure its a godsend.
I plan on subbing when I get home today I enjoyed it so much.
PS. Norma Creed still there, shotgun in hand, blowing away and burning zombies. She says she made a cherry pie in the meantime and its over on the window sill. Mind the ravens.
One EXTREMELY good change in the vein of the visual tracking is that all those “beeping radar” quests now work on a hot/cold system rather than a variable frequency. So, rather than having to listen carefully to the delay between beeps, you get a big green radar display when you’re getting closer and little yellow radar display when you’re getting farther. So, so much nicer.
My wife is loving the Trickster starting class as well (mostly for the visual effects of Chaos). I’ve already customized myself into a Pistol/AR build for healing purposes.
The gear upgrading is good, though once you get to fusion it becomes an insane grind. It plays into the RNG of things, but is also a slave to it as well. I feel like the system needs some tweaks, because being subject totally to RNG feels…bad. It is, however, a massive upgrade to the old system. I have only gotten half way through new England at this point (level 20 something), but there has been no explanation of Glyphs or Signets yet, which are still in the game given the things I have gotten out of caches. Hopefully this comes later, but there are things that are very unexplained currently in the tutorials (gear power for example).
And yes, the visual tracking will get people to whine about it being “dumbed down” but for peopel like me (extreme color blindness) it is a god send. It used to be basically impossible for me to do the “follow the blood trail” type quests. So I was happy to have it.
I’ve not done a lot of the other lines in Chaos but the PANDEMONIUM skill is crazy. Good think it has a cooldown.
Yeah, the game is scary as i remember, i hate thriller/horror movies and video games, also i don’t play any video games with so much gore, like Fallout, yet i played SWL, it is like TSW but with new combat.
If it was just an account ban, I’m assuming the offenders are right back in the game with new f2p accounts. That’ll show them.
Anyway, I’m glad they didn’t listen to the players chanting for a full server wipe. I don’t participate in game economies enough to care if they’re broken, but losing my character and progress (again!) would have been the end for me.
To join in the Head Start you had to have previously owned TSW, yeah? So I’m assuming all those banned, if they lost their accounts, also just lost all of their TSW stuff as well.
Not necessarily. At the last minute they changed the Head Start to be open to one and all. In other words, they launched. The banned folks might be fresh new f2p players, or at least I’d like to think so because the old TSW community was always a cut above the usual dreck.
The game was up just two days then taken down because of exploiters. My faith in mmo players gets worse all the time. Glad i can solo in this game. Funcom should have name shamed them too. Before anyone blames it all on Funcom yeah ok but these players are the scum of online gaming. They do this in every mmo. In a way its good that it happened early and not months from now.
Give exploiters a tombstone in Kingsmouth Cemetery.
Don’t give them the satisfaction of public acknowledgement. Just kick them permanently from the game, although I appreciate that’s difficult with F2P titles and one reason why I much prefer B2P or subscription models.
And don’t encourage the next idiot to try for their 15 seconds of internet fame.