I take exception to that. Maybe you meant having a keyboard?
It's been tradition, especially when gaming from the early 80's were all stand alone solo games running on PC's (before consoles) with the code exposed and written in programming languages we all understood, and learned from to become programmers, to alter our solo games with code programming then called "mods". These "mods" on stand-alone games were just improvements to the game play for your benefit only, on a solo run game.
Now, when online gaming started up, these "mods" slowly began to change the game dynamics and in games like Skyrim and others, were adopted by game developers and actually promoted by the game developer as approved, and for Skyrim and others, were included as "player submitted modifications". In all of Skyrim's games, you can "mod" it to your hearts content, and never be called a "cheater".
So, Frontier for example, allows you to "mod" your GUI and HUD. The difference in changing your HUD colors is a simple text edit with tools built in and available on the system or OS via a Frontier exposed and open xml file, which gives you no game advantage, other than maybe your eyesight.
Someone injecting code with hackers tools not available on the system or OS directly into memory addresses giving themselves a game advantage you don't get or have is more than just degrees, its a game changer and miles apart.
To say that someone offering a "mod" for a game is offering some kind of cheat, which uses game developer output files or open code which can be read by a simple text editor available on the system or OS, left open by the developer of a game, is just wrong. Game "mods" enhance game-play without giving anyone an advantage, and are not directly fed back into the MMO as changed game code data.
As with anything in computer programming, you can use the tools available and the code exposed for the benefit of all, or the detriment of all. It's the person using the tools in a detrimental way to give "themselves" an advantage you don't get, is called a "cheater". Applications like VoiceAttack, EDMC, HUD Editors, and Journal Readers with their associated websites, without exception, use text files left exposed by Frontier, to grovel and present data for everyone's benefit and are called, for lack of a better term, "Mods" to the game.
When you break into code, which was not exposed by the developer of a game, and change that "game code" which is not available to you without a sophisticated development or programming tool, which is used for "building code" with a mindset of "taking advantage for your own benefit, which is denied to others", then you are CHEATING.
As a white-hat hacker, one who taught cyber warfare, who has made suggestions to Frontier on addressing script and bot cheaters, and who participates in securing corporate assets from hackers on HackerOne.Com, I can say that anyone taking advantage of an MMO driven game with programming tools which alter compiled developer game code not exposed and which cannot be read with a simple text editor, is a "hacker" and a "cheater" and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of civil "Copyright and IP Law".
o7....
What a load of hogwash!!
VoiceAttack, a voice operated command processor accepted for use by Fdev, a key spoofer, can be used to perform a multitude of operations one after the other without ever having to use a keyboard or controller. Further, this VA can can be operated externally from inside another program.
Here's an example. You interdict me, and I submit, and I say one word, and my pips will change, my throttle will be set to full and the ship will auto boost continuously. That's one example.
Here's a working example on my own setup. I enter the co-ordinates (or select from a list) near a planet. I press one button on my mac and it sends a series of commands to my PC, which receives them. It then starts an automated poll of the STATUS file and sends the GPS of my ship to my mac. The mac software, then based on that GPS, resends re-orientating commands to the PC, which sends them to VoiceAttack. Voice Attack then sends keystrokes to Elite to change my ship direction.
This allows me to navigate to any point on any planet, without using a keyboard or controller and from a different machine. Note the 'MAC'.. I also have a gaming laptop, receiving info from the journal file, and displaying various information on gauges.
Want another example? When I finish mining, I say 'plot best opals' and my PC sends my current system to my Mac. My mac then opens the website and finds the closest system with the best sell rate for Opals. It then sends this to my PC, which in turn calls a VA script to open the Gal map and select the system. Close it and I'm ready to start my jumps.
I won't even start on the having multiple account benefits.
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This whole thing of injecting and code changing memory etc displays an acute lack of understanding of what is legally available and usable.
I use lots of scripts all doing stuff with VA, interfacing to Inara, Interfacing to my own written Gauges and code. None of it is illegal, in fact it's all supported by FDev.
Does it give me an advantage? Yes it does. because I can do things that you cannot.
I can have them done autonomously multitudes of times quicker than you can manually.
I support all the above. I do not condone, modifying memory etc, and in fact don't see the point of it in a gamsim like Elite. I mean, there is no 'I Win'.
Further.. your 'Prosecuted to fullest extend of IP law'? Do you even know what IP means ? Intellectual Property. To breach IP the user/games/hacker has to publish any changes to 'copyrighted' code to a public audience and even then it would have to be marketed as a replacement for the title.. Intellectual Property rights extend to the title, tools, ideas not the code. That's where copyright law takes over.
And just to clarify, no company ever, has won a suit against a user who hacked their game.
I could advise FDev too. But I doubt they're going to rewrite their net architecture. And until they do, they have no hope in beating the hackers/mem injectors.
