Staff: Need clarification on ban-able offenses

[walkerbait421 19]

Hi,

There are a few of us admins hoping for some clarification. Sorry for the new thread but questions posted in the server rules thread have gone unanswered and I fear they are lost in the mix. Since its become a big problem we're hoping to get an answer soon.

Here it is:

Can we kick/ban players caught hacking in our servers, assuming we have proof?

Can we kick/ban players exploiting i.e. disconnecting to avoid death, assuming we have proof via log + video?

Can we kick/ban players using invalid character names (extended non-text ascii) which show up in game as blank/anonymous?

And finally, if we cannot kick/ban, what is the recommended action when encountering such situations?

Thank you!!!

[Chauz 166]

Following this.

[SubSeven 4]

Id like to see those questions answered too.

[Ander (DayZ) 530]

Answering each question in turn:

1. Yes if player is flying for example hacked in vehicle , spawning ammoboxes and such (temp ban, but send us the details so we can investigate as thirdparty - if you do not file a support.dayzmod.com ticket you instead risk getting server blacklisted since we do not know the reason why a certain player is banned/kicked from the server)..

Other reasons such as "teleporting" is harder to investigate as that may just be desync.

2. Negative, although this is considered an exploit it carries the risk of being applied too widely since it's very hard to police and verify we dont do this at the moment. A solution to this will probably make it in at a later time.

I have myself gotten kicked/banned on occasions when entering a server and the server admin was way too paranoid about new players joining in.

Updated 17th July: Please file a ticket to support.dayzmod.com with your evidence about people who DC to avoid death. This should preferably be accompanied by playerlogs, timestamp.

3. Yes. But remember that some cyrillic characters dont show up but is valid playernames on systems that dont support cyrillic so dont kick "too often" with this reason. Be careful.

4. File a support.dayzmod.com ticket, have playerID/GUID ready and playername if possible.

[walkerbait421 19]

Thank you!

[BobJoeXXI 28]

I'm glad this topic was posted. Too many admins are taking matters in their own hands and it will hurt the community in the long run if they continue to do so.

[mtuckner 46]

Too many players are exploiting - that is ruining things more than an admin trying to police his server. Without a fix on the horizon there needs to be some method to address these problems in game.

[Adron 42]

Hi,

There are a few of us admins hoping for some clarification. Sorry for the new thread but questions posted in the server rules thread have gone unanswered and I fear they are lost in the mix. Since its become a big problem we're hoping to get an answer soon.

Here it is:

Can we kick/ban players caught hacking in our servers, assuming we have proof?

Can we kick/ban players exploiting i.e. disconnecting to avoid death, assuming we have proof via log + video?

Can we kick/ban players using invalid character names (extended non-text ascii) which show up in game as blank/anonymous?

And finally, if we cannot kick/ban, what is the recommended action when encountering such situations?

Thank you!!!

Meh, I will continue banning people from my server for DCing to prevent death. Its my server, and if I ban one person by accident for every 20 i get that need it, then so be it.

You can tell when someone takes damage and see their immediate logout attempts in the console/log. Its obvious.

I will perma ban anyone I find with illegal gear, or observed in god mode unkillable. I will also permaban anyone running illegal scripts I pickup in the logs. I will not wait for approval to do this.

Anyone that gets banned from one server can go play on litterally 3,000 other servers. If they keep getting banned, that is their problem.

Possibly the ARMA dev team needs to kick the battleye dev team in their fucking ass and develop a system that detects cheats better and can view server bans. If a player racks up 15+ server bans, maybe they need to be investigated.

DayZ staff need to worry about their game, not the servers. Rocket has already said this as well at rezzed. They have a great game and a wonderful chance at making quite possibly the best zombie survival game that would be made for a very long time. Eventually community servers will likely go away as the game releases on a stable platform anyway. Who gives a crap how a server admin runs his server when there are 3000 public servers to choose from. If you get banned from all of them, then you should be.

edit: I banned 2 people today for DCing to prevent death. Both of which I had the liberty of witnessing myself as a buddy shot one and I shot the other.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Adron

[Ander (DayZ) 530]

Meh, I will continue banning people from my server for DCing to prevent death. Its my server, and if I ban one person by accident for every 20 i get that need it, then so be it.

You can tell when someone takes damage and see their immediate logout attempts in the console/log. Its obvious.

I will perma ban anyone I find with illegal gear, or observed in god mode unkillable. I will also permaban anyone running illegal scripts I pickup in the logs. I will not wait for approval to do this.

Anyone that gets banned from one server can go play on litterally 3,000 other servers. If they keep getting banned, that is their problem.

Possibly the ARMA dev team needs to kick the battleye dev team in their fucking ass and develop a system that detects cheats better and can view server bans. If a player racks up 15+ server bans, maybe they need to be investigated.

DayZ staff need to worry about their game, not the servers. Rocket has already said this as well at rezzed. They have a great game and a wonderful chance at making quite possibly the best zombie survival game that would be made for a very long time. Eventually community servers will likely go away as the game releases on a stable platform anyway. Who gives a crap how a server admin runs his server when there are 3000 public servers to choose from. If you get banned from all of them, then you should be.

edit: I banned 2 people today for DCing to prevent death. Both of which I had the liberty of witnessing myself as a buddy shot one and I shot the other.

You are breaking the rules and you will risk blacklisting from the server whitelist if reported.

[ElRolle 97]

You are breaking the rules and you will risk blacklisting from the server whitelist if reported.

+1 Adron

Your rules are allowing hackers and exploiters to destroy the experience of the game for other players and they are allowed to roam servers without any consequences. If you won't do anything about it I guess it's up to us admins to take things into our own hands.

[shiromikan 217]

This should be appended to the Server Host read-me found here: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1251-want-to-host-a-dayz-server-read-in-here/

[SubSeven 4]

Answering each question in turn:

1. Yes if player is flying for example hacked in vehicle , spawning ammoboxes and such (temp ban, but send us the details so we can investigate as thirdparty - if you do not file a support.dayzmod.com ticket you instead risk getting server blacklisted since we do not know the reason why a certain player is banned/kicked from the server)..

Other reasons such as "teleporting" is harder to investigate as that may just be desync.

2. Negative, although this is considered an exploit it carries the risk of being applied too widely since it's very hard to police and verify we dont do this at the moment. A solution to this will probably make it in at a later time.

I have myself gotten kicked/banned on occasions when entering a server and the server admin was way too paranoid about new players joining in.

3. Yes. But remember that some cyrillic characters dont show up but is valid playernames on systems that dont support cyrillic so dont kick "too often" with this reason. Be careful.

4. File a support.dayzmod.com ticket, have playerID/GUID ready and playername if possible.

First of all thanks for the Statement.

@2nd Answer

You cant be serious or you miss the Point here.

It is not about Players joining the Server. Its about players leaving it or hopping into the Lobby as soon as they get shot at.

Or even worse, leaving the server entirely logging in on a different server to move to another position just to hop in behind you.

If we cant get a proper solution to that matter even if its just temporary then theres no point playing this mod atm. Sooner or later everyone will just Serverhop to prevent their deaths.

Atm im feeling like 70-80% of all Players i encounter are already leaving the Server after the First shot.

This is a really serious Isssue that needs some kind of solution asap.

Edited July 16, 2012 by SubSeven

[mtuckner 46]

It's silly to be overly concerned about a couple innocent players being banned on occasion when there is an epidemic of the problem going on. Simply by stating that nobody can be banned for exploiting is opening the flood gates. It is condoning the behavior and it will only get worse. Just the possibility of being banned from your favorite server is enough to keep many people from doing it. This is a terrible case of mismanagement on the part of DayZ and it needs to be reconsidered.

[jskibo 143]

It's silly to be overly concerned about a couple innocent players being banned on occasion when there is an epidemic of the problem going on. Simply by stating that nobody can be banned for exploiting is opening the flood gates. It is condoning the behavior and it will only get worse. Just the possibility of being banned from your favorite server is enough to keep many people from doing it. This is a terrible case of mismanagement on the part of DayZ and it needs to be reconsidered.

+1

By handcuffing those that have the ability to impede those doing it, by proxy you encourage those that do DC, script and any other exploit

[Adron 42]

Supertruck, I agree with that statement. Admins should be watchful and should ban for exploiting. It is the only thing keeping people from doing it. The biggest reason everyone doesn't hack is because we don't want to fork over 20 bucks every week when crapeye catches up.

Crapeye doesn't ban for exploiting the disconnect. And it doesn't ban for duping. Both of which can be detected in the logs if you loom carefully. So it's up to the admin to to take up the slack if they want a clean server.

The dayz staff don't even blacklist the passworded and locked servers(over 10 min- because sometimes a lock IS necessary). So the threat of blacklist is a mute point.

By threatening to blacklist servers who enforce fair play you are allowing exploiters to ruin a great mod on a crappy platform. GG and I will continue making sure my server is clean and fair.

[Lith 80]

If you guys blacklist hosts that are banning hackers because your mod/game cannot help us to prevent this, then you are going to see a lot of pissed off people. As a newer host I'm appalled at the lack of information in regards to hack detection. ESPECIALLY the lack of response from the devs on countless threads on these forums. You guys take days to even respond to support tickets in most cases. I'm not paying for a server for random people to ruin the game experience for everyone else playing. Quit treating Admins like the bad guys and back us up against the real problem, hackers. We love your mod and want to help but HELP US HELP YOU by working with us and not against us. I'm sick of the hackers and having to reboot my server randomly to rid of them and fix cities that are blown up.

We need more trust given to us. I know any idiot can rent a server but a lot of us have been hosting a while. My community of nearly 700 active players and 5 years wasn't built by abusing my admin. Our dedicated box that has been covered by generous donations for 3 years, weren't earned by letting hackers steamroll our regulars.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Lith

[Mossad_Wafa 1]

Nice mod (really) but stupid rules.

[Dekey (DayZ) 31]

If someone DC's on me when I'm shooting at them, then proceeds to ghost around behind me, log in and shoot me. I ban them regardless of what Anders says.

It's an exploit, I have the power to remedy the situation being the admin. I do so.

I only do this if I am actually involved in the incident thus being able to verify it 100%. I wouldn't do it with any other form of circumstantial evidence. Also only if I'm 100% sure who it was. Last night we engaged a group of 3 and one DC'd to avoid death. I wasn't entirely sure who it was (though 90% sure) so noone was actioned on that occasion.

I will continue to use this "bandaid" resolution until DayZ sorts it out on their end. If that means being blacklisted then so be it, I wouldn't want to provide a server that tolerated such exploits anyway.

[Bizmarhk 8]

I also think that this is unfair to admins. I myself am an admin, paying money so others can enjoy this modification on a server that my users can know is well policed, and has the settings that they like and correctly advertised. On multiple occasions we've had loggers, and hackers, and unless I am able to 100% verify that a certain person was at fault, no action is taken.

For example, yesterday one of my crew was sniped. Our driver spotted three enemies in the treeline, to which I was able to spot one of the three. I took him out, and subsequently the rest logged out. None of us caught the names right away in the "player" screen, and we forgot what time it was so we couldn't check the logs either. As frustrating as it was to be ambushed, and then counter the ambush no action was taken in case of accidentally banning the wrong people.

Please give server admins more control to police their own server. I understand how it can be difficult with abusive admins, and how those few bad apples ruined it for everyone else. However, there are a lot better server admins out there than there are not. Perhaps create a volunteer team that can help your staff police servers that way resources are not taken away from improvements to the game/development. Server play ability is a part of the game quality, and having a server unstable due to hackers and loggers will decrease the quality immensely, thus turning people off from the game.

[Adron 42]

+1 Biz!

I think 90% of the community is behind us on admins actually being able to admin their server. DayZ is what it is because of devs building a great mod and good admins maintaining great servers. A few bad apples exist in the admin crows, yeah, but for the majority, we are doing the right thing and banning for the right reasons. Regardless of what a disillusioned staff member feels the rules are and how they are (not) enforced.

[Lith 80]

Just had to reboot again, less than 24 hours. Another copter / airstrike...

[ZeroGravitySE 5]

Dev team don't give a shit about DC'rs and exploits. They just want a pay check at the end of the day when this mod is finally finished. You can't fool people, there is no noble knights left in the world. Everyone is out for the cash/money. Its what puts food on our tables.

The people that care about this mod are crying for help to stop this disconnecting BS. And all we get is that "admins might abuse their powers." If you want complete control pay for the servers yourself, but at least show some respect to the people paying the bill. Not saying the admins are in the right either if they start ban/kicking people happily. Admins need to do their best to protect the dayz community since the dayz devs have put it on the back burner.

Just Sayin' -> It can't be that hard to create a item and force people to place this item on the ground which takes 20 seconds to do or longer, and even with alt-f4 bastards or people crashing their character should stay in game for that length of time. If they crash and lose their shit because they had zombies on them, well... to bad? Shouldn't be alone in this game anyways :D Its a team game, surviving isn't something you do alone in a post-apoc it takes a team.

More than 75% of the fights I get into 3/4 times, when the person knows they don't have an advantage and I clearly am about to have one, they DC. Thats bitch, ruins the game, and the devs are to be blamed. It pisses us people off that are big fans of the game due to its hardcore nature. If you want to carebear it up and make a carebear game, please let us know, so some of us admins can move on and you can invite more of the carebear servers that play with name tags you can see miles away into the server list.

Edited July 17, 2012 by ZeroGravitySE

[Magotchi 74]

I can't wait to see these renegade admins get their servers blacklisted.

[nickseemann@gmail.com 9]

I can't wait to see these renegade admins get their servers blacklisted.

It's not just a few renegade, if they want to hamper us from protecting our server we are going to stop paying to host servers for the community, and people will be on here bitching about every server being full, I am paying out of my pocket for the server, I haven't had any luck getting donations because the game doesn't have reserved slots which is the main way to get money for server hosting.

I generally don't ban for DCing and stuff like that unless I am 100% sure, and even then it's just a day or two temp ban. But I do permaban hackers I catch, and even that is against the rules and can get you blacklisted. They expect you to tempban hackers and submit a ticket that takes them weeks to respond to and possibly not even have the player banned from DayZ because you can't even offer logs as proof any more because they bypass Battleye. Banned a hacker this morning, had video proof so they will be banned but they don't show up in the scripts log at all.

Edit: Honestly I am pretty fucking pissed and frustrated right now with Battleye, Bohemia, and DayZ. Hackers have run rampant the last 2-3 days and it's fucking ruining the game. I have people coming in 2, 3, sometimes 4 times per day teleporting to every player and killing them, teleporting to everyones tents/vehicles and satchel charging them, teleporting in invincible and spawning/stealing cars and running you over, spawning helicopters, nuking the server... none of it shows up in the logs. The damn scripts.txt doesn't stop them because they bypass battleye... it's fucking annoying. I am regretting paying in advance for the next month of hosting, I would probably just shut down the server if I hadn't.

Edited July 17, 2012 by HoboNinja

[Magotchi 74]

You can totally permaban hackers. You just must provide proof afterward, or you risk being blacklisted.

"...if they want to hamper us from protecting our server we are going to stop paying to host servers for the community..."

IMO, good riddance. This game is a persistent world: admins breaking the rules on any one server harms the the game as a whole. If you can ban or kick as you please, you might as well have a locked server.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Mister_Magotchi