Cheat Prevention -- exactly what does it prevent?

tinkthank · #1 April 21st, 2004, 05:03 PM

I read those threads on "spyware" and whatnot, but I didnt see this question addressed.

Against what does "cheat protection" (I think that is what that is called in Game Creation) protect?

I mean: How can you cheat in this game? Is there something like a "maphack" (like in Warcraft) circulated? (Never heard of that.)

I cant understand it. Obviously Illwinter thought it was important enough to invest much time in developing, since they introduced this feature at the cost of many known bugs that have not been addressed -- but I couldnt even begin to imagine how "cheating" in this game works, let alone the vast multitudes of players who have complained about it (where? when?). But maybe I dont play enough MP.

Thanks in advance

Gandalf Parker · #2 April 21st, 2004, 05:26 PM

The piracy protection mentioned in the "spyware" thread is different than the cheat protection. The piracy protection seems to try and keep people from playing in multiplayer games with CD-keys that are known to be abused. (Im guessing mostly based on the conversations)

The cheat protection was because it was possible to create gods which were impossible for players to use, and use them in multiplayer games. Now if Man has a god which the present Version of the game doesnt allow you, it sends a message to all the players saying "Man has cheated" and then changes that god to a generic no magic unit.

The button on the menu to allow that cheat-protection to be turned on and off is because some maps (like some of mine) specifically created gods which they wanted the players to use but the game stated refusing that.

-- www.alt-hacker.org

[ April 21, 2004, 16:27: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

tinkthank · #3 April 21st, 2004, 05:33 PM

Ah I get it. Not that I could ever figure out how to mod a god or so.
Did people complain about cheating? I mean, I just cant imagine DomII players to doing that (using those modded gods in MP without being told it is ok).

Cainehill · #4 April 21st, 2004, 06:21 PM

The one thing I've noticed Cheat Protection doing is preventing you from creating a Warlock pretender for Abyssia using 2.08 (because it accidentally got removed in 2.11) and then bringing it into 2.11.

So - the one thing that'd let you get around the new 2.11 bug, is caput because of the Cheat Protection.

Chazar · #5 April 21st, 2004, 06:22 PM

I though that this cheat-protection had somehting to do with rehosting: A PBEM-Host might copy the directory and host anew if the outcome was bad for him. This was just a guess of mine, since Warlords3 tried to monitor such reloads.

So I know that this is impossible to protect against, but Dominions does not try to detect this, right? Or does it keep track of a random seed, so that rehosting is useless anyway?

Gandalf Parker · #6 April 21st, 2004, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tinkthank:
Ah I get it. Not that I could ever figure out how to mod a god or so.
Did people complain about cheating? I mean, I just cant imagine DomII players to doing that (using those modded gods in MP without being told it is ok).

Not alot. I think my maps tended to spur the checks because it made Illwinter think about the possibilitys. In fact I see more complaints because Dom2 DOESNT have cheats (HEY! Why are there no cheat codes?!?)

Quote:

Originally posted by Cainehill:
The one thing I've noticed Cheat Protection doing is preventing you from creating a Warlock pretender for Abyssia using 2.08 (because it accidentally got removed in 2.11) and then bringing it into 2.11.

So - the one thing that'd let you get around the new 2.11 bug, is caput because of the Cheat Protection.

That shouldnt a problem with the next patch. For two reasons. One is that the "turn off cheat" button will work, and I expect that if that is a bug it will also be fixed.

Quote:

Originally posted by Chazar:
I though that this cheat-protection had somehting to do with rehosting: A PBEM-Host might copy the directory and host anew if the outcome was bad for him. This was just a guess of mine, since Warlords3 tried to monitor such reloads.

So I know that this is impossible to protect against, but Dominions does not try to detect this, right? Or does it keep track of a random seed, so that rehosting is useless anyway?

I dont think this is tracked. I think most hosts need to do this more often than they cheat doing this but I guess it is something to consider.

[ April 21, 2004, 17:33: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]