Bethesda has been quick to investigate a scenario where a player was banned from the Bethesda Launcher – and thus banned from accessing games from Bethesda’s service – after crafting multiple gamma guns in Fallout 76.
The story seems too stupid to be true, but alas it’s happened to a couple of players already and Bethesda has already responded to their cases.
In the first instance, a user on the Fallout 76 sub-reddit claimed that after making 10 gamma guns, they were sent a suspension notice, even though they had no idea what the limits were for crafting items in the game. Reddit user Vladtepesx3 wrote…
“Today I got a message that my account was suspended indefinitely, and it asks me to explain the “excessively high rate of item creation.”
“The only thing I’ve crafted in weeks was somewhere between 10 and 20 gamma guns (used super duper and crafted about 10) to scrap for mods, then crafted gamma rounds to use it. I am not a duper, none of my characters are even over the weight limit.
“How the F is a normal player supposed to know how to navigate all of this bullshit to even play? If you have plans to make an item so you can craft and scrap, where does it tell me how many i can or can’t make? Where in the code of conduct does it say that I have to learn the speed I can press the craft button to avoid being banned? […]”
The angry post garnered thousands of views and a response from an Australian customer support representative for Bethesda.
The user shared the ticket they received from Bethesda, which outlined why they were permanently suspended.
If you’re unable to read it, it states…
“This account has violated the Code of Conduct and Terms of Service by exploiting a system issue that results in item duplication. As a result, we have suspended this account indefinitely. […]”
This wasn’t the first nor the last time it happened, though. Another player also chimed in about their issues as well.
When the Bethesda community manager popped into the thread to ask for more info and the ticket number, a user going by the handle of Geass10 also requested support for the same problem.
But it didn’t end there.
Another player also had problems with being suspended for crafting a bunch of items, which the system flagged as “item duplication”, which netted them a permanent suspension.
Reddit user Qhival posted a PSA in the Fallout 76 sub-reddit, explaining that scrapping a bunch of items and then crafting a lot of weapons out of it will set off the flags and net you a permanent ban.
Qhival had two accounts, however, so their main wasn’t affected but they did warn others about crafting too many items within a short amount of time…
“It appears they don’t have a means to tell the difference between legitimately crafting a bunch of items, or duping.
“I know a lot of people have 2 computers and an alt accounts they use to offload scrap, weapons, chems, aid & etc. If you have played since launch, you could easily and legitimately accumulate 16,000 pounds of scrap on them like i did.
“I recommend that if you need to clear out a scrap mule due to the recent wieght cap limits, bulk your items and sell instead of using the scrap to create items for mods, and perhaps do a reasonable amount at a time.
“My alt account was banned, and all i did was craft a bunch of weapons so that i could scrap them for mods. I’m appealing, but i’m not holding my breathe because i’ve heard they never respond within the 72 hour limit.”
The Bethesda rep also hopped in to address the situation, asking for more details about the case in an attempt to get the situation resolved.
Bethesda fanboys, however, were also quick to claim that all of these suspensions relating to mass-crafting were just item dupers trying to use the suspension as a cover to keep on duping.
After further investigation, Bethesda made an official post claiming that the people who had been banned were actually just item dupers. They don’t address any of the specific account cases, but they leave it broad by claiming that anyone who was banned deserved it.
A day after the reports about being banned for mass item crafting surfaced, an official post was made on the Fallout 76 sub-reddit by Bethesda titled “A Note on Banning”.
It starts by saying…
“We’ve seen reports circulating regarding innocent accounts being unfairly deactivated for crafting in-game items. We want to reassure the community that these reports are unequivocally false and reiterate our banning/reporting program, first outlined here.
“To date, the majority of accounts that have been turned off are accounts that have managed to collect over 500,000 (in some cases, tens of millions) of specific rare items (for example, Halloween Candy, Nuka-Colas, or Ultracite Scrap) inside of a 30-day period.
“We feel confident that any player that has picked up that quantity of items that are designed to be rare inside the game did not obtain them via any legitimate means.”
Majority of the sub were fine with this explanation in terms of how the other players were banned. Some of the banned players were not okay with this explanation, and hopped into the thread to demand further explanation.
The post from Bethesda, however, maintains a vagueness so that you either have to take their word for it or the word of the banned players, where they state…
“In some rare cases, accounts with as few as 150,000 of one of these items collected inside of 30 days have been banned after coming to our attention via being reported by other players (for instance, the player initiates a trade with someone and observes thousands of one of these rare items and reports it as suspicious). Our Support team also evaluates reported accounts on specific behavior that we know are associated with duping exploits.
“We don’t want to provide too much in the way of specific detail that would make it easier for the people cheating to make it harder to catch them. However, we want to reassure players that are playing the game as intended – players who craft a lot, or collect a lot of junk, or saving up to open a store – to have full confidence that we are not deactivating accounts that belong to people playing the game normally.”
This still doesn’t necessarily address if you can actually be banned for crafting too many items within a short amount of time, since the post from Bethesda doesn’t address those particular cases or if those players were actually duping.
The lack of evidence is actually worrying, since it tends to sweep the issue under the rug rather than offering a technical explanation of what happened in the case of the particular players who shared their grievances about being perma-banned with the sub. Essentially, what this will likely do is cause fanboys to automatically downvote threads about being banned, unless they contain substantial amounts of irrefutable evidence, which means that players will have to keep recording devices on at all times while they play Fallout 76 in order to prove their innocence.
(Thanks for the news tip Quickshooter)
