Worried about Nostalrius policy on banning accounts

[bockhorn]

Hello

TL;DR Nostalrius needs to stop banning people for ambiguous crimes. Rather than "Ban first, warn later" the order should be exactly the opposite in cases where the "exploit" isn't obvious.

After the latest ban wave (the silithus mining) I'm sure I'm not the only one who, once again, is worried about the way that bans are being too liberally distributed on Nostalrius. The staff here seems to find it justified to ban whoever gains an "unfair" gold advantage by the means of "exploiting" bugs and/or game mechanics. Now, the "face value" of this rule cannot be disputed, but surely as many people realize, this rule is a very ambiguous one. The current policy that Nostalrius has on these issue seems to be something like "ban first, warn later". Such a policy is very misguided however, if it is applied to disputable cases. Now, I think a very few people would find that the silithus mining "bug" is not a disputable case.

I think the issue at hand is a matter of predictability. The issue with the silithus mining ban wave is that sure, it was considered an exploit according to the rules of Nostalrius, but hardly anyone ever suspected it was in fact the case. If people had KNOWN it was an exploit that would've avoid doing it. Nostalrius claimed that the way the veins respawned was in fact a bug and people who got banned apparently capitalized on this. First of all, I'm not even sure it IS a bug. Secondly, even if it is, one has to realize how far from obvious it is that people actually perceive it as such. The veins have a special name and only spawn at a specific area and for this reason it is totally reasonable to think that the veins behave a bit differently than others. Also, it has been working like that for a long time, and, from what I've heard, the gold that one makes isn't that great unless the place is empty.

Nostalrius has to understand how much time people spend on this game. Only being level 60 is a huge commitment for most players and permanently banning someone is a HUGE DEAL that really should only be used in obvious cases where the "crime" is great. The Alcor's sunrazor exploit was one such case. The Silithus mining however... not so much.

I urge you, Nostalrius, to please reconsider your policy when banning people. Please, in ambiguous cases such as the silithus mining "bug" it is just unfair to sentence a person to a permanent ban . I can understand that you want to keep a strict line here towards exploiting but honestly, what you are doing is making people paranoid. In terms of Pros and Cons, surely the benefits of being a bit more sensitive towards the players outweigh the potential downsides of not holding a strict line.


Lastly, a bit off-topic, if you are so worried about exploiters ruining the server's economy I think what you should do is to look at WHY people are so bent on farming gold. Discovering that is quite simple, all onee has to do is to search the auction house for the high-end herbs (in particular black lotus). People are desperate for gold because consumables are way way way way way way too expensive because of the spawn rate of herbs (and nodes) not being adjusted to a server of this population. Adjust the spawn rates and maybe you wont have to worry as much about people finding creative way to make gold.

[Darkwinjax]

"The issue with the silithus mining ban wave is that sure, it was considered an exploit according to the rules of Nostalrius"

This should resume who is in the right here.

"The veins have a special name and only spawn at a specific area and for this reason it is totally reasonable to think that the veins behave a bit differently than others"

Herm, a node is a node, why would it be any different than other nodes? Nodes are supposed to be randomized to an extent, people found that these certain nodes weren't and started farming them, if you don't want to ACKNOWLEDGE that STATIC spawns on nodes ruin the economy completly then you are completly delusional.

Whose fault is this? Nostalrius, for obviously not being competent enough to randomize spawns, which should be of utmost importance, do you still deserve your ban for not warning them and having exploited said faults? Yes, you do.

And all that I ask is consistency with these decisions, everyone who has been wintrading and exploited the current queue system from what I know should also be permanently banned, there is no difference in abusing empty games or abusing these faults to gain gold.

[Böw]

Why are you guys so mean to the Silithus bugs? I mean just stop going into their damn hives.

[Ohr]

You are hereby sentenced to death by lethal injection as a direct consequence of taking all of the napkins from a McDonalds napkin box.

[PhilipRed]

Principles of the criminal law

Lex scripta, lex praevia, lex certa et lex stricta

[Darkwinjax]

You are hereby sentenced to death by lethal injection as a direct consequence of taking all of the napkins from a McDonalds napkin box.

Comparing exploits that impact ingame economy to stealing physical objects irl, uw0tm8.jpg

[Ohr]

An exploit that is impossible to know if it's an exploit. The comparison was to hyperbolize the severity of the punishment, compared to the severity of the crime.

I don't know why do I even bother to reply to someone who used

uw0tm8.jpg

[Kil]

The problem is that those nodes spawned exactly like that on retail. Blizzlike lewls.

The other problem is that some bans were just random people that happened to get a few of them. At least 1 person has been farming those for 14 hours a day for who knows how long and wasn't touched.

Whats next? Banning anyone that loots a Black Lotus with no warning? Those have the same fixed spawn points and timers as on retail. That a bug too?

How are the players possibly suppose to know what's bannable and what's not? Anyone that makes gold gettin a ban? We all just gotta run around with > 100g in our bags and fear tapping any node?

Oh I know. We all just open tickets every time we do anything to make gold. That'll solve it.

[Mopar]

Comparing exploits that impact ingame economy to stealing physical objects irl, uw0tm8.jpg

How do you think that the thorium mining "exploit" is impacting the in game economy? I'm also curious what you think the result of randomizing the spawn timer will have on the economy.

Heavy thorium node mining does not inject newly created gold into the economy. It injects a lot of items, increasing the supply - which is more an effect of high population, not of any particular technique to mine the nodes. That causes deflation of prices (e.g. star rubies selling for near vendor price, thorium bars going for 2g/stack.) Randomizing the spawn timer will not actually change the supply, as it will simply result in the mined goods being spread out over a wider population. The pop is so high that they are all mined, all the time no matter how they spawn.

The people who benefit from the "fix" the most are those thorium mining rogues who weren't banned, and can go in now and have less competition from "industrial grade" mining rogues. It won't really affect the market prices though, except for a temporary increase in prices of thorium bars and some gems, which also benefits those same people. Arcane crystals and arcanite bars will likely stay the same prices.

[Ohr]

Oh I know. We all just open tickets every time we do anything to make gold. That'll solve it.

That's what I'm going to be doing now. I'm sorry, but I just can't risk getting my account banned.