TenTonHammer: Everquest Hacking

[Softcore PK]

It's interesting to read this stuff. Did not know Rogean and team were limited in some ways by law. And now I know why I sometimes get "Warp detected" messages when I gate in the same zone as my bind, or just at random times.

Thank you so much, Rogean and friends. As a former live pvp player, hacking was one of the serious problems that contributed greatly to me giving up on EQ. Obviously it won't be eliminated entirely, but thanks to your efforts I'm sure many would-be hackers opt to play legitimately. Your work really is appreciated [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[baub]

Originally Posted by Vidrata [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

VP not being open is punishment for the hacking you fags were/are doing. Your bs punishes everyone.

keep sippin that kool-aid bro ~

[Fists]

Originally Posted by Shiftin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That is a straw man and factually incorrect. The number of people in TR and TMO that were banned as a % of the total number of bans is far lower than the percentage of the active server population those guilds make up on a day to day basis.

Quite true. As an ex member of TMO we had maybe 2-3 people booted from hacking. TR had what 9 accounts. 360 - 12 = 348. MATH BROS.

@Zereh "TR had raid / guild leaders banned, TMO did not; comparing the two is disingenuous at best. This goes way beyond a straight numbers game."

What is the relevance to the topic at hand of opening VP. So what if TMO had a clean slate this time around.. Are you sitting here spewing that either A. VP should only be open to the glorious TMO? or that B. Your content with VP not coming out STILL?

[DoucLangur]

Back on-topic: I find the Ten Ton Hammer articles, especially the introductory first article about the Chardok raid, highly naive at best. Not to expect cheaters on an EQ server, and to try to "communicate" with a group that is clearly warping, is just stupid and a waste of time.

Failing that, I gotta say the major flaw allowing stuff like MQ to work in this game is the distribution of tasks between client and server that Verant/SOE chose to implement. For instance:

"Warping has always been a problem in EverQuest. There are so many ways that a client can legitimately get across a zone. The server cannot assume all cases of fast travel are automatically hacks. What if the client lagged out where the player lost internet connection for a few seconds? It would look like a warp or a speed hack to the server."

If the client only submitted an action to the server (i.e. start running in direction xy, cast gate) and the server told the client with each network packet "your character is positioned at XY, facing in direction D and moving at speed S", then it would not be possible to warp. Because the client could display the character anywhere in the zone, nevertheless, the client could not *tell* the server where the character is, because the server would do it's own math on that.

However, that would become very inconvenient with high latency (ping) between client and server. But the least that the server could do is track the average client speed by looking at the current maximum movement rate of the character (speed affecting buffs, encumbrance) and comparing that to the actual difference between two positions over time. There should be short-time plausibility checks (for short distance warping and checking there is an unobstructed path in between) and long-time average speed checks (to prevent speedhacks warping in small steps within the tolerance of the short-time checks).

Then - regardless what the client does, speedhacks and warping could not be effected anymore. I never understood why that wasn't implemented by SOE except due to the "don't care" attitude that we have learned to love so much.

Kind Regards,

Slozem

[booter]

Originally Posted by Fists [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

but where is vp!?

[Kevlar]

Originally Posted by Shiftin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That is a straw man and factually incorrect. The number of people in TR and TMO that were banned as a % of the total number of bans is far lower than the percentage of the active server population those guilds make up on a day to day basis.

All that means is you guys had a bunch of unguilded alts.

[Kevlar]

Originally Posted by DoucLangur [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Then - regardless what the client does, speedhacks and warping could not be effected anymore. I never understood why that wasn't implemented by SOE except due to the "don't care" attitude that we have learned to love so much.

Kind Regards,

Slozem

Warping takes advantage of the same commands that make zoning, gating, and stuff like shadowstep and call of the hero possible. Speed hacks take advantage of bard speed or other speed buff powers. No way you could take the ability out of the client and still play the game.

[Thulack]

Originally Posted by Shiftin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Every day VP isn't open while something lke the hole is, the server deviates further from its explicitly stated purpose. It's also another day of people who support the server with ad clicks, some donations and were the most rabid bug testers in preparation of kunark becoming jaded, bored and logging into another game instead. VP allows high end guilds something to do before epics and affords more chances for more casual raiding guilds to raid things that start to free up.

The notion that people who came here for a classic experience, and have been huge supporters of the server (in many ways), asking for a zone to be released that's 6 months late (despite claims that it is done) haven't been patient is ludicrous.

Is there a reason, other than perverse pleasure or trolling, that VP not being open benefits you?

Because this isnt a true classic server. This is a server where the Dev's deem what is right/wrong and when things should be released.

[Seaweedpimp]

Originally Posted by Zereh [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

TR had raid / guild leaders banned, TMO did not; comparing the two is disingenuous at best. This goes way beyond a straight numbers game.

The people caught cheating who happened to be tagged TMO are no longer guilded with us. If you want to impress, throw some facts at us about how your guild chose to deal with your cheaters.

^^^^^^^^^^^



Damn zereh is good.



TR failure

[Dr4z3r]

Originally Posted by Shiftin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you would like a refresher of the 4 stated reasons we've been given since April why VP isn't open, i am happy to provide them.

I never knew there were 4! What were/are they?