How Does Anti-cheat Work?
From PunksBusted
Contents |
Once upon a time...
There you are, happily playing away and you notice some scumbag is cheating. You see him tracking players through walls, his aim snapping to the enemy and generally making his lack of skill patently obvious.
What do you do?
Well, record the date, time, a demo and note his 8 digit GUID (do pb_plist in the game console) Next, get in touch with the server admin and give him the information you have gathered.
That's all you can usefully do.
Why? Why not ban him NOW!?!
Basically there is no central repository that all servers must subscribe to. Even Balance have this information but they will not use it to ban players for cheating. They only use it to ban them from using cheats that interfere with the operation of PunkBuster (global and hardware bans).
Here at PunksBusted.com we are attempting to become that central repository. However there are a few points you should note: - Firstly our system is voluntary, if servers don't partake then they don't benefit. If a server doesn't use our Master Ban List (MBL) then it's allowing known cheaters the opportunity to play. Secondly, a minority of people who are just as bad as cheaters will go out of their way to attempt to frame other players. They'll do this by tampering with screenshots, faking demos and even faking PB logs. At PunksBusted.com we endeavor to ensure all our bans are as accurate as possible. To this end we have implemented a streaming system. This means that admins must sign up to PunksBusted.com and register their server to stream the PB logs to us. This has two immediate benefits. 1) You can no longer tamper with logs. 2) You can no longer tamper with screenshots. Another benefit of streaming is the server then has access to a banlist that is updated every hour. Someone caught cheating in the UK can be banned around the globe an hour later!
One known problem with our system is that that we can't accept demo's as proof of cheating. Primarily we have no way of verifying the demo is of whom the submitter claims. A secondary issue is the fact that demos can be subjective. What may look like cheater activity, could just be good play. This means that you have to be incredibly careful with demo evidence. The final issue with demos is one you simply won't care about. It's a question of logistics. Demos take a long time to check and we simply don't have the resources to cover them.
Pimp Mode!
So for you, get the admin. Convince him PunksBusted.com is the place to be. We still can't accept his demo but we can help him with keeping an eye on the player in the hope that he'll return and be caught with evidence we CAN ban him with. Cheaters return. FACT. Cheaters get caught. FACT.
So although it may appear that we are not banning all cheaters, this is to protect you and other innocent players. We do our best riding the fine line. Help us, get admins to sign up now!
