"Lockdown" Error Code 38 data gathering.

[Alloy]

IMPORTANT NOTICE

News news news!

Straight from Nexon representative 'Ruin3d'

A very small number of players seem to be having an issue logging into the game due to Error Code 38.

NxK has identified the problem and will be fixing it in patch v145.

If you are encountering this problem we would like to apologize for the inconvenience while you wait for the patch.

Thanks to everyone who helped! Even if Nexon figured on their own you guys managed to find the temporary fix described below. You all are awesome.

END OF IMPORTANT NOTICE

IMPORTANT LAST MINUTE INFORMATION: A POSSIBLE BYPASS HAS BEEN FOUND, TO AVOID THE ERROR CODE.
To bypass the Error Code 38, you must have a resolution different than what it would switch to when accessing the servers of the content you are locked down to. For example, set a resolution other than 800x600 on a different character if you have a phase 3 lockdown, and then insert you PIN while on windowed mode. Just before the screen fades to black, click and hold the window top border until the resolution changes. If successful, you'll log on the character, and the resolution will look funny. You can now select any resolution from the menu, but you'll have trouble selecting it with the cursor, so use the keyboard.

So far, I only managed to have this work with phase 3, not monster life or the cash shop.

Thank Asylum for finding this out.

EDIT: I have tested this a bit more, and upon getting this method to work, it is possible that cash shop items expired on me as I tested this, so further tests are required. If it's attempted at phase 3, it's likely that the crash will still happen when the screen fully goes to black.

And now we continue with the rest of the data gathered.

Basically, this error locks a character in your account, so that when entering your PIN, the client crashes with a "error code 38" message.

I'd like for everyone affected to contribute here, to add new things, or confirm suspicions. These are the weird things coming with it, that I'm aware of so far:

The bug includes 3 CONFIRMED phases. It's most likely possible that everyone could be eventually affected. The phases are:
-Phase 1: Monster life lockdown. Error Code 38 appears when entering Monster life only on said character.
-Phase 2: Cash Shop lockdown. Error Code 38 now triggers when entering the Cash Shop.
-Phase 3-a: Character lockdown. Error Code 38 now triggers when entering the PIN code on the affected character. However, lockdown can still be averted by removing link skills. Possible bypass seen above, if triggered when enough items have expired from your inventory so your limit isn't bypassed.
-Phase 3-b: Full character lockdown. Error Code 38 still triggers when entering the PIN code. However, the removal of the link skills no longer reverts past the limit needed, so the character can't be accessed anymore.

-Guild and buddy notifications ('character has logged in') do manage to pop up when you attempt logins for other people. CONFIRMED
-Characters affected by it, also got affected by error code 38 when accesing monster life from that character. CONFIRMED
-Character affected is usually played often and/or main character. CONFIRMED
-Shortly before having the character locked down, error code 38 would trigger when entering the cash shop. CONFIRMED
-Last action before lockdown (temporal and permanent, see below) was changing channels CONFIRMED
-Character has expanded inventories. CONFIRMED
-Items seem to be the cause. Having items past a certain point trigger the Monster life lockdown, further into it, Cash shop lockdown, and further into the limit, full lockdown, link skills seem to add towards the limit, so exceeding the limit and then removing link skills can also result in lockdown removal temporarilly, as long as the limit is kept. CONFIRMED

-Character suffered from Error 38 on entering cash shop bug 3 years ago (http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=34911)?. (TO CONFIRM)
-Character was created and used from before the shut down of the MTS. (SPECULATION)

-Affected accounts are from a foreign region (outside North America and Oceania), created before the "new account area restriction". DEBUNKED
-The locked down character is available to relog back for a variable ammount of time (estimated around 2 hours) ONE time, before becoming finally 100% locked down. DEBUNKED

IGNs and world doesn't seem to have a relation so far, unless new worlds don't suffer from it. That could set characters created before some point.

Any kind of possible insignificant info can help. And as far as I'm concerned, the first "fix" before the final lockdown is automatic somehow. If you think you have a fix, make sure you don't get locked down again after it.

[SaptaZapta]

Some more info you might want to collect:
- Character suffered from Error 38 on entering cash shop bug 3 years ago (http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=34911)?
- Character has expanded inventories

[Stereo]

FYI from the other side, guild notification ('character has logged in') does manage to pop up when you attempt logins.

[Alloy]

Some more info you might want to collect:
- Character suffered from Error 38 on entering cash shop bug 3 years ago (http://www.southperry.net/showthread.php?t=34911)?
- Character has expanded inventories

Are you suffering from this too? I can't remember being affected by the cash shop thing, but then again, I never really used it back then.

Also, I'll add some speculation regarding MTS. Somehow, it's one of those things that may be involved and I find suspicious.

[SaptaZapta]

Are you suffering from this too? I can't remember being affected by the cash shop thing, but then again, I never really used it back then.

Also, I'll add some speculation regarding MTS. Somehow, it's one of those things that may be involved and I find suspicious.

I am only getting Error 38 on entering Monster Life (for now?)
A guildy of mine has it, though.
MTS? It's supposed to be entirely gone.

[Combattente]

I started experiencing this again, with Combattente. Error 38 on entering Cash Shop. I've been experiencing this for 2 or 3 months with Monster Life as well, but this last one didn't really matter much to me.

Cash Shop is pretty relevant. Agh.. what should I do now? Any suggestions? :(

Yeah, my character is quite old and has experienced various error 38 issues in the past (it seems it's doomed): on entering cash shop (end of 2010 - beginning of 2011), on trying to log into character (2012, happened twice or thrice) which they fixed after 4 or 5 months or something since few people were experiencing it , on entering Monster Life (end of 2013), on entering cash shop again (2014).

Seriously, can there be a FULL year in which I don't experience this pomegranate? Also, I just HATE that after crashing a crash report window appears and allows you to send the report to Nexon. Why, you might ask? BECAUSE THEY DON'T READ THEM AT ALL. It's completely useless. I know they're likely overloaded with those and such, I've reported so much stuff like that and NONE of it was resolved without having to open tickets and spam their forums for months to gain their attention. And even then, they asked me for additional information, as if they didn't have a (maybe even detailed) log from my client. It's a waste of their server space and such, and that's assuming that the log actually gets to their servers. They could just let the client make a .log file which one could post on their forums or in a ticket.

So yeah. I've opened two or three tickets about Monster Life, yet no one has checked my character for the issue. It's been around 3 months or so. Last time they had to actually attempt logging into it and log the results, to be able to identify the issue. I got them to do it after months.

..

[Alloy]

MTS? It's supposed to be entirely gone.

Yeah, but it's one of those things that could have some kind of residual data on characters that now shouldn't exist on anyone. And since it affects people on main characters, it's mostly possible it's on old characters from that era.

It's quite a stretch, but if few people suffer from it, it could mean it's something that could be as trivial as that. Imagine if monster life servers shared some stuff with the old MTS ones...

Maybe it had to do with the fact that monster life shares all the account info for all characters, but if data is found in a character, it could give... an error 38. Trying to load a file that should have never existed in the first place. Maybe it's people who forgot to take useless items from the MTS?

Doesn't make too much sense if a phantom is involved too, though, as I read somewhere. That character is from past that time, I think, isn't it?

But anyway. Just a theory.

[Blunderr]

Seems like anyone who gets this error is accessing Maple from somewhere other than the service area (North America and Oceania). Perhaps that has something to do with it?

[SaptaZapta]

Seems like anyone who gets this error is accessing Maple from somewhere other than the service area (North America and Oceania). Perhaps that has something to do with it?

My guildy who is getting it is in the USA.

It might be worth noting that his character is six years old.

[Blunderr]

My guildy who is getting it is in the USA.

Ah. Guess that makes that moot . It just occurred to me since four people (three in this thread) posted about getting this error today and none had flags from countries in the service area.

[Alloy]

Seems like anyone who gets this error is accessing Maple from somewhere other than the service area (North America and Oceania). Perhaps that has something to do with it?

That seems to be the case so far for everyone I've seen. Also, if you can help me confirm things like being able to bypass the lockdown for 2 hours, it'd help inmensely.

EDIT: Ok, I think I got double ninja'd somehow. Updating...

[Daakun]

None of my characters get the error 38 thing, but a few fall under these categories:

-Character affected is usually played often and/or main character.
-Character has expanded inventories.
-Character was created and used from before the shut down of the MTS.

[Alloy]

None of my characters get the error 38 thing, but a few fall under these categories:

-Character affected is usually played often and/or main character.
-Character has expanded inventories.
-Character was created and used from before the shut down of the MTS.

It obviously has to be something else... The problem is that it's hard to check data on the character when it is locked down. It's either a combination of things, or a simple variable.

Did you leave items inside the MTS on any of those characters? Like an etc drop from a snail, for example. I think I did by mistake, like 1 or 2 items.

EDIT: In fact, I think it was on a character I deleted... It was the first character I created, with messed up stats back then. When deleted, my main (the affected character), stood on top of its place. COULD IT BE that it has a relation? It was either the deleted character or my main who had the items left in there, but it's impossible to check even now.

[Daakun]

I still had some ore in there when it shut down, gold, bronze, etc.
Never deleted a character that had items in the MTS.

[ChaoticCJ]

I remember getting the error code 38 a few years back. It had to do with the item inventory. All of my guildmates (including me) who had too many items in our inventory would eventually crash. We fixed it by having to drop items, it was a random amount for each person. It was a pain because I didn't want to drop event items.

Only my main character is being effected by error code 38 right now, and it is only when I attempt to go into monster life. I am okay going into the Cash Shop, and doing everything else.

I think it has to do with the server crashes and the Cash Shop, MTS, and Monster Life. If the server crashes or you lose connection when you are in one of those private servers, your information tries to reload from a previous point when you exit. You end up sometimes having extra items or information, causing the game to crash. It's just a theory.

[Chilly]

My brother and I are collaborating on a little theory and we were curious:

How robust are the afflicted's Monster Life Farms? Number of slots, number occupied, number of Barn slots, number of those occupied? Although not always the case, we have noticed a few people with rather hefty farms being affected and this error really seemed to blow up after Monster Life's introduction, so in one of our fronts, we were looking at that angle.

How large are your Familiar collections? While likely unrelated, it would help eliminate my brother's sizable collection as a factor in our theory.

I suspect everyone has a full compliment of (twelve) Link Skills?

Did everyone undergo the following progression of symptoms?
Monster Life Error Code : 38 -> Cash Shop EC : 38 -> "Lockout" EC : 38

Things that don't seem to work at all so far include part time job, link skills, and character deck cards.

We actually do think that Link Skills are in part contributory to the error. The reason I asked all the above questions is because we think that this is some extension of the EC : 38 that ChaoticCJ describes where a character has too much information on it. Our own spin is that these pieces of information are discreet and can be counted, like each slot being taken up in the inventory and that counting isn't limited to the inventory, things like Link Skills, Monster Life Monsters, etc. may each take up one "slot" in the game.

Information overload prevents the proper transition to the next server, whether that is the Monster Life server, the Cash Shop server or the main game via changing channels or logging in. We believe there is an accumulating effect, and/or multiple thresholds to each of those servers which is why we ask the progression of symptoms question.

We can support this information using our own experiences, having recently had enough things expire to log in to the game but still receiving EC : 38 into Monster Life and Cash Shop. It is important to note that the EC : 38 does not progress further than the Cash Shop, at least not yet. He was initially able to get into the game by releasing all of his Link Skills. At that point, he logged in and cleaned house. In a move I strongly objected to, he attempt to replicate the EC : 38 by adding his Link Skills one-by-one to see if he could find the limit. He did not.

We speculate that he tossed too many things out and he is now in the process of adding things slowly to find the breakpoint, if it exists.

We are working with an Excel spreadsheet with server different combination of items that is not complete, but upon login and the most recent successful test:
He had 307 total items in inventory + (0) Link Skills = 307 "slots" occupied
He is down to 279 item total items + 12 Link Skills = 291 "slots" occupied

Currently we have no way of telling if Link Skills take up one slot, two slots, one per each Cygnus Knight or any at all. We can't even be sure these "slots" exist. He continues to add things to his inventory at the end of the day in case he needs to unlink the Link Skills. He knows how many Monster Life Monsters he has, as well as Familiars, we are basically taking an inventory of anything and everything and trying to put the puzzle pieces together.

I know this all seems pretty farfetched, but we'll continue to work on it. Maybe someone can destroy their Monster Life Farm and test that for us, while my brother is willing to risk his character, for whatever reason he doesn't want to obliterate his farm, beats me. We'd like to know if a completely empty farm, no monsters, no buildings, no coupons or some lesser version (with the previous things reduced but not eliminated) of a current farm will allow entry into the game if "Lockout" EC : 38. Even if you aren't locked out, maybe it would allow you to bypass the regular and early symptom of Monster Life EC: 38. We completely understand if you don't want to do that though, I can see why he wouldn't.

[Alloy]

I do have a lv 32/33 farm... And many monsters inside. Same with familiars.

I'll have to test out something...

[Stereo]

I don't remember offhand which of my characters I left junk items in the MTS on; my Dark Knight certainly (I had several thousand Golem Rubble in it as well as random def scrolls) and haven't been locked out on anything. So I dunno. But I haven't deleted any early characters (DrK is #1 in my account).

The Dark Knight's inventory itself only has 20 rows (160 slots) of items on it though.

[Rexaar]

Posted this on the nexon forum, but figure this would be more useful here.

My theory on reproduction step after getting my hero stuck again. (Honestly I was expecting error code:38 to come back to haunt me when I saw my inventory being full)
Requirements to have
-Many inventory expansion (at least 20 for each slot for each section, setup/use/equip/) for your inventory
-12 link skill equipped on that character


Reproduction step
1. Have your inventory near full
2. Loot as much equipment/use item as you can to fill up all your inventory slot
3. Your inventory should be full or close to being full (at least 95% full)
4. Change channel

Theory on why I think this is a key to reproduction
-unlinking link skill have freed my hero from error code:38 once, (inventory was 85% full at this time)
-Today when my hero is afflicted by error code:38 again (Inventory was 93% full, 4 slot from being maxed), unlinking the link skill doesn't work as a fix anymore. Probably the reason for this not working anymore is that the threshold for the bug to occur is still too high after removing the link skill.
-this bug only affect main character, where majority of items/equip/setup/cash item is kept, and where 90% of all people will use their inventory expansion/ link skill on



There might be a problem with the amount of data that is being sent between the client and the server, where the server sends too much data for the client to handle causing it to crash giving the error code:38 reached end of file. (Too much items/link skill on the character).

Why I think this is a case:
-attempting to log on affected character will still display <victim has logged> popup on other mapler screen
-crash occur between the moment after inputting pin, and before the resolution switch occurs while the screen is still dark

One another possible explanation, the affected character successfully log onto the server, but unsuccessfully log onto the channel due to a limit on the amount of data being processed at once. This might be a cause since the bug doesn't occur until you change channel or log out.

Not going to bother submitting a ticket again because the support team do not have the power to log into our accounts to remove items from our inventory, and it cannot be fix without an update to the code on how characters change channel.

[moore4me]

This is what Nexon sent my guild member that I mentioned earlier in another thread. They really have NO CLUE as to what is causing it. Like i said this has all been going on his Phantom since July.