Bethesda Reportedly Bans Creator of Fallout 76 Interactive Map for Finding and Reporting An Exploit
Bethesda has reportedly banned the creator of a Fallout 76 interactive map for finding and reporting an exploit.
If you know anything about Bethesda and Fallout 76, this is just the most recent in an ongoing debacle since the game launched. The game has been marred by controversy and a slew of glitches and in-game issues from day one, and the handling of these is no better.
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In a completely tone deaf move, Bethesda reportedly banned a loyal player and bug catcher for seemingly no reason. The player was the creator of Map76, a site that provided an interactive map for players to navigate Fallout 76’s surroundings.
The ban came after he found a serious exploit, allowing players to easily acquire legendary drops. The player tested and subsequently had one of his group members report the issue to Bethesda. After reporting the issue, he was banned a day later.
On his website, Map76, he explained why he was banned. He begins by noting he was seeing players with legendary drops that they more than likely should not have been able to acquire yet.
“I suspected that somehow people were custom rolling legendary weapons. Within a few weeks of the bear arm and the fixer becoming part of the legendary vendor drops. I started seeing Bloodied, Explosive, +reload fixers, and Bloodied, swing speed, +str bear arms. I have run the numbers on drops many times, and it was just not mathematically possible for those to be entering the market that early. And more god rolls kept coming, so I suspected people had figured out an exploit.”
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He then details he did some experimenting to discover how these players were obtaining this gear and he discovered there was indeed a method of easily acquiring the gear that should not have been possible.
“I experimented a bit. I tested altering drop tables, they are all calculated server side, as they should be. Eventually I figured they might have found a way to trick the purveyor. So I tried a lot of things, and finally figured out a way to trick the purveyor to take caps instead of scrip. I was sure that is what they were doing, but at this point, I had messed with the memory so much that I wasn’t sure what all was causing it to work. So I started backing out changes and tracking down what was working and what wasn’t. I could only get it it work sometimes and not others, so I still wasn’t 100% sure what they were doing. After a few more resets and experimenting, I realized it had to do with the faction, and all of the other things were not important, or at least were not necessary. After some more experimenting, I discovered it only worked if you changed the faction after the trade was initialized. At that point, I knew exactly what was going on. It was late, so I went to bed, the next morning, I had some PMs about a method released on forum for tricking the purveyor into taking caps. I looked at it, and it was using different offsets than I was using, so I ran a few tests with their method and determined it functioned basically the same way as what I had figured out the night before.”
They then note that one of the members of their group reported the issue to a Fallout 76 community manager. However, the next day, after the exploit was reported, their account was banned.
“Someone from my group stated that they already reported it to one of the community managers in our group, so I just left it. My account got a ban the next day.”
Not only does he note he and his group were banned for reporting an exploit, but Bethesda appears to have internal communication problems.
“I dropped the items I got from the purveyor rolls. It is possible a few were still in the inventory when I logged out from the last test, but I am almost certain I dropped them as well. OFC, I cannot log in to check. Unfortunately, the different divisions at Bethesda seem to have little cross communication and the CMs that are in our group have tried to help us, and have had some success, but most of us are still banned.”
In addition to being banned, he asked for a refund on his Fallout 1st membership and was initially denied.
According to the user, he later did receive a refund, but it was considered a “special exception.”
“They finally decided to give me a refund, but from what I can tell, it is not that they are implementing refunds for Fallout 1st as a policy, but more as a special exception for me, and only after it reached management. It is a start, but the problem is not that I did not receive a refund when requested, it is that no one else is either. The “we have made an exception” part is troubling to me. Their response below.”
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He posted the following response from Bethesda:
“Greetings,
Brian here again with Bethesda Customer Support.
Thank you for your follow up reply and please note that I have spoken to our management team on your behalf. With this in mind we have made an exception processed the refund for your purchase of Fallout 1st.
Please note that it can take up to 10 business days for the funds to appear in the correct account. If you have questions concerning the length of time for your refund, we recommend contacting your financial institution for more information on the process.
As always please let us know if you have any other questions, issues or concerns and we will make sure that you are taken care of.
Warm regards,
BrianBethesda Customer Support”
As of writing, Map76 site is still down, and it appears it won’t be returning anytime soon.
According to the site’s creator, after his terrible experience with Bethesda support, he’s done with Fallout.
He wrote, “Beth quit giving a shit about Fallout 76 and it’s players a long time ago. It is time we all stop giving a shit about it as well. Here, I’ll start.”
Factor in the continued ignorance of glitches and game breaking bugs, and you can’t blame him.
What are your thoughts, Fallout fans? Has Bethesda sold the players down the river? Tell us in the comments below.
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