In-Game Player Name: Glory
A3 UID: 76561198035778053
Banned for lobby ping being too high/bouncing.
Hi everyone, I just wanted to get a bit more clarification on last nights events. Since I was unable to convey in TS what my side of the issue was, here is a walk through of what happened with screenshots provided.
Last night I turned on my computer, opened up the A3 Launcher, and saw that there was only a few players on the Nex Corvus server, so I assumed that the server had just crashed. I launched the game and when I got into the lobby I noticed that I had 150 ping, when I usually only have 40-50. I alt-tabbed out of Arma, brought up Steam from the background, and realized that Arma 3 workshop content triggered by the A3 Launcher was being downloaded. I paused the download, but it would only pause for a second then start again. I've never experienced that before and I didn't know what to do, I clicked it a few more times and it kept starting and stopping. I went to the A3 Launcher to see if I could stop it there, since every time I clicked pause the A3 Launcher would re-trigger it to start again. I couldn't stop it there, so I went back to Steam, went into the Arma workshop, and unsubscribed from the mod it was downloading (Bornholm map). I alt-tabbed back into Arma to enter the game from the lobby, and when it loaded it said that I was banned for high lobby ping. Not knowing why, I tried again and got the same message. The entire time all this was going on, my friend who lives in the same house was playing on the server. After a few minutes I was banned, he also received a message saying he was banned for being on the same IP address.
I got on the forums and hopped into the Admin Help channel on the TS hoping to receive some help and insight on what happened and why. Shortly after joining, Mustang entered the channel and we had a short discussion about what happened. Being caught off guard by a more intense conversation than anticipated, I wasn't able to explain properly about what had been going on. I was accused of sitting in the lobby for over an hour and having crazy bouncing ping which eventually led to the crashing of the server. I hadn't yet figured out that the pausing/restarting of the download was causing the bouncing ping. Not yet knowing the cause of the ping, the only thing I could defend was my lobby sitting for an hour. Even though my computer was turned off for the hour of my lobby sitting, and wasn't turned on until after the server had crashed, it still showed in whatever logs were checked by Mustang that I was indeed in the lobby for an hour with crazy ping and causing the server to crash. Without receiving more help and insight to the issue, and without being able to prove my innocence further, I was banned from TS. It wasn't until after that I realized me pausing and restarting the download over and over again was causing the crazy ping. But at this point I couldn't do anything about it or talk to anyone about it.
The lobby ping was my fault, even though I did it unknowingly. I apologize for that. I went through Windows Event Viewer and captured my computer on/off times and game play times through Steam. Hopefully you will look at these:
Here is a screenshot of my Steam game time. I played at 7:44 PM for 47 minutes, stopping at 8:33 PM. It also shows me starting Arma up at 9:21 PM and ending after three minutes when the ban came.https://i.gyazo.com/5b41591ec1af264f61a0b4789e246b76.pngHere are two screenshots of the times when I turned my computer on and off under two different windows. The Administrative Events window and System Window. The blue is when it shut off, the red is when it turned on.https://i.gyazo.com/87a191b5454b22b8e04739245df93b58.png - Administrative
https://i.gyazo.com/f00f0923b21ab23d7138e05b194a32c0.png - System
You can see that the times line up with what was recorded in the Steam screenshot.
Here are two screenshots showing the BattleEye service being loaded and unloaded. Times are in red, BattleEye is in blue. These also line up with the Steam times and computer off/on times.https://i.gyazo.com/bde98c39f4a69c17b3f36c2f1617108b.png - Loaded
https://i.gyazo.com/179e7ec1b03cbdf9b2b270990f89391f.png - Unloaded
The last screenshot is of the BattleEye service being loaded in time with what Steam registered, right before the ban.https://i.gyazo.com/1b62bfe159aed50ab4c3127bbbc8ecaf.pngI apologize for the links, the pictures attached were too small.
Please consider my case, I don't know why I wasn't given more benefit of doubt, but I do understand what the situation from your viewpoint must have looked like. I don't know much about running servers and checking their logs, maybe times could have somehow got mixed up. All I do know is that when I opened up A3 Launcher, there were only a few people on server, which leads me to believe the server had just crashed and restarted prior to turning on my computer. And that even after I was banned, the server was still running because my friend was still on it and playing until he was also banned. If I did indeed crash the server, I am truly sorry. I wouldn't ever intentionally crash a server and I wouldn't even know how to if I tried. I've played Arma for a long time, and I've played on a good servers with good people, and bad servers with bad people. This is the best server I've ever played on, and I've only played on it for two days. The DonkeyPunched community seems like one of the best Exile communities that I've seen. I would love to be a part of it and be able to play on your servers again. If I need to provide more screenshots or explanations, just let me know and I'll respond as soon as I can. I can even provide references from past server admins.
Thank you for your time,
Glory