Repeatedly Locked (for grinding?)

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

@Altercator do you use a gamepad for the PC?

Because I do, and would like to see if this affects anything - though unlikely.

ADarklore · July 2016

Phinix1 wrote: »

Never heard of this. I grind on occasion and when I do, I fill my 120 slot bags usually within 20 minutes or less if I am super efficient. Usually I get around 4-5k gold for selling it all AFTER repairs, which is enough for another XP pot.

Never have I received a warning in-game related to this or been banned as you describe.

Is it possibly some addon you are using trying to do something to looted stuff like filter what gets deleted, or auto mail to people? That might be the reason if so.

I wonder about this too, like an 'auto loot' addon... perhaps things are being looted too quickly and the system believes it's a bot. I've spent hours grinding before and never had a problem, but I also don't 'auto loot', I do everything manually.

anitajoneb17_ESO · July 2016

Lysette wrote: »

Have you ever thought about that they might just not want you to grind that extremely?- It is not in the interest of them, that it is done like this. Some grind, ok, but extreme grind like that is not really healthy for the game - it creates power creep even faster and this is a big problem because it creates a gap, which is hard to close and requires even more new mechanics.

I don't grind myself and I'm not very fond of grinders either, but I don't think that's the reason for OP's troubles.

If ZOS don't want players to act in a certain way, they can either forbide it per TOS, or discourage it by ingame incentives (in this case, more XP for quests and less XP for mobs, for instance). But doing it by repeatedly banning/unbanning the player sounds ridiculous and counterproductive.

The reason is probably, as stated before, that OP's behaviour looks like a bot's.

Panth141 · July 2016

I've popped up and mentioned this before, but @ZOS_DaryaK is usually great with this stuff, so I'll drop the tag in for you

Phinix1 · July 2016

ADarklore wrote: »

I wonder about this too, like an 'auto loot' addon... perhaps things are being looted too quickly and the system believes it's a bot. I've spent hours grinding before and never had a problem, but I also don't 'auto loot', I do everything manually.

That's probably not it either though, as I do use autoloot and consolidated area loot and so it loots the whole pile of bodies at once, my loot history stacks up to the top of my screen, and never a ban.

I think the OP is probably just being so precise in his course that indeed their actions look scripted.

mmcgibbo · July 2016

My real question is how are you getting that much CP an hour?

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

mmcgibbo wrote: »

My real question is how are you getting that much CP an hour?

- all training v16 (yellow)
- ESO plus
- xp pots

DeadDealer · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

@Altercator do you use a gamepad for the PC?

Because I do, and would like to see if this affects anything - though unlikely.

im grinding too but without gamepad

usually 1000rk exp per hour

try really with mouse

im also all gold training
eso+
ambrossia
group
mara ring
Enemie's Keep Bonus sometimes (+16% max if im not mistaken)

LiquidSchwartz · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Well, I am currently grinding about 975k xp / hr - not sure how that compares, but its definitely causing me to get communication banned.

You must be saying something in chat or voice

alainjbrennanb16_ESO · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

So I have been communication banned about 3-4 times already in the last month. What does this mean? I am able to play the game with zero social functions. ie: cannot shop at guild traders, cannot CHAT, send mail, etc. Everytime I open a ticket with zos they give me the same answer: Your communications were disabled because of your high loot rates. We have made an adjustment to your account and should be able to resume as normal.

Ok... so the problem is within 48 hours of grinding I am back to communication banned.

Here's the scenario: I am currently grinding cp points to hit the cap. This requires a whopping 100,000,000 xp for me (yes, did the math). Obviously I am looting the things I kill so that I can afford gold for xp pots and gear repair.

... and that's it. I am not doing anything abusive or manipulating the economy, etc. Hell I'm not even getting any mats, everything I loot gets to the merchant.

Have you guys ever experienced this, or know of anyone who has?

I never ran into this back in the day, but if they expect to place a grindy system in ESO, then punish people for doing it efficiently - well, that's not a good business model.

never heard of this, strange though getting a communications ban for grinding, the only reason you get a communication ban normaly is spamming zone chat/guild chat etc on the pc, if ur on the xbox you may have violated there terms, which most people dont read and the same goes for ps4. like i said you must have been spamming etc thats the only reason to get that ban

GreenhaloX · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Ok... so the problem is within 48 hours of grinding I am back to communication banned.

Here's the scenario: I am currently grinding cp points to hit the cap. This requires a whopping 100,000,000 xp for me (yes, did the math). Obviously I am looting the things I kill so that I can afford gold for xp pots and gear repair.

... and that's it. I am not doing anything abusive or manipulating the economy, etc. Hell I'm not even getting any mats, everything I loot gets to the merchant.

What the devil?! How the heck you got banned for just looting and grinding for XP. I'm doing those same things everyday. If that was the case, I would've been banned a long time ago and many times over. Something must be up and not just for looting and XP grinding. That's nothing of a cheat or exploit. Try to give ZOS tech or customer service a call and talk in person, rather than email, if you're able to, timezone-wise. Maybe things can be straighten out voice to voice. It doesn't make any sense at all..

yodased · July 2016

Seems like basic sanity checks. You scatter plot all xp/hour across the server and the identify outliers.

If you are a significant outlier they stop you from being able to sell the goods that you may have illegitimatly got.

You can thank pig farmers for this.

starkerealm · July 2016

yodased wrote: »

Seems like basic sanity checks. You scatter plot all xp/hour across the server and the identify outliers.

If you are a significant outlier they stop you from being able to sell the goods that you may have illegitimatly got.

You can thank pig farmers for this.

Early game bots, probably. It does strike me as weird that this is getting handed down based on item pickup rates and not based on volume of communications in chat. But, I've been kicked from the game over an addon going haywire before, so... *shrug*

LiquidSchwartz wrote: »

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Well, I am currently grinding about 975k xp / hr - not sure how that compares, but its definitely causing me to get communication banned.

You must be saying something in chat or voice

No voicechat on PC.

Egonieser · July 2016

Wollust wrote: »

Never heard about something like that. And I used to grind back in 1.6 something like 1.6 mio exp/hour. Never had any issues.

Communication bans used to be issued to suspected bot accounts in the early days, I even remember some of the mods mentioning it. Because of the non-stop constant flow of loot for unreasonable amounts of time (say days nonstop) bots were flagged until a GM could investigate and decide whether to suspend them or not. It was to prevent all ill gained goods to leak in the economy.
Not saying OP is botting or cheating or anything, but if their antibot method is still in place, I suggest getting some sleep in between sessions, you know... Playing for 48h straight is outright damaging :P Maybe they did you a favour.

Eshelmen · July 2016

Lysette wrote: »

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Waseem wrote: »

for some reason i think ESO+ subscribers are immune to this..
i used to grind 6-12 hours daily for CP and never ever had anything to be related with this..
probably because no botter would ever get eso+

That's the strange part. I have ESO plus and let zos know that I am a good paying customer, but they won't correct this auto mute ban all the same.

EDIT: Actually they are correcting the problem. However, they are putting a band-aid on a situation that requires surgery. They will release the communication ban, but the automated system just re-applies it within a few days of high traffic grinding.

Have you ever thought about that they might just not want you to grind that extremely?- It is not in the interest of them, that it is done like this. Some grind, ok, but extreme grind like that is not really healthy for the game - it creates power creep even faster and this is a big problem because it creates a gap, which is hard to close and requires even more new mechanics.

Not to talk about that it is not healthy for you either.

Bunch of hogwash. Please show me the rules that state a player isn't allowed to kill or "grind" as much as they please.
That would dub "Tamriel Unlimited" as false advertising..

The guy isn't even capped yet. You've got players sitting on thousands of alloys, wax etc from hundreds of hours of pig farming and whatever exploits there were in the past, while still having a fully functional game - yet this guy can't hussle up to CP501? Highly doubtful.

Runs · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Everytime I open a ticket with zos they give me the same answer: Your communications were disabled because of your high loot rates. We have made an adjustment to your account and should be able to resume as normal.

This sounds like a bad translation to be honest... Are you sure they don't mean high message rates, instead of "high loot rates"? Have you ever been randomly kicked back to the login screen with the message "you have reached the message limit"? Could really just be as simple as an addon no longer working properly which keeps getting you auto communication banned. I know this has happened in the past with some players.

I just don't see why loot rate would do anything for muting, I could see them checking the account to make sure you aren't using a bot/macro set up. But to mute you would really solve nothing even if you were doing something wrong.

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

Runs wrote: »

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Everytime I open a ticket with zos they give me the same answer: Your communications were disabled because of your high loot rates. We have made an adjustment to your account and should be able to resume as normal.

This sounds like a bad translation to be honest... Are you sure they don't mean high message rates, instead of "high loot rates"? Have you ever been randomly kicked back to the login screen with the message "you have reached the message limit"? Could really just be as simple as an addon no longer working properly which keeps getting you auto communication banned. I know this has happened in the past with some players.

I just don't see why loot rate would do anything for muting, I could see them checking the account to make sure you aren't using a bot/macro set up. But to mute you would really solve nothing even if you were doing something wrong.

I've never gotten booted for message rates. I can't imagine what add-on would cause anything like this either.

In the three tickets I've opened, and the 3-4 times they have reversed the mute, this is the only answer they have ever given me: "This social mute is being triggered due to your extremely high harvesting rates, and we understand you're a long-time player and harvester."

Not sure why they chose to phrase mob looting as "harvesting", but the issue is still persisting.

Personofsecrets · July 2016

@starkerealm , is this player more likely to be cheating or more likely to be suffering the consequences of a botched detection system?

How much grief should they be forced to suffer before it is immoral to make them feel that grief in exchange for stopping people that are actually doing things against TOS?

starkerealm · July 2016

Personofsecrets wrote: »

@starkerealm , is this player more likely to be cheating or more likely to be suffering the consequences of a botched detection system?

How much grief should they be forced to suffer before it is immoral to make them feel that grief in exchange for stopping people that are actually doing things against TOS?

Well, this isn't actually a ban, it's being muted. I'd explain the difference, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to educate you.

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

I agree a full ban would be much worse. It is just frustrating to not access guild trader, or to see people in vicinity chat with me and I cannot reply.

Orlacc · July 2016

Macro/bot

starkerealm · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

I agree a full ban would be much worse. It is just frustrating to not access guild trader, or to see people in vicinity chat with me and I cannot reply.

Yeah, getting muted sucks, no question about that.

Lokey0024 · July 2016

I got a messege from zos, on console mind you, checking if i was a real person playing in Wrothgar. I had been farming for mats to make v16 armor.

starkerealm · July 2016

Lokey0024 wrote: »

I got a messege from zos, on console mind you, checking if i was a real person playing in Wrothgar. I had been farming for mats to make v16 armor.

Used to be, procedure was to have a GM poke you, if they thought you might be a bot.

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

Well friends, it appear my communication ban was once again lifted. I just hope this time it will be permanent. Perhaps I'll try going without looting mobs for awhile and see if the problem persists.

Thanks everyone for all the input and advice. I appreciate it!

starkerealm · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Well friends, it appear my communication ban was once again lifted. I just hope this time it will be permanent. Perhaps I'll try going without looting mobs for awhile and see if the problem persists.

Thanks everyone for all the input and advice. I appreciate it!

Weird question, but how long do you usually play in a single sitting?

Makkir · July 2016

I am ESO Plus, I have been grinding about 2 or 3 hours a day this week. I have not gotten any such bans or messages. No addons used except for master merchant and FTC.

missjackieb14_ESO · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

EDIT: Actually they are correcting the problem. However, they are putting a band-aid on a situation that requires surgery. They will release the communication ban, but the automated system just re-applies it within a few days of high traffic grinding.

Maybe you shouldn't be "high traffic grinding". Not saying there's anything wrong with it, but perhaps that's why you keep getting the ban. Maybe try doing something else?

ACHILLES 343i · July 2016

starkerealm wrote: »

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

Well friends, it appear my communication ban was once again lifted. I just hope this time it will be permanent. Perhaps I'll try going without looting mobs for awhile and see if the problem persists.

Thanks everyone for all the input and advice. I appreciate it!

Weird question, but how long do you usually play in a single sitting?

Usually about 1.5 - 2 hrs a day. (this was enough to receive the mute ban initially)

In the past day or so I was putting in a lot more hours maybe 4-6. (but was blocked at the time from previous dealings)

Altercator · July 2016

ACHILLES 343i wrote: »

@Altercator do you use a gamepad for the PC?

Because I do, and would like to see if this affects anything - though unlikely.

Yeah, I use an Xbox360 controller. I was wondering if that might be it at first, but now I think it is hardcore grinding that sets it off.