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Double XP Weekends (with a poll!)

tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937
in Star Wars: The Old Republic

So, many complain no one ever talks about the actual game which is SWTOR, just the same old tired talking points.

So lets talk about things which are actually going on in SWTOR.

As some may have noticed, there was a Double XP weekend in SWTOR which just passed, but there are 2 more coming up.

The weekend was a success in that it raised game population (which has again been sagging) by roughly 20%.

I think it's safe to say the game's population likes it, at least for now.

Here'e the thing, because of the Gree Event, a subber can now level a new character from 1-50 in 10 hours.

With the purchase of the Black Hole thing-a-mig-jiny, and some XP pots, you can skip all the planetary quests, all the side quests, and all the class quests; and level a toon in 10 hours.

Is this a blessing to altaholics, or a condemanation of the Fourth Pillar which was supposed to be this game's core?

Here, I'll leave a poll. The question is are double XP weekends in its current (Gree Event) good for the long term health of the game?

You decide. (With the Gree event, you are bolstered and can join 24 man raid groups to farm XP)

 

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Comments

  • ktanner3ktanner3 Member UncommonPosts: 4,063

    I loved the double XP wekend. It allowed me to grind the world and class quests at my leisure and in three days I had went from level 34 to level 43. Looking forward to finishing him up this week and starting again the next time on one of my many alts that still need leveling.

    Far as the Ilum thing goes I don't care.t. If players want to skip the best part of the game and grind  a new toon to 50 in a few days the boring and old fashioned way that's their business, not anyone else's. 

    Currently Playing: World of Warcraft

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    Here'e the thing, because of the Gree Event, a subber can now level a new character from 1-50 in 10 hours.

    With the purchase of the Black Hole thing-a-mig-jiny, and some XP pots, you can skip all the planetary quests, all the side quests, and all the class quests; and level a toon in 10 hours.

     

    I don't get it.  If you skip everything what do you do to level.  I don't care what the multiplyer is 0 times anything is still 0. Maybe if I knew what the black hole thing was I would understand.

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • birdycephonbirdycephon Member UncommonPosts: 1,314

    I dont see why they even bother. They should just get rid of levels alltogether and just have flashpoints and battlegrounds, cuz thats the only thing people seem to care about. /sarcasm 

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    Talk about a misleading post.

    The Exploit is not double XP.  It is the bolstering. 

    A user has double XP + plus a 25% bonus.

    225% XP.

    A user has a 25% bonus. 

    125% XP.

    225%=10 hours.

    125%  =18 hours

    The double XP sped up the process, but 18 hours is still short and the user can still skip everything. The problem is not the double XP.  The Exploit is in the bolstering.   The double XP is great for people who want to play and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played.  The people who are exploiting are getting to max level a bit faster.

    I cannot determine if this is intentionally misleading or not.  My guess is you don't like the game, don't play the game, don't really understand what is happening, and are just trying to foster distain for the game.

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937

    I'm not sure how I've been misleading.

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    Start reading at the top of post 5 and when you reach the bottom of said post it should be obvious.

     

    If not repeat.

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • GaborikGaborik Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by MMOman101

    Start reading at the top of post 5 and when you reach the bottom of said post it should be obvious. If not repeat.

     

    Just Read The History Of The Op. Misleading Posts Are Nothing New.
  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937

    You guys complain no one ever post anything but flame threads, but never make threads discussing anything new happening in the game.

    I made a thread that posed a question about something new in the game.

    You state that even though it's not a flame thread, it's misleading, but don't clarify.

    So I guess besides Seven's posts, it's going to be mostly either, "I've started playing again and the story is greeat" or "The FTP system is too restrictive" threads ad infinitum.

    ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

  • birdycephonbirdycephon Member UncommonPosts: 1,314
    All the new stuff is posted in the general discussion forums by columnists.
  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    "you guys" ?  I have not been on this site in months.  Maybe you should read what I wrote and not bring your own baggage into this.  It might help you understand. 

     

    Your post is misleading.  The Exploit is not double XP.  It is the bolstering.

     

    You are stating that the the double XP weekend is what allows people to skip all of the quests and storylines.

     

    That is false.  The double XP weeked shortened the time by ~8 hours.  The bolstering is what allows people to skip everything and power level quickly.  The double XP shortened the time, but it is not the root cause.

     

    That has nothing to do with double XP.  It is a glitch that is being exploited.  This is not the first or the last game that will have a glitch be exploited. 

     

    It is real easy to understand. 

     

     

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • meddyckmeddyck Member UncommonPosts: 1,282
    There's nothing in SWTOR's end game that at all interests me and would make me want to get there faster, so I was perfectly content to get double xp doing my usual quests on my non-50s. (I'm also a non-subscriber so I guess the Gree event wasn't available to me anyway.)

    DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer

  • BurntvetBurntvet Member RarePosts: 3,465
    Originally posted by birdycephon

    All the new stuff is posted in the general discussion forums by columnists.

     

    As they are paid to give a shit. Not many others do about TOR anymore...
  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    There's nothing in SWTOR's end game that at all interests me and would make me want to get there faster, so I was perfectly content to get double xp doing my usual quests on my non-50s. (I'm also a non-subscriber so I guess the Gree event wasn't available to me anyway.)

     

     

    Like you, I think the end game is less fun than the leveling so it did not interest me at all.  I did do a little research, well because I am stealing at work today.

     

    Basically, as I understand it, people are purchasing the cartel item that allows them to travel to Illum at any leve.  Once there they are bosltered (move to level 50 in health and damage).  They can then grind on mobs to gain level 50 type XP and that XP is applied to their current level.  They will level much faster.

     

    I don't know if you need to be a subscriber to do this.  The CC you get as a subscriber would make it "free", you would still spend CC on it but you get some free anyway. 

     

    The player would have no companions, no skills, no gear (a few drops).  A player would have to go back and do all the story quests or just purchase everything and have no companions.  I guess they can power through all of the class quests quickly, but it would still take some time.  That time is not factored into the 10 hours though.  I think some people use this as a supplement to the class quests so they do not have to reapeat the same quests over and over. 

     

    Moreover, just the training costs for all of their skills is going to very high.  This is probably only a viable option to the very top players in the game.  The cost it would take to gear the player and train the player would be large.  Even then the toon would have to level skills with money or not have them. 

     

    An average or casual player is not going to be helped by this at all.  The more devoted players are going to have played the non-class missions a bunch of times already and probably have a bunch of level 50 toons, so I don't know what it will change.  Someone will have 9 50's isntead of 5. 

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937
    Originally posted by MMOman101

    "you guys" ?  I have not been on this site in months.  Maybe you should read what I wrote and not bring your own baggage into this.  It might help you understand. 

     

    Your post is misleading.  The Exploit is not double XP.  It is the bolstering.

     

    You are stating that the the double XP weekend is what allows people to skip all of the quests and storylines.

     

    That is false.  The double XP weeked shortened the time by ~8 hours.  The bolstering is what allows people to skip everything and power level quickly.  The double XP shortened the time, but it is not the root cause.

     

    That has nothing to do with double XP.  It is a glitch that is being exploited.  This is not the first or the last game that will have a glitch be exploited. 

     

    It is real easy to understand. 

     

     

    I'd say it's a combination of the two. But thanks for your insight Mr. Friendly.

    I keep reading that people who complain about SWTOR's endgame are content locusts, and "rush" through the stories power leveling. Now the game introduces new mechanics to Power Level on steroids and seems to be quite popular.

    I was wondering if someone could resove this seeming paradox. But if discussing the actual game is offensive to fans of the game, sorry, my bad.

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    I'd say it's a combination of the two.

     

    And you would be wrong.  Without the Bolstering there is no exploit.

     

    Without the double XP there is still the Exploit. 

     

    One is contingent on the other.  One is stand alone.  The double XP in and of itself is not a problem.  Your post was misleading. The more you argue that it is not, the more you look like someone with an agenda.   If you don't have an agenda you should accept what I am telling you.

     

    There is an exploit, as far as I am concerned, and that is that people can be bolstered to level 50 at any level and have level 50 XP earned.  There are many fixes for this.  Reduce the XP based on level.  Do not allow any level to do this.  Cap the amount that can be gained in a day. 

     

    I don't care, I think the endgame is crap.  Plus the ingame money it would take to do this is way more than I would want to earn so I can get to level 50 in 10-20 hours.  I would have to spend all kinds of time farming money.  If you add that time to i don't know how much you really save. 

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • ktanner3ktanner3 Member UncommonPosts: 4,063
    Normally I would say the quick pass for level 1's  are an exploit but since Bioware is staying mute on the subject I can only conclude that this is working as intended. 

    Currently Playing: World of Warcraft

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787

    It is an exploit, it is one that is working as intended though.

     

    The quick pass gets people using Cartel Coins and that what is intended. 

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • ktanner3ktanner3 Member UncommonPosts: 4,063
    Originally posted by MMOman101

    It is an exploit, it is one that is working as intended though.

     

    The quick pass gets people using Cartel Coins and that what is intended. 

    If it's working as intended then it's not an exploit. 

    Currently Playing: World of Warcraft

  • MMOman101MMOman101 Member UncommonPosts: 1,787
    Originally posted by ktanner3
    Originally posted by MMOman101

    It is an exploit, it is one that is working as intended though.

     

    The quick pass gets people using Cartel Coins and that what is intended. 

    If it's working as intended then it's not an exploit. 

    Things can me intentional and exploitable.

     

    An exploit is just somthing that gives someone and unfair advantage.  I can promise you that is an exploit.  I don't know if it is intended or not.

     

    A company can want an exploit.  In this case I suspect that they do.  It is probably a profitable exploit, and the profitable part is what they care about. 

    “It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

    --John Ruskin







  • IncomparableIncomparable Member UncommonPosts: 1,138

    I think it is a clever tactic by BW.

    Since it does not avoid the 4th pillar of story. It basically makes a lvl 50 go through all the story content anyways.

    Also while power lvling in illum and the gree even is in a contested zone, so it bring more people to the area at the same time. Which from a pvp perspective is a good thing while making the reward that much greater.

    I hear there are a lot of people power lvling people, and it seems to be a community thing rather than for hire. That goes to show the care from the community as well.

    Imo, its a good thing, and it also reflects well on the community for allowing it to happen helping the game, and themselves, and as stated bring an intersting aspect to pvp in the game with power lvling in the area... without still avoiding story.

    I think they should allow for this concept to continue throughout the game and should be the method to bridge the gap for expansion in the future. And since it is tied in with black hole comms it requires people with a certain number to access this it seems. I am not sure what you mean by the BH comms though, and would like to know more about this.

    “Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble”

  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937

    The exploit is to make a new character, buy a Priotity Transport Black Hole  pass from the Cartel market, (Might as well pick up some XP potions)

    you port there, then take the shuttle to Ilum, join an OPs raid, and grind the pylons.

    The bolster works on the level 1 character, so in essence you can grind to 50 in about 10 hours.

    A certain someone is splitting hairs and saying that the double XP weekend and the exploit are two separate issues that just happen to work well together.

    As Ktanner pointed out, it's not really an axploit since Bioware is aware of it and hasn't put a kaboosh on it.

    If you think it's an exploit, then there is an appropiate box to check in the poll.

    Apparently my pointing this out makes me a SWTOR hating, flaming troll.

  • GaborikGaborik Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by MMOman101

    Originally posted by ktanner3
    Originally posted by MMOman101
    It is an exploit, it is one that is working as intended though.   The quick pass gets people using Cartel Coins and that what is intended. 

    If it's working as intended then it's not an exploit. 

    Things can me intentional and exploitable.

     

    An exploit is just somthing that gives someone and unfair advantage.  I can promise you that is an exploit.  I don't know if it is intended or not.

     

    A company can want an exploit.  In this case I suspect that they do.  It is probably a profitable exploit, and the profitable part is what they care about. 

     

    Well There Is An Exploit With Mmorpg, The Same Posters Can Post Misleadin, False, Inaccuate Information For Almost A YeaR And a Half Now And Nothing Happens To Them . If You Call Them Out For What They Are You Get A Warning This Is An Example Of An Exploit Working As Intended.
  • GaborikGaborik Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by tiefighter25

    The exploit is to make a new character, buy a Priotity Transport Black Hole  pass from the Cartel market, (Might as well pick up some XP potions)you port there, then take the shuttle to Ilum, join an OPs raid, and grind the pylons.The bolster works on the level 1 character, so in essence you can grind to 50 in about 10 hours.A certain someone is splitting hairs and saying that the double XP weekend and the exploit are two separate issues that just happen to work well together.As Ktanner pointed out, it's not really an axploit since Bioware is aware of it and hasn't put a kaboosh on it.If you think it's an exploit, then there is an appropiate box to check in the poll.Apparently my pointing this out makes me a SWTOR hating, flaming troll.

     

    No Your History Does. I Would Guess Maybe 1% Of Players Know Of ThisEXPLOIT And Less Than 1% Use This EXPLOIT. Swtor Is Also Not The First Mmo In The World That Has Had An EXPLOIT ThatA Very Small Percentage Of Players EXPLOIT. Double Xp Was A Good Thing The 99.99% Of Players Used It THe Intended Way. Trying To Mislead People On Here An Acting Like A Ton Of People Used This EXPLOIT is Sad.
  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937
    Originally posted by Gaborik
    Originally posted by tiefighter25

    The exploit is to make a new character, buy a Priotity Transport Black Hole  pass from the Cartel market, (Might as well pick up some XP potions)

    you port there, then take the shuttle to Ilum, join an OPs raid, and grind the pylons.

    The bolster works on the level 1 character, so in essence you can grind to 50 in about 10 hours.

    A certain someone is splitting hairs and saying that the double XP weekend and the exploit are two separate issues that just happen to work well together.

    As Ktanner pointed out, it's not really an axploit since Bioware is aware of it and hasn't put a kaboosh on it.

    If you think it's an exploit, then there is an appropiate box to check in the poll.

    Apparently my pointing this out makes me a SWTOR hating, flaming troll.

     

    No Your History Does. I Would Guess Maybe 1% Of Players Know Of ThisEXPLOIT And Less Than 1% Use This EXPLOIT. Swtor Is Also Not The First Mmo In The World That Has Had An EXPLOIT ThatA Very Small Percentage Of Players EXPLOIT. Double Xp Was A Good Thing The 99.99% Of Players Used It THe Intended Way. Trying To Mislead People On Here An Acting Like A Ton Of People Used This EXPLOIT is Sad.

    What are you talking about? Half of SWTOR's forum threads are about this topic. The Gree event had 9 instances running this weekend. How in Hades am I being misleading?

  • Sevenstar61Sevenstar61 Member UncommonPosts: 1,686
    Originally posted by tiefighter25
    Originally posted by Gaborik
    Originally posted by tiefighter25

    The exploit is to make a new character, buy a Priotity Transport Black Hole  pass from the Cartel market, (Might as well pick up some XP potions)

    you port there, then take the shuttle to Ilum, join an OPs raid, and grind the pylons.

    The bolster works on the level 1 character, so in essence you can grind to 50 in about 10 hours.

    A certain someone is splitting hairs and saying that the double XP weekend and the exploit are two separate issues that just happen to work well together.

    As Ktanner pointed out, it's not really an axploit since Bioware is aware of it and hasn't put a kaboosh on it.

    If you think it's an exploit, then there is an appropiate box to check in the poll.

    Apparently my pointing this out makes me a SWTOR hating, flaming troll.

     

    No Your History Does. I Would Guess Maybe 1% Of Players Know Of ThisEXPLOIT And Less Than 1% Use This EXPLOIT. Swtor Is Also Not The First Mmo In The World That Has Had An EXPLOIT ThatA Very Small Percentage Of Players EXPLOIT. Double Xp Was A Good Thing The 99.99% Of Players Used It THe Intended Way. Trying To Mislead People On Here An Acting Like A Ton Of People Used This EXPLOIT is Sad.

    What are you talking about? Half of SWTOR's forum threads are about this topic. The Gree event had 9 instances running this weekend. How in Hades am I being misleading?

    Eric's response to Ilum booster:)

    Hey folks,

    I wanted to give you all an update on this now that I have all of the information in place.

    First, we are not considering this an exploit so anyone who had fear of action being taken against their characters, etc, should not be afraid. We will not be doing anything to players who used the Ilum pylons to get to 50.

    I will say that player ingenuity never ceases to amaze us all. This was not a part of the intended design of the Gree event running simultaneous to the Double XP Weekends. Due to this, we are going to be having a maintenance later this week to deploy a fix to this issue.

    I wanted to talk a bit about the fix itself since it will mix up things on Ilum temporarily. Our immediate fix to this issue is that for the time being, we are going to disable bolster on Ilum. This will have a couple of different affects.

    • Low level characters will no longer be treated as level 50 in regards to experience. They will now have the normal experience penalties associated to grouping with a player of a higher level. Meaning those players will now gain little to no experience when grouped.
    • Players who are levels 45-49 will have a slightly harder time completing some Gree event quests as they are no longer bolstered to level 50.

    I want to again reiterate that this is only a temporary solution. We are continuing to investigate the issue and intend to have a more permanent solution in place before the Gree event returns.

    -eric

    He posted later some additional info

    I don't want everyone to get too caught up here on my vocabulary. I simply meant we do not consider it an exploit in that it is not severe to the point that we will be actioning accounts/characters for it.

    Players got creative in a way we did not originally intend, but we do not want to punish you for it. However, we also did not intend for it to be that way so we are making a temporary change to address it until we can get a more permanent solution in place.

     


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