Hacking Badge Arcade Region Ban Poll (022-2803)

[Aroth]

I got error 022-2803 on 01/19/2016. I used GW search and unlock codes. Before cheating I paid for around $30 of plays.

When was the first time you used the Badge Arcade? Not cheating, but playing at all.

 

[Xsiide]

Banned. N3DS 10.3, GW for unlock codes

 

[montalvoe]

When was the first time you used the Badge Arcade? Not cheating, but playing at all.

I started playing around Nov. 10 when it was released in NA.

 

[RibShark]

EUR N3DS here, gave myself extra plays (after obtaining 3 free plays) with NTR CFW, but after I had used 3 of the 1000s of plays I cheated in (so I ended up using the same amount of plays I would have normally got) I turned my 3DS off (for moral reasons). I am not banned, thankfully. I first played it on the 19th of November.

 

[chango]

That is a pointless statement. Of course unlocking the machine can potentially result in a ban. So can altering the remaining number of plays. Cheating at ALL in a game like the Badge Arcade, where it is CONSTANTLY calling home to the server with data updates, can potentially result in a ban.

Its not a pointless statement at all.

The point I was trying to make is that FOR CERTAIN people are being banned for unlocking the claw.

It is UNCERTAIN that people are being banned if they only used the cheat for unlimited practice plays.

The game does NOT "constantly" call home, it sends data on 3 separate occasions only. It sends/receives data when it logs in, when you're done playing practice mode, and when you're done playing the real mode. Therefore, we now now for sure that unlocking the claw might get you banned because when you're done playing the real mode it sends Nintendo a list of every badge you won. But it might be absolutely safe to use the code for unlimited practice mode. You have to turn the code off otherwise practice mode never ends. When it ends, it tells Nintendo how many practice badges/free plays you won. The limit is 99. The free drops you won could be considered legitimate because there would (potentially) be no way for Nintendo to know how many practice drops were used in order to win the free plays. Then if you only used the 9 free plays that you earned in the real machine, after you finish it would report the badges you won back to Nintendo - just the same as if you had used no cheats at all.

 

[Aroth]

Its not a pointless statement at all.

The point I was trying to make is that FOR CERTAIN people are being banned for unlocking the claw.

It is UNCERTAIN that people are being banned if they only used the cheat for unlimited practice plays.

The game does NOT "constantly" call home, it sends data on 3 separate occasions only. It sends/receives data when it logs in, when you're done playing practice mode, and when you're done playing the real mode. Therefore, we now now for sure that unlocking the claw might get you banned because when you're done playing the real mode it sends Nintendo a list of every badge you won. But it might be absolutely safe to use the code for unlimited practice mode. You have to turn the code off otherwise practice mode never ends. When it ends, it tells Nintendo how many practice badges/free plays you won. The limit is 99. The free drops you won could be considered legitimate because there would (potentially) be no way for Nintendo to know how many practice drops were used in order to win the free plays. Then if you only used the 9 free plays that you earned in the real machine, after you finish it would report the badges you won back to Nintendo - just the same as if you had used no cheats at all.

Except it is not certain. At all. Because, you know, I haven't been banned yet and I used the unlock.

 

[Audioboxer]

When was the first time you used the Badge Arcade? Not cheating, but playing at all.

Theory dead lol - https://gbatemp.net/threads/badge-arcade-cheating-with-gateway.407588/page-44#post-5993994

 

[chango]

It is certain that you CAN be banned for unlocking, not that you WILL be.

It is NOT certain that you CAN be banned for only using the unlimited practice cheat.

 

[Aroth]

It is certain that you CAN be banned for unlocking, not that you WILL be.

It is NOT certain that you CAN be banned for only using the unlimited practice cheat.

Omg why are you so fucking obstinate.

There is absolutely NO certainty in anything regarding this ban wave. Hell we aren't even certain it IS a ban wave because no one who has gotten the error has bothered to call Nintendo and report back with their response yet.

The only thing we can be certain about is that if you cheated at ALL you MIGHT get banned. It doesn't matter if you added a single free/real play, 99 practice plays, or you unlocked the real machine without money or a free play. If you cheated you might get banned 022-2803, simple as that.

 

[Deleted User]

<snip>

Is it really that hard for a company like Nintendo to log their freemium games to heavy extent? Logging plays from a user and comparing it to purchases would be enough validation to send out a ban. What were doing is the equivalent of LocalIAP store for iOS here, and some developers have figured out how to ban from that.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Has anyone hooked up fiddler 4 to an unbanned 3ds with gateway yet? Packet sniffing could be useful. I'll do this later on if no one else wants to.

 

[Aroth]

This has made my day. Thank you.

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Is it really that hard for a company like Nintendo to log their freemium games to heavy extent? Logging plays from a user and comparing it to purchases would be enough validation to send out a ban. What were doing is the equivalent of LocalIAP store for iOS here, and some developers have figured out how to ban from that.

Honestly probably not. Assuming this is a ban wave, and not just some random ass connection bug (someone with the error needs to get off their ass and call Nintendo), that is probably exactly what they are doing.

They know the practice machine only gives you 5 plays, and they know what the practice machine is for the day. They also know that no matter how good/lucky you are, it is impossible to get more practice badges than 5*n (where n is the number of badges in the machine). With that info they can know exactly how many free plays can be generated from the practice machine in a single day ( ((5n+9)/10)+5 ) since you will only ever have at most 9 practice badges stored up (10 = free play and resets the counter) and from what I have seen there is never more than one special badge (the ones that give free play) in the machine.

If you somehow generate more than that many free plays from a single use of the practice machine, it will send a red flag that you probably cheated. Hell if you deploy the crane more than 5 times (which I am sure they can track) then you must have cheated.

Btw, @chango, this is all without ever fucking with the number of plays on the real machine or unlocking it. So it is most definitely possible to get banned without ever using the unlock code.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Honestly probably not. Assuming this is a ban wave, and not just some random ass connection bug (someone with the error needs to get off their ass and call Nintendo), that is probably exactly what they are doing.

They know the practice machine only gives you 5 plays, and they know what the practice machine is for the day. They also know that no matter how good/lucky you are, it is impossible to get more practice badges than 5*n (where n is the number of badges in the machine). With that info they can know exactly how many free plays can be generated from the practice machine in a single day ( ((5n+9)/10)+5 ) since you will only ever have at most 9 practice badges stored up (10 = free play and resets the counter) and from what I have seen there is never more than one special badge (the ones that give free play) in the machine.

If you somehow generate more than that many free plays from a single use of the practice machine, it will send a red flag that you probably cheated. Hell if you deploy the crane more than 5 times (which I am sure they can track) then you must have cheated.

Btw, @chango, this is all without ever fucking with the number of plays on the real machine or unlocking it. So it is most definitely possible to get banned without ever using the unlock code.

That special badge thing? Completely based on luck. I typically get ~2 or 3 on one day, and zero on the rest of the week. So Nintendo can't check it completely. All they think (and what we want them to think) is that we sacrifice things to RNGesus.

 

[Aroth]

That special badge thing? Completely based on luck. I typically get ~2 or 3 on one day, and zero on the rest of the week. So Nintendo can't check it completely. All they think (and what we want them to think) is that we sacrifice things to RNGesus.

Ah. Well I have only been doing it for about a week and personally had never seen more than one special badge per clear of the practice machine. Not overly surprised that its possible to get more. Even then the formula only becomes ( ((5n + 9)/10) +5n ) which still puts an upper limit on the number of free plays. It just becomes more like 60 than the previous 10 or so. That said its more likely that they wouldn't bother trying to track that and would instead track the number of times the crane was deployed. Since without cheating you can't deploy it more than 5 times on the practice machine.

 

[drfsupercenter]

I got error 022-2803 on 01/19/2016. I used GW search and unlock codes. Before cheating I paid for around $30 of plays.

Well this is discouraging.

I did the same thing - probably more than $30, more like $50. I went full OCD and wanted every single badge available, before I knew you could cheat it.

Luckily I haven't been banned. Tested just now on RX emuNAND 10.4 and it works just fine.

I'm not familiar with the different error codes, but one of my 3DSes *was* banned before (not one tied to my NNID) because I tried to do region-changing with a SecureInfo_A that was out in the wild and must have been blacklisted. The ban only lasted about two weeks before it expired. I had put my unique SecureInfo_A back right away but was still banned temporarily.

So there's also a good chance this is a similar situation and that if you guys just wait a couple weeks you'll be able to use the Badge Arcade again.

 

[BasedIndex]

What about GTYB? Anyone used it?

 

[Aroth]

What about GTYB? Anyone used it?

If this is the hack for adding custom badges or badges from other people's exdata, I would strongly suggest you NOT do this anymore, at least until we sort out this ban business.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

If this is the hack for adding custom badges or badges from other people's exdata, I would strongly suggest you NOT do this anymore, at least until we sort out this ban business.

GTYB adds custom badges. They are loaded from PNG files. When you used to launch Badge Arcade, it would tell you badge data has gone corrupt and that it would be reset. Note: Not tested with current version.

 

[BasedIndex]

If this is the hack for adding custom badges or badges from other people's exdata, I would strongly suggest you NOT do this anymore, at least until we sort out this ban business.

The thing is that you can use it without the Badge Arcade installed.
You never have to enter the game in the first place.

 

[Aroth]

The thing is that you can use it without the Badge Arcade installed.
You never have to enter the game in the first place.

Either way, it is probably a safe bet that if you do install and access the badge arcade afterwards you will risk a ban

 

[marksteele]

Banned GW 10.4

Something to keep in mind is when you redownload your save from the Nintendo servers it comes corrupted (and then they fix it). I assume that has something to do with how they tracked us.