Modification to Kill Messages

[sp86 508]

Please add an event handler that records data pertinent to player kills in a fashion similar to this:

16:24:27 "4335.86 seconds: Dr Aquafresh (WEST) has been killed by Goatie22 (WEST). Dr Aquafresh position: [5067.54,3007.31,0.00140381] (GRID 0506703007). Goatie22 position: [5068.31,3006.38,0.00143433] (GRID 0506803006). Distance between: 1.21024 meters. Near players (100m): ["Goatie22","Powell","RiceBoi","Chris","Kingslayer"]"

This message doesn't need to broadcast (and due to the location tag shouldn't), but it would greatly increase a server admin's ability to detect and counter-act hackers if something like this wrote to the log. Alternatively, allow SA's to modify the gamefiles themselves to this effect.

Edited August 27, 2012 by sp86

[bobstefanio 24]

How would this help admins and what current information have you got recorded I would hate to think and admin can see my location even on death.

Edited August 27, 2012 by bobstefanio

[dcskill 117]

Don't you think admins could abuse this knowledge of knowing where people died in their server? I know I would to get in on the action or to potentially loot valuable items from the corpses.

[bobstefanio 24]

Thats what I am afraid of death at a camp could lead to discovery you know tent bugs and such if you see a player die in the middle of no where with no close by players could indicate tent bug or something else. I don't see how this helps detect hackers in fact it could cause a lot of bans for people who are innocent.

Scenario: Survivor A is killed by hacker he is 10 meters away the nearest player is Survivor B at 20 meters totally unaware on the other side of a building, Hill , Thicket of trees. Admin checks logs see survivor a who complained of hacker was killed and when and where notices survivor B was close to A and assumes he must be hackers friend as he hasn't died !

Scenario: Survivor Jimmy has made a nice camp has a few vehicles and tents. He is riding his bike back to camp when he runs into a tree and kills himself Admin A checks logs finds Jimmy was killed at location in the middle of no where. Admin investigates with high hopes finds camp.

[sp86 508]

The logs already show every player placed tent in the server if you know where to look and how to read it. An SA needs to make a choice not to abuse that info, and you as a player can make a choice not to play in a server with an abusive SA.

For an SA like myself though, the ability to see who's killing whom because they have godmode, or a player teleporting all over the map and killing people would not only make my server better, it would greatly enhance the experience of every player on my server.

Edited August 27, 2012 by sp86

[Chimpwn 1]

To add to what sp86 is saying, when someone with a mark 48 is running through the streets of cherno, absorbing shots like superman and being shot by 3 people at the same time and killing everyone, and hiding their body. Knowing who it was can make a world of difference on a server without nametags. Because nametags are gay, and admins need to have some sort of tool to know who is hacking.

[bobstefanio 24]

I see your point I was unaware that the location of every tent was available to the Admin that is a disturbing taught. I do agree how ever that most admins are decent folk and don't abuse this but still those admins out there who aren't so nice or not so knowledgeable and this kind of feature will give them the tiny excuse they need to ban many people who are innocent. Yes it would allow you too be a more effective server admin but hopefully there will be no need for such measures come standalone.

Personally I don't mind what tools the admins get as long as ordinary decent players don't suffer for it.

Edited August 27, 2012 by bobstefanio

[sp86 508]

I see your point I was unaware that the location of every tent was available to the Admin that is a disturbing taught. I do agree how ever that most admins are decent folk and don't abuse this but still those admins out there who aren't so nice or not so knowledgeable and this kind of feature will give them the tiny excuse they need to ban many people who are innocent. Yes it would allow you too be a more effective server admin but hopefully there will be no need for such measures come standalone.

Personally I don't mind what tools the admins get as long as ordinary decent players don't suffer for it.

This is a fix that can be achieved in hours. Not days. Not weeks. Actually inserting the code is minimal, the bulk of the time would come from distribution, and on servers with active SA's this would immediately have a drastic effect on the number of hackers interfering with fair play. Yes it gives more information to SA's, but frankly, if an SA can access this info, they can already access information even more potentially damaging (Where you spawned in, where you logged out, what you have in your pack, where you placed your tents, if you have a vehicle, etc etc etc).

But I won't bullshit you, there are dickhead SA's out there. I read the Server Reporting Forum every day, I know it's true. Some would probably use this to kick or ban players who killed them in fair play. But the fact is, the ones who are not dumbasses can already use the info they've got to fuck you over. And the ones who just want you to have a good time in their server? They're under siege, and the Dev Team as well as anyone who plays frequently knows this.

Edited August 27, 2012 by sp86

[bobstefanio 24]

I agree anything to help with the hacker problem is a plus.

But would the coding really be minimal is it such an easy feature to add? If you have all the information already available in the logs couldn't you write a query or create a database to output in the format you wanted.

Or is tracking active players currently hidden and by creating an output will it not involve adding a feature to output everyone's current location at time of a player death check who is close and write out to the log.

I know the game tracks everyone but opening it up as an output would mean having to put that information into an unsecured method that could make it easier to abuse giving a direct access to it via an output.

I know there are already ESP hacks out there that allow you to see every player on the map in real-time an on screen but would this output not make it easier and thus more common to see this type of hack.

Now of course I am not at all disagreeing with you I am just expressing an opinion and I am sure the feature could be implemented with proper safeguards to make it secure but is it really a necessary now when there are so many bugs and the overall hacking problem needing to be rectified.

[C0LDKILL (DayZ) 34]

IF YOU DO NOT ADMIN A SERVER, then you are simply ignorant to our frustrations.

I admin the pantheon. We, and many like us are simply trying to run a good, honest, fun and fair server where players can enjoy themselves.

This is a great idea, being able to tell who killed who and where can greatly help us understand and filter hackers from legitimate players.

If we have a players in the NW airfield, Gorka, Cherbo and electro being killed by the same person in a matter of 20 minutes, then we can make an obvious conclusion. Let's get this through people, not everything is detected through the logs. But kills surely will.

If this is abused by admins, their server population will fall and the server will fail. Pick good servers with good admins people. Good servers generally have a website and or teamspeak. Like any other game, you need to find a good server to call home.

[sp86 508]

But would the coding really be minimal is it such an easy feature to add? If you have all the information already available in the logs couldn't you write a query or create a database to output in the format you wanted.

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/addEventHandler

Actual changes to the mission files are minimal.

Or is tracking active players currently hidden and by creating an output will it not involve adding a feature to output everyone's current location at time of a player death check who is close and write out to the log.

I'm not sure what you mean but I'm asking it to write directly to the log, not to broadcast to players. It's true SA's can view log in real time but I doubt most would use this to their advantage.

I know the game tracks everyone but opening it up as an output would mean having to put that information into an unsecured method that could make it easier to abuse giving a direct access to it via an output.

I know there are already ESP hacks out there that allow you to see every player on the map in real-time an on screen but would this output not make it easier and thus more common to see this type of hack.

Currently ARMA II OA can be configured to output a real time map with player/vehicle/player placed object positions without any sort of script. Engine hacks like Helios also employ this. This modification would not counteract those (except where it makes it obvious that a PKer made a beeline between several players).

Now of course I am not at all disagreeing with you I am just expressing an opinion and I am sure the feature could be implemented with proper safeguards to make it secure but is it really a necessary now when there are so many bugs and the overall hacking problem needing to be rectified.

It's a minimalist fix that could have an enormous impact, so I believe so yes. Of course, deleting military bodies is in the same vein and they haven't done that yet.

This is a great idea, being able to tell who killed who and where can greatly help us understand and filter hackers from legitimate players.

Thanks for the support.

If we have a players in the NW airfield, Gorka, Cherbo and electro being killed by the same person in a matter of 20 minutes, then we can make an obvious conclusion. Let's get this through people, not everything is detected through the logs. But kills surely will.

This is my hope, it would also identify Scripters using Godmode, and I hope, kill commands.

If this is abused by admins, their server population will fall and the server will fail. Pick good servers with good admins people. Good servers generally have a website and or teamspeak. Like any other game, you need to find a good server to call home.

My sentiments exactly.

[Bugo 15]

I agree to this. I was just checking my log files due to a hacker report and got stuck with the same issue that even though the server logs what player was killed it doesn't state who killed him.

As sp86 stated, the changes required are minimal, it's just adding some eventHandler provided by the Arma II engine to the mission file, or actually i think it's at the init.sqf file which seems to be compiled into dayz mod files and in turn, obfuscated for us admin/programmers to make modifications.

This is a feature that's totally necessary for us to run decent servers and ban users for good. Right now, we can't prove anything. I've seem a video posted by one of our users and i can't do shit about it.

If you open your mission file, you'll see something like: init.sqf. It's a binay file, so you'll see some random chars since it's the header of the file

Also by the end you get some stuff like:

//Load in compiled functions

call compile preprocessFileLineNumbers "\z\addons\dayz_code\init\variables.sqf"; //Initilize the Variables (IMPORTANT: Must happen very early)

We could probably load our own .sqf file with the addEventhandlers hooked there, but that would be tampering the mission file provided by DayZ and it seems to be totally forbidden.

So in the end it's a thing of "should we do our own patch but, "break" the rules for better administration and anticheating capabilities" or should we just "bear with it till the developers take 20 minutes and provide this for us"?.

Anyway....

Edited August 29, 2012 by Bugo

[Bugo 15]

Double post deleted.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Bugo

[sp86 508]

The question is simple, are SA admins obligated to protect the integrity of their servers, and if so, do we risk getting blacklisted by the Official Hive to do so? It's a shitty choice.

[Traveler (DayZ) 27]

Why would you add additional information? It is a funny thing that anyone on the server should know that some guy died somewhere anyway! Some servers have death-messages disabled completely (Veteran and expert mostly). OK, I would really like to get one addtional piece of information though: "xyz was killed" vs. "xyz died". Display the first one if eaten by zombies or shot by player, the 2nd one if dropped from ledge, bled to death or froze or starved or whatnot.

[sp86 508]

Why would you add additional information?

As stated: to identify hackers.

It is a funny thing that anyone on the server should know that some guy died somewhere anyway! Some servers have death-messages disabled completely (Veteran and expert mostly).

Yes they do.

OK, I would really like to get one addtional piece of information though: "xyz was killed" vs. "xyz died". Display the first one if eaten by zombies or shot by player, the 2nd one if dropped from ledge, bled to death or froze or starved or whatnot.

That's player oriented information, I'm talking about something SA's can use to identify hackers.

[P2J2 8]

+1 Having wasted hours of my time going through the LOG and RPT's of the server I used to admin on, and not being able to find the proof I needed to catch and properly report cheaters, I have to say this is a great idea. It would save so much time! Anyone arguing that it could be abused needs to seriously ask themselves this question...what's the bigger problem with this mod right now, admin abuse or hackers?

[Bugo 15]

Why would you add additional information? It is a funny thing that anyone on the server should know that some guy died somewhere anyway! Some servers have death-messages disabled completely (Veteran and expert mostly). OK, I would really like to get one addtional piece of information though: "xyz was killed" vs. "xyz died". Display the first one if eaten by zombies or shot by player, the 2nd one if dropped from ledge, bled to death or froze or starved or whatnot.

We're not talking about death messages displayed to the players, but logged to the report file, for server admins. It's a silent logging we need. It's pretty basic, if a hacker kills someone, right now i can look at "XXXX died", but i have no idea WHO killed him, ergo, what's the probable hacker ID.

This is really needed.

[Charlotte (DayZ) 6]

Yes, plz. If they can't or won't ban the hackers, the should give us the tools (like this) to make finding & banning easier.

[bigAPE 20]

We have asked Vilayer to implement this in their fork specifically for this reason. When a hacker kills 8 people in one hit you can then SEE who it was, rather than hoping their are not hacking with a tool that hides their activity from the logs.

[sheriffhd 61]

I wouldnt mind knowing who killed me, just so i could go for a revenge kill.

[chiefkyle 1]

@ minumum their should definitly be an event log for admins for who killed who.

@ best there should be both an event log for administration, and global broadcast of who killed who.

Tying the hands of admins by not showing who is killing who, is a huge problem for proper Administration.

Edited September 8, 2012 by DMR_Sniper