CLIENT-SIDE CHEAT PROTECTION

    Since KR went f2p there is alot more money involved from us players supporting GF and NC and I have the feeling this post should already been made 5 years ago.


    Why does this game has no cheat protection?


    - Are there technical issues?

    - Is it too expensive?

    - Problems with privacy laws?

    I mean even private servers have it, KR has it.

    I had a discussion with the GMs too and from a software engineer pov I can only see one solution to the whole problem and that is client side cheat protection.
    Now we really have to face it, I'm not going into details for the sake of the game but something has to be done, if you keep going like this you will shoot yourself in the foot one day.

    Edited once, last by Aionjimme ().

    Those kind of protections always create tons of problems and people still find ways to cheat. No thanks, the client is already poorly optimized enough, no need to add another layer of sh*t that will solve nothing, many other games tried, it's never a good idea.


    The only good kind of anti cheat protection that doesn't have drawbacks for the users is a server side one, and that can only be developped from scratch by nc, and let's face it, they'll never do it because they already don't care/believe in aion anymore, almost everything is recycled, down to even skill icons, they're just milking the rest of the playerbase and are getting ready to close the servers the moment whales are out of juice.

    I hate stupid people.

    I've looked into from a dev pov, you make 3 valid points but they are all untrue.


    1. We already have serverside logging developed by NC

    2. Any drawbacks for client side cheat protection can be solved with exceptions
    3. Client side cheat protection will actually stop all the cheats out there and no they won't find another way

    The milking aion stuff, anti cheat is not that expensive and the whales you talk about are players like me that are bored spending more then 1k a month for the game that allows 20% of the community to cheat. I wonder what I do it for.

    Edited once, last by Aionjimme ().

    Quote from Aionjimme

    I've looked into from a dev pov, you make 3 valid points but they are all untrue.


    1. We already have serverside anti cheat developed by NC

    2. Any drawbacks for client side cheat protection can be solved with exceptions
    3. Client side cheat protection will actually stop all the cheats out there and no they won't find another way

    The milking aion stuff, anti cheat is not that expensive and the whales you talk about are players like me that are bored spending more then 1k a month for the game that allows 20% of the community to cheat. I wonder what I do it for.

    20% of the community cheats? Alright, paranoid much?

    It's not because you spend 1k€ per month that you're supposed to be invincible and whoever kills you is automatically a cheater.


    And on top of that, no, there is no decent server side protection. Tools to check animation speed like myaion or aidps can easily detect noanimation, they just need to add a similar system directly to the server and ban whoever starts attacking faster than he should.

    I hate stupid people.

    Quote from Aionjimme

    3. Client side cheat protection will actually stop all the cheats out there and no they won't find another way

    Isn't xigncode client sided? Everyone capable of googling know how "well" it works, only thing it stop is 12yo kids from using their gaming mouse software, everyone else just bypass it.

    I'm not being paranoid, players know they get logged so they hide it.
    Even so how many times you see someone on dpsmeter with no-anim.
    That is without the bots and radar hacks included.


    So if you can't give constructive feedback regarding the topic and points you made but resort to personal insults instead I have nothing to say to you.

    Edited once, last by Aionjimme ().

    Quote from Sleepyhead
    Quote from Aionjimme

    3. Client side cheat protection will actually stop all the cheats out there and no they won't find another way

    Isn't xigncode client sided? Everyone capable of googling know how "well" it works, only thing it stop is 12yo kids from using their gaming mouse software, everyone else just bypass it.

    Hmmm I think if it is coded well, it's hard to bypasss but the downside is that the software needs to be maintained.
    That said, NC KR already has it up and running so implementing that should have minimal issues and drawbacks.

    Quote from Aura
    Quote from Aionjimme

    I've looked into from a dev pov, you make 3 valid points but they are all untrue.


    1. We already have serverside anti cheat developed by NC

    2. Any drawbacks for client side cheat protection can be solved with exceptions
    3. Client side cheat protection will actually stop all the cheats out there and no they won't find another way

    The milking aion stuff, anti cheat is not that expensive and the whales you talk about are players like me that are bored spending more then 1k a month for the game that allows 20% of the community to cheat. I wonder what I do it for.

    And on top of that, no, there is no decent server side protection. Tools to check animation speed like myaion or aidps can easily detect noanimation, they just need to add a similar system directly to the server and ban whoever starts attacking faster than he should.

    Ah you editted your post, atleast some normal reply.


    Yes I agree, serverside can still improve aswell, but then only 50% is covered. The other 50% is actually client side. We need client side protection because alot of the cheats have to do with memory manipulation on the client.

    Edited 2 times, last by Aionjimme ().

    Quote from Aionjimme

    That said, NC KR already has it up and running so implementing that should have minimal issues and drawbacks.

    That's not really valid, NCKR has also all the aion patches running before we get them and we still get bloody mess (and considering that the "live" version is after the QA check i don't wanna think how bugged patches they send to other regions).


    That aside, i don't get how anyone can think that having a spyware-like software (because that's what client sided stuff is in fact) installed on your PC in order to play a game is a good idea.


    I get that noone like cheaters (I don't like them aswell), but fighting cheaters by limiting EVERYONE's privacy is just wrong. Especially, that like Aura said, you can get rid of majority of hackers just with server sided stuff without actually spying on legit players.

    You both talk about server side protection but I've looked into this.. At max you can log animations or check who is being targeted in stealth, but even that is not reliable.


    ALL OTHER CHEAT SOFTWARE is just memory reading and writing.. If you have looked into it then you will see that the benefits do actually weigh up..

    Also every game with huge communities has some sort of AC, fortnite even has external companies doing it so, if it was really that bad games wouldn't use it.


    Yes y    ou can be against this as an individual, but that means that you either don't know what you talk about or you value your privacy that much that no gaming company can see your processes.

    there is not a single anti cheat that works 100% of the time.. look at vanguard for riot game, it runs on a kernel level from the boot of your pc and ppl still managed to cheat on day 1

    fortnite seems to be the exception with very few cheaters in 3 years but still some have managed to get past it.

    these are huge game with huge company backing them up, there is no way in hell ncsoft will do anything for aion.. and if they do start to look into it, they might wanna start by detecting synapse/ahk/icue/logitech software first, they are free to use and allow u to do something you normally wouldnt be able to -> cheating.

    And to add to the downsides of client side anti-cheat, it messes with things such as your Fan profiles / PC Lighting (like for example Riot's Vanguard really doesn't like Corsair iCUE --> causes my PC to overheat / thermal throttle over time since the fans are no longer adjusted by the Corsair Commander Pro). The "better" anti cheat is, the more intrusive on your system it gets.


    Would rather just deal with the occasional no anim hero than sacrifice my PC's performance tbh.

    Quote from Aionjimme

    if it was really that bad games wouldn't use it.

    They would because their playerbase dont realise the security risks it bring.


    Tiktok:

    Gets info about your device (very detailed)

    Aswell as info about the net devices you're connected to

    Most likely also access and send info taken from your system cache

    ... And list of all programs installed (even if they're not installed anymore)

    ... It also get your pretty precise location with refresh rate of 30s.

    It can also download zip file, unpack it and install it content without notifying the user.

    ... It also contain vulnerable to session hijacking fb sdk version.

    And quite a bit more.

    But it doesn't stop it from being super popular so so x)


    I mean, if you leak this type of data, then I guess leaking browser history, running processes and other stuff in order to play online games seems pretty chill. Until it got leaked, but oh well.