Are Exploits Still Everywhere?

Inarre · July 2016

I've been away for a few months since the major hacking/cheating/exploiting started. Was just wondering where it's at, if it's been kept under control and if its worth coming back to game?

Forgive me I dun wanna read through 50000 threads

Mady · July 2016

The people who got perma banned for using exploits/cheat engine got unbanned, because they said 'I won't do this again! Please forgive me! Have mercy!'

So exploiters are still in the game.

Some of them even saying 'It's part of the game and hard to find - so I will use it.'

3.0

Inarre · July 2016

GG And I see now Orsinium is off limits... LOL.

UltimaJoe777 · July 2016

Mady wrote: »

The people who got perma banned for using exploits/cheat engine got unbanned, because they said 'I won't do this again! Please forgive me! Have mercy!'

So exploiters are still in the game.

Some of them even saying 'It's part of the game and hard to find - so I will use it.'

There ARE people getting banned for exploiting. Your referencing the first banwave that spread across people using Cheat Engine and not the banwave that spread later on to those exploiting keep wall jumping. Long as they get reported, action is taken. There is also a three-strikes system so an actual permaban is not likely to happen unless it is the account's third offense.

NBrookus · July 2016

I see fewer exploiters and suspect exploiters, but it's not gone. It's better out there, IMO.

Papa_Hunt · July 2016

Was a good question. Has anyone seen people obviously using CE lately?

Docmandu · July 2016

Less Cheat Engine, more people making "creative use of bugged mechanics" while nothing gets done about it. (gap close into keeps being #1 issue, which ZOS took a stance on but people just ignore it since they know nothing comes of it)

Current playerbase mentality is, if you find a bug, make use of it.

Rohamad_Ali · July 2016

They're still here thinking they're more crafty now . Tuning things to go unnoticed . Some even dumb enough to leave old videos up on thier twitch and YouTube accounts , then wonder why they got banned .

Inarre · July 2016

Well, better is better than nothing. Maybe I will see you around... Maybe not. Well see what the mister wants to do :P Thanks for the comments.

Voxicity · July 2016

Can confirm all exploiters are still in the game.

Hackers/cheat engine users however I'm not sure.

Phinix1 · July 2016

ZOS "is working on" a better auto-detection system to ban Cheat Engine users, but the results are questionable at this point.

Since it is impossible for the average player to know if someone is using Cheat Engine to hack their regen or other stats if it doesn't show as a ridiculously huge health bar or constant invulnerability shield or them flying around spamming meteors or something, it is 100% on ZOS to hire the security people they need to do the job.

Until they have tweaked their Cheat Engine detection and auto-ban system enough to catch all these people, and until they are willing to be more professional about perma-banning serious offenders like this and not "showing mercy" on people that knowingly download cheat programs, they will remain in game, unbalancing PVP and leaderboards and undermining public trust.

I would like to see a public announcement about their actions specifically against Cheat Engine users, and what steps they have taken to automatically detect memory space manipulations of stats on the client side by this or other means.

The lack of such a statement leads me to assume little if any progress has been made and they are putting it 100% on the players to gather video evidence and report incidents of abuse.

Obviously that is unacceptable. Even if it wasn't abdicating their responsibility as the IP owner and content provider, it is simply impossible for the average player to detect or record evidence of the majority of these cases, and shifting responsibility only serves to create hostility and paranoia as everyone suspects everyone else of being a cheater.

ZOS needs to invest money in an anti-cheat detection system. Period.

Wollust · July 2016

Still haven't seen (or noticed) anything indicating to the use of cheat engines on PC EU. Maybe they are doing it smart, but I guess it's not that much of an issue (anymore.. hopefully.. ?..).

Regarding the exploit of bugs, well that's still business as usual. Though ZoS actually did make a stance for a day or so against gap closing into keeps. Haven't heard much regarding that issue anymore though.

And well, there is still a lot of bugs, some which you can control, some which you cannot, some which will be fixed eventually, some which will become features.

More or less everything the same as ever I would say.

Preyfar · July 2016

I stopped PVPing because of the Cheat Engine issues, but recently started up again. It's better. A lot better. There's still a lot of issues (e.g. Malubeth) but they're less exploits, more imbalances.

zyk · July 2016

Wollust wrote: »

Still haven't seen (or noticed) anything indicating to the use of cheat engines on PC EU. Maybe they are doing it smart, but I guess it's not that much of an issue (anymore.. hopefully.. ?..).

The only reason it was widely noticed in the first place is because some players decided to create a spectacle to prove beyond any doubt that these things are possible.

ZOS probably only obfuscated the memory addresses which only makes memory hacking (which is what cheat engine is used for, but not needed to do) more difficult for those who don't know how to find the addresses themselves and/or aren't friends with people who can.

Valve doesn't use a system like VAC because it's fun. It's because a comprehensive solution is required to play a proper game of cat and mouse with cheaters. ZOS lacks the means to play this game. Until ESO has a comprehensive solution like VAC, there will always be players using memory hacking to cheat subtly enough to avoid being caught.

I encourage everyone to observe popular VAC protected games. The number of players banned for cheating is staggering -- and these players know the game is VAC protected. Does anyone truly believe ESO is only played by saints or highly honorable players? No, of course not. We see players blatantly abusing in-game glitches constantly.

You can safely bet ESO has a greater proportion of cheaters than other games because ZOS has not invested the resources into developing the proper tools and policies to mitigate it.

yodased · July 2016

Also, latency and server lag need to be addressed in all of these talks.

The more moved to the server, the less hackable and more dependant on heavy connection loads.

Even some players in a vacuum will cheat if they can, it's engraved in their DNA to win at all costs

Inarre · July 2016

@Preyfar That was mainly why i left game and I'm glad to hear you are finding the PVP better. I know there will always be imbalances and the odd feller hopping into a keep through the wall, but I was mostly concerned about the cheat engine exploiters and even more about the auto bans that were being placed on any account that was mentioned in a ticket.

Wollust · July 2016

zyk wrote: »

Wollust wrote: »

Still haven't seen (or noticed) anything indicating to the use of cheat engines on PC EU. Maybe they are doing it smart, but I guess it's not that much of an issue (anymore.. hopefully.. ?..).

The only reason it was widely noticed in the first place is because some players decided to create a spectacle to prove beyond any doubt that these things are possible.

ZOS probably only obfuscated the memory addresses which only makes memory hacking (which is what cheat engine is used for, but not needed to do) more difficult for those who don't know how to find the addresses themselves and/or aren't friends with people who can.

Valve doesn't use a system like VAC because it's fun. It's because a comprehensive solution is required to play a proper game of cat and mouse with cheaters. ZOS lacks the means to play this game. Until ESO has a comprehensive solution like VAC, there will always be players using memory hacking to cheat subtly enough to avoid being caught.

I encourage everyone to observe popular VAC protected games. The number of players banned for cheating is staggering -- and these players know the game is VAC protected. Does anyone truly believe ESO is only played by saints or highly honorable players? No, of course not. We see players blatantly abusing in-game glitches constantly.

You can safely bet ESO has a greater proportion of cheaters than other games because ZOS has not invested the resources into developing the proper tools and policies to mitigate it.

Well I did only say I haven't noticed them. They might be around, but I've yet to meet someone who left me speechless because he played on a level which I may not be able to explain. I know many extremely good players and players who are better than me, but I have yet to meet one simply killing it in terms of skillful play. Everything I have seen so far seems to be completely possible and in the realm of human capabilities. So there at least that I guess. But that's just my opinion.
And I certainly don't want to play down the cheat engine issue. It is a problem. And there is a need for means to prevent it.
But then again, I always thought they implemented tools against cheating, botting and such back with the lighting patch and all that stuff. Back when it started to lag because the server couldn't handle the information stream anymore. But it seems as if it did not help much as we had to experience after the going public of the cheat engine.
Which leaves me wondering what Cyrodiil was sacrificed for 2 years ago..

Preyfar · July 2016

Inarre wrote: »

@Preyfar That was mainly why i left game and I'm glad to hear you are finding the PVP better. I know there will always be imbalances and the odd feller hopping into a keep through the wall, but I was mostly concerned about the cheat engine exploiters and even more about the auto bans that were being placed on any account that was mentioned in a ticket.

I don't have full confidence in PVP, but I will say I don't feel like I'm at risk of being outright exploited by other players. The Cheat Engine issue almost made me quit the game, but... I can say it feels better overall.

ScottK1994 · July 2016

I haven't seen any in game. There's apparent "taking advantage" of systems in PvP(sneaking enemy people into keeps, Repairing walls with them inside and people who are apparently just knocking walls down and building them for points)BUT I don't think many people have reported any hackers recently

ScottK1994 · July 2016

I've also no experience of those issues in PvP. The game just seems buggy is all

Docmandu · July 2016

Inarre wrote: »

the odd feller hopping into a keep

It's gap closer galore these days.. go into a tower and you can be damn sure at least 10 enemy DKs and 10 NBs will gap close into it.

It's one thing ZOS posting it's an exploit on the forum, it's another thing getting them to actually fix the issue and/or slap people on the wrist for it.

People now consider it a feature of the game.

Exploit early, exploit often.

ScottK1994 · July 2016

I think walls keep walls need to be higher so that only arrows can reach enemy players

ScottK1994 · July 2016

Either that or make small groups unable to take keeps. Which would probably frustrate nearly everyone since I'm sure most servers have a side with far more players.

I think higher keep walls would be better, they're only so unrealistically small so players survive a fall aren't they?

KingMagaw · July 2016

Yes cheaters and exploiters are still very much in ESO, its not like Zo$ has any backbone in dealing with these people. Ban/Unban/incompetent.

Hashtag_ · July 2016

The biggest exploiters right now are ZOS.

kevlarto_ESO · July 2016

Unfortunately still way to much going on it really is disheartening that so many players stoop to such lows while claiming they want competitive and challenging game play.

mtwiggz · July 2016

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

Mady wrote: »

The people who got perma banned for using exploits/cheat engine got unbanned, because they said 'I won't do this again! Please forgive me! Have mercy!'

So exploiters are still in the game.

Some of them even saying 'It's part of the game and hard to find - so I will use it.'

There ARE people getting banned for exploiting. Your referencing the first banwave that spread across people using Cheat Engine and not the banwave that spread later on to those exploiting keep wall jumping. Long as they get reported, action is taken. There is also a three-strikes system so an actual permaban is not likely to happen unless it is the account's third offense.

This is mostly all false information. ZoS still has no proper way in game to check for a player using Cheat Engine beyond the most obvious of abuse. The "three-strikes" rule does not apply in most cases either. Just last night a friend of mine was banned from ESO, the email notifying him of said ban didn't even give a reason as to why he was banned. This was said players first offence, he appealed and was denied. This is also not the first time I've seen this happen in the past few weeks. Just one of several great PvP players I've seen permanently banned on their first offence while using no third party software.

rfennell_ESO · July 2016

mtwiggz wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

Mady wrote: »

The people who got perma banned for using exploits/cheat engine got unbanned, because they said 'I won't do this again! Please forgive me! Have mercy!'

So exploiters are still in the game.

Some of them even saying 'It's part of the game and hard to find - so I will use it.'

There ARE people getting banned for exploiting. Your referencing the first banwave that spread across people using Cheat Engine and not the banwave that spread later on to those exploiting keep wall jumping. Long as they get reported, action is taken. There is also a three-strikes system so an actual permaban is not likely to happen unless it is the account's third offense.

This is mostly all false information. ZoS still has no proper way in game to check for a player using Cheat Engine beyond the most obvious of abuse. The "three-strikes" rule does not apply in most cases either. Just last night a friend of mine was banned from ESO, the email notifying him of said ban didn't even give a reason as to why he was banned. This was said players first offence, he appealed and was denied. This is also not the first time I've seen this happen in the past few weeks. Just one of several great PvP players I've seen permanently banned on their first offence while using no third party software.

Ever think that maybe you now know why they were great?

Also, ever think they might not be telling the truth about it being their first offense?

The problem with eso and cheaters is that it was far too tempting to cheat with the inkling that nothing would be done floating around and the prospect of making 1vx videos and being an in game rock star.

With some people cheating is ingrained in their nature, the smack talking and brash youngsters that can't be "the greatest" on merit of play volume will turn to using any and all advantages to feed their ego and make them look good. The rewards in game are both measurable and notable if you are a "known" and "great" pvper. Even the pvers will carry them through content because of it...

To claim that ZOS has no way in game to check for a player using Cheat Engine is pretty much claiming things you have no idea if true. It's really more a does ZOS have the ability to detect cheat engine passively, without reports being made that you should question instead. Too many respond to their own faction pulling the bs with cheers.

I could cite 6 examples of players that are obviously cheating off the top of my head that occurred within the last week. Even more if it were to be suspected macro users (which has fallen to accepted status with cheat engine being the topic).

Lord_Draevan · July 2016

Papa_Hunt wrote: »

Was a good question. Has anyone seen people obviously using CE lately?

Last night in my guild chat (NA PC Trueflame) they claim to have ran into a DC player with 40k health and 70k stamina who moved faster than them even with speed pots and rapids.

Roechacca · July 2016

I never listened to players that say what ZOS can or cannot do, will or will not do. Players think they know everything.

Inarre · July 2016

Eh. I logged in last night and booted around the main city of my faction, cleaned out merchant mails from before I quit (Yay investment paid off and I'm an in game millionaire!) and was a lot of "looking for 2 dps for silver 500CP+ only" xD This game is so full of elitists, and that's being said from a nearly 500CP player.... The thought of this plus still so many cheat engine users is so disheartening.

I'm not sure I want to do much in game now. Maybe I will just merchant for fun