Legal multi-character cheating

[Tsakonas]

I thought today why some of the players who play EL dont want the one client for each pc suggestion to pass

to the next updates of Eternal Lands.I dont say that everyone who is against this suggestion is cheater

but some of them who are against maybe are cheaters who dont want to loose their advantage.

I will prove that one client is a very good way to limlit cheating.

With this suggestion will stop over 90% of illegal and legal cheating.

There two ways of cheating which i will explain

(1) The idiot illegal cheating

(2) The smart legal cheating

 

For the illegal way of cheating:

One human uses the same IP adress for multi-character and claims that he is honest.

For examble: He has the main character Player_A and two alt characters Player_Mule_A_02 and Player_Mule_A_03.

All these characters have the same IP adress.

He uses the Player_A for the skills he wants to level up and the other two as mules.

He is doing that with these ways:trade eachother,uses some middlemen to help him and the bagtrading which is more difficut

to track because the bagtrading doesnt have id.If he is *smart* cheater he will level up the two mules and will

claim that plays multi-character fair like honest players do for fun.Sooner or later he will be caught by the mods

for his illegal actions and will be punished.

 

Second i will explain how the experienced cheaters act legal and without punishment(because there is no rule for this

action.)

For example:

There are four friends with different IP adresses who want to help easy eachother with a smart,legal but cheating way.

Not necessary the players to be always 4 its an exable and not needed to belong to a guild each one or all of them

to belong to the same guild.

These are:

(1) Player_B and his alt character Player_Alt_Mule_B

(2) Player_C and his alt character Player_Alt_Mule_C

(3) Player_D and his alt character Player_Alt_Mule_D

(4) Player_E and his alt character Player_Alt_Mule_E

All these players want to breake the rule 5 and never be punished because they will act with the legal way and nobody

can punish them.

These four humans will act like a gang.

They will claim the multi-player honest way of game and will hide behind the honest players who play multi-character

for fun and with fair way.

Dont forget these four have different IP adresses.

The cheat is this:

Player_B uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_B to mule for Player_C.

Player_C uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_C to mule for Player_B.

Player_D uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_D to mule for Player_E.

Player_E uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_E to mule for Player_D.

After hours,days or weeks if they are smart enough and sure they are will change mules with eachother.

They cheat but with the legal way:Rule 5 isnt for this action is only for same IP adresses trades actions.

Nobody can add rule to stop trades or honest friends who want to help eachother because they will damage

the game and all the guilds which use the help of their members for guild projects.

 

There is no law to stop this cheating.These kind of players have found this way to cheat and to be leagal the same time.

For them Rule 5 of the game is useless because is for players from same IP adresses.

How you can stop these kind of actions?

I think the best suggestion to stop illegal and legal cheating is the one client limit for each pc.

Some will say that its easy to break it.I know that is easy to find crack or hack the client so the cheaters will

coninue to cheat again.

I explained before how some players from different IP adresses can break easy and legal the rule 5 of the game and

if someone asks them why they have multi-characters they will say my alt character doesnt interact with me so i play

honest check me everytime and i will be always legal and you will not find even one time me to break rule 5.

 

Who or which can protect the Eternal Lands and the honest players from these kind of actions.Sure the rules cant because

their objective is to look for same IP adresses and not from different.

 

Some of you will say lets players to their free will if they want to play honest or cheating.

Example:

All the famillies during the sleeping time or when they leave their home for holidays have the doors locked and some of them

have alarms to protect their home and them from criminal actions.

When you say to let to players free will if they want to cheat or not is like in real life all of us during sleeping time

or when we leave from our home to let the doors open,disable allarm if we have and let our home to criminals will to

steal the home if he wants.This is the less will happen to us.The worst is to be insideand let our life to the hands

of the criminal.Who wants to let his life to criminals hands?

 

The police works like the mods in the game.The mods try their best to stop illegal actions and help for honest way of playing.

But in real life police isnt enough to protect us and we need also locks,allarms so and in game the manual watch cant stop

the smart cheaters who act in legal way which i explained above.

The one client limit for each pc i think is a good suggestion to stop this way of different IP adress mulling.

Some of you will say again its useless,nothing because its easy to crack the client or disable it because is open source.

I explained how the smart cheaters break legally the rule 5.With the same logic what we must do to remove RUle 5 because

some people can break it?

With the same reason(some people break it.) some of you dont want the one client limit for each pc because some people

will crack it.

The client connects to the server and sents always messages for your ingame actions.If you crack or hack it the client will

sent message to the server.Who is stupent enough to crack the client and thinks that nobody will notice it for a long time

of playing.

Look the ban forums how many players punished for illegal clients and how many for multi-character

cheating or other actions?

You can add a secret code to client which will be sent to server if the client is legal.If someone cracks the client

find a way to sent another code to server so it will be easy to track the illegal clients.

Now with the multi-character cheating the player who cheats and will be caught will say:Please unban me i will be honest,

i will never cheat again or i didnt read all the rules or i was tires and i did mistakes.

If some people crack the client there in no excuse for them.This action isnt a mistake which some will claim for

multi-character cheating.

What is more important some people who want to play honest multi-character or to limit illegal and legal cheating.

[korrode]

The cheat is this:

Player_B uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_B to mule for Player_C.

Player_C uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_C to mule for Player_B.

Player_D uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_D to mule for Player_E.

Player_E uses his alt Player_Alt_Mule_E to mule for Player_D.

You keep calling this "legal cheating"... its not cheating. It doesn't break the game rules.

 

Some of you will say again its useless,nothing because its easy to crack the client or disable it because is open source.

...

You can add a secret code to client which will be sent to server if the client is legal.

Yes but the client IS open source, it cant have secret code...

 

Sorry if this sounds insulting or harsh, but; you dont know enough about what your talking about.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Korrode

[ElNinho]

There is error in your idea. In explanation to Game Rules you can see:

"Illegal multi-playing means using more than one character to help you gain benefits that using a single character would not. Illegal multi-playing includes but is not limited to: muling, deathbag sitting, pvp training, luring people to pk maps with one character while lying in wait with another. Also note that it is very difficult to be able to define each and every form of illegal multi-playing or cheating, so these matters will be reveiwed and punishments decided upon on a case by case basis."

 

and:

 

"Middlemen are NOT allowed and do not make same IP trading legal between characters. (This includes getting somebody else to log on to one of your characters for the sole purpose of aquiring a different IP to make the trade"

 

One client limit for each pc dont stop "The smart legal cheating" described in your post because:

Dont forget these four have different IP adresses

[korrode]

"Middlemen are NOT allowed and do not make same IP trading legal between characters. (This includes getting somebody else to log on to one of your characters for the sole purpose of aquiring a different IP to make the trade"

I dont think thats what he means, he's just saying 2 people who's alts help the other persons main. Thats not cheating, as long as none of the items muled by player A's alt end up back with player A's main, which is not what he said.

 

My interpretation of his post is that he is simply against different humans working in a team... isn't that the whole idea of MMORPGs?!

Edited August 6, 2007 by Korrode

[gaspode]

Multi-character cheating exists, it's always been the bane of most MMORPG games, and it always will be unless someone comes up with a way to prevent multiple log-ons, either by multiple clients running on the same computer, or by using single clients on multiple computers.

 

The single client approach would work for the first situation, where only one client is able to run in any single session, however this obviously won't prevent the second case. The single client per IP approach will prevent the other case, at the cost of preventing honest families from playing at the same time.

 

The only way to prevent cheating in this way seems to be to withdraw the game from the majority of honest players who play as a family activity, this seems excessivly harsh for those of us who play these types of game honestly, and would only serve to alienate people looking for a free, open source, multi-platform MMORPG to enjoy in this way.

 

In fact when I first started playing EL there was a policy of declaring multiple characters on the same IP, in order to show that more than one person was playing each character is obviously more difficult, which is why moderators learn to recognise patterns in styles and habits.

 

I'd also like to know how on earth cheating can be described as 'legal', if it's legal it cannot be cheating, if it's cheating it cannot be legal.

 

Finally, the game and it's rules make the framework of the society we play in, there will always be those who seek to gain advantage from any and all bugs and loopholes, it's up to the players to live by the rules, or face the consequences, every day I read through the forums, and every day there is a post in 'Bans', the mod team is obviously working hard, and catching cheaters. Rest assured, although people cheat, in the end they get caught.

[Cycloonx]

I posted this some months ago too, it's just plain simple, 2 players make an alt that mule for eachother and there is really no way to check it

[korrode]

or by using single clients on multiple computers.

...

The single client approach would work for the first situation

As you said, "single clients on multiple computers.". If i wanted to trade with my alt, a single client on each computer wouldn't stop me for a second; I have 2 systems on 1 desk, and a mess of other computers around the house.

 

Plus there are ways around this, even without modifying code in the client that checked for other clients... i can hide one process from another at a system level, easy.

 

I posted this some months ago too, it's just plain simple, 2 players make an alt that mule for eachother and there is really no way to check it

Check what?! AFAIK this isn't cheating.

 

"Illegal Multiplay"... Multiplay; My interpretation is 1 person playing multiple times.

 

Could a moderator confirm please

 

 

btw, i dont do this, Llyn and me each have alts but to ensure no items go from my alt to my main accidentally, we decided that her alt wont trade with my main and vice versa, but AFAIK that was our choice, and not a game rule.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Korrode

[Marr]

I posted this some months ago too, it's just plain simple, 2 players make an alt that mule for eachother and there is really no way to check it

 

nah, thats easy to detectet (in theory).

 

 

for example :

 

players/clients: A,B, mA, mB

 

A has no connection to B

mA has no connection to mB

mA mules for B

mB mules for A

 

now howto dectect a mule? usually a mule char gets nothing in exchange for his "work" (the simple case) or something with a much lower value.

sure you can try to bypass this by trying to give something of same value in exchange but thats not muling anymore...

also its a little tricky because you have to watch a little at the market prize for some items.

 

however :

 

mA trades with B and get nothing in exchange

all connections from ip of mA get flagged : fmule-

all connections from ip of B get flagged : fmoneybag+

 

now the other way (this would work with more than two ppl as well):

 

mB trades with A and get nothing in exchange

all connections from ip of mB get flagged : fmule-

all connections from ip of A get flagged : fmoneybag+

 

if a player got both flags set (those can be stored, so even using a new login & ip dont work) he is a bann candidate :>

a counter for those actions would work fine as well.

 

 

[nicky]

When a mule is used for muling purposes, the character builds up in skills that make it stand out as a mule to the mods. Let THEM deal with it the way they always have. YOU claim that your multiple players with mules helping each other scenario cannot be detected, but you are underestimating the ability of the Mods to sniff this activity out. The Mods are not algorythems searching for a pattern, they are people, and (without knowing anything about thier tools) they can look for this now that you bring it up.

 

Please, this is the second thread for the same unintelligent idea, just give it up.

[Aislinn]

Players using legal loopholes and breaking the spirit of the rules have been a bane of moderators since the beginning of game history.

 

Moderators have been aware of the above issue for quite some time now and are still in the process of determining what will be done. There are way too many complications and issues to list and for multiple reasons we are not able to discuss it publicly at this time.