(Speaking as Jedgar for myself and for my son)

How can we be banned for these reasons?


Forgive me, Combine, for I have sinned. It has been 61 days since last I held the hammer.
Year 16 Day 216, 0:42 Erek banned player Jedgar
Year 16 Day 216, 0:42 Erek banned player Kekzo Mantodea
The above player has been banned for one month for breaching our multi-account, death timer, and asset laundering rules. Any transferred assets will be siezed; the player may request to return to his original character via the support system.


My argument:

Multi-accounts – I have been part of the combine for many years, although no active. I and my son started playing the combine (we live in the same house) and during his creating a char we noticed the multi-account link did not show as multi-accounts. So… Both of us file a ‘ticket’ to try and correct the issue. I would believe that admin’s could see that this has been filed. Therefore we did not try to ‘cheat’ the system in any way.

Death-timer: I do not even know what this means. However, this is my second char in the combine maybe that is what the “death timer” relates to. My previous char was 6-8 years ago and Jedgar is my second char in the combine. I know when he (Jedgar) was created and played to level 2 he did not get banned for a “death timer”??? So I am not sure where this comes into the situation either.

Asset laundering rules: Not sure where this came in exactly. I started playing recently as I mentioned above. When I started playing the combine this time I found my self-trapped on a yt2k owned by the TF. I contacted a Jacob Jensan (I hope that I spelled that correctly, if no my apologies) and he was very quick to allow me to pilot the ship to my faction location. Thank you for the help on the Viceroy of the Trade Federation. However during my captivity I did send my ships to a friend to have since I most likely won’t be needing anything since I am a captive. I gave my belongings to Kekzo and figured that he will be able to use them since I am not going anywhere soon. Once free or almost free I asked for some of the items back (one ship) so that I, hopefully will get an opportunity to fly around the galaxy to help with levels on my char. I am not sure how this would constitute “asset laundering” although some might say it is since I am banned.

Ok, why ban someone without a warning or something written. You know, maybe a person does not understand that they have done something against the rules and we will give them a chance to correct the issue prior to banning them for a month.

I do enjoy the combine as a game but I think the admins could use some general instruction on being an admin. Neither the world nor its inhabitants are perfect and so the galaxy of the combine.

I would assume the admins investigated properly before they banned you.

So Venari, what part did I break of the rules?

I do not know the truth, I only know your story and the one the admins have.

interesting... so, you can see my story. Where did I go wrong? What rules do you see that I broke if you were just looking at my story. I am not saying that you say I am right or wrong. I am just asking that you look at my story and see tell me what from my story I did wrong. Of course you can not see what the admins see. However if my story is legit???

Your story looks legit to me besides the part where you called your son your friend, might be a slip but others can make their own connection.

that is funny, but I do consider my son to be my friend. I have known him for almost sixteen years now lol. All of my kids (yes I have more than one) are my friends and children. Some might consider me to be an old man.

thank you for taking the time to talk with me about my post. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

I can guarantee that a public airing of grievances will not get it resolved any faster or any more likely in your favor. I'd advise you wait, explain your story, and let the team do their job.

Mikel, I would wait for the admins to explain and or correct if they find an error. However, I did not have an opportunity to explain or anything prior to being banned so I have come to the public forum to plea my case. Do you believe that one should not be heard from as a fellow citizen of the galaxy? Should our government (admins) be able to act without reaction from its citizens?

Truly I see the combine as a game that we as players support through purchase of cp’s or playing an active role which in turn helps the combine grow. The bigger the combine (players) grows the more support it will have. I think there needs to be a better way of communicating to its players prior to simply banning them. Which can lead to its players moving to other games instead of talking good and promoting the game. By introducing some sort of penalty system or communicating with its players the game will keep its citizen’s / players in the game. Basically a win / win situation.

A support ticket is the correct way to contact the asims about this, which is also what I told you on IRC. The penalty system you speak of is the series of temporary bans and escalation that happens.

I understand the tickets and bans. Although, I said that we both sent tickets about the multi-accounts and look where that got us.

I talked in irc a few times only to be told that I need to speak to Erak. When we play other games they have a system that works for penalizing player without taking the game away for a month for some sort of first offense with no type of administration warning to the player that they did something wrong.

Truly, if we wanted to play the game and "cheat" we could find ways of joining an creating a new char. However that is not my intentions at all. I am trying to get some understanding of penalty process and that it may be out dated.

The natural wait between characters when one dies is three weeks. Three weeks of being unable to play for game balance.

You were banned for about four weeks. That's a week longer than the death wait (+/- a few days depending on the month but that's not relevant).

This isn't a coincidental penalty hierarchy, nor is it outdated. It is quite deliberate.

"The natural wait between characters when one dies is three weeks. Three weeks of being unable to play for game balance."

Ok Syn, but when did I die? Oh 6-8 years ago as my first char. I think that alone would account for the death time ban. Jedgar did not die recently and has been going for awhile as active, then in-active, and now active. I guess that is why I am confused about the ban.

This has nothing to do with you dying. I'm providing you with a comparison of how death waits and ban waits function in SWC to demonstrate why that's a modern and deliberate choice for the lower tier of penalty, since you were complaining that you thought it was obsolete. It isn't.

but death wait and death timer means someone died. who? We were banned for death timer. Not sure where this comes in.

Over 24 hrs still banned and no response from admin. I was told when I went to the live chat help that there is no sort of dead line for the admin that banned us to get back to us on the ban. hmm...

It makes perfect sense since the asims aren't employees of the game. It's entirely volunteer basis and if the asim in question is busy IRL then you can't expect him to rush just for you. That would be absurd.

Ulrike, it may make perfect sense indeed. So with that said, you would consider it perfectly fine to be banned unjustly and wait till the admins have time to straighten it out at their leisure?

Have you read my side of the story? Consider that my story is legit. What part did we break the rules. I understand that there is more than just my side of the story. However for a moment just read through "my argument" and tell me where we went wrong. It would be greatly appreciated if you truly fine my misunderstanding and frustration of the ban.

I understand irl stuff happens and the admins may be busy irl. I guess that is were I would suggest a better warning system to the players prior to banning a player/s. I to have a busy life outside of the combine, although I would volunteer to help where I could to support such a system. I am not a programmer but I could and should offer my time certainly if I am complaining about the process. My post is meant to bring forth this type of conversation. I believe that we all make mistakes and maybe I (we) did break a rule (I do not see which rule that we broke at this time) or not. If we can improve the warning system to the citizens' of the combine we will improve the overall gameplay environment.

I haven't read your story but I would wait patiently if I got wrongly banned. Freaking out over it is no way to behave and just makes a person appear far more guilty in my opinion.

As for the rules broken, it was pretty clear. One of you died recently, then one of you laundered assets to the other which probably triggered some fancy asim illegal multi/trade tracking mechanism. I can't guarantee that's what happened since I'm neither an asim nor involved in the whole thing but I feel like the ban message was pretty damn straight forward.

Yes Ulrike, pretty damn straight forward. I agree. Neither my son nor I have died recently. My sons account is new, he has never played before. I was introducing him to the combine. Me, yes this is my second account. My first char died 6-8 years ago. You can see that I have been in the combine for many years. This being my second char I started up some years ago and got him to level 2 and stopped playing the combine for a few years.

So... Not sure who died or when they died to constitute a ban.