Bans and Probations [Explanations], and Extra!

Games Other Halo
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> Hello, this is Xz30000 (GT: Mod Dashboard).I’ll be explaining the problems that a few people have with a Halo: Reach feature called “probation” and im also gonna be talking about bans and diffrent resets.

> What’s a Probation?

Probation is a way to control players or prevent them to consider leaving games in Halo: Reach. A player may reach this state when he/she has left enough games. Now when you are put in a probation, it means: “If you happen to leave another matchmaking game you’ll be contracted with a 10-15 minute time-out”. You WILL receive a message in-game about it.

> How do i get rid of the probation status?

A probation lasts for a specified amount of time (around three days). To get rid of it; simply stop leaving games.

> Why is the probation message popping-up, I haven’t left any games!

There is a counter about when the probation will show up. Every time you: Leave, get booted, join other player while in a game, disconnect or lag out it counts to your probation progress. Stop doing any of the above things to prevent the counter to get filled with data.

> I can’t help it that I lag out, how can I NOT lagg out?

Here are a few things that you should check:You’ll need to make sure that your Xbox 360 Console is well wired or has a WiFi that gives you a good strength (Alot of “bars”).
Make sure your internet bandwidth is high enough to lessen lag. To check your internet bandwidth speed visit: http://www.speedtest.net/If your results are the following you don’t have to worry about disconnection (If you are the host for the matchmaking game): Download 12 MBit/s or higher ||| Upload 1 MBit/s or higher.
If you know what speed you pay for make sure that the test will give out similar numbers (it will never show exactly how much you pay for since devices and radio-waves lessen the result).This means: If you pay for 24 MBit/s you will expect to get a result of 16+ MBit/s on the test.
To keep this thread helpful for many people to come keep this bumped, and show me what you got on your tests: I pay for 100 MBit/s and I got: http://speedtest.net/result/1371238774.png

> How can I increase my results?

Simple: Pay for a higher bandwidth, call your current internet provider and ask to have a raise of bandwidth (it costs more, obviously).
Known issue: If you now pay for more and the test is not showing satisfying results make sure your modem (router) is up-to-date and supports the speed you’re paying for.

> Okay, I have good results and etc but after one game ended it still got me somehow timed-out.

This is a known issue, the servers might have not registered your game as “ended fully” but it might have made a small miscalculation and decided it was a “Ended with leaving”.

> Is there a way to somehow bypass the probation?

There is infact a way of not adding a counter while on probation. If you exit to Dashboard before the game starts it wont count towards your probation (this is good for leaving games where a map of your dislike showed up). This must be done though BEFORE the game starts. – Do this at your OWN risk, I am not responsible for any future patches or rules concerning this matter. I’m plainly stating it could be done.
Thats all for probations… for now.

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> Bans

> What’s a ban?

A ban is a way of letting a player know that they have broken some game rules. A Ban usually means that a player is unable to participate in games and/or have a special disability like credit bans. They are permanent and temporary bans (aka Suspensions). They are diffrent types of bans in Halo: Reach, here are the following:
Credit Bans: This will stop you from earning credits in-game in any way.
Credit Resets: This type of penalty is more harsh; this removes all the players credits or at least as much credits boosted.
Probation: This is a small 10 minute time-out; you get this from quitting games repeatedly.
Full reset: Removes your armory completion and credits; this is usually issued to players that broken the game rules multiple times.
Mutes: Meaning you have been muted by a certain amount of people in-game; Mutes will make you automatically muted for all other players in the same game as you.
Credit Cap: This will only occur if you have earned MAX credits for a given day. Don’t worry, it’s nothing wrong with you reaching this cap. Change the timezone on your Xbox settings to a different day in time and you’ll be able to instantly remove the cap for the given day.
Fileshare blocked: Meaning that you are unable to upload any content to your fileshare on that particular Xbox LIVE account.[Edit, they are probably more bans. I’ll add them ASAP]

> People say that they did not do anything and they still get banned, is Bungie (343Industries) messing with them?

Absolutely not! Bungie has made a special system just to detect players that are playing against the game rules.You can get banned for these reasons:
(Idle) Full party boosting in matchmaking.Commendation boosting in Matchmaking (Campaign and Firefight is okay)
AFK’ing: Means that you are idle when you are in a game.Leaving and betraying repeatedly.
Modifying (Modding) over Xbox LIVE.
Offensive (Foul language), swearing, screaming singing or making useless sounds through your microphone.Getting muted by enough people (I believe the exact number has not been revealed).
Backstabbing: If you are disappointed you did not join the right team and are ruining for the current one.
Challenge resetting. This accomplished by disconnecting when you completed a challenge, when you reconnect the challenge is incomplete again.
Uploading inappropriate content on your fileshare.
Avoid doing those things and you should be avoiding bans, play fair and nicely and enjoy Halo: Reach!

> Ban Duration’s – How long am I banned?

The ban duration’s differ from how you pulled out your offense. So these numbers wont be correct in every way, but in most cases they’ll be. If anything is incorrect, please tell me.

Credit Bans: (2 Days - 2 Weeks).
Credit Resets: (0 Days - 1 Week). [Rumor]
Probations: (~3 Days) – And for the in-game timeout (10-15 Minutes).
Full Reset: (0 Days - 1 Week). [Rumor]
Mutes: 3 Month’s.
Credit Cap: Until Midnight.
Fileshare Blocked: UNKNOWN (Permanent) [Rumor].

> Jackpots

I little rundown of how jackpots work.
Jackpots deserve to have a place in this thread because they are determent on how well you can hold your rage-quit desires. Jackpots are more likely to occur if the player has left less games in general (although it does not feel that way) but I believe their statements completely. Leave less games to have a higher chance of receiving 'em bonuses.
The jackpots chance are lowered if in a game and disconnected, lagged out, quit or if you got betrayal booted.
This is ALL for now, ill be adding more questions and answers as soon as I get your problems. Please don’t troll, spam or be all negative. Don’t use offensive language or post posts that are useless. If anything: Offer some constructive criticism.

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Bump - I tend to do this as this thread is informative but “non-replyable”. Although feel free to help me get this thread bumped.

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Ok lets say i get banned for 2 weeks but i didnt do any of the following things under ban? what then?

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Your missing out on a ban even I didn’t know existed, I got a permanent Console Ban & Permanent Account Ban from using any of Reach’s Xbox LIVE Functions.

In other words, no Xbox LIVE on Reach with friends, you are stuck in a Local Lobby and it’s impossible to change it.

I will get a picture up soon of the ban message for my Console & Account.

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Mute bans last 3 months
i play MLG a lot and everyone mutes each other and i got mute banned.it sucks because it felt it was taking away from my gaming experience and most times i dont even have my mic in.

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Adding onto my previous post, here is a picture of the message when it tells me I am Console Banned from Reach.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6715/img0054p.jpg

Here is the message I get when I am told my Account is banned from Reach.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7797/img0055so.jpg

Bypass? New Account & New Console.

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Updated Main Post! — I will answer possible questions as soon as I some spare time.

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> Ok lets say i get banned for 2 weeks but i didnt do any of the following things under ban? what then?

The way you asked this hypotheoretical question gives me the message that you actually experienced it. The best way of getting an answer is by either telling me what “odd” things you might have done or go for the process of elimination.

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Bump - I tend to do this as this thread is informative but “non-replyable”. Although feel free to help me get this thread bumped.

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Hey there! I’m not sure if you’re still looking for bumps, but I thought I’d add my opinion on the banning system :slight_smile:

On the most part, I think it works great - it punishes those who are boosted and those who quit. However I think there are still some flaws with it (whilst I recognise that implementing a perfect system is impossible, I do believe it can be improved somewhat).

One of the aims of a banning system, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is to deter people from doing certain actions, such as quitting. Not a game goes by (in big team, at least) where everyone remains for the whole of the game; there are always at least 2 quitters, on average I’d probably push that figure up to 4. It certainly isn’t rare for 6 people on one team to quit just because they’re losing, too. I think the quit ban is too lenient - it needs to be a case where people don’t want to quit. The credit jackpots are an alright idea in encouraging people to stay, however they’re so rare it renders them pointless. Furthermore, a 15 minute time out is too short in my opinion, maybe something like 30 minutes would mean people can’t just go to the toilet, make a sandwich and come back ready to play matchmaking again.

I’m happy with the probation period you’re implementing though, where if a player quits too much they can’t play for 3 days, so good job on that one :wink:

Another ban, which I particularly disagree with, is the mute ban. Having been mute banned myself, I understand the frustration that came from not being able to communicate with, or even hear, my fellow teammates. I am a big team player, and will always say when the tank or weapons have respawned, try to arrange tactics etc. My only guess is that some people wanted a quiet game and muted me, as I am far from being the typical music playing/squeaky kid which I presume this ban is aimed at. I feel the whole principle of granting other players, rather than the developer, the ability to punish someone with a ban as whimsical and exploitative.

A whole party can team up and mute you just to make getting that mute ban a little easier, and when a lot of the community understands how the ban works, they’ll mute you in the same way that they’ll avoid you/give you negative rep just because you beat them. For the little effort it takes to mute someone in the lobby or in game, taking only a few seconds, I can’t see why we need others to tell us who we should and shouldn’t hear. Yes, you can unmute people, but back when i was muted hardly anyone ever did this, it was too much bother for them. If you do insist on upholding the mute ban, I would say a week or two max would be a perfectly reasonable punishment - 3 months for an arbitrary punishment given out by other players seems completely absurd to me.

Thanks for your time in reading this, it turned out to be a pretty big post in the end heh :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, and one more thing, THANK YOU for actually providing details on the bans (how long they last for) - I found bungie’s principle of not telling anything about them, even the duration, to just be completely unnecessary.

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> Hey there! I’m not sure if you’re still looking for bumps, but I thought I’d add my opinion on the banning system :slight_smile:

Thanks you for your personal opinions. I’m to inform you, I do not work for Bungie 'nor I343. I am but a helpful player that wants to make the best of myself at all times. Your definitions and solutions are great. Although, they are likely to be rejected for a future update.

See you starside.