Server side prevention of hackers/exploiters

[Poopty Pants 0]

I apologize in advanced as what I'm about to say is probably very obvious and much can be be explained by "its just a mod" and in "alpha status" (or if this is not the best place to post this).

I'm not an expert programmer, but I've done enough to understand the basics and how servers work. What I don't understand is how some cheating is so prevalent. When someone goes on a server and spawns a helicopter or uses a gun that is not available in the game, its the server that is actually creating it, the player is only indirectly creating it.

So, if the servers detect that say an A-10 is being created, it should either immediately kick/ban the player, or at the very least, not allow it to be built. When the server detects that someone has instantly teleported somewhere, it should place them back in their original location or kick them.

There are exploits that cannot be stopped easily that use an outside program (wall hack or cross hair added etc), but things that must go through the server seems like an incredibly easy fix. (i.e. IF player.create.artilery = true THEN player.banned=true END IF)

Edited July 24, 2012 by Poopty Pants

[Avean (DayZ) 31]

Power of cheaters in this game is almost at the same level of GTAIV. People basicly are able to mod the world. Earlier today i saw someone got teleported and then transformed into a sheep. They can spawn gear on you, vehicles and basicly be god in this game. Although i love this game i think i will put the game on shelves soon cause of hackers. I see no point in spending 8 hours working on a character to have it lost by a hacker having fun.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Avean

[komoter226@yahoo.co.uk 59]

I apologize in advanced as what I'm about to say is probably very obvious and much can be be explained by "its just a mod" and in "alpha status" (or if this is not the best place to post this).

I'm not an expert programmer, but I've done enough to understand the basics and how servers work. What I don't understand is how some cheating is so prevalent. When someone goes on a server and spawns a helicopter or uses a gun that is not available in the game, its the server that is actually creating it, the player is only indirectly creating it.

So, if the servers detect that say an A-10 is being created, it should either immediately kick/ban the player, or at the very least, not allow it to be built. When the server detects that someone has instantly teleported somewhere, it should place them back in their original location or kick them.

There are exploits that cannot be stopped easily that use an outside program (wall hack or cross hair added etc), but things that must go through the server seems like an incredibly easy fix. (i.e. IF player.create.artilery = true THEN player.banned=true END IF)

Such shit happens due to client-sided scripts. Right now it seems that the hackers developed a good bypass that disables malicious script detection.

[hishnik 23]

Power of cheaters in this game is almost at the same level of GTAIV. People basicly are able to mod the world. Earlier today i saw someone got teleported and then transformed into a sheep. They can spawn gear on you, vehicles and basicly be god in this game. Although i love this game i think i will put the game on shelves soon cause of hackers. I see no point in spending 8 hours working on a character to have it lost by a hacker having fun.

^^^

That's the exact reason i've decided to take a break from DayZ for a little bit.

After being alive, harrassing people with AS50 for 16 days, yesterday i magically get teleported to middle of some industrial roof, littered with dead bodies and two guys having a pistol duel ... Not the way i imagined to go out... (i always thought i'll die only to bugs :))

At the current state of exploitation, and constant hacking, the whole concept of 'survivability' that Rocket wants to achieve, goes out of the window.

Like you said, what is the point of spending hours upon hours, searching for something, maybe even finding a vehicle, searching for parts, getting them to vehicle, and getting killed by a hacker, or getting teleported to be killed by one

I agree, with OP, with my limited knowledge of computer languages, it sure seems to be a simple 'if player requests spawn item = player gets kicked'. But working in technology field, i fear its not that simple :(

[Poopty Pants 0]

Such shit happens due to client-sided scripts. Right now it seems that the hackers developed a good bypass that disables malicious script detection.

Yeah, well its obvious that there are people who spend a considerable amount of time and effort to do anything to hack, but I still think my original argument is valid. If a player creates something, it has to go through the sever, and we know the server sees it, because I see it.

Also, just to vent a bit more, hacking is especially harmful to this game. In most games I play, there is rarely a hacker, and when there is, it is not much of a problem. If someone is playing a normal FPS if someone comes on and does something extreme like killing everyone on the server people will just immediately kick/ban them and its just an annoyance. In this game when it happens, people want to break their keyboards and sit wishing they could find the hacker and knock them over the head with a can of beans a few times. And worse, there is no mechanism for the players to kick/ban people by voting (such a system would take away from the incredibly awesome gameplay).

The only thing to do really is hope that when the game becomes standalone that the hacking issue is seriously addressed. I think its absolutely fantastic that rocket and whoever else are putting all their time into making the game as awesome as possible, but I personally would be willing to empty my wallet just to play the game as is without any hackers, because absolutely nothing in the game, even retarded zombies, disconnecting exploits, breaking leg by tripping over a bunny take away from the realism as much as knowing that at any moment you may be spawned 10km away with every other player, turned into a chicken, and then grenaded.

Edited July 24, 2012 by Poopty Pants

[Nar.Kill 3]

dude your garbage your a cheater..iv been on your server..and your complaining about cheating? you and kex0n can go die in a hole..I have a video of your admin abuse posted in the cheating forums..im tweeting the development team everyday tryin to get you guys banned for it.. you guys ruin the game