Punkbuster? ohh no

Top Sgt · 2012-03-08, 12:37 PM

Just read on reddit they are considering using punkbuster as their anti cheat.

ohh noo seriously.. The hackers are laughing at PB right now...

They destroyed Homefront on PC in less than 1 week

BF3 on PC has a major major hacking issue so bad hackers even re wrote some programming to make punkbuster ban legit players instead of actual cheaters.

No flame needed I am just concerned.. i do not think punkbuster is a good choice anymore... Nothing is full proof but PB is laughed at on the hacker sites

What are your thoughts on using PB? and/or what else should they consider using?

Edit:

lemme show you a BF3 example of why Punkbuster is a joke to these hackers

MyMeatStick · 2012-03-08, 12:44 PM

I concur, PB is a huge waste of time.

Not only the hacker issues but it has a long running issue with disconnect the player from servers randomly, Who wants that while your in the middle of hacking a door or base...

Coreldan · 2012-03-08, 12:45 PM

There is no better alternative. They are all just about equally crap. They do however keep the devs having to constantly work on the cheats.

Thats just how it goes, cheats are always designed to bypass current level of anti cheat.

Aractain · 2012-03-08, 12:46 PM

So what does work?

Gortha · 2012-03-08, 12:47 PM

Only way to get rid of hackers is a lot of GameMasters who can spectate reported players/hackers.

Coreldan · 2012-03-08, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Gortha

Only way to get rid of hackers is a lot of GameMasters who can spectate reported players/hackers.

Except it isnt, it only stops the obvious cases who snap around like mad.

Anyone who isnt stupid will tweak their cheats down so that you can't tell they are aimbotting from a third person view, yet they will beat you in every shootout.

Hydra · 2012-03-08, 12:50 PM

Punkbuster?
Chinaside 2 here I come

Hopefully Devs will keep on their toes when it comes to that, I really would hate to see this game suffer the same fate planetside 1 went through. They really should put a box price on this, at least it will lessen the hackers.

Crator · 2012-03-08, 12:51 PM

PS1 didn't have an anti-hack program. Let's hope whatever they use works well for the game cause we all know what happened when PS1 went free to play.

Lonehunter · 2012-03-08, 12:54 PM

Punkbuster was a pretty big shock to me. That's like going out on a super hot date and once you finally get to her place she points out the 3 toddlers and 20 cats.

Same exact feeling

Coreldan · 2012-03-08, 12:55 PM

We also have to remember that Planetside was horribly coded and netcoded, which is understandable considering the time back then.

Most games nowadays verify stuff server side, meaning that just about nothing except aimbotting and wallhacking is possible, cos server will verify the packets you send and wont accept when you are sending packets that say that "hoi, my gauss rifle fires at 10x normal speed, okay?".

So even in the worst case scenario it wont be as bad as it was in Planetside, but sure those rage hackers can ruin the fun either way. At least in Planetside they got so many people to shoot at that they probably wont get too far before they die.

And if they can cheat health, rate of fire, stuff like this, SOE has failed in the code.

Also, most of the shooters I've played mainly use Punkbuster, I've had very little to no issues with it ever that wouldnt have gotten fixed by running the PB updater, usually dont even get any issues.

Eyeklops · 2012-03-08, 12:58 PM

Cheating is a very sore issue for me, it's the main reason I quit playing PS1, and BF3. I don't care if they do use Punkbuster, but it had better not be the only method of anti-cheat.

I hope that the free-2-play mechanics do not create a get-banned-create-another-account-in-2-min-wash-rinse-repeat senario like the PS1 reserves did.

For the love of god, use multiple methods to slow down hackers. All bans should be by "revolving hardware ID hash", email address, & CC number together. And when I say "revolving hardware ID hash", I mean PS2 should scan your hardware and collect as many ID's as possible then make multple hashes from your config, and if you get banned you won't know which to spoof, so you will have a fun time figuring out which one it is. Then once you got it figured out, they change which hashes they create new bans on and force you into another round of guessing games. Nothing is perfect, but multiple layers of anti-cheat could only help.

Bags · 2012-03-08, 12:58 PM

Maybe this is just a front and they've actually got really sneaky hack detection planned?!?!

Well, I'm hoping this isn't everything they have planned and they just won't tell us all to make it harder for hackers...

ringring · 2012-03-08, 01:03 PM

I still really don't know why SoE doesn't back up software protection with a legal one. Surely if someone intentionally and repeatedly damages your product you can take legal redress?

dachlatte · 2012-03-08, 01:05 PM

pb alone will not be enough to protect teh game.
there needs to be an efficient, easy(for the players) to use method to report and ban hackers.

in bf3 you have to report the profile of the hacker and then you have to wait weeks before they get banned. its horrible...

the /appeal system in ps1 isnt too good either. its too complicated. many players didnt even know how to appeal a hacker

some ingame report function would be nice. to prevent abuse rate the players based on a reports/bans ratio or something

ArmedZealot · 2012-03-08, 01:05 PM

It think punkbuster combined with a player run report/judgement system ala League of Legends that forwards a ban request to a GM for final review would be sufficient. Combine that with server side sanity checks would be sufficient.

Down the road I would hope that killcam-like data can be saved and reviewed up to a week prior to help the GM's out more.