The players of the MMORPG Blade & Soul are currently voicing their complaints loudly in the forums and on reddit about a new wave of bans from NCSoft. The bans supposedly affected not only users of an exploit but also many innocents.
What happened? Some players have apparently managed to alter files in Blade & Soul and learn skills from NPCs and raid bosses. With these skills, they attacked other players without activating PvP.
Some of the exploiters were subsequently banned. However, it seems that the wave of bans did not only hit them.
Players who allegedly were just raiding or fishing were also banned. Various threads in the official forum and on reddit report this. These seemingly undeserved bans, in turn, are causing a lot of anger among the players.
Why were innocent players banned? Apparently, there is an automated system behind the bans that has not worked perfectly:
- In the raids, players who participated in the fights against the corresponding bosses that were abused for the exploit were banned.
- In fishing, there seem to have been false bans because AFK fishing relies on a similar technique as the manipulation of skills.
According to a forum post, the unwarranted bans are said to have been lifted. However, on reddit, it is reported that there are still players wrongfully banned.
Players are surprised and disappointed
How are players reacting? Many players are shocked and surprised that a well-known MMORPG can have such a large gap in the way files are transferred.
Now questions arise about whether there have been manipulations in other areas as well. In the forum, players like CrazyDude90 report that changes to the XML can interrupt animations and gain advantages in combat.
The rankings in the game are being questioned, and a loss of trust is mentioned. Players criticize that NCSoft has not grasped the full extent of the exploit. The handling of the situation and the bans do not improve the situation.
As a result, many react with mockery and post memes about the incident.
How can you protect yourself from bans? There is no official statement on this. However, the user kyenxos posted some tips on reddit to help players avoid bans:
- Do not defeat Boss 3 of the ET raid
- Do not go AFK fishing with the AHK tool
- Do not play PvP unless it’s against other factions (with Faction Outfits)
- Use the vanilla client from BnS
- Avoid VPNs for now to prevent overlaps with the exploiters
However, there is no guarantee that this will prevent bans.
What happens next? Currently, players are still waiting for an official statement from NCSoft regarding the incident. So far, only the Russian community team of the MMORPG has responded and posted a statement on Facebook.
In it, they warned users about an exploit that is circulating in the EU and would be punished harshly on the Russian servers. Other players should also immediately report exploiters.
The developers of Blade & Soul have already been informed, and they are now waiting for the fix.
In recent months, Blade & Soul made positive headlines with the engine update and new plans for the future:
