Accepted 28719; Ban Appeal - ESP

[RegnossToii]

Your SteamID

Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:53767508

Name of character: 28719/Erick Walker
Steam ID: STEAM_0:1:53767508
Original length of ban: Perma
Time since ban: A few minutes since ban
Who banned you: Greek Nathan

I was in a character interaction and then was banned for ESP, as I'm very new to garry's mod RP. I'm not really sure what that is -- Or really what details to add to benefit the appeal.

 

[pirate]

I issued the ban after probably the tenth instance that I've seen of a staff member commenting that they observed you move suspiciously, specifically in finding exactly the person you are trying to talk to no matter where they are on the map.

I personally watched you earlier spawn & beeline for the lower levels of the Nexus where someone you wanted to talk to was located. You ran into our characters in the detention level and decided to go around, taking the long way up, out and down directly to the specific location of the characters you wanted to talk to.

This is the usual pattern that has been observed: no matter where the person you want to talk to is, you find them immediately and with a very direct and deliberate path.

The team was deliberating on what to do about it but is in consensus that you are using an ESP, so I went ahead and issued the ban. I will allow other staff members to chime in with their observations.

 

[RegnossToii]

If I am unbanned, Can ESP is be explained so I can avoid it in the future? I don't want there to be misunderstandings about what a character can and cannot do. I am a new member to TnB and Garry's Mod serious RP, and did not intend to break any rules - I'm willing to adjust my behavior OOC and IC to amend my behavior.

From what I understand from Pirate's post - It seems to be directly seeking out interaction with characters in areas where your character would otherwise rarely or unusually reside within or move through - I'm just hesitant to ascribe that as the direct meaning of ESP.

 

[Baron Dandus]

You have consistently displayed extremely suspect behavior when finding roleplay with others, including beelining for my location when my VIGIL Captain was off in the civic center, and when they were downstairs talking to another character, when there hasn't been any indication they were there. If it happened once or twice, I could feasibly write that off as a happy coincidence. Numerous reports, at least twice a day from fellow Administrators and a few players is enough for an ESP ban to be considered on the table, and to get you to come forward and explain your end of the deal.

 

[Wiz]

If I am unbanned, Can ESP is be explained so I can avoid it in the future? I don't want there to be misunderstandings about what a character can and cannot do. I am a new member to TnB and Garry's Mod serious RP, and did not intend to break any rules - I'm willing to adjust my behavior OOC and IC to amend my behavior.

ESP = Wallhacks, basically, for clarification.

 

[straylight]

Yeah man, the past couple days we've gotten almost nightly reports from admins and players alike that you've been chasing people down in secluded, obscure spots on the map. I've even watched you start to beeline from one end of the map to the other where somebody else was standing alone -- granted, this might have been more of an earnest random effort since you stopped about halfway through and went to do something else, but with everything else it doesn't look good.

I actually think you're a fine enough writer and folks seem to generally enjoy having you around, so it's not like I'm on team "get out and never come back" but the way this is all adding up is a little suspect, you know? Rules're rules.

 

[RegnossToii]

Reposting - all the edits I made to fix my non-existent grammar flagged it for mod review - wanted to also put it under one big, consolidated roof.

If ESP is wallhacks then no - I wasn't using any illicit/outside software to find people anywhere around the map besides pressing tab, I never had any OOC indications about the whereabouts of people other than their in-server status other than through the leaderboard (TAB) - and my third person camera clipping as my HDD drive that GMod installed to micro-stutters to properly load everything. I have screenshots (full screen prints, not F12s) of my Gmod (and my second screen) from taking pictures when I was trying to remember important information over the course of the RP - if those could help with the verdict, I'll provide those to whoever reaches out to me for those. (I'll do whatever, sharing my screen in a discord call and showing the pictures to the staff - whatever is deemed fit)

Otherwise, it came down to just pattern recognition built up from multiple long-hour sittings of running from the top of the nexus and down to the bottom (which is a part of my character's bio). "If X person isn't in Y, well they're probably in Z.". I'm not sure what else I can say or provide in my defense other than that.. I did occasionally check on the Civic Center. For those who were unaware - (though I'm sure it's been brought up) - 287 was/is spying on the CCA for the main branch of the combine whilst trying to get transhumanized whilst trying NOT to get ostracized or killed or worse for it - me running around like a chicken with its head cut off mostly stems from the fact I'm trying to build a web and I need to talk to a lot of people to do it A LOT - mostly I rely on patterns to find people.

Most of the administration has offices in the Civic Center building - I mean I've seen that over the course of days I've been there, if they're not around the Nexus. I'll find them there. I've seen important meetings get carried out there (people escorted out the building to and from there maybe once or twice) - why not check? For the Vigil Captain - I don't remember ever speaking to 687, if that is you or 59309 in the Civic Center. I only ever recall speaking to OTA about important information inside of the Administration wing of the Nexus.

----

I think I've finished my side of the story - I'm kind of in a catch twenty-two here though. I can't really prove or disprove anything I mean if ESP is wallhacks, then there's nothing that I could ever say or do to change that, in the end it's just my word. I can't give you evidence going either way. I'm a total outsider to Gmod serious RP and that uncertainty about my character is one I can only hope to overcome, I don't want you looking over your shoulder when I'm in the server just to make sure I'm not breaking the rules. As such, I will cooperate - with any requests the administration has about behavior irp/ooc - or to get proof up until logical extents about privacy, etc.

 

[Brealaran]

At the end of the day, all of the evidence presented against you is circumstantial. From what I've gleaned from conversations here and elsewhere, admin staff and players had suspicions, but whether or not those suspicions are founded cannot be proven barring a blatant use of wallhacks or an admission of guilt. I understand the reasons and thought process behind the action that was taken here. However, I cannot in good conscience vote to sustain this ban. In my opinion, the weight of the evidence does not support a permaban. With the unique challenges in proving ESP/Wallhack use, I understand my stance here may prevent any kind of punishment for those who merely maintain a position of plausible deniability. Yet, it would be wrong of us to permanently remove someone from the server whom we cannot prove did that which they are accused of doing.

For the foregoing reasons, +1 in favor of lifting the permaban.

 

[Rabid]

I have to agree with Brea. I trust my fellow admins, but its insanely hard to prove - and is banning someone for something we can't actually prove, who otherwise has no issues, fair? I wouldn't want to be in Regnoss's shoes.

+1 for lifting the permaban, though if the staff team feel a discouragement is warranted, then maybe keep the ban as a few days.

 

[straylight]

I'm for lifting it after a bit, too. Suspect as your behavior was it doesn't seem like you were intending to do anything actively malicious with it if it was there, and I hate the thought that you're being permanently nixed for something you didn't do. If problems do arise in the future it'll be easy to rectify it, anyways, so it's not like we're allowing a warhead to go off by letting you keep writing.

+1 in favor of lifting, in spite of my previous post and reservations.

i use admin esp to find rp too

 

[pirate]

ESP is tricky to prove and tricky to disprove. The ban was handed down to force a dialogue after a number of staff team members independently witnessed behavior that caused them to suspect ESP use.

The intent was not to permanently ban you but rather to get you into a conversation where team members could explain what they saw in the hope that, if you were using an ESP, you would admit it and agree to stop.

With that in mind, I maintain my reservations based on my observations, but obviously cannot uphold a ban without actual proof.

 

[RegnossToii]

One more personal anecdote, I'm not one to jeopardize the challenges my characters have to face or overcome to get to their objectives external or Internal. If 741 killed my character two days ago during that interrogation regarding [SPOILERS] - that would've been more than fine PK to me and a very ironic end to his saga.

I might be a weirdo geek with far too much free time - but I'm not going to go so far as to cheat for the sake of it and breach the trust leased to me, and on top of that ruin my own fun of not knowing what's around the corner.

This might be a tad ironic, but consider the weird behavior framed by the fact that 287 thinks the CCA is basically the rebels with extra steps. I mean at times both of you shouted, "Glory to Humanity!" in the same battle - practically at each other. I (287) am remaining more aware of my surroundings than you think (because he's afraid of getting killed or all the tension coming to a head - 099 literally wants to kill him and has repeatedly said so). I both don't need, nor want ESP to maintain that.

If I did have ESP, I'd never run into 099. Running into him no matter the circumstance is a net negative.

 

[RegnossToii]

Expanding on to that, there's a very long list of people who would literally never see or encounter me again if I wasn't constantly running through the Nexus. Like 0336.. 0366? Whichever one it was that talked to be about the Wallace Breen Society. 099 (definitely not). Literally every member of cloak or GIS. Likely 741 and maybe 817. I'd evict myself from them ever spotting me outside of deployments or organized meetings. I've got enough of a social network to basically be immediately told about anything important. 137 approached me and told me 741 had seen [REDACTED] - from what I understand the same day it happened .. lol.

With that all being said I hope that provides adequate insight to my general methodology approaching RP and my personal code.

 

[SgtChico]

Alright buster... You got it this time... But we're watching you.

Really though, don't feel paranoid about seeking out roleplay with people though after this. You were banned to create a discussion about things. We've had it, it's done, and you're free to reconnect.

locked