Met My First Hacker Today

There are p2p game's that have been out for 20 years that haven't solved the cheating/hacking problem. I'm sure FD will try, just like ALL the other game companies have 'tried' but they will fail just like all the other companies have failed. There is no 'unhackable' program or 'unbreakable' lock. And allll these reports will get looked at and 'noted' BUT since it's not a server based game, THERE ARE NO LOGS for them to check. And no matter what they have said about 'watching' that was smoke being blown up the proverbial tailpipe. For them to "BAN" someone they will have to 'See the offender cheat' with their own eyes (At least that's the industry standard method if there aren't server logs to back it up). So for every report file, a human will have to try to chase that player down, and see what they are doing. How realistic does that seem? for a company that small? It doesn't... Everyone just be honest. They will "Try" I'm not saying they won't.

And the cheaters will multiply like a virus, they always do. Just do yourselves a favor, avoid em, stay in group/solo if you don't have the cash to lose it all. If you've got more cash than you know what to do with, stay in open but don't whine when a cheater kills you.. You asked for it. Just like a trader doesn't ASK to be pirated in open...

there is at leats a partial solution:

use client validation:

for example:
bob is a legit player, and he meet kevin the hacke r in space.

now both bob and kevin have various metrics on each other ship equipment etc....

so bob client is able to check if kevin ROF / damage per hit / damage taken per hit is consistent or not.

if kevin does hack, bob client can detect it (at least some of it like instadamge / rof alteration / godmode).

should bob client detect it, it'll automatically upload detailled log to FDEV server.

if kevin get reported in that way by say 5 different client -> bye bye kevin

this way, fdev server would only have to deal with very suspicious player, most of the job being done by the player themselve, but automatically, this way there is no risk that a player fail to report, report it the wrong way etc....hence the detection process is way faster, and should a player hack, he would get punished rather fast, wich would be a deterrent for further action / hacker

now what happen after 5 detection can be variable, player is banned, stuck in solo until a fdev review the case etc....

but at least he's not ruining legti player

preventing hack is good, but ultimately inneficient / impossible, especially with a p2p model.

however, you can make them useless if a player is punished within the 24h of using it
 
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As I posted yesterday, I still don't really understand why they can't have in game moderators who can spawn at trouble spots, observe what is going on, and take appropriate action. I would think that there would be volunteers to do this just like those to moderate the forums. Maybe they do and we just don't know about it, but they don't appear to have done anything about the particular commanders who are causing so much trouble right now.

It's literally the only way you can begin to tackle it tbh - farm out the policing of the game to the community, which is exactly what valve did with Overwatch for CS,

http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/overwatch/

You could have a situation where someone is blowing people up in a station, or is apparently hacking - someone from a select group of players (highly ranked with no previous infractions) gets a in-game notification that cmdr-xyz is griefing/hacking/whatever, they're immediately teleported to the scene in an invincible Viper disguised as an NPC - they can then see if in fact the person is hacking/griefing/whatever and take action, (presumably by banning their account for a period of time, or forever depending on the severity)

I don't see any other way of making a dent in it tbh,
 
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The 1.1 changes will do nothing to prevent the hackers.

He has infinite shields and the station cannot destroy him. It doesn't stop him greifing other players. So he can't land, so what, what does it matter to the greifer ?

In 1.1 the victims point defences will not fire and the station will not retaliate and dumb fires tamed down, but the greifer can still fire unlimited dumb fires at you and cost you plenty damage / money and probably still kill you if you are not the quickest at landing and getting into the hanger.

Last week I browsed the well known forums for these hacks for lunchtime fun and ED is so easy to hack via editing the client files with pages after pages of threads with people describing and testing the hacks.

From that thread in the other forum it looks like the strongest action they've done is to permanently solo one of the hackers. The worst part is the way they've encrypted the game files, they've only encrypted the "important" parts so pretty much giving the hackers a list of what is important so when they do eventually break the encryption (which they will) means they'll pretty have free reign for the most part.
 
It's literally the only way you can begin to tackle it tbh - farm out the policing of the game to the community, which is exactly what valve did with Overwatch for CS,

http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/overwatch/

You could have a situation where someone is blowing people up in a station, or is apparently hacking - someone from a select group of players (highly ranked with no previous infractions) gets a in-game notification that cmdr-xyz is griefing/hacking/whatever, they're immediately teleported to the scene in an invincible Viper disguised as an NPC - they can then see if in fact the person is hacking/griefing/whatever and take action, (presumably by banning their account for a period of time, or forever depending on the severity)

I don't see any other way of making a dent in it tbh,

check post above, this would be a great complement to your idea
 
He has infinite shields and the station cannot destroy him.

I've been sat (docked) inside George Lucas for about half an hour now just watching him (he's in a Viper - 4 missle racks, 2 chaff). His shields don't seem to be infinite, they do go down while under fire from the station (but very slowly) and he's able to recharge them again. He also seems to be able to recharge fully by lurking at the back of the station during periods when it gives up firing on him (why does it stop firing? is the station response for a limited period only?). He's also not alone - he's got a mate (or perhaps just another commander who was able to play him at his own game?) in a Cobra. The two of them were fighting and ramming each other inside the station for quite some time. Saw him dumbfire a player right in front of me (sorry mate whoever you were - tried to warn you but I wasn't fast enough) - and two more while I've been typing this.

I don't have video capture but I've grabbed a couple of screenshots.

Edit 1: he's not indestructible, he just got blown up by the station!
 
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This is where I wear my "I warned you" t-shirt.

In a game such as EVE all combat is server controlled...

Now, in Elite Dangerous the opposite applies...

Well, Eve and Elite are completely different games, particularly in fight. If You want server only communication in Elite, You will need to enlarge server infrastructure 100x (my estimate) and write new game engine from a scratch. Maybe a good idea for new Kicstarter, but not for Elite.
 
I've been sat (docked) inside George Lucas for about half an hour now just watching him (he's in a Viper - 4 missle racks, 2 chaff). His shields don't seem to be infinite, they do go down while under fire from the station (but very slowly) and he's able to recharge them again. He also seems to be able to recharge fully by lurking at the back of the station during periods when it gives up firing on him (why does it stop firing? is the station response for a limited period only?). He's also not alone - he's got a mate (or perhaps just another commander who was able to play him at his own game?) in a Cobra. The two of them were fighting and ramming each other inside the station for quite some time. Saw him dumbfire a player right in front of me (sorry mate whoever you were - tried to warn you but I wasn't fast enough) - and two more while I've been typing this.

I don't have video capture but I've grabbed a couple of screenshots.

Wonder if he has stacked shield-cells, and because he's at the station he can just dock - refill them, then carry on...

Aside from using some sort of hack, stacked shield cells seems like the only way you could withstand the station,
 
Isn't there an option to "block player"? I remember seeing this option at the comms menu, but what does it do?
Say, I see this cheater @ Leesti, target him, block player, and I will never see him again?
If everyone could block the cheater/griefer/station camper then soon he will be alone... alone forever in his own little hell, with no others to attack :)

I think block player only blocks communications but I'm not sure
 
Wonder if he has stacked shield-cells, and because he's at the station he can just dock - refill them, then carry on...

Aside from using some sort of hack, stacked shield cells seems like the only way you could withstand the station,

Yes stacked and infinite (via hack) cells and missiles. The scripts are out there to do this
 
Scanning game files is pointless when the hacks are running like man-in-the-middle client data and actual memory manipulation hacks which actually alter the executables and their data while they are running. And echoing commands to both Frontier and the other peer isn't a fix because these hacks are sophisticated enough to only hack data going to the peers while keeping data to the servers "legit". As long as Frontier isn't the middle of all communications between all clients they have very little chance of detecting these hacks. The only hopes are reporting and hoping Frontier permabans these players (or of course FD overhalls the client to using a true client/server model which is at least a year of development time).

Your missing the point about the MD5 checks, you can't simply alter files and expect the server to accept them, it's too lengthy to go into, but you should read up on PBBans or Wikipedia if you're genuinely interested.
 
Confirmed. Happened to me last night the exact same thing Blaeringr stated in the first post of this thread. Invencible viper with dumbfire missiles inside George Lucas in Leesti, killing everyone. Wrote down player name and reported him.
 
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I'm tempted to go there for a laugh in a sidewinder just to see if it's as bad as everybody is making out :D

He's not here at the moment but it is fascinating (if a little bit car-crashy) to watch actually. Come here in Solo, dock (get a landing bay at the back for the best view), log out, log back in in Open mode, Return to surface, settle back and watch the show :)
 
Yeah if someone can record all this it would be great but let's be honest FD won't respond even if the guy is on video and admitting he's hacking

I really would like to go and record this but I've moved at least 200Ly away from hacker Central

Although FD, if you carry on snipping posts but not actually giving us a response, some thing to go on as simple as "we are making progress/ working on a solution"

Then at the weekend in going to head back in a sidewinder, youtube it happening and name and shame them on youtube for everyone to see

You can't snip youtube

Sorry but if your not doing anything, I'll take it into my own hands

And just try and ban me for it, see what message that gives to your paying customers
 
He's not here at the moment but it is fascinating (if a little bit car-crashy) to watch actually. Come here in Solo, dock (get a landing back at the back for the best view), log out, log back in in Open mode, Return to surface settle back and watch the show :)

yeah i'm gonna go for a fly around and whack shadowplay on, quite interested just to see it tbh - I would go in my 300M combat rigged anaconda, but i'd rather not lose it to someone with shield hacks inside a station lol.....
 
I'm tempted to go there for a laugh in a sidewinder just to see if it's as bad as everybody is making out :D

Completely depends on what time of day you go, what timezone you're on, what country you're from and if you even get instanced with the players. One of the guys is from Holland and plays late evenings 10pm onwards.
 
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