Admin Observe Mode?

[forgotten 1]

I'm fairly certain there isn't any option to do this, but can admins in any way tail people ingame looking for proof of hacking? Like some sort of observation mode?

If there isn't, the only way to identify hackers and cheaters is with server logs or physically being at the spot where the hacking/cheating occurs? I ask mostly because I'm considering running a server, and am wondering what tools server admins have to protect their servers. I see the console commands, but is that really it?

[Greg-UK4 31]

There's not much.

You have to rely on the flakey battleye server and it's scripts log to identify hackers.

But that only really catches people who are using "known" scripts.

It's purely reactionary and requires a lot of your own time to paw through the logs.

For example: one day of running produces 150mb of logs.

Scanning through these takes a bit of practice, and a bit of experience to know what is a "hack" and what is legit.

I'm pretty certain that a large percentage of these script based hacks are being missed by admins purely due to the size of the log files presented to them, and the fact that most admins are probably 15-18 year old clan kids with a fair bob of cash to host a server. And virtually nil hosting experience behind it.

[forgotten 1]

Thanks for the reply, it's hard to really find anything related to this.

Maybe there should be a thread posting known hacks on the logs. I saw a server admin forum only being asked for, that sounds like it would be a great place to post such a repository.

[Greg-UK4 31]

It's already there.

Good luck getting assigned to the server host forum, i've been trying for coming up to 8 weeks now.

Tonic/Legacy have yet to reply to the PM's i've sent based on Adams/Anders advice :D

No worries to that though, the server admins tend to keep each other informed in the IRC chat.

[xiuide 0]

and the fact that most admins are probably 15-18 year old clan kids with a fair bob of cash to host a server. And virtually nil hosting experience behind it.

I have two issues with this statement

1) that's more than just a little presumptuous.

2) there is only one way to get (real) experience, and that's to learn by doing. No one is born with an innate ability to host a game server or server or any kind. its book learning and trial/error.

As for the script.log file, there is a parser that one server admin created (cant remember his name right now) that I know he has been sharing to filter out the normal logs from the flagged stuff. There is an updated scripts list that doesn't cause the log to bloat like it did previously.

tl;dr

I 100% agree with you about your statements about how hard it is to maintain a hack free server. I also think you went WAY overboard with your blanket statement