What are these ingame bugs, and how to avoid them?

[gankmeister]

Just saw several posts with people being permanent banned for abusing an ingame bug. None of the post however states what the bug is. How do you avoid abusing one of these bugs unintentionally? If people are getting banned for this anyways, is there anything to loose by disclosing some details regarding the bugs?

I for example am leveling a hunter right now, a class i never tried before, so whatever I do while leveling this guy, I have no idea whether what I am doing was possible in vanilla, or if I am using some kind of bug here with out me knowing it.

Another example could be a mob that for some reason drops more loot than he is supposed to in vanilla, would i then get banned for farming these, just because i kill one, see good drops, and continue to kill them?

For me wow is also about exploring the world and it's possibilities, like trying to access hard to get to mountain tops etc. But with all these insta perm ban post, with no reasoning beyond a single statement like "bug abuse", you kinda get worried of loosing your account.

I have no intention of cheating or using any bugs, but trying out clever game plays are also part of vanilla i feel.

[AverageJoe]

When talking about in-game bugs, people typically mean exploits; something unintentional that gives a player abusing it a considerable advantage, shortcut, or benefit that otherwise wouldn't exist or would take other players a great deal of time to achieve in a similar fashion.

It can vary from chests or mobs dropping epic (Purple) items like a piñata to unfair PvP advantages. The staff doesn't reveal what exploits get people banned, or at least won't go into great detail, because then that opens the exploit up to everyone on the forums to then go and exploit. Most of the time those who get banned know they're exploiting a bug and do it repeatedly which draws the attention of others which eventually gets investigated by GMs. Nine times out of ten, you're not likely to be banned for "unintentionally" abusing a bug/exploit; they're fairly obvious and if you're ever in doubt (Something seems far too easy, certain loot drops way too frequent, etc.) you should always ask a GM. Better to err on the side of caution.

[nervous]

If you happened upon say, a thorium node that never depleted as what looks to be the case of one person's topic, that's an obvious bug. You won't run into these normally.

[Bioness]

Honestly it should be obvious if something isn't working right. I always get suspicious of people who ask "will I get banned if I do X" because they likely know it is either against the rules of the game or just not a well perceived idea and are trying to find loop holes to get around.

If you aren't doing anything wrong you won't get banned.

[gankmeister]

I don't get why there is reason to be suspicious. I don't have knowledge of any of these bugs, so all i see is 1 post with a player asking why he cant access his account, together with a description of his situation. Then there is a single line reply from a gm stating perm ban for bug abuse. With no evidence or explanation what so ever. Playing vanilla is, for me at least, quite a time investment. I don't want to invest that much time if my account can be closed for doing something I had no idea about being a case of bug abuse. So all I am asking for is more clarification as to what I should avoid.

If for example i found a thorium node that never depleted I would obviously know it was a bug. If however it was a thorium node that just respawned twice as fast as normal, I would probably have no idea since I do not know how often they are supposed to spawn. With the current level of transparency I have no clue whether both situations would result in an insta perm ban.

You might have a good idea about what would be considered a bug or not, but that is not the case for all people playing. Some of us haven't played vanilla for the last 10 years or so. All I remember is that a lot of stuff where buggy back then.

[AverageJoe]

You have to also remember a lot of the exploiters that come to forums to inquire about their bans are feigning ignorance for the sake of tricking everyone. They'll start their threads with innocent-sounding and overly simplistic information (E.g.: "Hi all, a friend and I were questing and we were both dc'd. When we relogged, it said our accounts were closed. Can you please check, thanks. Love your server!") in an effort to fool others making it seem like they've done nothing wrong.

Then the GM reveals what they're guilty of (E.g.: "Your account's been banned for gold selling / botting / hacking / multiboxing / etc.). They conveniently forgot to mention in their thread that while they were "questing," they were advertising gold sites in chat channels, or teleport/fly hacking across the world, or running around for six hours straight farming the same mobs without a single deviation from their play style, or had their "friend's" character on /follow for six hours while they reset and farmed the same instance a dozen times, etc.

You're only hearing half the story and there's a good chance some or all of it is entirely fabricated or heavily padded with false information to make it seem as though the exploiter wasn't cheating or abusing in-game bugs. You won't get banned for mining a thorium node that respawns twice as fast as normal because you'll still end up with only 2 to 5 thorium ore in your bag as though you mined it from another node. You could however be banned if a GM noticed you got 1500+ thorium ore under an hour from mining the same thorium node over and over and over that never once despawned.

As it's been stated many times, GMs do not take banning lightly. A lot of time is spent reviewing and considering what actions to take against an account and bans are only used for the most severe of offenses. There's a significant difference between "unintentionally finding" an in-game bug and "abusing" an in-game bug. Keep in mind according to the Nostalrius Terms of Use, abusing bugs nets you a warning at first, not a permanent ban. If anything, the staff would actually contact you in-game or through mail to advise you that what you're doing is considered a bug exploit so you could cease the behavior or actions and avoid a permanent ban; something, again, a lot of exploiters conveniently leave out of their threads to make them seem all the more innocent.

[Soupa]

My personal main concern is whether exploring impassible areas is bannable - I used to do this in WOW Vanilla and really enjoyed finding unfinished zones. I don't want to get banned for doing this on Nostalrius though... And I have heard before that it is in fact bannable. I mean, I understand if players use this to gain advantages in PvP (going to extremely difficult to reach areas and attacking the opposing faction) or using these spots to make unique shortcuts between zones... But otherwise, is it really bannable?

[Bioness]

I don't get why there is reason to be suspicious. I don't have knowledge of any of these bugs, so all i see is 1 post with a player asking why he cant access his account, together with a description of his situation. Then there is a single line reply from a gm stating perm ban for bug abuse. With no evidence or explanation what so ever. Playing vanilla is, for me at least, quite a time investment. I don't want to invest that much time if my account can be closed for doing something I had no idea about being a case of bug abuse. So all I am asking for is more clarification as to what I should avoid.

If for example i found a thorium node that never depleted I would obviously know it was a bug. If however it was a thorium node that just respawned twice as fast as normal, I would probably have no idea since I do not know how often they are supposed to spawn. With the current level of transparency I have no clue whether both situations would result in an insta perm ban.

You might have a good idea about what would be considered a bug or not, but that is not the case for all people playing. Some of us haven't played vanilla for the last 10 years or so. All I remember is that a lot of stuff where buggy back then.

This post isn't helping my perception of you being suspicious.

You won't just be banned without reason and not told, just like you won't be arrested and not told why. As the post above me pointed out, anyone who claims they didn't know why they were banned or that they didn't know what they did was wrong is lying out of every conceivable orifice.

And obviously the infinite thorium node is far worse than a node that simply respawned quickly, hell I've found 3 herbs stacked on top of each other before, will I get banned for taking all of them? Hell no. This isn't quantum science, so stop being obtuse.

[zolopft]

My personal main concern is whether exploring impassible areas is bannable - I used to do this in WOW Vanilla and really enjoyed finding unfinished zones. I don't want to get banned for doing this on Nostalrius though... And I have heard before that it is in fact bannable. I mean, I understand if players use this to gain advantages in PvP (going to extremely difficult to reach areas and attacking the opposing faction) or using these spots to make unique shortcuts between zones... But otherwise, is it really bannable?

I wonder about this as well, as it was one of the most fun parts of Vanilla for me.

Off-topic but, Soupa - did you use to play on Dentarg server? A paladin? Did you have a character named Soupa?

[AverageJoe]

My personal main concern is whether exploring impassible areas is bannable - I used to do this in WOW Vanilla and really enjoyed finding unfinished zones. I don't want to get banned for doing this on Nostalrius though... And I have heard before that it is in fact bannable. I mean, I understand if players use this to gain advantages in PvP (going to extremely difficult to reach areas and attacking the opposing faction) or using these spots to make unique shortcuts between zones... But otherwise, is it really bannable?

I wonder about this as well, as it was one of the most fun parts of Vanilla for me.

GM Witcher has confirmed that exploration in vanilla, including areas that are normally inaccessible, is allowed as long as you do not use it as an exploit, like to gain an advantage in a PvE encounter or PvP with other players.
https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic. ... ing#p74797

If all you're wanting to do is explore for the sake of exploring (E.g.: Trying to get into Mount Hyjal) it is allowed and won't get you banned.