30 replies to this topic

[Madgunmurphey]

After reading the Exploits/Hacks thread, I'm only curious. Why not implement a third party to regulate the hackers. Like Punkbuster for example. Only the account admin, in this case someone with MWO gaming, can access and alter the acceptable programs. I used to play a few different games with Punkbuster and it was a headache saver against those that would hack and dare call themselves gamers.... HACKERS SHOULD BE HIT WITH THE PERMA BAN HAMMER!!!! If they change IP or create a new account its simple. Report them to their ISP and have them block their transmissions to the MWO community. I used to be a GM for Age Of Armor, don't know if anyone remembers that game, but its what we used to do and we had a reasonable hack free inviroment.

[Norris J Packard]

Because Punkbuster costs money.

[Remliel]

It's also a clunky resource hog that gets false positives all the time.

[Snib]

Madgunmurphey, on 15 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

If they change IP or create a new account its simple. Report them to their ISP and have them block their transmissions to the MWO community. I used to be a GM for Age Of Armor, don't know if anyone remembers that game, but its what we used to do and we had a reasonable hack free inviroment.

Dude, in which third world country will an ISP block someone because some random game master claims he's hacking? LMAO.

As to the topic: Why license punkbuster when you cannot hack a server authoritative game anyway?

[Shismar]

No Punkbuster on my systems. Thanks. It is enough that I can catch all kinds of spyware on the net, no need to install some.

Seriously, as long as all critical systems are server side there is no need to monitor what client computers run. There is little enough incentive for players to play a niche game such as MWO. No need to turn them off by enforcing some PITA piece of software dreck.

[Rhent]

Madgunmurphey, on 15 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

After reading the Exploits/Hacks thread, I'm only curious. Why not implement a third party to regulate the hackers. Like Punkbuster for example. Only the account admin, in this case someone with MWO gaming, can access and alter the acceptable programs. I used to play a few different games with Punkbuster and it was a headache saver against those that would hack and dare call themselves gamers.... HACKERS SHOULD BE HIT WITH THE PERMA BAN HAMMER!!!! If they change IP or create a new account its simple. Report them to their ISP and have them block their transmissions to the MWO community. I used to be a GM for Age Of Armor, don't know if anyone remembers that game, but its what we used to do and we had a reasonable hack free inviroment.

An IP band is meaningless. Piranha can track a specific machines MAC address and all other machines the offending person has used in the pas and ban the MAC address. Effectively preventing the player from using that account and old PC's again. So if they want to hack, all they have to do is pluck down $150 for a new motherboard and get right back into the saddle. It will get old real fast for them.

[Matt Minus]

Madgunmurphey, on 15 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

Report them to their ISP and have them block their transmissions to the MWO community.

I used to work at an ISP. If you contacted our abuse desk and told us to block a paying customer from accessing your ip space because he was cheating in a video game, we'd laugh and laugh and laugh.

[Broceratops]

i have yet to see any hax, so the first step would be video evidence

[FromHell2k]

Rhent, on 15 February 2013 - 03:48 PM, said:

An IP band is meaningless. Piranha can track a specific machines MAC address and all other machines the offending person has used in the pas and ban the MAC address. Effectively preventing the player from using that account and old PC's again. So if they want to hack, all they have to do is pluck down $150 for a new motherboard and get right back into the saddle. It will get old real fast for them.

Buying new hardware or using a tool -I won't post it- thats actually used for phreaking to change the MAC-Address within seconds. Bad idea.

[Kraven Kor]

Shismar, on 15 February 2013 - 03:48 PM, said:

No Punkbuster on my systems. Thanks. It is enough that I can catch all kinds of spyware on the net, no need to install some.

Seriously, as long as all critical systems are server side there is no need to monitor what client computers run. There is little enough incentive for players to play a niche game such as MWO. No need to turn them off by enforcing some PITA piece of software dreck.

Eh, there are still plenty of ways to cheat with the server-side implementation. Mostly things like texture overlays or whatever, I would guess, but the server-authoritative thing is not an automatic nor insurmountable barrier to cheaters.

[Shismar]

Snib, on 15 February 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

Dude, in which third world country will an ISP block someone because some random game master claims he's hacking? LMAO.

Never know. As far as I can say none. I never heard of ISPs blocking users from certain IPs anywhere in Europe or US/Canada/ect. It may happen in China or other totalitarian states, probably just have to tell them it's politcal ...

Actually, the MMOs I worked for as a game master (2 years real paid work including night shifts and stuff, not some voluntary moderation stuff) never blocked IPs themselves either. Accounts with infractions were banned and in very rare cases even accounts that could be linked to the offender. So if PGI finds someone hacking I expect them to ban that account. And that's it.

[Shismar]

Rhent, on 15 February 2013 - 03:48 PM, said:

An IP band is meaningless. Piranha can track a specific machines MAC address and all other machines the offending person has used in the pas and ban the MAC address. Effectively preventing the player from using that account and old PC's again. So if they want to hack, all they have to do is pluck down $150 for a new motherboard and get right back into the saddle. It will get old real fast for them.

MAC address can be changed on the fly, it is just a registry entry nowadays. So no, PGI won't ban user's machines, just their accounts if, and that is a big IF, they can even find out if a player is using hacks. Most of the time players get reported it is just because of a bit of skill and some luck.

[Kraven Kor]

So, skill or luck:

I was in two matches last night against the same team.

Every shot this one guy landed was 100% on target. AC/20 cat. Instant head-shot on one of our guys (both matches) at 300m or so. When he started shooting at me, every shot hit RT. On my centurion. Moving 90kph. Behind trees, at a range where thermal was blocked for both of us by trees.

Now, again, I'm not saying "that was an aimbot!" Just seemed wrong. Perception is reality. But don't immediately jump to that conclusion.

[Bogus]

This thread is now about how Punkbuster went down in flames this week.

http://www.guru3d.co...down_again.html

[Commander Kobold]

Norris J Packard, on 15 February 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

Because Punkbuster costs money.

and is bad

[Vahnn]

Kraven Kor, on 15 February 2013 - 04:34 PM, said:

So, skill or luck:

I was in two matches last night against the same team.

Every shot this one guy landed was 100% on target. AC/20 cat. Instant head-shot on one of our guys (both matches) at 300m or so. When he started shooting at me, every shot hit RT. On my centurion. Moving 90kph. Behind trees, at a range where thermal was blocked for both of us by trees.

Now, again, I'm not saying "that was an aimbot!" Just seemed wrong. Perception is reality. But don't immediately jump to that conclusion.

Depends, was he firing every single time his weapons cycled? Because that would be suspicious. But I've had games where I take my time and aim each shot very carefully and land every PPC shot at relatively long ranges (300m+). Then again I've also had games where I miss almost every shot.

Also, if this game adopts Punkbuster,

I WILL BE PISSED.

Punkbuster is awful, I got so tired of screwing with pb in some games that I just plain stopped playing those games.

[Tsunamisan]

Punkbuster is also a awful program it chokes an wont let anyone play thats behind a firewall without opening up ports for it which not everyone can do.

I would prefer rather than having a third party program is to have a set of hashes generated on the server and match those to the client files. Any deviations would prompt the user to re-download the file from the server.

[Kraven Kor]

Vahnn, on 15 February 2013 - 04:45 PM, said:

Depends, was he firing every single time his weapons cycled? Because that would be suspicious. But I've had games where I take my time and aim each shot very carefully and land every PPC shot at relatively long ranges (300m+). Then again I've also had games where I miss almost every shot.

Also, if this game adopts Punkbuster,

I WILL BE PISSED.

Punkbuster is awful, I got so tired of screwing with pb in some games that I just plain stopped playing those games.

Again, was mostly using it as an example of how hard it is to tell - from your own perspective - whether someone is "just that good" or "@#$%ing aimbot!"

It is the same with the 8man sync drop deal. Even on TS, on occasion when dropping 4mans, my team will lose badly, and someone will say "I think that was an 8man sync drop." Or someone gets 2 headshots, someone will say "I think that guy is an aimbot!"

It's just funny.

[Bogus]

There's a pretty simple solution: report and banstick. The cheese builds that would really benefit from aimbot.exe take time to set up and only a couple of the trial mechs are capable of pinpoint damage. So if hackers got banned a lot they'd spend all their time setting up the twentycat and none of it actually using it.

edit: also keep in mind that a lot of mechs have silly large head hitboxes. I'm not saying there's no cheating, I'm sure there is, but even I can sometimes get headshots and I'm a worse shot than the NYPD.

Edited by Bogus, 15 February 2013 - 04:52 PM.

[Livewyr]

I remember punkbuster in many games.. it was usually disabled.