SWTOR 6.0 PTS Launch Info, Changes to Level Boosters and June PvP Report

Fridays have been busy days for BioWare on the news and announcements front for a few weeks now! SWTOR is heading towards its Onslaught (expansion) and the Public Test Server’s launch date is some time next week. Additionally today we got a few interesting and useful clarifications. The Outlander Tokens will change slightly with Update 6.0, while the Master’s Datacron remains the same. For dessert – a detailed PvP report for all of the devs’s activities regarding exploits for the month of June!

Today Musco took it to the forums to post a reminder of the studio’s plans regarding the launch of PTS and the various stages they aim to launch before and after the server goes up with the first Spoils of War changes.

In the past few weeks BioWare shared detailed plans for changes coming to several classes. Those exact ones will also be available for testing with the first test build of 6.0 PTS. Here is a list of what has been announced and revealed so far:

• SWTOR 6.0 PTS New Inquisitor Ability, Set Bonuses and Tactical Items
• SWTOR 6.0: New Warrior Ability, Set Bonuses and Tactical Items
• SWTOR 6.0: New Juggernaut Ability, Set Bonuses and Tactical Items

In his post Musco stated that currently the studio is in phase 1 – providing details via forum posts. The next phase is PTS actually launching. This is currently set to happen next week: 

Tentatively, we are aiming to have the initial version of PTS up next week. This PTS will contain the information which we have revealed to you on the PTS forum up to this point, so, tacticals, set bonuses, and the new abilities […]
Keep in mind that next week is tentative and could change. We will have a blog to coincide with the launch of PTS to give you all of the details.

Note: next week at the time of publication means that PTS should be up between July 15 and July 21. If the target date changes or there are any delays, I will let you know with an update to this article or a new one, so keep an eye on the SWTOR News category or sign up to receive new posts notifications.

The Onslaught expansion will be free for all subscribers. It will rise the level cap to 75 (up from 70). Because of that a couple of questions started popping up quite often and Musco thought it would be best to bring clarity sooner rather than later. Good decision, I’d say! Here is what will happen to the Outlander Tokens (level boost to 60 or 65 with auto-progression of previous story) and the Master’s Datacron (boost to level 70 without progressing any story)

Outlander Token – Currently, you can use this token to create a brand new character to either be level 60 at the start of KOTFE, or level 65 at the start of KOTET. In Onslaught, the functionality of the token will partially change. You will now be able to create a new character at level 60 at the start of KOTFE, or at level 70 at the start of Ossus.
Master’s Datacron – In short, nothing is going to change about the Master’s Datacron at the launch of Onslaught. At some point in the future we may add a level 75 version of the Datacron, but nothing is planned near the launch of the expansion.

Last, but not least, a lengthy post came up from Mike Bradley discussing and detailing BioWare’s activities and actions against PvP exploiters and player bans. I will leave the full unedited text for you to check out below.

Hey All,

In June we caught and punished 24 accounts for win trading or cheating in PvP. We have:

Suspended the accounts
Zeroed out all ranked ratings of every character on those accounts
Removed all of their Ranked PvP Reward Tokens

There was 1 account that we permanently banned this month for repeated cheating offenses.

I understand that many of you were dissatisfied with the contents of last month’s report, so I’d like to loop back and speak specifically to some points and questions that were raised there.

CS Suspicions

Quote: Originally Posted by ColorfulCaiques 
Also, why haven’t you guys opened up a dialogue on some of these wintraders seemingly having control on customer support? He who shall not be named has admitted to being employed by one of your EU locations, likely the one in Ireland where your ToS team is based. He has insiders that are aiding and abetting his and his friends’ illegal behavior.

Quote: Originally Posted by merovejec 
Well the question is whether you think you really get all the appeals. I mean, I am sure you guys are not the first ones to get these, there must be some staff gathering and forwarding them to you. What the people were concerned about is whether you really get all the appeals and whether “someone” isnt able to resolve it without you knowing about it

This is simply not true. I know our Galway team, we are in contact with them on a daily basis, and contrary to the rumors you may hear, they are one of our greatest allies in stopping cheaters in PvP, not helping them. Without going into too much detail, the tools our CS teams use have meticulous history of anything that is done to an account, it is simply not possible that “secretly helping” an account could happen or go unnoticed.

Which seems more likely… that several employees at every level of that office would risk their careers, reputations, and livelihoods to protect a cheating players’ points in a video game… or that someone is lying on the internet? 

Let’s Talk About Punishments

Quote: Originally Posted by omeru 
1 week ban is not an actual punishment.

Quote: Originally Posted by JediMasterAlex 
These punishments are far too lenient.

Quote: Originally Posted by fabsus 
i think the punishment is a bit mild, don’t you?

Quote: Originally Posted by Lhancelot 
Tougher punishments, less leniency for past offenders please.

Now that I’m sharing specifics on how many accounts we catch and what action we take against them, it’s clear that many, if not all of you, are displeased with the severity of the punishments in these cases. I’d like to talk about these punishments, what our goals are for having them, why I am also dissatisfied with aspects of them, and what we’re focused on trying to improve going forward.

Our Goals 

The cornerstone of our game and our team is that we want people to play and enjoy our game. When players cheat, hack, exploit, bot, trade wins, scam, harass other players, or any other form of rule-breaking behavior, we have to make decisions on how to punish every possible infraction. In making these decisions, we look at the offense, what exactly they did, how they did it, what we believe they were trying to achieve, who was affected, how severely, and then we attempt to craft a punishment that we feel is fitting for each offense. This is absolutely an imperfect process, but it is one grounded in the goal that we want to change and deter the problematic behavior, so that as many people can play and enjoy our game as possible.

We know that not all of our punishments are completely effective at changing bad behavior, but we have pretty good evidence that many of them are. I have no problem with any conversation revolving around the effectiveness of punishments, which ones seem to work, which ones don’t, and sharing ideas for deterring or discouraging cheating. Within our team, we are constantly having discussions on these topics specifically, and I do my best to ensure that those discussions are reinforced by the ideas and sentiments shared here on the forums.

Banning Accounts

Every account we action for cheating gets an email that spells out very clearly if we catch them again, punishments will be more severe, up to and including account closure. I’ve seen a couple posts asking that I clarify where exactly that line is, and what specifically will get an account banned. I’m reluctant to go into too much detail here because I worry that rather than be a deterrent, it would reveal the exact level of tolerance we have, and that those who cheat would know exactly how far they can push the boundaries. At the end of the day, the primary reason that we are not more regularly banning accounts is that very few cross that line after their first punishment.

I’ve read sentiments that claim that we’re afraid to ban accounts that give us money (not true), that there is no amount of cheating that will get you permanently banned (also not true), or that we should lower the bar for banning accounts and do so more freely (honestly that’s a fair debate that several of us on the team are having every month). 

The truth is, we do permanently ban accounts that we repeatedly catch cheating. We’ve banned around a dozen accounts just this season, and I imagine there will be a couple more before it’s over. In some instances we’ve seen bans meaningfully change behavior and in others we have seen players simply make new accounts and continue cheating, so even these punishments are not the cure-all that they may seem.

Why I am dissatisfied with some of our current cheating punishments…

I’m also frustrated with some of these punishments because they are only treating symptoms of the problems and not the problems themselves. In my view, one of the biggest problems is that in some ways our systems, leaderboards, and PvP quest rewards can incentivize bad behavior. Given the tools that we have right now, and the specific actions that we’re currently able to take, these do not feel like problems that we can realistically punish our way out of. I know that it’s tempting to believe that permanent bans are the only solution to all of these problems, but we’ve seen that is not always the case. In these instances, I think we need a better solution.

Given the bridges that I’m trying to build between our studio and this community, I’ve been asked specifically to work with our designers and analytics team to come up with some new actions that we can take against cheaters that will remove their ability to ruin the experience of others, while also staying true to our primary goal for the game. So far we have some promising leads, and while I’ll allude to some below, I’m hesitant to go into too much detail here until we can firmly commit the time and resources to them.

What we’re focused on improving going forward

As a quick caveat, I can’t promise that any of these will be enacted within a certain timeframe, but these are all specific areas that we’re doing our utmost to build consensus around within the studio. Conversations on these points are happening regularly, every week, and some are getting real traction. As soon as we have designs solidified and scheduled on our calendar, I will let you all know.

• A way to remove cheaters from the PvP ques altogether for the duration of the season
• How we can adjust our PvP rewards and/or systems to disincentivize bad behavior across the board
• Extra conditionals to improve the average quality of PvP matches, even if it lengthens que times somewhat
• Lockout timers for those who leave ranked matches or decline a que
• Better data on 3v4 matchups, how we can track them more accurately and do more to prevent them altogether
  How to grow overall player involvement in PvP (ranked and unranked)

I appreciate the time and effort that many of you took to submit reports to the new email address, the additional evidence provided there has been very helpful in our ongoing efforts to clean up cheating in PvP. Look for an extra report later this month regarding another special investigation we’re wrapping up. *Spoiler Alert* There will be bans.

Until next time…