A suggestion on how to stop hackers. And booze(if not already ingame)

[calkhi 1]

Alright, so I have a suggestion, why not remove battleeye(Since they can not stop shit) and replace it with your own anti hacker overlay? It seems as though, since you can do this, you can make a part of the mod that acts kind of like permissions(yes, from minecraft) but instead of not allowing the person to do anything, it bans players who use scripts. Here is how it would work. First, it would allow only admins(Designated IPs) to use scripts. Any other player will be banned apon use of scripts. So it performs an IP check on a person who uses scripts, cross-references it to a list of allowed IPs and if the IP is not found on the list, the person is banned. It could, alternatively, be used on player names(Although that it much less safe, as a player name can be stolen)

Since I don't know how this game is coded, I don't know if it is doable, however if I see a person being a dick while saying it can not be done...Well, those are the people that I suspect are hackers and are just trying to discourage other people from being willing to support this.

Aright, now for an item. BOOZE!

Yes, booze. I am not sure if they are in game quite yet(as I have never found any, and I have been quite a ways around the DayZ map, now.) And if it is in, then I will have to look for ALL OF THE BOOZE SPAWNING LOCATIONS! But some mechanics on how it would work, Without a shot glass, you drink 1/3 of the bottle, with glass, you drink a few shots. Without the glass, you will become drunk, stagger about and fall over a bit. Drink another 1/3 of the bottle and you will reach 'utterly shitfaced' and fall over all the time, make a huge amount of noise, and pass out every now and then. Drink the whole bottle....Expect a loss of blood(to represent alcohol poisoning) and passing out after a couple of minutes after consumption. With the shot glass, one shot will leave you with a warm gut. With two, you will feel kind of tipsy, no lack of coordination. With three, you will become tipsy, slight loss of coordination, but not much. With for you will become slightly drunk. With five, you will become drunk. With six, you will become heavily drunk. Seven, eight and nine will change nothing. With ten you will become shitfaced. 11-15 will change nothing 16-17 will have you passing out, 18-20 will leave you with poisoning. But that is just for you average Jack Daniels. Beer is another story, but it might be best to stick with one kind of booze. In addition, a couple of shots of booze are ok, if not good for you every now and then. They will raise your characters happiness, and remove any minor pains that might be occurring.

[Priceless 154]

Remove battleeye? Yea thats a great idea hell no. Booze is ok I guess but u get drunk u gonna die in any zombie agro or pvp as alcohol obviously isnt the best choice when you need all your wits about you in the apocalypse.

[calkhi 1]

Remove battleeye? Yea thats a great idea hell no. Booze is ok I guess but u get drunk u gonna die in any zombie agro or pvp as alcohol obviously isnt the best choice when you need all your wits about you in the apocalypse.

I was pointing out that if they can not get their shit right, then maybe they can make their own anti cheat and not need that crappy battle eye. Or they could make one that works with battle eye.

[JDogg1329 7]

I think booze might be cool, first time playing the game I kept looking for full whiskey bottles. I guess it could be kinda like a pain killer, or heal sprains or minor injuries but if you have too much (Realistically a bottle is too much but say 2 bottles) your characters gets drunk for 5 minutes. Could be useful in tight situations with no painkillers

[redryder 1]

The problem is, battleye essentially does exactly the same thing you just said... it blocks/detects certain scripts, thats all the game is, a whole bunch of scripts... Maybe in a standalone version they could add something that checks a unique 128-bit encrypted code that is not only unique to a player, but unique for every file. It would have to be soo intense that only a professional hacker/mathematician could figure it out. It would have to scan every file, every code, everything that goes in and out of the game/codes to be able to cease hacking. Hacking is really killing this game, which, is probably why Arma 2 never got really far until this came out. Every time i get killed by the invisible man in a Mk19 Grenade Launcher, get teleported 1000m up, etc, i get a little more PO and demoralized. If there was a way to make a client script that would scan and track anything set onto it by another player, wed be gold, it would prevent the auto kill scripts, the teleportation hacks, etc, but it doesnt stop vehicle/weapon hacks... If I get killed legitly by some one once in a while, i would actually just be PO, but also wanting to get back out there and kill someone who can be killed. 99% of the time, i never catch a name, let alone a screen or video, I never record videos 24/7, if i did, id need a 10 TB hard drive, just 5 hours used up 300 GB in the un-compressed form... to ask for screens is very hard to do, the game should save screens from every player at certain intervals.

Your idea for an anti hack system is just as bad, if not worse than BE, especially since every part of the game is based on scripts

Edited August 5, 2012 by RedRyder

[excursion_@hotmail.com 19]

I agree with RedRyder,

His point that the game is effectively one be scripting melting pot is right, the issue would be to filter out valid scripts and invalid scripts but again this is difficult as each update brings with it a new script or a variation to an existing script.

File validation,

For the alpha/beta version a simple file checker system could work, nothing to complex.

Another script could be built to scan the installation directory and check file names and sizes against the server list for validation.

This approach is not to capture 100% of all hackers but at least this would eliminate the basic "kiddy" hackers that ruin fun aspect of testing an alpha.

Script logging,

The server could also have a list of valid scripts, if any users get past the basic file validation and executes a script not on the valid list they are kicked and banned.

If it is a "KILL ALL" command everyone will still die but at least the hacker will not be back to do it again.

Joint server ban list,

This could be optional for the server, "share banlist" or "don't share banlist"

When this option is set it will connect all the servers to a central banlist server that hosts a combined list generated from each server and shares it out among all servers with the option "share banlist" from a master list.

This would also go towards preventing hackers.

Debug servers versus Alpha servers,

A variation of servers might be required as well, like "ROCKET" pointed out previously "locking down" an alpha makes it harder to debug and test, so creating "debug" servers that allow all the scripts to run could be an idea.

I can completely handle loosing an awesome weapon to an inventory glitch or flipping a vehicle because I simply tried to cross a bridge, these are a pain in the ass but manageable. solution (submit a bug report)

What I can't handle is spending 2 days in cross county mode only to have a hacker spawn right next to me with his invincibility hack and shoot me dead. solution (start from scratch)

Or a hacker comes into the server and initiates a "KILL ALL" command then just leaves right away. solution (start from scratch)

Hackers are the most destructive force in any gaming environment not just dayZ. They will drive away any fan of the work ROCKET is doing.

I have a friend who has been a dedicated fan for over 3 months and not once has he been killed by authentic means, it is always a hacker.

Can you imagine how crap it is to spend that length of time trying to immerse yourself into the game "even an alpha" only to be teleported 20M into the air.

I am sure you all understand this frustration and it is a BIG ask for ROCKET to write all these scripts into an "ALPHA" but if he considers this, these are relatively simple solutions that could eventually be employed in his stand along version.