October Ban Report

Robmo

Community Manager
Staff member
Dec 9, 2021
295
282
63
October Ban Report

Hello Mortals,

Here is the monthly ban report for the month of October.

163 Total Accounts were banned.

57 Accounts were banned for exploiting. Of these, 21 were permanently banned.

One account was banned for GM Abuse.

105 Accounts were banned for hacking.

3 of the bans were reoffenders. These reoffenders received a second strike on their account.
 

MolagAmur

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2020
762
944
93
163 accounts banned in one month. That's 19% of the population according to Steam Charts.

Thats just unplayable imo.
 
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Kuthara

Well-known member
Jan 4, 2021
133
273
63
163 accounts banned in one month. That's 19% of the population according to Steam Charts.

Thats just unplayable imo.

No quite, that would be based on amount of players online at any given point. It does not account for actual unique log ins over the month.

It is still an alarmingly high number that seems to be increasing if you follow it over the last few months.

You need to dissect this to really understand the underlaying problems;

57 accounts were banned for exploiting - I presume this is using in game mechanics in a way in which they were not designed to gain advantage over other players. This comes down to bug/exploit prioritisation within patches to resolve the issues which allow this. Unfortunately some exploitable content has been in the game since before release. People SHOULD NOT exploit but leaving the temptation in there will always result in people doing it, wasting GM time in unpicking the mess afterwards.

105 Accounts banned for hacking - This is the more concerning figure. It suggests that Easy Anti Cheat really is not doing enough to tackle the problem. It is not quite as bad as it was in beta days but there is an obvious flaw here. EAC can not plug all of the holes but much of this can be prevented with proper investment. I assume all of these accounts were permanently banned as the comment does not mention this? I understand the strike system but if someone is actually hacking as opposed to exploiting then they are not really straddling the line anymore and are going well out of their way to cheat.

There are two big issues that come from such a high number;

GM time spent resolving these. Let's say each of these takes an hour to resolve (Some will probably be quite cut and dry but others will take a LOT longer). That is 163 hours of GM time spent managing this, rather than supporting players.

Economy - Since release, 1000's of player accounts have been banned. We know that not all of the materials that they gain during this time period have been removed, considering we see items on the broker from these players being spread across the community, gold changes hands quickly, gets dumped into materials or assets and basically is laundered through the system. The current state of the economy is insanely poor. The inflation on gold is 100 x worse than it was ever in MO1. This would be fine if it was done naturally however due to it being artificially inflated by hacking/exploiting it leaves new players or people who did not partake in this lunacy in a very bad place.
 
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Nefnate

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2021
327
460
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My Mind
Rather than complain or dissect the numbers, I for one am simply happy to see high numbers. Exploitation/hack and high-end player have been synonymous in MO since I joined the game, and if that turns around and results in most of the games existing veteran population being shot to the curb, good. More room for honest players to claim legitimate stakes.

When UE5 release happens, even better - cleaner air for the noobs to breathe.

Good grind, team, ban some more. Happy to see it.
 

Kuthara

Well-known member
Jan 4, 2021
133
273
63
Rather than complain or dissect the numbers, I for one am simply happy to see high numbers. Exploitation/hack and high-end player have been synonymous in MO since I joined the game, and if that turns around and results in most of the games existing veteran population being shot to the curb, good. More room for honest players to claim legitimate stakes.

When UE5 release happens, even better - cleaner air for the noobs to breathe.

Good grind, team, ban some more. Happy to see it.

I think you are confusing the point. It is obviously fantastic to see people being removed from the game who are doing this. However you have to look at the root cause and the impact. The numbers are a indicator to big issues.
 

Nefnate

Well-known member
Jun 23, 2021
327
460
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My Mind
I think you are confusing the point. It is obviously fantastic to see people being removed from the game who are doing this. However you have to look at the root cause and the impact. The numbers are a indicator to big issues.
I didn't confuse the point, I just avoided it, honestly. We all know the game is shaky and exploitable. It isn't getting fixed, least not for a long time. The core code needs to be bullet proofed and error checked. The daunting task is likely not going to happen so I'm taking wins where there are wins.
 

Emdash

Well-known member
Sep 22, 2021
2,828
919
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I assume all of these accounts were permanently banned as the comment does not mention this? I understand the strike system but if someone is actually hacking as opposed to exploiting then they are not really straddling the line anymore and are going well out of their way to cheat.

I would not assume that unless it was explicitly stated. However, IF NOT, that's p strange. I know I fought 1 dude who moved FASTER THAN ANYONE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Only dude to ever catch me on foot. I know I told this story before (getting senile eyyy?) but he was sticking me so hard that I actually turned around before he last hit me to see where he was, and the position he was in (had it on vid, long gone now) was as if he was so close to me that he was actually having to slow down to hit me. I've done the run tests stout v lean veela, for instance, and it's BARELY different, tick different. Sure, it's modified by speed buffs, but still... never seen a man move so fast, AND he was a human pretty sure.

Anxious to see if I see him around anymore!

And yea I'm with Nef, keep banning! Unless people are getting wrongly banned. That means... less TC shitting up, fewer assholes. More integrity. If they can just take a big bite into the overall 'game integrity,' they would retain a lot more pop. I know it was a catastrophic moment for most people when they realized there were, in fact, a lot of cheaters.

I also remember Mega telling me that the number of people exploiting was not as many as I thought, and "HE WAS IN THE POSITION TO KNOW." What ever happened to mega? :eek:
 

Hodo

Well-known member
Mar 7, 2022
1,063
935
113
Rather than complain or dissect the numbers, I for one am simply happy to see high numbers. Exploitation/hack and high-end player have been synonymous in MO since I joined the game, and if that turns around and results in most of the games existing veteran population being shot to the curb, good. More room for honest players to claim legitimate stakes.

When UE5 release happens, even better - cleaner air for the noobs to breathe.

Good grind, team, ban some more. Happy to see it.


One thing I have learned through the years of dealing with the Unreal Engine, is what worked to exploit UE 2.0 will work in 3.0, and now 4.0.

Unreal Engine is a VERY powerful engine, BUT is also a very exploitable engine because of its massive popularity.
 

Turbizzler

Well-known member
May 28, 2020
326
450
63
Fabernum
Not really surprised at the amount of bans, there was an alarming amount of people cheating & exploiting their tits off in MO1. They were just able to fly under the radar a lot easier & deny relentlessly, due to much more primitive logging tools and a very...lackluster in-house anti-cheat. Now there's at least EAC for MO2 and less primitive(but still primitive lel) logging tools, more are getting caught. 163 account bans in a month, can guarantee there's at least another 160+ accounts that flew under the radar. For a game with 1000 concurrent players and probably around 2000 - 2500 or so active players daily, that's A LOT of accounts taking part in dodgey shit.

It's funny because there's a lot of people in MO1 who were accused of playing with dupers, exploiters and even cheaters - They would just deny it over and over, because of the above. Now we get to see the same people have people around them and characters people thought were cheating, just disappear from the game and new names appear.
 

Kuthara

Well-known member
Jan 4, 2021
133
273
63
Not really surprised at the amount of bans, there was an alarming amount of people cheating & exploiting their tits off in MO1. They were just able to fly under the radar a lot easier & deny relentlessly, due to much more primitive logging tools and a very...lackluster in-house anti-cheat. Now there's at least EAC for MO2 and less primitive(but still primitive lel) logging tools, more are getting caught. 163 account bans in a month, can guarantee there's at least another 160+ accounts that flew under the radar. For a game with 1000 concurrent players and probably around 2000 - 2500 or so active players daily, that's A LOT of accounts taking part in dodgey shit.

It's funny because there's a lot of people in MO1 who were accused of playing with dupers, exploiters and even cheaters - They would just deny it over and over, because of the above. Now we get to see the same people have people around them and characters people thought were cheating, just disappear from the game and new names appear.

I think the issue is, without the wall of shame, people still deny things and just turn back up with a new account.
 

Turbizzler

Well-known member
May 28, 2020
326
450
63
Fabernum
I think the issue is, without the wall of shame, people still deny things and just turn back up with a new account.
EAC HWID bans if the same person is caught using multiple accounts to cheat on a single game or ban evades by using multiple IP addresses. Essentially forcing the person to get new hardware or subbing to a HWID spoofer service, which most can't be arsed doing. Only really dedicated people(Like someones name ending in Monger) does.

A wall of shame would be nice, but people already use random names to disassociate their characters from their true gamer tag. They'd just start using random guild names every new wave of characters, we still wouldn't really have much confirmation who is who and what group of people they are associated with. Unless loose lips speak, kind of like what happened with Wigsplitters.
 

Hodo

Well-known member
Mar 7, 2022
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I am against a Wall of Shame.

I would rather see the characters heads on pikes or their bodies on crosses lining the roads to Tindrem.
 
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MolagAmur

Well-known member
Jul 15, 2020
762
944
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I think the issue is, without the wall of shame, people still deny things and just turn back up with a new account.
Thats kinda my issue. For all we know Robmo could just be pulling numbers out of his ass to please the players. (Not saying he is doing that, but a wall of shame is just a much better way to do it). We need to see the player name and reason for ban.

Another big issue is 163 were banned this month, but those accounts will be replaced by the same people. From my knowledge, cheaters have no issue buying the game again everytime there is a ban wave.

I recently played Super People(terrible game), but I had to give them my phone number before it would activate my account. I'm not really a fan of having to give personal info like that just to play a game, but I see the point of it. Otherwise, they can ban 150 accounts every month, but the cheaters aren't going anywhere.

The economy in this game is too important for them to not have the resources and manpower to watch dungeons and track items. And as you said, it's 100x worse than MO1 ever was. And Henrik being so against a wipe is just so dumb. The game is still in beta stage, has had massive dupes and exploits, but he doesn't think its that important.

Wipes are good for that reason alone. Some of the most popular games have wipes or new seasons. I honestly think MO could benefit, but yeh it'll never happen and there are people who would complain.

Its all just a dumpster fire. A repeat of MO1, but actually kinda worse.
 
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Teknique

Well-known member
Jun 15, 2020
1,718
1,328
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Not really surprised at the amount of bans, there was an alarming amount of people cheating & exploiting their tits off in MO1. They were just able to fly under the radar a lot easier & deny relentlessly, due to much more primitive logging tools and a very...lackluster in-house anti-cheat. Now there's at least EAC for MO2 and less primitive(but still primitive lel) logging tools, more are getting caught. 163 account bans in a month, can guarantee there's at least another 160+ accounts that flew under the radar. For a game with 1000 concurrent players and probably around 2000 - 2500 or so active players daily, that's A LOT of accounts taking part in dodgey shit.

It's funny because there's a lot of people in MO1 who were accused of playing with dupers, exploiters and even cheaters - They would just deny it over and over, because of the above. Now we get to see the same people have people around them and characters people thought were cheating, just disappear from the game and new names appear.
Names would be nice......
 

Hodo

Well-known member
Mar 7, 2022
1,063
935
113
Thats kinda my issue. For all we know Robmo could just be pulling numbers out of his ass to please the players. (Not saying he is doing that, but a wall of shame is just a much better way to do it). We need to see the player name and reason for ban.

Another big issue is 163 were banned this month, but those accounts will be replaced by the same people. From my knowledge, cheaters have no issue buying the game again everytime there is a ban wave.

I recently played Super People(terrible game), but I had to give them my phone number before it would activate my account. I'm not really a fan of having to give personal info like that just to play a game, but I see the point of it. Otherwise, they can ban 150 accounts every month, but the cheaters aren't going anywhere.

The economy in this game is too important for them to not have the resources and manpower to watch dungeons and track items. And as you said, it's 100x worse than MO1 ever was. And Henrik being so against a wipe is just so dumb. The game is still in beta stage, has had massive dupes and exploits, but he doesn't think its that important.

Wipes are good for that reason alone. Some of the most popular games have wipes or new seasons. I honestly think MO could benefit, but yeh it'll never happen and there are people who would complain.

Its all just a dumpster fire. A repeat of MO1, but actually kinda worse.

They just use their VPN and switch regions with a new email account and buy another 2$ version of MO2 on Steam from some weak economy region and go back to the same crap as before.

You are EXACTLY right.
 

Emdash

Well-known member
Sep 22, 2021
2,828
919
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They just use their VPN and switch regions with a new email account and buy another 2$ version of MO2 on Steam from some weak economy region and go back to the same crap as before.

You are EXACTLY right.

would be funny if the declining pop was just people getting banned. lool. Hey, the fewer people who play the less joy cheaters are gonna get out of playing. They will find another game to cheat in. Aiye.
 
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Jatix

Well-known member
Sep 30, 2020
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3 of the bans were reoffenders. These reoffenders received a second strike on their account.
What account did they get a strike on? I thought if you get banned on steam you would need a new steam acc to buy the game on. Which would then be a different account.
 
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LM Tychon

Guest
Jul 19, 2020
105
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Let's remember that if you have a ticket open with support in regards to your account status, communication is meant to stay there, not onto these forums.
 

bbihah

Well-known member
Jul 10, 2020
1,115
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What account did they get a strike on? I thought if you get banned on steam you would need a new steam acc to buy the game on. Which would then be a different account.
Reoffender and getting a second strike im sure they mean its the second time these accounts have committed an offense. not their second set of 3 strikes.
 
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