Odd Question

[fastboy21]

Not sure if this is an appropriate question, but I thought I'd ask and hope for a dev response (or someone who knows).

Coirnav opens next week and I plan to play. Hypothetically, is there any risk of me getting flagged as a cheater on p99 if I have ShowEQ installed on my machine to use on live?

I'll be honest in that I sometimes use "the program" on live, but would never attempt to use it here. I'm concerned that having the program installed, however, might cause an issue even if I never use it while playing p99.

[evilkorn]

As long as it's not running you should be fine.

BUT, if you log in (I would assume after character select) you will get flagged and banned with no chance to recover.

[loramin]

As long as it's not running you should be fine.

Just to second this, everyone's ok with P99's anti-cheat because that's all it is: a cheat detector/preventer. If it moved into being a "search your hard drive for bad stuff" detector half the server would probably quit on the spot, because that's just not something any game should do.

[fastboy21]

Just to second this, everyone's ok with P99's anti-cheat because that's all it is: a cheat detector/preventer. If it moved into being a "search your hard drive for bad stuff" detector half the server would probably quit on the spot, because that's just not something any game should do.

Yes, I agree with you. But, I guess what I'm asking is if that is actually how it is.

I'm assuming from the searching that I did before posting that p99 does somehow actively look at what other processes I am running on my machine to guard against cheating software.

Checking to see if I have ShowEQ installed wouldn't be that far of a jump in terms of invasion of privacy.

In any case, that is why I asked...I wouldn't risk installing it on the same machine I play p99 with if it could flag me.

[gizmo]

Is ShowEQ really necessary for Daybreak EQ?

[fastboy21]

Is ShowEQ really necessary for Daybreak EQ?

really not the question i'm asking...but the short answer is no.

if you are seriously competing with a player who is using it then, yes. i'm not trying to hash this out here, and while you may judge me by way of my unnecessary honesty, I only use the program restrictively and to prevent unfair advantage by an opponent. The problem is that DBG (and largely SOE before them) have no desire to deploy any resources to deterring someone from using it: the result is that many people use it.

If you get tired of constantly losing items and raid spawns to a player who is cheating you have to beat them at their own game. Judge me all you want.

considering the instanced nature of the current progression servers the need to use the program is extremely limited, but I will install it in case I find myself in need again to beat someone else using it.

[loramin]

Checking to see if I have ShowEQ installed wouldn't be that far of a jump in terms of invasion of privacy.

I disagree very strongly: to me it wouldn't just be a jump between checking what's running in-memory to catch cheaters, and searching your whole hard drive for non-running programs ... it would be a huge gigantic privacy invading leap.

As I said, the former is an accepted part of P99. The latter would probably, if it became pubic knowledge, make at least half the players stop playing. Luckily the staff here seems to have this thing called ethics, so we don't have to worry about it.

If you get tired of constantly losing items and raid spawns to a player who is cheating you have to beat them at their own game. Judge me all you want.

In a world without rules, it's impossible to be a rule-breaker ;)

[fastboy21]

I disagree very strongly: to me it isn't just a jump between checking what's running in-memory and searching your whole hard drive from non-running programs, it's a huge gigantic freaking leap of privacy invasion.

As I said, the former is an accepted part of P99. The latter would, I predict, make at least half the players stop playing.

I actually agree with you Loramin. I'm saying that when a game is already doing some invasion of privacy to prevent cheating, it wouldn't be totally surprising to me if they decided to go deeper.

But yes, as far as I can tell, surreptitiously looking at files on someone's machine (i.e. looking for an installed copy of ShowEQ) would be highly unethical --- and maybe even illegal. I don't really care about that though (for this thread)...I just wanted someone with some authority to confirm that I don't have to worry about installing it as long as it isn't running while playing p99.

[loramin]

I actually agree with you Loramin. I'm saying that when a game is already doing some invasion of privacy to prevent cheating, it wouldn't be totally surprising to me if they decided to go deeper.

Fair enough. One more reason why we all should be even more appreciative of our Norathian overlords (ie. our great staff).

[Llandris]

As long as you do not have it running when you load up the P99 client, you will be fine. Rarely false positives happen but we are able to clear it up pretty quickly