Found a Shield Hack

[Chris Edgar]

found someone using some kind of shield hack that gave their ship 138,777+ shield.  I'll link a screenshot.

Player's name was Lobbity.  we were on the Area32 Server just a few minutes ago.

[jesus rt]

I have to confirm that this is possible, i check it right now and yes, you can cheat what you want.

See at their stats...

[jesus rt]

name Lobbity
steamID -----------------------------------
lastIP ---------------------------------
level 200
credits 9988896
neuralium 1639
alienKills 893
pirateKills 662
geonoidKills 57
superEliteKills 63
blobKills 37
playerKills 13
deaths 6
totalWeaponsPickedUp 64
totalWeaponsFound 219
totalShotsFired 19344
totalStarterGunKills 0
shieldMods 25
shieldRechargeMods 20
armorMods 25
armorRepairMods 20
hullMods 25
hullRepairMods 1
gunDamageMods 25
gunCooldownMods 25
criticalDamageMods 25
teleportRangeMods 1
teleportCooldownMods 8
shieldCapacitorLevel 1000
shieldRechargerLevel 957
armorPlatingLevel 1000
armorRepairLevel 937
hullPlatingLevel 922
hullRepairLevel 995
weaponReactorLevel 943


That stats are imposible.

[Evolutionary Games]

The shield level screenshot is probably a hack, but those item levels are legitimate. Items drop up to level 1000 in the highest level systems.

[The Basset]

You're not the only one who knows how to use photoshop... He killed you fair and square after you killed me repeatedly, get over it.

[Chris Edgar]

I'm guessing you're Lobbity then?  Pretty sure nobody else was there, so you must be if you're this adamant about it.  Honestly, I just want to make sure nobody can hack this game.  I like playing it without having to deal with cheaters.

[The Basset]

Wasn't in your zone, I seen the messages about you getting killed and then seen the complaining that ensued literally within about 5 minutes of you killing me. I was the majestic fellow calling you a scrub repeatedly after you died. Seems you only like to kill people well below your level, I'm glad he got you. I use Photoshop for a living, takes 5 minutes to do what you did, as you can plainly see in my demo screenshot. I believe the mod of said server even kicked you at one point for camping him and refusing to stop.

[Chris Edgar]

I think I only killed you once or twice.  if I killed you more then that, I'm sorry.  That aside, when I fight people fairly, I'm fine with it if I die.  I only get mad about it when they quite obviously cheat.
As for Area32 kicking me, that was in the arena when I missed his message about him power leveling his friend there.  I came right back and apologized for killing them.  In the Arena.  I never refused to stop, I just missed the message he sent.

[Evolutionary Games]

Here's the math on max possible stats:

Level 200 Ship Stats:

• Base Shield: 5,000
  
• Base Armor: 10,000
  
• Base Hull: 20,000

Level 1000 Items:

• Shield Capacitor (level*5) =  5,000 shield
  
• Armor Plating (level*10) = 10,000 armor
  
• Hull Plating (level*20) = 20,000 hull

Apply Level 25 Ship Mods (5% bonus per rank):

• Max Shield = (5,000 + 5,000) * 2.25 = 22,500
  
• Max Armor = (10,000 + 10,000) * 2.25 = 45,000
  
• Max Hull = (20,000 + 20,000) * 2.25 = 90,000

So it is possible either someone is cheating or there is a bug. Just FYI, when you transmit your stats to the server, the number is compressed (to save bandwidth) into a range between zero and a number slightly above the max stat possible. So if someone use a hack to give themselves "1 million shield", the server and other players would receive the number as garbage (which could be what happened above with that messed up health bar).

[Chris Edgar]

hopefully there's a way to prevent this kind of hack in the future.  I don't know why people find hacking a game fun, but it's just not fun for the people they cheat.

[Evolutionary Games]

As for making a game cheat-proof, it is nearly impossible. There are hacks for WoW, Counter-Strike, BattleField 3, etc. Thus, if the entire collective programming skill at Blizzard, Valve, and EA cannot stop hacker, then a small indie company like us has no chance.

What we can do is make it obvious though, so cheaters can be either banned by admins or you can leave the server:

- Your client knows the max possible stats possible for other players, so if you see a broken health bar like the above screenshot, it may be a cheater.

- Due to compression and de-compression, the net code does not accept very large numbers. For example, if someone hacked their gun to do "1 million damage", the server and other clients would receive that as some garbage value, and likely ignore it.

- The server public stats board can help reveal cheaters as well.

[Chris Edgar]

how do you check the public stat board?

[Adg]

Tested this out on my local server. Hacking your life/shield/armor/teleport cooldown/damage etc is dead simple. You will see the hacked stats on the website tho. It will be straight obvious when someone is hacking (unless they are very smart ;) )

[jesus rt]

As i said, this guy is cheating, i check that you can edit all, god mode etc

This guy kill 800 aliens, while other guy(the first at my server) has killed 2000 3000 and other 1900 and hes not 200, i know that other way to get exp but camon...

I suggest persistent values from master server.

[jesus rt]

Chris Edgar:

i build up for my server the stats, each server have their own player stats(the players that connect at least one time)

Mine: gar.deadplayers.es

[Chris Edgar]

huh, why am I 4th?

[jesus rt]

sort by different stats

[Chris Edgar]

I figured the default would be overall ranking.  is it not?  it seems odd, since the only things I was lower on at the time were gun pickups and deaths.