Hello, I am Clantafamo, a Reboot player who was permanently banned for the Arcane Umbra Weapon Exploit back in March. I have streamed most of my progression in reboot on Twitch including recent progression during the V patch. I have gathered evidence to show there was no way I was involved in this exploit.
Background
My account got banned on March 11th, 2017. I only played Reboot and did not touch any of other server after the release of Reboot. The exact reasoning for my ban is found here:
http://imgur.com/vhKgVlL. All the Scania players were banned for the arcane umbra exploit were banned days prior on March 8th, 2017. The reason I know this is because I reached out to those Scania players in order to learn more about the ban wave and why it happened. It is also strange that I received a ban days after the initial ban wave. After I received a ban I asked around to learn more about the exploit and how exactly the exploit worked. Incase any players or employees at Nexon are unaware on how the exploit worked, it involved one being inside the Lucid reward room, which is the room after you kill Lucid. Inside that room there is a music box and you have to hit the music box multiple times for it to drop items. It only drops one Lucid Droplet which is why it needs a total of 24 weeks to obtain an Arcane umbra weapon. There was a way to leave and come back to the room, so that the music box would respawn, and people exploited it possible to obtain multiple droplets in one Lucid kill.
Here is the VoD taken from my most recent Lucid kill, exactly one day before my ban on March 10th.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/129452419. In the video one can see that the boss dies around 29 minutes. Here one can see that my party of six people had a legit Lucid kill. From that VoD I have also taken a screenshot in which I show my ETC inventory. In the screen shot I have exactly four Lucid Butterfly Droplets(BLUE).
http://imgur.com/gYGkMZI (TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM VoD at 29:59) and one Phantasma coin to the right. That is a total of five weeks of Lucid. The run took place on March 10th, 2017. Lachelein/Lucid was released for about 11 weeks prior to this. The reason why me and everyone in my party only have five weeks of Lucid completed is because it took multiple attempts before successfully killing Lucid. We were the first group in Reboot to have a legit kill on Lucid.
An arcane weapon requires 24 Phantasma coins in order to purchase. In order to obtain these coins a total of 24 Butterfly Droplet Stones (BLUE) and 240 of the Arcane River Droplets Stones (GREEN) droplets are needed. One Butterfly Droplet Stone and 10 Arcane River Droplet Stones is equivalent to 1 Phantasma Coin. Keep in mind that getting 240 GREEN DROPLETS is not easy, especially in reboot where there is no trading. Each droplet would have to be obtained on your own. All the droplets shown in my inventory are what I obtained a day prior to being banned. There is no way that I could have gotten the weapon with such few droplets and coins. Again this is Reboot, there is no trading allowed. Everything obtained must be done so by yourself on your own account. You cannot touch another exploited item that isn’t yours, unlike the people in Scania. I was 19 weeks away from obtaining a weapon. Nineteen weeks!
But Clanta, you could have anviled over the item and had it in your inventory
Yes this is true, but that means I would have had to obtained the weapon before my first Lucid clear. Since I now have 4 Butterfly Droplet Stones and one Phantasma Coin that means I would have gotten the Arcane Weapon 5 weeks prior which would be around February 4th and Lachelein was released on January 4th. So within one month I would have had to have gotten 240 Arcane River Droplet Stones in order to make the weapon which is impossible for Reboot. There is no trading so it would have had to be obtained all on my own account. Anyone with common sense or logic can see that that is highly unlikely and no way it could happen.
But Clanta, you could have exploited in another server on the same account.
http://imgur.com/TYRg7c6
Arwoo
Greetings, Clanta!
Our investigations team investigated all accounts that were banned due to the Arcane Umbra exploit.
I can assure you that your account was among those that were investigated.
We were sure to deliver the note that your character was on Reboot where trades are not permitted. However, our investigations team had found conclusive evidence after reviewing your account.
Due to our policy, we cannot disclose the evidence, but please do understand that we cannot do much more from our end.
This post from Arwoo specifically states that the account was checked on Reboot. Again they state here that they “reviewed my account” not stating that they actually investigated or looked into my account. All the evidence is the same from the above VoD and screenshots taken from my live stream the day before I was banned.
Why this was a False Ban
Banned on the same exact day as someone with a VERY similar IGN as me. He was also a 250 Night Lord who was a well known hacker/exploiter in Reboot. Very similar names possibly Nexon made a mistake?
Banned for the exploit reason, Nexon takes exploiting very seriously, as they should, and therefore many of those who appeal for exploit bans don’t get unbanned. They basically look at your records see that you are banned for exploit then tell that information to you. Example :
http://imgur.com/RVkyrHa
Another friend named Charlotte was also banned for the “exploit reason.” I Don’t have proof but was told that she did not play the account at all a month before the ban. Server GRAZED
I hope that after reading this Nexon will give my account another investigation and hope that it is done properly. Thank you everyone for all the support.
TL;DR
Reboot player, Clantafamo also known as ClantaMS on twitch, was banned for the Arcane Umbra Weapon Exploit back in March although there is proof on my account that I did not have a weapon nor had the means to be able to purchase a weapon from the shop. However, Nexon states that on review of the account they found evidence of there being a weapon.
and 4 others.
and 4 others.
Comments
Arwoo you are the man, you are the only one who can advocate for his case.
Please have a look at his case again.
Clantafamo has worked so hard for the past year, to get where he is at. It is unjust that he is banned for an exploit that he did not do.
Why would he work so hard to get his account back, sending countless messages to nexon support if he really wasn't innocent.
I support Clantafamo, and I believe he is innocent and that he deserves better treatment.
He has taken so much time with organizing points for you guys to review, just take the time to go through it.
Please have some humanity, and good judgement.
Please have his case reviewed again. Thank you so much.
Raikyu
not sure what info they reviewed, but if it's something like 'we banned him cuz a guy had a similar ign' thats stupid af
Sad part of your appeal is that the line naming that other char is going to be edited out because "naming and shaming" and then Arwoo wouldn't have anything to take to his investigations team.
So I recommend you PM him that detail, at least.
If you are not telling the truth - for example, if you had collected (through the exploit) 24 or more Lucid Butterfly Droplets, but dropped them when the Scanian exploiters got banned - I hope Arwoo posts the actual evidence they have against you. CMs and GMs have done it before. It helps put the community's mind at ease, as well as put the figurative fear of God into future would-be cheaters.
Good luck.
The FIRST thing they should do after banning someone is handing them the evidence. All they're doing now is creating an unnecessary shady situation where it's Nexon's word against someone else's.
In my opinion, the only thing Nexon's achieving right now is damaging their own image. If there's any hard evidence that justifies this ban, show it, so people can let it rest.
They don't want to give their evidence because it might tell hackers what gave them away.
Example:
Police: "We know it was you because we found your fingerprints on the murder weapon!"
All other murderers: "Note to self: always wear gloves."
However, I believe that in most cases, Nexon showing their evidence would only serve as a deterrent, because it would show just how much info they collect and how nothing escapes their eye. Surely they can say more than "we investigated, and you were involved" without giving anything away.
Just to play devils advocate, but if Nexon gave people the full evidence every time they banned someone then people who want to intentionally exploit the system would have more information and know how to avoid such bans in future.
I know of no games company in the world that gives out all of the evidence whenever they ban someone.
While purely anecdotal, as someone who has run several games servers (not Maplestory) we would rarely share any evidence when banning someone, for the above reason.
That said, in this instance, since the issue is now resolved it would be very kind of Nexon to share what information they are able to.
If he has exploited, please show some transparency with the "evidence" against his case; as Akradian mentioned, it helps to put the community's mind at ease.
If he is telling the truth that he is innocent (and I, as well as many others, believe he is), his case is deserving of a thorough re-investigation. All pieces of his evidence are pointing to a false ban. As Clanta mentioned, he has streamed many many hours of his progression in Reboot. It is incredibly discouraging for legitimate players in the community to see that their efforts could vanish overnight for exploits they did not do.
If it isn't too much to ask, please forward this to those of your team who have access to the game files, and take a thorough look at this account. We understand some of the team members may not be players in the game or may not be familiar with some of the content - please reach out if you need any clarifications on what Clanta has provided, I am sure many on the forum would be happy to help. We understand this is only one player's plea, so we do appreciate your efforts and time invested into his case.
You wanted to know how to improve your relationship with the community and increase transparency behind the scenes. Well this is how you do it. Show us, the community, that you are more than what we say you are.
As stated through various private messages, conclusive evidence was found from looking through each case extensively.
Please note that the forums is not a platform to dispute case by case bans.
As players have mentioned in this thread, there are various reasons as to why we do not publicly share the evidence:
1. We wish to ensure fair treatment for all players whether they're vocal or nonvocal. Presenting an individual case to the public doesn't give the case entitlement over others. For a widespread issue such as this, we gave equal attention for all accounts banned from the Arcane Umbra exploit.
2. We don't promote public defamation. Making an example out of a player is not a method we endorse to deter players to follow the rules. By presenting the evidence of banned individuals publicly, we'd be encouraging peers to attack and harass individuals found guilty.
3. Bans and ban appeals are between the investigations team and the individual that was banned. The community at large is not the jury that decides whether the banned are innocent or guilty. The reason for this is because evidence presented by the appealing player will always be skewed towards their favor. Due to this, the community team would need the evidence and proof acquired by our investigations team and that evidence cannot be made public for the reasons stated above.
Again, the forums is not a platform for more answers in regards to a ban or to appeal a ban.
Thanks for the reply Arwoo. What would you recommend a player do if he was innocently, permanently banned and his tickets are being answered with automatic replies and his live chat gets closed the moment he says hi.
Please advise. Thanks in advance for your time.
Maybe you didn't abuse this exploit as much as other players did.
Maybe you were like "Hmm, I wonder if the exploit would work with Lucid" and then proceeded to use the exploit in offline mode after the Lucid clear with your friends.
Maybe when you "tested" it, you saw it worked when you respawned again in the map with a brand new music box but didn't attack it and just logged out without getting the drops.
Maybe you thought that doing it that way, you wouldn't get you banned because you didn't attack the box or got any extra drops. Right?
If this is what happened and Nexon, after reviewing your account, found out that you spawned in that map more than once in a short period of time (when it is only possible to spawn once a week legitly), even though you didn't abuse the exploit like other players who got banned did, then sadly you deserve a ban because you tested an widely known exploit.
Sadly, if you "test" a known exploit you are technically exploiting even if you don't get anything from it. Unless you are the first one discovering it and reporting it to Nexon, you are technically exploiting and can get banned because of it.
But we will never know for sure because there is no way for you to prove it (a SS/Video from a previous stream is not a reliable proof) and Nexon won't release any details.
Streaming is not proof of being legit. I added you to my buddy list a year ago and I've seen you online in-game while your stream is offline. Of course, I'm not saying you were hacking but unfortunately, we have no way to know for sure.
If you are truly innocent, it is sad that this happened to you. If something like this happens to me, I would just quit and charge back as much NX as I possibly can and never come back.
However, if you really exploited, then I hope you learn from this experience. It is unfair to get special appeal privileges just because you are a streamer (Rhinne) and hopefully you'll come back and play legitly this time.
The answer is simple: according to Arwoo and Nexon, it is not possible that someone was innocently permanently banned. If he was banned, and appealed, and the appeal was declined, then he is necessarily guilty.
Maple has a ton of bugs, frequently has typos, sometimes QA fails to verify certain fixes, server maintenance extended due to human error/unforeseeable events(we get it, you're human) but when it comes to investigating and banning these exploiters (december cube exploit and arcane weapon exploit are two great examples), Nexon happens to be flawless and makes no mistakes.
The difference is, we KNOW when you guys make a mistake in terms of bugs, maintenance time extensions, typos and "miscommunication between departments" (see: GM event) because we see it-- the evidence is right there. In the case of investigating and banning for exploits, we can't see ALL the evidence but most of the time, we are able to see the player's side. We see so many of these player's story and how consistent they are even years apart that we have to conclude that, no, you guys are not flawless in investigating these exploits/bans. You just refuse to man up and admit that you guys do make mistakes in these investigation/jump to the wrong conclusion based on lack of evidence when you can just hide it.
I know this because I know someone from the december cube exploit that had nothing to do with it that got banned. I also know someone that made off with quite a few exploited items.
http://puu.sh/vqIDy/53ec242c3a.jpg
http://puu.sh/vqIKd/25bff34aa3.jpg
(taken after the tradeblock+meso dropped to prove that Nexon's blanket tradeblock missed this)
"evidence presented by the appealing player will always be skewed towards their favor"
Yes and "facts" are known to have a liberal bias. If a player presents ALL relevant evidence that the community (actually knows how the game works/plays the game) requests, there's really no bias here. Facts are true statements. If a player is trying to prove that "if P then Q" then proceed on to show that all the premises are true, then Q must be true.
You guys just did a survey on why people play maplestory and I'm confident that the "social aspect" is ranked top 2 if not ranked 1. Permanent bans have a negative impact on the social aspect. What happens to a guild when the guild master is permanently banned? Permanent bans are supposed to be a last resort for if the player is left unbanned, it will affect the game balance/fairness.
Here's the maintenance note from 2011 (6th anniversary coin exploit) if you need a reminder of how you used to deal with exploiters and those who benefited off them by purchasing/trading with them:
"The 6th Anniversary coins exploit has been blocked.
Chaos scrolls are temporarily unusable and untradable.
All items obtained with 6th Anniversary coins are temporarily untradable and have a value of 0 mesos if sold to an NPC.
Chaos scrolls have been permanently removed from the list of items that can be obtained for 6th Anniversary coins.
All players that abused this exploit will be banned, however we understand that some players may have simply made a poor decision, so all players will be given until 5/15/2011 to voluntarily remove the exploited items from their accounts by selling them to an NPC for 0 mesos. If all exploited items are removed in time, you will not be banned (please note that you must remove the items from ALL of your accounts.) Once our investigation is complete and all applicable bans are issued, we will return the items that remain to normal. We hope that most players will do the right thing and remove the items if they know they are exploited."