Further Account Actions Taken Today

I know what you’re saying, but I just have a different view. Restitution is a good thing, but I guess I just feel strongly about cheats. I don’t want to play with them. They will be back with good artifacts and augments in no time, and if such a situation arises again, they won’t necessarily feel that if they get caught they are screwed.

I think you all used the best possible solution here.

as one of the first of many that critized the weak actions taken against those abusers, I now say that this is the right way to go. Thank you and keep it up.

The people who used the glitch stole from the company
By resetting their artifacts the company is stealing from customers. It isn't the right thing to do. They should perma ban them.

Hmm...

I think this is the best solution possible as well. The worst offenders are gone forever, and those who are not perma-banned are put on notice by having all artifact gains taken away. When they come back on Jan 20, they can decide if they want to work towards leveling up their artifacts or not. If they choose to leave the game or take advantage of another glitch/exploit, then it should be no love lost as you have given them a chance to continue to play this game.

Your decision is parallel to how many companies handle "hard to handle employees". Those employees are given a chance to thrive within the companies work cultures and policies; if they continue to have issues despite the chances they are given, then they are let go. If they complain about it, then their complaints are lost in the fog because they were given chances to keep their jobs.

When you say "No gifts for you" in small print, do you mean only the fortification pack or ALL of the Anniversary Gifts you gave out this month? If it were up to me, I would have them return on Feb 1st to make sure that those returning players receive NO GIFTS from the month of January. But, that's just me.

You must not know how this works and how the ToS can come into effect like that. The ones who stole from the company cant say ****. They are guilty. Now it's up to the devs to decide on who gets the block (perma) or probation (setback and then some)

They could always take the perma ban and keep all their artis at full level....guess that would be 'better' then?

See I'd have stripped them down of everything...all artis, gear, cash, bank and inventory....put them in a permanent skin of tar and feathers THEN let them back in on Feb 1 so they didn't get the anniversary gifts either. Or at a minimum, given them a permanent title of '....the cheater' (on top of losing the screwed with artis)....but hey...I'm not a dev.

While it is harder with the loss of the vault and stabilizer runs...no it is not impossible. I have several toons with 200s that are premium, only ever having spent the $5 to get there....no seals...no XP, and they are not even run that frequently. I've got F2P toons at or over 180, and the only reason they don't have a 200 is because they need seals and I'd have to wait a month for another destiny token was available so I couldn't break through the 180.

Yeah, also if taking away stolen stuff is stealing from the exploiters, I don't see how that would be stealing it but a permanent ban that also means they no longer have it isn't. And also that's just what happens when you get caught stealing in general, really: they take whatever you stole away from you. Whether it be the game company you cheated out of profit or law enforcement after a bike theft, that's just what happens lmao.

Thank you for the update. IMO, this is a balanced and thoughtful approach.

Apologies if I missed this - did the maintenance/hotfix also address the accidental automatic breakthroughs?

(I have a lot of characters, and often leave artifacts and augments waiting for breakthrough while farming episode catalysts or marks for vendor catalysts, so I’m not sure which ones might have broken-through when I wasn’t looking.)

Actually if they zero artifacts that players have bought nth metal or catalysts for then it is straight up as I said.

Not sure there was a better solution for everyone. Seems about right.

Obviously a lot of people dont want to play with cheaters and we dont want the same situation to happen again when there is another glitch ripe for exploit in the future. But we also want reasonable queue times.

Thank you so much for the gifts, both Anniversary gifts and todays gifts… and for everything the team has done in the past 11 years to make this MMO the best game out there!

Kind regards,

STRONGFORCE
US-PS Server

No matter who you are or how you play, if you are not a cheater, you don't like cheaters ruining the game for our honest efforts. Just one example, I saw a toon in Doomed Washington DC single-handedly, quickly defeat a bounty boss like a punk. OK yes, that is a massive exploit and make the game unfair for us all.

Impossible? Wrong. I've done 6 and all by myself along with pugging as they call it.
BTW nothing is impossible.

Thank you for the free gifts. Wasn’t expected but very much appreciated.

No you don’t have to spend money to level artifacts. Your need for them to be maxed out right away gives you no right to exploit glitches. People used exploits and have received punishments for this. Even in the TOS that you signed when you first started state that all assets of the game belong to the game and not you. So you spending money yo level an artifact gives you no permanent claims to them.

You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve maxed plenty of artifacts without spending a penny. Just because you are incapable of doing so doesn’t mean it’s not possible. So the “anyone who says it’s possible is lying” is a lie itself.

Do you even actually play the game? I have multiple artifacts leveled to 200 JUST FROM GRINDING. It's not even that difficult, now that you can get seals of completion from a vendor instead of having to wait for an event with an unstable seal.

Your whole rant is invalid.

They banned people for a glitch they caused because of a artifact leveling system that sucks. Removing glitched xp isn't the problem. Removing non glitch xp from an artifact along with glitch xp, like the example I gave is a problem. Especially, since we all know real world money would have been put into that artifact to level and breakthrough. Anything that involves real world money being spent for a product is serious. Let's, get real. Paying money to level an artifact that greatly benefits the player is straight cheating the game. I have more respect for those who used in game grinded items to level their artifacts than those who spent money to level them. Unfortunately, I also payed money to level my artifacts up. So, I am just as much to blame for this broken system. But, this game needs to move away from pay to win. There is no equity or equality in the game anymore.