Should kill messages be turned on to help detect hackers?

[miket 92]

The reason I ask is that I was just travelling through a forest with a buddy when someone opened up on him with a silenced M4. I didn't see the guy but I saw the direction the hits were coming from and heard approximately where he was firing from.

I went prone behind a bush on the opposite side of a clearing to where my buddy was killed and aimed towards my buddies corpse, expecting the shooter to go loot him. I checked behind me, nothing. I looked frequently down the clearing, both ways, to make sure he wasn't trying to flank me. Nothing. No footsteps or other movement was heard from anywhere.

Suddendly, from EXTREMELY close range (maximum 10 m, but probably closer), I took a burst of fire from a silenced M4.

This situation made me extremely suspicious. Unless there was a second shooter with the same type of gun waiting on the opposite side of the clearing and I somehow managed to not see him (entirely possible if he was in a ghillie), then the alternative is that the shooter killed my buddy then teleported behind me to kill me too.

If there was a second shooter who was so close, why did he wait about 20 seconds before killing me? If there wasn't a second shooter, how does someone run 100 m across a clearing without being seen in 20 seconds?

If kill messages were on, teleport hacks would be easy to detect, because it would have gone

Randomplayer killed Mybuddy

followed by

Randomplayer killed MykeMichail

We all know that teleporting players killing people isn't uncommon. I think kill messages would go a long way to detect them, especially when teleporters kill 2 people on opposite sides of the map within 1 minute of each other.

[BrettHarrenton 29]

No.

[paronity 83]

No.

Thanks for your opinion and detailed explanation of why you feel that way. :thumbsup:

Public in game announcements should NOT be enabled. I do not think that is the way to go. I DO think however that they should be logged in the servber log or somewhere else on the server for admins to be able to review later to see if someone is hacking.

Before someone says "Yea - then the admin can kick/ban because they got killed", this can already happen. Deal with it. Admin ab use is going to happen no matter what game, and no matter how you try to stop it.

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

I would hope at the very least they should be in the logs for admins to review. But out in the open they are of little use besides flaming IMO.

[Prion 61]

perhaps server side, but no need for it client side. although it would be nifty to have a 'report death as suspicious' button that would allow you to make a report if you thought you were killed by a hacker. this could trigger some saved logs by the server that the server owner might be interested in checking out, or maybe report it to hive, etc.

of course, that would have to be balanced out against people who "cry wolf"

Edited August 2, 2012 by -Evo

[bbilbo1 149]

Kill messages should be enabled for as long as the game is in TESTING. At the moment, it's just as important as the debug window.

Remember we're not just playing a mod. We're testing it. And if we can't improve this mod's security from hacker's, we should info up until it's officially ready for release!

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

Well, Its very easy to compare Logs to a point that you can track GUID's through deaths. If someone doesn't die or disconnect when mass deaths start happening. Its easy to cross reference names from that timeframe to another timeframe to help you indicate who a hacker is.

It also helps you find their names easier, search their inventory, see if anything is suspicious. Track times they log in and out of the server, but at the very least admins would have a lead to go off of.

Edited August 2, 2012 by U.B.C.S. Ravin

[mikhail 65]

yes they should be on and I don't understand why the hell they disabled them in the first place.

[dra6o0n 15]

Rather, they should make the character positions be server sided so it can detect large changes, like when you are not in a vehicle and is able to gain large distance in a short time.

Arma II multiplayer utilizes a lot of client sided calculation, so it's possible to hack that in, using a cheat engine or some sort of software.

You'd need to make the server sided software calculate character location to prevent hacks, not have a third party 'hack detection software' while everyone uses a client that is full of holes and vulnerabilities...

It's like having museum with doors to the outside everywhere, and you are asking a guard to stand in one place and stare at one entrance.

Teleporting is VERY easy to detect, when player coordinates (x, y, z) is different to the clients then it should be easily kicked.

But the issue here is that battle eye, while they 'promote' it as one of the best 'third party software' for anti-hacks, it's a crappy excuse for not hardcoding server side preventions into the game in the first place.

Edited August 2, 2012 by dra6o0n

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

Rather, they should make the character positions be server sided so it can detect large changes, like when you are not in a vehicle and is able to gain large distance in a short time.

This I am a bit wary of. While I would use it and understand its purpose and enjoy using it to catch hackers. A lot of other admins might abuse this fairly easily. As the HIVE is not local, but worldwide, this could cause a problem and create a conflict of interest for admins who run a clan or other factors. Too many unknowns.

I think the death logs are enough for admins to be able to track hackers and report them. Hard work and time consuming, sure. But we are admins. We signed up for it. Wasn't meant to be easy.

Edited August 2, 2012 by U.B.C.S. Ravin

[Dimes123 60]

at this stage.... yea they should. live game no