Notice A statement on cheating in Elite Dangerous.

[Aldrichyeti47]

Remember the engineering cheat/exploit 1 material tier 5 god roles. Frontier would punish those players remove all engineerd equipment, ban players. Havent seen any of that .
Frontier havent done any thing against those cheaters.
True. They took action against game bugs that are not really cheats and are doing almost nothing against someone who uses 3party cheating program.

 

[znôrt]

I was talking about those, that have been caught, in the act. 100% ban, for software cheating. Which is the subject of the O.P.

oh yes, of course. i agree. and it would be good for general perception (givien it is just and fair!!). but still doesn't say much about how cheat proof the game is, which is the stat i would be interested in.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

There is literally nothing in the OP that was not in Will's earlier post in another thread.

Exactly. They are saying as much as they are willing to say. I've said from the start the best we can expect from FD is some sort of canned response of we are dealing with it.

FD are not going to say any more than that (based off past experience, including the last time there was a big hooha over cheating). Maybe one day they will change their stance on this, but today is not the day.

 

[The Replicated Man]

I think it's a good time to remove engineering.

It'll become significantly easier to detect cheating after that.

No. That wouldn't solve the problem.

 

[Arry]

They have all been sent FDev's way along with tickets when they happened. One specific person that was blatantly hacking (600 m/s Conda, infinite shields) at CGs for weeks in 2018 was spotted during DW2 at Sag A, so let that one sink in. He didn't have his hacks on and we smoked him, but he is still able to play in open.

I just asked the question. You say that it can be done, so if it is done. Logically, F.D should take action, if a software cheat is being used. Something well engineered and the good use of the pips, on the other hand; is something else.

Maybe, just maybe, F.D. should give those doing the reporting; some definitive feedback. Not just the standard replies.

 

[znôrt]

Not sure I understand the purpose of this announcement. It appears that you're just reminding us that yes, cheating is still a violation of the ToS and that you're totally doing something about it. As far as I can recall, that's been the gist of every public statement Frontier has released regarding this issue, but things never really seem to improve, and in fact may have become even worse.

plausible deniability of 'frontier says nothing'.

'plausible' being open to interpretation here.

 

[Arry]

I consider both topics linked actually. Both are cheating and should be dealt with accordingly. There is no greater evil here.

Then you need to carefully read the O.P.. It is quite specific.

 

[znôrt]

No. That wouldn't solve the problem.

no but it's always a good moment to remove engineering!!

 

[CMDR Slee Piboi]

No. That wouldn't solve the problem.

But it should be done regardless.

 

[rajziel]

Hello Commanders,

We wanted to take some time to address some of the concerns the community has raised regarding the use of cheats in Elite Dangerous.

Cheating in our game is something that we take very seriously, and do not condone. Using a cheat engine, mod, hack etc. is in direct violation of the Terms and Service and EULA agreed to by all players upon setting up a Frontier account. We support honest competition between players, different playstyles and each Commander’s ability to blaze their own trail, and we strive for them to be able to do this in a fair, safe environment.

We continuously work alongside our development and support teams to combat the tools that make cheating possible, and to take action against accounts found to be using them.

As with any online game, combatting cheating is an ongoing process, and something that we are always working against. We work continuously to review and improve the tools, tracking and the safeguards required in order to tackle issues when they arise. We are not able to discuss the specifics of tools and processes that we have, as this would give the cheaters a significant advantage in being able to circumvent these efforts.

When it comes to taking actions against accounts we have identified as using cheats, we review every report on a case by case basis. While there has been a level of discussion regarding these cheats within the community recently, we can assure people that the number of people using these are a very tiny number of players. We are still working on new and improved ways of stopping these cheats and tracking and measuring activity now and in the past.

We strongly advise that no player runs Elite Dangerous using a cheat client, hack, software mod etc as this will put your account at risk now, and in the future.

We also advise against promoting or publicising of any programs which claim to mod/hack or cheat for Elite Dangerous. Doing so can give players a false sense of legitimacy regarding these programs and ultimately lead to increased risk to players accounts. Rest assured that we continue to actively work on and address cheating in all forms and will continue to do so.

If you come across a player you suspect is cheating, please do use the in-game reporting tool to send us that information. You’re also welcome to contact our support team via a ticket to provide supporting evidence such as photos or videos.

Thank you for your time, and fly safe.

Its nice that you've made a statement, but in all of that you have not detailed any consequences.

Rumours have it that first offenders are banned to solo for a while. Thats not much of a punishment.

When it comes to cheaters, at the very least, you need a zero tolerance policy, as in instant ban from all modes. Even that does little to deter some cheaters.

But having no consequences spelt out just sends a message that there is some wriggle room and you'll probably end up encouraging people to try it if they were thinking about it before.

Maybe you do already ban people straight off, but this needs to be made clear that this is what will happen.

Other games have shown that you need a clear policy on cheaters and then you need to act on it.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

No. That wouldn't solve the problem.

No, but it'd make it a helluva lot easier for new players to know when they literally stand no chance.

 

[Arry]

No. That wouldn't solve the problem.

Well. What if during the grade 5 god mode issue/bug; F.D. suddenly said: We have had an exploit report to us and our research, proves the report to be correct. So to stop this and to prevent anyone else exploiting this bug, we are going to suspend all engineers content, until the issue is fixed.

How well would that have gone down?

This is the predicament F.D. faces.

 

[Lander]

Cheating in our game is something that we take very seriously, and do not condone.

Are you sure? Cheats are online since 2017 [Source: reddit, google] and you know that, is a fact.
You just wake up now when a single player do a video on yt.
Then you post this useless message without say nothing, not even a number of banned account's, list of banned account's, nice work, ED continues to die day by day, even a flashgame have more players online than your dead game [Source: Steamchart]

R.i.p. Ed

Edit: why don't post this on FB page and apologize to all players instead of put this in the forum only
Edit Edit: Sorry, i mean, cheats are online since 2014/2015 check on google if you type "cheat elite dangerous 2014" or "cheat elite dangerous 2015" ahaha

 

[Agony_Aunt]

They absolutely did not work on it quietly because Harry had to jump in a voice chat with a QA guy to explain to him how to replicate it. They literally could not do it themselves after being given step-by-step instructions by Harry.

What do you mean Harry needed to explain how to replicate it? Harry explained how to get the cheat and run it? It is quite possible that particular person had never run the cheat before you know, most FD employees would never have.

Its not even a job for QA, its a job for the devs.

If you had said the dev in charge of dealing with this cheat had no experience of it, then that would have made me somewhat worried.

Also, shame its voice.. i'd kind of ask for a PM of the text, but there again, text chats can be faked, and sorry Ryan, but i can't take anything any member of SDC say at face value. SDC have repeatedly lied about things in the past to push their agenda. I'd really want FD to confirm this, and no way is that going to happen.

 

[ryan_m]

What do you mean Harry needed to explain how to replicate it? Harry explained how to get the cheat and run it? It is quite possible that particular person had never run the cheat before you know, most FD employees would never have.

Its not even a job for QA, its a job for the devs.

If you had said the dev in charge of dealing with this cheat had no experience of it, then that would have made my eyes pop of course.

We're talking about the 5-1 exploit, not this cheat.

Coincidentally, Harry also reported the specific cheat that Nick used to Paige on 5/1.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I don't have an 'internal' source of anything. I did have the posts screen-shotted but amazingly they went missing from my forums account. Further, if you check back far enough, you'll see in the beta reports that it was reported then and the reply was they couldn't emulate it.

Fell free to call me a liar all you want.

I'm not saying you are a liar, per se. But all too often people declare "devs are lazy" or "devs don't care" or "dev's didn't do anything", all just declarations with nothing to back them up.

Now, what do you mean they went missing from your forum account? How is that possible? You couldn't upload pics to the forum. The usual method for posting on the forums images is to upload somewhere like imgur and then link it. So, again, this makes me somewhat skeptical.

And your final point is also strange. What do you mean they could't replicate it? Its a cheat tool. You use it. If they had the tool, it would work (presumably). Maybe you mean they couldn't use the tool? That would be a bit strange.. its not exactly rocket science, cheaters are not always the brigest people.

 

[FatFreddysCoat]

With no offence intended, this is the typical copypasta that gets wheeled out every time, almost word for word, and nothing seems to change.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Please stop trying to defend the indefensible.

What they could do, is tell us they are working on a system, yes it might take a month, but they are working on it to log all actions and put in place checks on ship changes etc etc. At the very least there should be random (FDev do random better than anyone) to pass all your ships modules and variables back to the server. Where they can be checked and if found to be modified, disconnect the client if those changes are deemed to fall outside 'normal expectations'. That would be my first port of call. There are others.

What we see is a corporate response telling us they take it all very seriously, straight after the entire world got to see how a player can hack and create god ship, and stay like that for 90 odd minutes and there was no-one in HQ to pull his plug. Then, amazingly they did an investigation after their holidays, and found he had been hacking prior to the public display, and what was their response? We expected a outright ban, never to see the account again, but what we got was, he can't play in multiplayer no more, he has to play solo.

Like I said elsewhere... My Auntie has bigger testicles.

They said they are actively working on combating it. They said they won't disclose details of how. What you are wanting them to do is give details. As they said, the more they say, the more info they give to the hackers.

You want FD to help the hackers? I thought you would want FD to have the best chance of stopping them (not that they will, the best they will do is make it harder for the hackers for a while. Very best case, they make it so hard the hackers get bored, but in my experience, the harder things are, the more determined it makes the backers to find a way around it - source: me, was hacker).

 

[rrobes]

"There, there, everything is alright," pat on the head; "There's nothing to worry about, here's a nice glass of warm milk, it's time for your nap."

/s

 

[Agony_Aunt]

While this probably varies by jurisdiction, I assure you most people "banned" will immediately dispute the charge on their credit card for purchase of the game. When the customer explains to the credit card company that they bought a game and the game owners are now preventing them from playing it, I suspect most credit card companies will quickly side with their cardholder customer. Frontier would have to invest money in hiring people to respond to these credit card companies, etc...

This would actually be less of a problem if Frontier charged a monthly fee rather than a one-time fee for "indefinite gameplay" as they could just refund the current month.... but oh well!

Isn't there a limitation on things like that? 3 months or something? Or variable depending on the good purchased? I'm not familiar with the particular laws.

Bans don't help with the dedicated cheaters anyway. They just get a new account (often during a sale, they might pick up a few copies every sale), then right back at cheating. Credits are so easy to make, even without cheating they can have a billion with one day of playing.

I agree, they need to be banned, but it doesn't stop many of them.

I've mentioned this a few times, maybe you never heard the story, but there was a guy on the old cheat forums who lost 10 accounts due to cheating at ED (really a serial cheater, it think he was one of the cheat devs, i might be mistaken on that, the forums are there if you don't mind digging through old posts). Instead of it stopping him he said words to this effect : I probably should slow down on the cheating a bit.

Not stop, just slow down a bit.