bubba42

Welcome to every patch ever released including the full game release. They make one step forward and two steps back consistently. Someone needs to tell the devs, that the game is not in Early Access anymore. Buggy Patches are NOT cool for a released game. I'll be the XBOX and PS4 players can't wait to get there hands on more bugged out stuff.

Try the last two years. <chirp><chirp><chirp> That's your current status report.

Completely agree. Things are shaping up nicely. I have been playing more lately and can tell a world of difference from a few months ago.

I got a major LOL out of this. Why didn't you just shoot the guy chasing you? I have to admit, you are one tough hombre to kill. How many shots did you take man?

That was a little harsh, but essentially this post goes to prove my point about a lack of transparency and how it affects the community BE supposedly serves, givern the fact that the cheats are more egregious and numerous than ever, and the hackers are more transparent than BE, what other kind of response is even possible? DayZ is probably the most high profile game BE has been involved with, and I am certain other gaming companies are going to think twice before discussing BE inclusion into their games if they can't get a handle on their biggest account right now. I know if I were running a studio, I would be watching this like a hawk before negotiating with them, that's for damn sure.

I call BS. ESP's have been successfully stopped in many games in the past. Quake 2 suffered from ESP hacks in its early days, but id Software took a proactive approach and put code in to detect ESP and shut it down completely. No, it didn't stop all the hacking, but it did stop the most egregious method. Even Valve themselves have dealt, successfully in Half Life with ESP. I'm not talking shit to anyone on this forum. Not Sable, not BE, no one. When Hicks and Co. state there is not a hacking problem in DayZ. I believe it's time to really call them out including the 3rd party developer chosen to protect the game, again, who I continue to question their methods as the number of people with Youtube videos demonstrating hacking in DayZ is growing daily. I experience hackers 4 to 5 times a week, I have over 1200 hours in the game and at least that much in the mod before it. ESP and other hacks basically destroyed the mod and they will destroy DayZ, and, believe it or not, I want to see it become a huge success, and stick around for a long time. BE says they are the best, but have yet to prove it, ask anyone who plays any ARMA Based game. The one true hack that stands above the others in terms of behavior and widespread use is ESP. It is a game killing hack for a simulated survival game. Teleportation, assumed they've plugged that up finally in Exp, we'll see, and hacked Ammo, will gel resolved soon enough, those things are minor compared to the real elephant in the room, ESP. This game will not, I repeat WILL NOT survive, if this is not addressed and quickly.

My company stopped using Hardware ID's for mobile security software, they are easily duplicated, but even worse, easily hacked. Firmware "facking" ( or hacking the firmware to change things including HID's ) is available on most PC components, sadly.

You are correct, I shouldn't have been so quick to answer. You get my beans.

Real Hackers, not script kiddies, spoof MAC Addresses all the time.

Now you are basically moving the hacking over to a device, it is so simple to alter GPS data, and worse yet, GPS signals themselves. There are several devices on the market around 90 bucks that thwart GPS Signals and one device that costs around $200 bucks that will mimic GPS Signals to any GPS listening device within range.

The problem with what you suggest is that if they allow you to buy it again, a contract has been made and they have to honor it until you or they break the rules of the contract. That's always been an issue with Steam. Like you say, a hacker could just keep paying them again and again as they get banned. Steam isn't going to say no to money. Plus IP address changes are pretty common on most broadband networks. For example, I am on Comcast Cable. If I want to change my IP address. The easiest way for me is to unplug my cable router for about 20 minutes, then plug it back up. About 90 percent of the time, I receive a new IP Address. And who's to say that a legitimate user gets my IP Address and wants to play DayZ on Steam, if his IP were banned by Steam, He's SOL.

Oh I know that is a true and accurate statement, but ESP has been around for over 2 years, it is a game killing hack for players. There is no defense against it in game. And to my knowledge, it has NEVER been addressed. After playing ARMA games for two years, the community deserves to know what is being done to address it.

I hate to burst your bubble but OS ID's or System Keys are easily hacked and interchangeable, not to mention that you can image an installed OS and get it back on your system in 15 minutes with VM tech and SSD's. My home computer is setup that way, a complete image of the OS after all updates sits on an SSD in a VM image, and I can fully restore my system in under 15 minutes, just reinstall steam and go.

WOW! That is the most honest answer I have seen from any BE staff member. I implore you to not stop coming and posting Sable. It's not about beating you up, it's about communication, and what you just said is way more information than we have EVER seen. That is the kind of info we would like to see. It's honest, quick and to the point. Now, to your point about BE being useless. I would argue it's not useless, but you guys have spent a considerable amount of unneeded effort in cloak and dagger shenanigans that most goodwill from the community is gone. Your post above begins paving a way for that good will to return. Here is a question I hope you can expound upon. Is BE actively pursuing a response to the ESP hacks that are almost two years old for DayZ Standalone?

SIGH! Seriously... acting like nothing is wrong does not help the situation. I know first hand from an in-game hacker that admitted VA works, but hey, actions speak louder than words, shall I begin posting videos of VA in action, in game in let's say the last month? Here is one example.... The fun of this video starts around the :50 mark. http://www.dayztv.com/video/dayz-do-you-recognise-this-man-dayz-cheat/ What's that? Oh yes, the hacker once again admits he is using VA, and it's no big deal. It's easy to understand why as those of us not living in a fantasy filled world know first hand that these hackers are using VA effectively and TO DATE. And why would they lie? so that they can maybe grab 13 bucks and run off? They do it because it's a monthly money maker and they seem to be not afraid of you guys as you have no response to them. The guy in the video might be using an exploit to hover in the air, but he admits to using VA which has a host of other HACKS, including ESP. I contacted RunningManZ on Twitch, he confirmed the video was recorded September 8th. THREE DAYS AGO. Why would I not believe them? Shall I continue? Show us you are the best. Put an end to this madness. Open up the lines of communication and let the community know you guys are on top of it. Challenge the coding community to reporting hacks and consider giving a reward for verified hacks to games. Do something other than giving lip service. Sable, it is not my intent to insult or degrade you or your work, it is my intent to show you that what your company has been doing is alienating the gaming community and pretending everything is unicorns, rainbows, and chocolate cake all the time is complete damned nonsense. It's time for you guys to grow a pair and demand better for yourselves and for the gaming community. Actions is what I'm calling for, and some transparency in what it is you guys have done and are going to do to rectify these problems. I'm not asking for specifics, just something that shows you guys are on it. Why is that so hard? You are not exposing any trade secrets, just asking for an open dialogue with the community. And let me reiterate one more thing, ESP has been around since the mod for almost two years, what has BI or BE done to curtail it? The DayZ community must conclude NOTHING. Prove me wrong.

Actually Smack, BattleEye already does this, we hope, anyway. I sometimes see messages in game where people show file signatures are incorrect and it looks like it comes from BattleEye, but who knows for sure. We just have to trust that they know what they are doing, even though we see no results.

Free cake? No. Results? Yes. Please explain how my post is ironic, BE is NOT DETECTED, and it's not just DayZ, BE is not detected on a ton of games they service with this and other cheat tools. How is lack of results ironic in your world?

It was posted by Hicks on Twitter... here's the reddit followup: http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/2fcmzc/another_perspective_of_this_thunderdome_vybor/ck816ng It's a bug, and hackers purposefully exploit it sending every one to the default spawn point (VYBOR BRIDGE),someone pops out with a grenade or M4 with hacked ammo and kills everyone else, it's pretty well documented, but it's being fixed quickly. I don't understand what is so hard to believe? This does remind me of the SUMMONS hack in the mod.. anybody else remember those days when you were suddenly teleported TO the hacker, who then killed you instantly. Yeah, I do, guess what was the number one cheating engine that did that? Same one I have been referring to in my above posts. Over a year and a half and BE has no answer to that program and others like it. How can that Cheat Engine still be viable since BE has known about it all this time? I mean if you claim to be the best at what you do, and these cheaters claim to be the best at what they do... who really is the best here?

Actually, it's a bug that hackers are exploiting, supposed to be fix in .49 Hackers simply have someone setup at the Vybor bridge, exploit the bug, and then grenade or M4 everyone as they show up en mass.

While I do legitimately question what BE actually does, as we see little proof in game, I think you're being disingenuous in your statements here. I'm not defending BE, I have no reason to, but this discussion should be to engage them in their practices and shed some light on what they actually do. I don't believe they are a greedy, evil corporation just sucking up development money. They serve a purpose, but all of this cloak-and-dagger, we can't tell you what our methods are is complete nonsense, and these kind of statements while not helpful, just go to show you what that "let's keep it all a secret" mindset actually does to a company. BE is not the NSA for crying out loud, and the hacks they try to reduce are pretty public and easy to find, or buy. It seems that if they would be more forthcoming with information, not details, per se, but information on what hacks they actually fix, even if it is a week or two after they put the fix in place, they would do more for their image as well as assure the gaming community that their work is legitimate... that's how you build trust, not by saying "You have to trust me." "We're the best at what we do, you have to believe that." I'm not calling Sable or anyone that works with BE liars, I'm simply stating the fact that you cannot call yourself the best if you have nothing to show. Proof is in pudding, and the DayZ cheating proof tastes a lot more like soured cream than ice cream. I challenge BE to give a weekly status report on their efforts, it doesn't have to be detailed, but an overview of what they accomplished last week and what they have on their agenda for next would go along way to establish some kind of communication with the community, perhaps knock off some of the vitriol being spread about, and help misunderstandings about what it is the company actually does. Look at this: That image shows the status of cheats for a popular cheating engine.... when DayZ Standalone shows DOWN for good, they have done their job, and we will know it. It is really sad for me to sit here and say paid for cheating developers are more transparent than the anti-cheating development companies.

Well, this is the "best" response I have yet to here from BE. But when will it actually show up in game, that's the only METRIC that matters. Saying you're the best and actually proving it are two completely different animals. Trust is a TWO WAY STREET. Prove you are the best and critics like me tend to just melt away into the gaming ether as we no longer can criticize you if cheating is kept to a minimum. Sable, here's an idea, and one I'm sure you guys have thought of, why not offer a reward to coders who defeat your mechanism? Use some kind of scale for the payouts based on the type of cheat/hack that circumvents the anti-cheat mechanism? Fight back with a few bucks, other companies have been very successful with this methodology and even Microsoft has had terrible security holes patched up using this method. The numbers on this work as it is cheaper to pay for the knowledge from the many, rather than R&D/QA within your own company. You can maintain silence on your methods, but the hackers DO NOT. They openly discuss said methods in forums worldwide, and then compile them into engines so the average joe gamer can pay them a recurring figure to keep cheating, and keep making money. A reward system or just outright hiring one of the programmers to bring the hammer down would be the most economical and smart way to improve your own business model.

Over 2.5 million copies of DayZ sold, I have to assume BattleEye gets a percentage of the sale. You can damn well bet these hacks are going to become much more prominent as we get near Beta and Full Release. I've seen it happen before. These cheat engines are in a bubble so VAC doesn't see the majority of them, and all evidence points that 3rd party anti-cheat providers have the same issue. No one wants to admit this dirty little secret, and that's why I say somebody needs to own up, and just outright hire one of these cheating programmers and use them as a consultant to defeat these cheat engines. Somebody could make a pretty penny if they were the first ones on the market to do so. It's a free market, I don't understand why one of the Cheater's themselves doesn't contact BattleEye directly and sell their knowledge and source code, even their services to put an end to this drama. They make money, BattleEye makes money, DayZ gets better, grows the community, they make more money, and gamers can actually enjoy the game again. After doing a bit of research, back in April of this year, it seems BattleEye did indeed put a dent into the Cheat Engines out there. On several of their forums, I see talk that BattleEye shut them down for awhile. That's good to hear. And this has been an ongoing struggle, I get that. Detect the cheat, stop it, then the cheaters just adapt, until you detect them again. It seems this strategy is ok for short-term problems, but what's the long term strategy? Who knows, BattleEye doesn't tell anyone, so based on the information we don't have we must conclude there is not one.

Something I learned long ago in software development... "Once the product is released to customers, it speaks for itself, and if the customer doesn't understand it, then we need not suffer from Aphasia, and try to defend it, we simply need to fix it." Notice, in that quote, the word Alpha was not used at all. Now, Early Access is an interesting concept still in it's infancy, and it will be interesting to see how well it is handled by the public in general, but as a general rule, if it's front facing, it better be solid. Aphasia, for those that don't know is not being able to understand or comprehend what is being said due to brain damage. In other words, just because the software you develop has problems, and now the customer knows it, don't feel the need to defend it, just fix it. Our company use to struggle with this, and we felt the need to defend our baby, all the while, the customer got pissed off at us because rather than sitting down with the customer and addressing the issues, we put our hands over our ears and said "NANNER!NANNER!NANNER! I DON'T HEAR ANYTHING! NANNER!NANNER!NANNER!" That is the wrong attitude to take to your customers. Why not just come out and say, "Yes, those hacks are very difficult to deal with, and yes, we have a team working on ways to try and mitigate them." Unfortunately, BattleEye has YET to say anything at all. Again, I stand by my assertion that they haven't been able to stop ESP and AIMBOT in over a year, and they have no answer on how they intend to address these hacks. That is BAD NEWS for current and future DayZ players. Should the average DayZ player assume everyone is using ESP and AIMBOT?

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I have been around fora very long time and what you say was true back in the day, and MUCH OF IT is STILL true today, This goes to my point to Sable, many of these same hacks are still being used and tp the player's eyes little, if anything, is actually being done about it as we do not see RESULTS, all we do is get killed with AIMBOT, teleported to VYBOR, or have hackers teleport around us and kill us with unlimited ammo from their M4. I heard a new one about an hour ago on URBS Garden server, I think. Someone was firing the SHOTGUN incessantly, I mean like two shots a second for about 20 seconds.

The discussion is NOT pointless. Do I have to list the dozen or so cheat/scripting forums dedicated to cheating at SA and ARMA III games? A paid for hack IS a puclic hack, if you want to argue semantics, be my guest. Bottom line, if something is being done to stop people using them, we have yet to see it IN GAME. ESP has been around a very long time, and yet, NOTHING has been done to curtail its usage. It seems the devs of the game are getting better with telling the community what is going on with the game. I simply don't know what you guys are doing, if anything, and that is a point of contention for myself and others that enjoy these games. Again, ESP has been around over a year, what, if anything, have you done to address it. My guess is you can't, I admit I could be wrong, but in over a year, that type of hack is still rampantly being used, and to my eyes, NOTHING has changed, NOTHING is being done to address it. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but the bugs in this game, I can deal with, but the hacking is simply rediculous at this point. You think I believe what they claim? I know their stuff works, there are hundreds of Youtubes videos and dozens recently that show it being used successfully. I spoke with a hacker in game that completely floored me with his ability to tell me the names of items, their color etc, in buildings without having to enter them. Hell, he knew my name before he got anywhere close to me. How are those things possible without successfully using that hack engine? In over a year have you successfully stopped the usage of ESP or AIMBOT? Their stuff works, I see no reason to question trhe validity of their claims. I do; however, question whether BattleEye can stop this. It's a vaild question considering the time the hacks/cheats have been around and the fact that you admit to knowing about them.