Important info on GM bans/system & screenshots
After getting banned a few days ago, I tried to appeal my ban with some regular BS that I didn't do it. I caught a guy botting really obviously and wanted to ensure that he was going to get banned as he was a high level (88). So I sent in a screenshot and faked him admitting to botting. I made it all look as legitimate as possible and made sure that I included everything in the screenshot, even matched the filesize to that of a normal screenshot etc. etc.Quote:
Answer from: ~Bittersweet~ Rate this answer
Hello xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
We checked in our system when the user said these things posted in your screenshot, and they did not match what you submitted - you uploaded the screenshot half an hour after the whole incident so there was enough time for you to change it.
Lastly you ran back and forth between Western Krem and Peak of Krem that evening saving eight screenshots within seven minutes. We have copies of those unedited screenshots and none of them match with the one you sent us. The only conclusion we can come to is that you edited the one that you sent us in order to try and get this player banned.
There's no point in extending the discussion based on the 'truth' you provide us with in this ticket. The ban remains as it is.
Best regards
~Bittersweet~
Game Administrator NosTale.co.Uk
Now I didn't want to lose my account (it was level 77) but at the same time it was a bot account so I didn't care too much. At the time I was pretty sure they'd just ban this guy outright and I didn't realise they had so many systems in place to check the false evidence I submitted. So in the end I turned it into an experiment to see if I could force some information out of the staff team regarding how they can 'prove' that I did indeed edit the screenshot (I wasn't sure even if they could tell in the first place).
Turns out they can easily tell if you mess with a screenshot. Check the things that I underlined in the message. It seems that their system logs quite a lot of stuff.
1. They can see exactly what maps you went to and in which order, and at what times, etc.
Conclusion: If you want to make a bot that teleports between maps they can probably find that really easily and ban you if you teleport between 2 maps that are not connected with a portal or some teleport item. (Obviously Wing of Home/Return is safe).
2. They can see everything you have written and that others have written to you.
Conclusion: They probably have the service set up to automatically send them a notification when players use certain words too like racial slurs or words like 'botting' etc. I'd be really careful what you say in any area of the game like in the family chat, whispers or notes etc.
3. When you save a screenshot they get a copy of that screenshot saved so they can see it.
Conclusion: This one is kinda scary, it means that any time you screenshot something they can see what you screenshot. I'm not sure what kind of a record they keep of them but the game screencaptures are pretty small and I am sure they have plenty of space for a lot of them. Be careful when you make a screenshot in this game, especially if you are running at bot at the same time.
I couldn't really get any more info than that, but the transcript is there.
I used to think that they couldn't really do anything without a screenshot as evidence. They also made it seem like this was the case with specific replies that they wouldn't DO anything without a screenshot. But it seems recent advancements in this game have obviously given them a way to pretty easily check just about every aspect of a player's behaviour, short of their actual keypresses (which would probably be too hard/troublesome to implement something that logs every single player's keypresses). I know for a fact that a couple of years ago when I submitted edited screenshots I was able to get some players banned immediately. It seems their systems have changed quite a lot since then.
Anyway I thought I would post this here in case anyone is having any ideas about releasing some teleport bot or something. Also it lets you guys know that if you use some kind of 'auto respond', they can see what you said, so maybe try to mix it up a little. I think all in all there's quite a few things that this Admin leaked out as to how they can be absolutely certain I was guilty of what I did. It took me about 5 days of back and forth chat with this guy for me to get him to leak more information as to how they could confirm I was guilty.
