Cheaters are Everywhere

[Nebulocity]

I've seen that site too. If you see someone obviously exploiting the Cheat Engine stuff, or even suspect them of it, report them. FD need to work out how to keep these guys away from Open, and hopefully away from influencing our galaxy and economy too.

Wait, what site is this? I thought the avenues that Cheat Engine used were fixed once FD started obfuscating memory locations.

- - - Updated - - -

Invest $8 in FRAPS and record their antics as proof then submit to the FDevs as a private YouTube video.

No need to spend the money on FRAPS, as there are plenty of free alternatives. But you have a good point, because when you open a ticket, it has a YouTube URL spot there to link to a video.

 

[beelbeebub]

how can they stop you from pulling the plug, or disconnecting from your own router. How can the tell the difference between accidental logging and deliberate? Nobody likes combat loggers but where do you start.

FDev may let us all know one day, but until then I would like to see the amount of people who have been banned from game (for a set period as permanent banning isn't their policy yet), how many people have been investigated and what their policy is when finding somebody who is clearly cheating in the game.

We all know some people are bumped to Solo mode only and possibly watched for a while but isn't that just lipstick?

Logging off isn't as important as catching and dealing with cheats

I imagine looking at the distribution of disconnect events vs situation.
.
Accidental or "rural broadband is flaky" disconnects will happen at random, so there will be no correlation between disconnects and a specific situation e.g. during combat.
:
It is highly unlikely someone with "innocent" disconnects will always disconnect during combat/after interdiction etc.

 

[GluttonyFang]

The current p2p service method is very very vulnerable.

Too many things are handled in client side.

Find the value of the subject you are trying to change, let it be shield, hull, ammo, damage, etc through repeated testing and narrowing the search. After locating it, change the value of that subject and you can control it as you see fit.

By changing the values of certain things you can achieve the effect of:

(Keep refreshing the value back to a certain number or set it to a ridiculous value)

1. Unlimited Shield
2. Unlimited Ammo
3. Invincible Hull
4. Super Weapons (One shot things because you can change the damage to a ridiculous value)
5. No Heat (Keep the value at 0)

And much more. I am not a hacker so I don't know to what extent have things been exploited to.

However, it is clear that it is very very easy to cheat in this game.

 

[Drakkir]

Nobody has mentioned this yet so I'll chime in. Now that the game is on Steam, they can take advantage of VAC. If they ever move "All" players to steam based, that would catch/prevent any file/memory manipulation/3rd party program interference. (As long as VAC stays ahead of the cheating app's of course..). But would only work IF the entire playerbase was switched to Steam. And since that doesn't seem likely well...

At least the option is there though, and people who HAVe purchased it through steam can have that watching over their shoulder and spying on what their pc's doing with the game.

 

[Decado]

Solo or Private group seems to be the way to go. (private group is basically people you select? or there is a list?)

 

[Distance]

Wait, what site is this? I thought the avenues that Cheat Engine used were fixed once FD started obfuscating memory locations.

The reason why it was so easy to hack was because FD only obfuscated the important ones so the hackers knew exactly where to target lol

The site is easy to google btw.

Good to see FD talking about cheating. I'm hoping for a big ban wave when 1.3 drops.

 

[Evang]

One of the best private group is Moibus. We are 7000 strong. We have one rule, no attacking of members. Except in conflict zones if they are on the opposing side.

 

[Nebulocity]

Solo or Private group seems to be the way to go. (private group is basically people you select? or there is a list?)

In a private group, the only people that you will see in that particular group will be other members and NPCs. You won't see anyone else. The list of people in the group can be seen from the main menu, if you go into private groups, and click on the group you want to play in (you have to join it first, of course; or create your own). It will tell you who in the group is online, and also show whether those group members are playing solo, open play, or in the private group.

 

[Kayweg]

We had the video with Daybreak Games mocking banned cheaters.

So, for giggles, here's something similar, GW2 style.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/watch-a-cheater-s-character-stripped-deleted-by-gu/1100-6427183/

 

[Tinman]

Nobody has mentioned this yet so I'll chime in. Now that the game is on Steam, they can take advantage of VAC. If they ever move "All" players to steam based, that would catch/prevent any file/memory manipulation/3rd party program interference. (As long as VAC stays ahead of the cheating app's of course..). But would only work IF the entire playerbase was switched to Steam. And since that doesn't seem likely well...

At least the option is there though, and people who HAVe purchased it through steam can have that watching over their shoulder and spying on what their pc's doing with the game.

To play ED you need to be connected to FDs servers.

We also know (through dev comments) that the game is capable of sending back telemetry to the servers for finding bugs and reporting other inconsistencies that is happening on the client side. These "inconsistencies" could just as easily be cheats.

In other words the same thing that VAC is doing and just like Valve FD won't tell anyone about how this is working or what it is reporting for obvious reasons.

 

[Psycho__99]

its a multiplayer pc game, there are always cheaters in multiplayer pc games.

Wrong !
Cheaters are everywhere. PC, Console even in reallife.

 

[Brownshortz]

Yes, this just happened to me about 20 mins ago. happened in LAVE system as I was approaching LAVE station. I was in a Cobra all maxed out for fast trade runs and a CMDR in an Vulture was left in the dust, almost out of his weapon range and then all of a sudden he was overtaking me at what looked like double my speed. I just got out alive with a high jump.

I went back with fraps running in an effort to record another encounter if he was still there but I could not find him or he was in another instance.

Yes this sounds almost identical to what I encountered. Also it was only one system over in Leesti. It was like the guy had a Nitro injected Vulture lol. He cut down the 6km gap in like 3 seconds and my speed never dropped below 400. Did you happen to notice the Cmdrs name? PM me and we can compare.

 

[Nickolteen]

Yes this sounds almost identical to what I encountered. Also it was only one system over in Leesti. It was like the guy had a Nitro injected Vulture lol. He cut down the 6km gap in like 3 seconds and my speed never dropped below 400. Did you happen to notice the Cmdrs name? PM me and we can compare.

Unfortunately I did not get the name of the CMDR. Like you, I just thought meh, it's a Vulture, I'll just boost off as my Cobra was set up to be as light as possible (no weapons). So I was boosting away from him at 440+ until I was almost out of his weapon range while I charged the FSD for a high jump after cool down timer finished. Then he started to catch up and his weapons were starting to strip my shields and on the radar he was moving closer until he overshot me and I was left looking at my monitor like o.0 I seen his ship fly past and he was turning to face me due to him overshooting me then I jumped to another system with 40% hull left.
This was no lag thing, I know the tell tales of lag and I always play in open. His ship was not rubber banding or teleporting all over the place, his weapon fire was consistent and tracking me as expected. My connection was fine. It was like as you said, a Vulture with nitro...
PS. If you got the CMDR's name could you pm me it as I'll keep a note of it for future reference in the event I have another encounter like that. Cheers.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Good to see FD talking about cheating. I'm hoping for a big ban wave when 1.3 drops.

It is actually how Microsoft used to do it. let people run all sorts of exploits on their console, take buckets of data and then overnight a huge banwave with 1000s of consoles banned in 1 swoop.

Oh how I will read these pages with glee if that happened (so long at they do not get any innocents caught up).

rammers and other exploiters to their own hell bubble
and cheaters just banned.

That would make my week

 

[ThatFuzzyTiger]

The current p2p service method is very very vulnerable.

Too many things are handled in client side.

Find the value of the subject you are trying to change, let it be shield, hull, ammo, damage, etc through repeated testing and narrowing the search. After locating it, change the value of that subject and you can control it as you see fit.

By changing the values of certain things you can achieve the effect of:

(Keep refreshing the value back to a certain number or set it to a ridiculous value)

1. Unlimited Shield
2. Unlimited Ammo
3. Invincible Hull
4. Super Weapons (One shot things because you can change the damage to a ridiculous value)
5. No Heat (Keep the value at 0)

And much more. I am not a hacker so I don't know to what extent have things been exploited to.

However, it is clear that it is very very easy to cheat in this game.

I said this right from early beta but apparently I was a doomsayer and none of what I said would ever come to pass because Elite was a land of happy ponies and rainbows. For the record : The client is the most hostile place on earth, and if you're designing an online multiplayer game with any kind of persistence you *never* trust the client with any data if you can avoid it. The more you can server arbitrate, the better because that reduces the level of exposure to cheats and exploits. Optimally you want to have -all- the data serverside, as that makes it nigh impossible (aside from bot automation of certain tasks) to do very much, but that needs a strong infrastructure. Putting all the data clientside concerning combat is a really, really bad idea. Baaaaaad.

 

[beelbeebub]

I said this right from early beta but apparently I was a doomsayer and none of what I said would ever come to pass because Elite was a land of happy ponies and rainbows. For the record : The client is the most hostile place on earth, and if you're designing an online multiplayer game with any kind of persistence you *never* trust the client with any data if you can avoid it. The more you can server arbitrate, the better because that reduces the level of exposure to cheats and exploits. Optimally you want to have -all- the data serverside, as that makes it nigh impossible (aside from bot automation of certain tasks) to do very much, but that needs a strong infrastructure. Putting all the data clientside concerning combat is a really, really bad idea. Baaaaaad.

Fair points, a streaming service with the client acting as video display and controller input (i.e. everything client side) would be the most secure, but also would put the most strain on the servers and connection.
:
Ultimately, some data will need to be handled locally by the client and "post match analysis" by servers used to detect cheats. Which is what FD have and are doing.

 

[Cyda]

The client is the most hostile place on earth, and if you're designing an online multiplayer game with any kind of persistence you *never* trust the client with any data if you can avoid it. The more you can server arbitrate, the better because that reduces the level of exposure to cheats and exploits. Optimally you want to have -all- the data serverside, as that makes it nigh impossible (aside from bot automation of certain tasks) to do very much, but that needs a strong infrastructure. Putting all the data clientside concerning combat is a really, really bad idea. Baaaaaad.

This! This! and more This! So many previous multiplayer games have trodden this path and learnt the hard way that you would think modern game designers would be highly aware of this problem and build the netcode from the ground up with this in mind but alas that is rarely the case, as is shown in ED.

 

[Andovar]

If cheaters are everywhere why haven't I seen any? I know I'm being flippant but I honestly haven't come across any cheaters and I've been playing since Alpha.

Same here. (but not since alpha, only playing since release)
I'm not saying there aren't any cheaters, every game has them, but I think this whole thing is blown out of proportion.

 

[Steve50]

I said this right from early beta but apparently I was a doomsayer and none of what I said would ever come to pass because Elite was a land of happy ponies and rainbows. For the record : The client is the most hostile place on earth, and if you're designing an online multiplayer game with any kind of persistence you *never* trust the client with any data if you can avoid it. The more you can server arbitrate, the better because that reduces the level of exposure to cheats and exploits. Optimally you want to have -all- the data serverside, as that makes it nigh impossible (aside from bot automation of certain tasks) to do very much, but that needs a strong infrastructure. Putting all the data clientside concerning combat is a really, really bad idea. Baaaaaad.

Pretty much this ^^

 

[Snakebite]

Hi All

When fighting against other players have you discovered you cannot damage their hull? or you cannot get their hull below a certain percentage? or you cannot get rid of their shields? or they never seem to run out of energy for their weapons? Or despite the craft you're fighting against with its possible load-outs your weapons seem weaker than usual against it?
.
Or maybe you have noticed a human player sat in a conflict zone or navigation beacon with turreted weapons who never seems to move his ship? It just automatically blasts and blasts for hours and hours with there being no indication there's a conscious pilot behind it?
.
There is a very nasty website out there which has figured out this is only a part-online game. A lot of files which can be hacked to cheat are kept on our side. What is disgusting is it has over 100 pages of user debate and contribution from people who are obviously playing this game. I think we need to stop this out. We need to start noting the names of players which seem to be using exploits and reporting them for investigation.

Yes i've had a few run-ins with invincible ships, the last one was a sidewinder that I threw everything at for several minutes, and its shields didn't flinch. Despite having invincible shields he still couldn't take out my 'A' rated cobra Mk III due to lack of skill, eventually I got bored and sent him a rude message.

I agree wholeheartedly that the combat loggers, solo mode exploiters, and various other cheaters are spoiling the game somewhat, and FD really needs to start waving a big stick at them. Personally I will always report and block any of the above.