Confessions of a cheater...

[Kobias]

This is probably one of the more well thought out posts regarding the subject I've read in a long time. I was expecting a RNF style troll or something.

The moment the v12 patch came out, I was digging into the ASM of the new dll files to find out what they did. I was actually rather shocked with some of it. Those files do a lot more than what you might think it does. Kinda borderline privacy violation imo, but I can see the need for it; I just hope they keep my personal info secure on the server that collects it. I kinda sorta warned people upfront, but I didn't want to tell them it was a detection because I figured I'd land myself in trouble. I'm a programmer myself, and I love security stuff. That is why I take a vast interest in a variety of things on both sides. You need to understand how MQ2 works in order to stop hackers cold.

@OP: I will be honest, I can see why you'd find appeal in some of the things you mentioned. From what I've heard about it, it does some interesting things. But, those "interesting things" in MQ2 are often abused by the wrong people. I do know many players from Live that used it. Many of which only used it passively (for a means of information such as selling price of items? spell information on demand?) We'd group together and he'd tell me all the shit I should keep or toss lol. I don't personally have a problem with these types of people. I might consider the Tracking/EB thing you mentioned as bad though, as there are encounters that demand it.

But then, there are those people who did find SERVER-SIDE EXPLOITS, and used MQ2 to develop plugins/macros that took advantage of them. For example, the most notorious scandal I can remember was NoDelay/Ghost Killing mobs from EQLive. This went on for a very LONG time! Pissed me off because people were always jacking my mobs >.< But, It was because EQLive didn't enforce delay in their code that opened up a weakness to be exploited.

This is why NoDelay/Ghost doesn't work on emulator servers to the best of my knowledge-- or at least I've never heard about it? The loophole it exploited doesn't exist here.

Anyway, I've always been kind of torn on the whole issue of MQ2 thing, even from Live. The point I was trying to make, and maybe is the same as the original post: MQ2 can do a lot of things, most of which are passive (effects how you perceive the world). In some cases it can improve your gaming experience tremendously by taking tedious things out of the equation and let you focus on whats important to you. Then there are the A-Holes who pay cash to get hardcore plugins that do some wickedly sick things (Warping, zoning, etc), and act like complete dicks to others with the "power" it gives them.

Normally I wouldn't say this because it might count as divulging an exploit, but given that we have detection now, I feel a bit more optimistic we can discuss more detail. I've seen a guy use warping on P1999 to kite/med mobs. He'd setup 4 or 5 warp points in a circle pattern and pull a mob; start warping between the 4 points (smaller warps are less detectable apparently) and just dot a mob. He'd sit down and still be warping to the 4 points on a nice interval that the mob never could catch him. Easy XP? This is the kind of guy I have a problem with. I confronted him about it, but he was a nice guy so I didn't report him; just warned him that it's not a smart idea to use it here.

It was very generous of Rogean and crew to only suspend these people. If I had my hand in this process, I would have had a specific GM spy on those people during that period and serve them a ban instead for the ones exhibiting any noticeable/major exploitation. The community would probably be better because of it.

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@omg mq2 cheaters must die: You probably met the small dick guys I was talking about.

@omg mq2 users can't track anymore: Guess again! the OP was pointing out other methods. There is a reason why EQLive has battled this problem for years, and it began with ShowEQ. It cannot be traced if done correctly, and I guarantee you somebody will do this. I wont tell you the correct way to do it. It just wont be as common place to use because MQ2 made it easy for the common guy.

@omg mq2 is gone forever: Not likely. If you honestly believe this, then you're a fool. Security and Hackers go hand-in-hand. A new security method comes out, a new hack circumvention prevents it. There is probably already somebody working on patching the new .DLL files to always transmit a passing state (or manipulate the data it collects about your machine). The point of me saying this is: relish it for a while because we'll be safe from hardcore cheating here for a while; but if I had to place my bets I'd say it'll be back at some point.

@omg P1999 actually did something to stop it, EQLive didn't: I heard a lot of people say shit like this, and always thought it was kind naive. EQLive did a more advanced detection technique years ago, and discovered the sheer well of people and their accounts who used. They took action against a select few who used it more hardcore game disrupting, but they inevitably adopted a secret policy of tolerance. Honestly, their reaction was the same as Rogeans: Disappointed. However, Rogean doesn't depend on us for financial backing, unlike EQLive. That is precisely why those who used it passively were not banned during that period, their continued subscription fee.

@omg Kobias was suspended too?!: No. My post here isn't in retaliation to a suspension or anything. Just sharing my views on the subject, and putting fact to stuff people talk about but don't seem to understand.

@Mods: Sorry if I put something in here you'd rather me not say. If you need to edit the exploit thing out or something go ahead... Would prefer that over deletion since I put a lot of time into this [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

@tl;dr crowd: try Ritalin...and learn more [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

@OP: I feel for your loss man, probably the only one I've heard who was suspended that I do.