Character Name: KangWoo Last thing you did: done stone->dark->mixed golem quests, then killed Latanica 4 times (I played with 3 friends who were also doing this quest), then grinded Himes for about 2 hours. Why do you think you got banned?: No idea Ban message when attempting to log in: Permanent ban + IP ban on another account. What GM banned you (optional): No idea For context, here's my original message to Yanir (sent right after the ban), who guided me to create this ban appeal instead (sorry, still new to the forums!): If needed, I can provide a list of about 20 nicknames just from my memory who can vouch for me. I've made a lot of friends playing here.
You were banned for macro-botting at ghost ship 2. We have video evidence of you not responding for over 2 1/2 minutes while spamming heal, then moving back & fourth, care to explain?
I have never macro-botted. I've spent lots of time solo grinding in GS2 and GS5, most of which was done while watching a TV show on my television. I can even give you the character name of the player that recommended me the TV show I've been watching recently. Because clerics have the ingenious skill called MP Eater I didn't even have to watch over my mana and I could play single-handed. There's a safe spot in the middle of the stairs so I usually just spammed heal while standing there and moved every once in a while whenever I remembered to. Most of the time I didn't even care enough to HS myself because it only gives 10% without a party member. I replied to people whenever I noticed them talking to me, but I must have missed someone. If this is truly the cause of my ban then I apologise profusely - I should have given more attention to the game on my laptop. That being said, the terms & conditions do say that replying to people is not mandatory, yet encouraged because failing to respond over a long period of time might be sufficient evidence. When reading that bit I definitely did not expect a long period of time to be "over 2 1/2 minutes". If that's enough to be considered a long time then at least treat me as the terms & conditions say - only a second offense in this category should be treated as a permanent ban. Again, I request for my in game logs to be checked. I'm an incredibly active and social person. Sure, I've given less attention to the game during the boring multiple-hour solo grinding with one skill part, but I do welcome you to check everything else I've done in the game - I play for 10+h each day, I have a full buddylist and talk there all the time, I'm in a guild and talk with people over there too, I participate in events (so far in both of the 2 that were announced after I started playing), I have an account selling stuff in the FM 24/7, I often lead PQs and help people out. This all screams I'm quite devoted to playing this game - it's a fantastic break from writing my final project for college and the community is what kept me in front of the screen for those 2 weeks.
If you watch the evidence itself, it 100% looks like macro game-play. 2 1/2 minutes is a hell of a long time to keep this up without looking at your screen.
Oh I did notice this person and replied to her at some point (again, you're more than welcome to check the logs), clearly I wasn't watching the laptop screen during those 2.5 minutes though. The interaction (the one where I replied to Elyss) took place around 30-40h ago from now if my memory saves me right. It was 2 nights ago in the UTC+2 timezone. This person must not have liked me for some reason and waited until I wasn't paying attention to the game to cause me trouble. I welcome you to check how much time in total I've spent in MP3, GS2 and GS5 - I've been leveling there for a few days, maybe even closer to a week. With this much repetition you quickly learn how to operate your character with just muscle memory. That's how I've learned to multi-task and watch something on the TV while training with 1 hand on the laptop. The ghost ship maps really don't need much attention from a cleric player and I'm sure lots of other clerics have learned to do the same. I guess if you need further proof, (depending on how comprehensive the server's logs are) you can check the first 10+ hours of me leveling on those maps. I've been falling off these stairs very often in the beginning, then as time progressed, I fell less and less. For the last 10 hours I spent there I've fallen off maybe a few times maximum. I don't think a macro-bot would ever fall. I also don't think a bot wouldn't cast HS for the additional experience or feed the pet when it needs to. It would probably loot the meso and items by itself as well. I did not cast HS or feed my pet because those keys weren't convenient to press with 1 hand. And I wasn't looting anything most of the time. Even from this short video you can see that I'm only using one button to heal and arrowkeys to move every once in a while. I've been getting better at this and you could clearly see that if only I was recording myself playing. Again, depending on how comprehensive the server's logs are, you might be able to check that for ultimate proof. And even if it's just chat logs - check how active and social I am. I highly doubt a botter would make this many friends this quickly - a person like that would most likely want to hide from people. Yet I had to delete some people to make place for new ones multiple times. Also, the ghost ship maps are very popular so training there would be a rather bad idea for a botter too. Another aspect in my favor is that I wasn't training effectively at all. I knew no other maps for a cleric to train at the time. If someone's intentions were to level up while they were outside or whatever, they would have chosen a better map (for both more effective experience rate AND hiding from other people). Meanwhile I stuck to ghost ship whenever my friends weren't available to train at WS, Cavern of Pain or wherever else they wanted. One of my friends let me know that I'm high level enough for solo himes just yesterday and once I got there I was leveling up as quickly as once in 40 minutes or less. Compare that to a level every 2 hours or even slower that I was getting - clearly I don't know enough about the game to not enjoy it and to want to cheat through the levels. It's the exact opposite for me - I haven't played MapleStory for around 10 years and I've been having a blast playing on this sever re-learning what to do and where.
There isn't a doubt in my mind that you were macroing here. After reviewing the evidence it seems that you turned almost exactly at ~18.2 seconds each time, with very little difference in how much you moved in said turns. I am also well aware of the muscle memory while training mages but there's no way it's that precise. Your effectivity during training has nothing to do with whether or not you were botting or not & on top of that, you did not respond to Elyss while she asked you if you were there for what we see was ~2 minutes & 30 seconds. With you not responding in a timely manner, Elyss found it reasonable to report you & we found it to be pretty obvious from our perspective that you were in fact botting. With that you will stay permanently banned, sorry.
