Ban wave & Add-ons.

DonHardstyle

So another ban wave has struck us. Hundredths of players have seen their account banned/suspended. If I have to believe what I see on internet ( reddit, Facebook). People are saying it has to do with addons.

I don't doubt there are add-ons that are against zos policy. The thing is tho, Wich add-ons are that, Wich add-ons are safe to use. If you look at minion for example. In no way you are warned. And from the other side. If you install an addon you are also not warned by ZoS that it can be risky to use.

I doubt that anyone actually read the TOS. Maybe an handful people. And now we get people banned for using an addon that they didn't know was against it.

Can we get an list of Zos? With safe add-ons? Can the devs that make the add-ons state it in their addon discription?

Amottica

I would expect that if there was any action, vs rumor, that it was due to one of two things.

1. it was not an add-on but a third-party program similar to the cheat engine exploiting something in the game vs using the API.
2. Someone found an exploit using the API and shared it with friends instead of reporting it. Hundreds of players is a very small group so this would make as much sense as a cheat engine issue.

It does not matter if it uses the API, which Zenimax controls what is in the API, hence what add-ons can use. If an exploit is found we are required by the ToS to report it and not continue exploiting it. Games, including ESO, have seen players choose to abuse an exploit and therefore get shown the exit door.

This is an edit:

The link below is a pinned official statement from Zenimax. It is item #1 from my list as the altered the game client which is probably akin to using a cheat engine and not an add-on using the API. I would not expect more detailed information.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/593096/recent-game-account-bans-and-suspensions-for-game-client-manipulation#latest

DontWorryAboutit

Add ons = crutch

FeedbackOnly

I am guessing TTC. That actually runs a program in background and is super common.

My next guess is pvp cheat engine

Reverb

Editing my post after learning that this is a known issue acknowledged by Zeni:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/593096/recent-game-account-bans-and-suspensions-for-game-client-manipulation


To answer your question, any addon that uses open API elements to facilitate in-game views or functions is allowed. Addons that capture data published through the API and stores it in folders created and managed by the game (saved variables, addon settings, etc.) are allowed.

Addons which use a script or executable to populate a 3rd party application, site, or database aren’t allowed. Zeni may or may not be aware of them, and may or may not take action on that knowledge, but they reserve the right to at any time

Charlotte_Loreley

If someone does manage to cheat using an addon, it's most probably not going to be a generic gamer that downloaded an addon to use for certain QoL feature. It would be a programmer that found a vulnerability in ZOS's implementation of LUA in the game and created a script to take advantage of that.

However, given that ZOS use their own version of LUA for addons with a lot of restrictions and a tight control around it, the probability of an addon being used to cheat something in the game is astronomically low.

So, you can safely let go of your fear of getting banned for use of an addon.
In addition, they specifically mentioned that it was due to "manipulating of game client". ESO addons cannot do that; they cannot access any files outside the "Addons" folder (i.e. dependent libraries). An addon is just a set of instructions for the game client to read, interpret and translate.

monitoiul

My account was suspended and all I did that came from third party was have add-ons.

Assumption made above about add-on functionality seems reasonable to me. I used to hold same beliefs until yesterday. However, https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/588031/update-on-recent-action-against-some-eso-accounts/p1 explicitly names "potentially defective add-on triggering anticheat systems". So it seems like things can still get muddled.

Monroe585

Add-ons wouldn't be an issue if zos implemented a lot of those features into the game, just like how another very popular mmo does.

daim

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

I am guessing TTC. That actually runs a program in background and is super common.

My next guess is pvp cheat engine

If it would be TTC half of the PC population would get banned. TTC might run in the background but it doesn't mess with the client at all, just reading the data from the actual addon.

I would say basically anything in ESOUI is safe to use (however that's only my personal opinion), I would think the zos devs there and the very active community managers would take action immediatly if an addon would use a known API exploit. On that regard Addons use API that ZOS has provided. It's basically set of rules by ZOS what extra info/functions you can show on the client.

Only grey area third party addon I can think of is ReShade, but I doubt the ban wave does have anything to do with it.

When you're using exploits and cheats you know you're doing something that you shouldn't be doing and you should be prepare to get banned.

If there's an exception to this I would hope ZOS would inform their customers that they are doing something by mistake that they should not be doing.

Jeremy

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

My next guess is pvp cheat engine

It couldn't be that because cheating doesn't exist on this game.

monitoiul

Monroe585 wrote: »

Add-ons wouldn't be an issue if zos implemented a lot of those features into the game, just like how another very popular mmo does.

To their credit, it seems that many popular addons do eventually make their way into the base game - e.g. checkbox for 'quest items' when crafting; action duration timers in latest patch etc.

LashanW

Jeremy wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

My next guess is pvp cheat engine

It couldn't be that because cheating doesn't exist on this game.

It does exist. But I've only seen them in Cyrodiil.

Oznog666

Just made a quick test with my wife's account :-)

It's for sure NOT TTC, I was running the .exe file in the background, sold and bought some things, restarted the game, nothing happens. I ran harvestmap exe too, again no problems.

My addons:
Action Duration Reminder
AUI
BeamMeUp
BugCatcher
Caros skill point saver
Combat metrics
CustomCompassPins
LazyWritCrafter
Dressing room for Stonethorn
Group Synergizer
HarvestMap
MapPins
MiniMap by Franklin
PotionMaker
TTC
WPama
LuiExtended
LootLog

AinSoph

Jeremy wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

My next guess is pvp cheat engine

It couldn't be that because cheating doesn't exist on this game.

War flashbacks of someone raining Assembly General missiles from the sky in Auridon

K9002

I wasn't banned. I'm using almost everything listed by several banned people, except Dressing Room and Harvest Map. I hope the fears surrounding legality of Dressing Room aren't coming true.

Chaos2088

I used a good 50 addon's via minon and did not get a ban.......so I doubt it is addon's.

DreamyLu

I use TTC with client as well as Harvest Map and wasn't banned. Those addons are out of the most common ones and I don't think they can be source of the problem.

Is there a list somewhere of the addons tolerated by ZOS?

VaranisArano

The other possibility is that a normally tolerated addon falsely triggered ZOS' anti-cheat system.

Now, I'd love to think that after this just happened two months ago, ZOS would've double and triple checked to make sure that this ban wave wasn't going to be sweeping up innocents. But I suppose we'll see in a couple weeks if ZOS ends up making another apology post or not.

Previous incident: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/588031/update-on-recent-action-against-some-eso-accounts/p1

colossalvoids

Would be wonderful if they at least gave us a heads up if that add-on or anything related can be widespread by esoui at the very least.

BazOfWar

Could it be Dressing-Room? Only seems to have happened since they released the armory system. Maybe they don't want people using dressing room and use their armory system instead.

Kwoung

DreamyLu wrote: »

Is there a list somewhere of the addons tolerated by ZOS?

All of them? ZOS is very specific about what can and cannot be done with addons via control over the API's they make available. In the past, when they decided one of their API's was allowing functionality they didn't intend or decided they didn't like, they changed the API to disallow it... Miat's PVP addons come to mind and no one using that addon was banned, it simply stopped working.

Considering they didn't even mention addons in their announcement, they are most likely referring to cheat engine, macro scripts or a bug someone found and exploited without reporting it.

master_vanargand

Probably a cheat related to PvP Cyrodiil.
Recent Cyrodiil has a strange low pop bonus.
Given that we cheated on a scale of hundreds of people, we speculate that we might have acquired and abused the low pop bonus update timer with private add-ons and external applications.
I think it is possible to abuse the low pop bonus by taking organized actions.

Elsonso

DreamyLu wrote: »

I use TTC with client as well as Harvest Map and wasn't banned. Those addons are out of the most common ones and I don't think they can be source of the problem.

Is there a list somewhere of the addons tolerated by ZOS?

ZOS has not specifically mentioned addons, so I personally doubt that this is related to them. The connection to addons seems to originate in the community. People are assuming that it must be addon related, but that is not really a confirmed assumption.

Amottica

VaranisArano wrote: »

The other possibility is that a normally tolerated addon falsely triggered ZOS' anti-cheat system.

Now, I'd love to think that after this just happened two months ago, ZOS would've double and triple checked to make sure that this ban wave wasn't going to be sweeping up innocents. But I suppose we'll see in a couple weeks if ZOS ends up making another apology post or not.

Previous incident: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/588031/update-on-recent-action-against-some-eso-accounts/p1

I agree with this. I would hope Zenimax would have been more cautious this time and even made some tweaks to their system last time.

In the same token, I have seen cheating players cry foul suggesting they did not partake even though the developers presented them with how many times they did it and that the results of the exploit were too obvious to miss. Then they change to blaming the developers as it was their fault the exploit was even available. Then they fall back on how much money they have spent on the game as though that gives them a right to cheat. Few games will have the developers actually discuss this openly with players but when they do it is hilarious when it happens.

and as I stated earlier, some may be calling true third-party cheat software an add-on since technically it is, but not in the context of what is legitimately using the API. Zenimax did state that whatever happened it was affecting the client and I doubt our normal add-ons affect the client.

FeedbackOnly

Elsonso wrote: »

DreamyLu wrote: »

I use TTC with client as well as Harvest Map and wasn't banned. Those addons are out of the most common ones and I don't think they can be source of the problem.

Is there a list somewhere of the addons tolerated by ZOS?

ZOS has not specifically mentioned addons, so I personally doubt that this is related to them. The connection to addons seems to originate in the community. People are assuming that it must be addon related, but that is not really a confirmed assumption.

There's reports of couples with exact same addons and only one banned.

Whatever it is it's definitely blindsided and took innocent people

JavaRen

I have used dressing room quite a bit since the Armory came out, no issues, and the API for it is still working, so I'd say the paranoia about "meanie-head ZOS" taking away our toys and making us buy theirs can be settled.

Kiralyn2000

DontWorryAboutit wrote: »

Add ons = crutch

I'd presume, then, that guides & wikis are a crutch. How about asking questions on the forum, or in general/guild chat?


Q: is writing down notes a crutch? Because I use a couple addons that effectively just keep notes for me of where I've found things. It saves me printing out a bunch of zone maps to write on & wasting paper and ink. Or printing a list of all the recipes so I can check off which ones I know.


Oh, yeah - is the Armory a crutch? Because that's just implementing something that was done before in addons.


(I don't use any combat addons. Remember, not every addon is "know when a stealthed nightblade is shooting you" or "dodge the boss attack warning")

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

DontWorryAboutit wrote: »

Add ons = crutch

I'd presume, then, that guides & wikis are a crutch. How about asking questions on the forum, or in general/guild chat?


Q: is writing down notes a crutch? Because I use a couple addons that effectively just keep notes for me of where I've found things. It saves me printing out a bunch of zone maps to write on & wasting paper and ink. Or printing a list of all the recipes so I can check off which ones I know.


Oh, yeah - is the Armory a crutch? Because that's just implementing something that was done before in addons.


(I don't use any combat addons. Remember, not every addon is "know when a stealthed nightblade is shooting you" or "dodge the boss attack warning")

Don't feed the trolls, lol.

Ermiq

Ah, here we go again. People don't understand what the addons are and how do they relate to the policies.
ESO addons use the officially approved and legitimate set of open API functions that they are officially allowed to use. And they are not "third-party programs", and they don't "modify the client". Obviously, I'm talking about the actual addons from ESOUI and not the CheatEngine cancer or mouse macros software cancer.
Basically, when the policy says "the addons are 3rd party, use it on your own risk" it means "use it if you wish but don't you dare blame ZOS and the game for all the potentially possible UI glitches, game freezes, memory leaks, increased disk read/write overload and other issues the addons could produce".
Yeah, as ZOS said in the related thread, the issue seem to be caused by some addon(s) due to some unintended process, but it's just how software works. Some bug has occured, some unhandled exception. Based on what is said by ZOS, I'd guess the server might have mistakenly process the gold transactions not properly, maybe due to multiple buy/sell/buy/sell requests within one server-client data package transaction and maybe calculated the resulting amount of gold incorrectly or triggered an anticheat scenario because of unexpectedly fast or some other suspicious form of actions.
Anyway, there's nothing to worry about. The issue has been solved as it seems and people have been justified.

daim

Elsonso wrote: »

DreamyLu wrote: »

I use TTC with client as well as Harvest Map and wasn't banned. Those addons are out of the most common ones and I don't think they can be source of the problem.

Is there a list somewhere of the addons tolerated by ZOS?

ZOS has not specifically mentioned addons, so I personally doubt that this is related to them. The connection to addons seems to originate in the community. People are assuming that it must be addon related, but that is not really a confirmed assumption.

Also some people have used this same subject with their own agenda against addons. Only ZOS can stop these rumours but I'm not very hopeful seeing that happen.

techyeshic

The thing with add-ons is that so long as they are using the ZOS APIs, they probably are fine. But unless you made the add-on itself or looked at it's actual code; how do you know it is simply using the approved method? There isn't really an approved distributor out there evaluating everything they share is within the TOS.

With that said; I feel those who have it are informed that it's unapproved and suspended if they then ignore it, then banned if they persist after that suspension. If someone is intentionally manipulating the client themselves; then I'd hope it was a perma ban and not just a 72 hour break.

The problem is on the other direction; if you get hit and they were wrong; it'll probably take all those 72 hours to contest it but I recommend you politely follow the process so it's not left in some record.