Age Of Civilization 2 Cheat Engine
Erwin Beatz
Cheat Engine is a memory alteration and game "hacking" software used extensively for speedrunning and value (money, mana, etc.) alteration in single player games. It affects games like Faster Than Light, Civilization V, Arizona Sunshine, etc.- but not so much multiplayer games wherein values for money and XP are stored on a server. That said, having Cheat Engine running in the background triggers an account permaban within Warframe and is a bit too much when I either forgot to turn it off, accidentally launched it, or am using it to cheat in a game that I'm running alongside Warframe.
The above makes it clear that Warframe, atleast to my naive understanding of online games and Cheat Engine, is relatively immune to such "hacks" since everything- your platinum, credits, resources, customization, etc. is stored on a server. I'm not a game developer so I'm not sure how feasible my proposed solution is- but bans should only part-take when injecting Cheat Engine into Warframe instead of detecting it running in the background or when a value is altered, not when the application is simply running in the background.
If nothing else- Digital Extremes has data for every mission going back years- instead of triggering bans based on what apps are running in the background, instead- should trigger bans if your loot strays too far from historic data AND the engine has detected Cheat Engine running in the background. Even for things like mana- it should be possible to share its value across the connected clients for a game session and if a Warframe's energy or weapon's ammo is replenished outside of picking up energy bubbles or ammo cases, then trigger a ban.
The current system results in a permaban in all aspects to Warframe- both the store, ingame account, and forum account. You can appeal to support, but they take about a week or two to get back to you and may not often result in the ban being lifted, if at all. If the ban is lifted, you're given only one more chance- if Cheat Engine is running in the background, even by accident- the next ban will be unrepealable and permanent.
Don't get me wrong- I hate leechers and cheaters as much as the next person- but the current system punishes honest, long-standing players like myself too. I'm a MR25 player whose has invested thousands of dollars in Warframe since the 3 years or so I've been playing and have enough of each resources to never have to farm again, let alone cheat, and while I am really grateful about Digital Extremes restoring my account when they could have just looked the other way, something feels odd or iffy about being on the last straw and spooks me everytime I pull out my card to buy platinum, or even a Prime Access since it will all be gone if I even by mistake launch CE, an application that cannot "hack" Warframe.
I can only hope that DE addresses this moving forward to instill a bit of confidence in players like me who were flagged incorrectly to continue contributing and playing Warframe without fear of watching their work over years disappear with the wrong click of a button.
This is one of those thing where while I understand a permaban is harsh, I can see why DE has it in place. DE cannot detect your intentions with the cheat engine. Just that it and WF are both active and they can only make assumtpions.
You should be more careful with what you have running on your computer when you launch the game. I don't think changes need to be made because people are careless with what software is running. Mistakes happen and some have to learn the hard way.
That's not really an option- I don't have enough spare time to sit down and invest hundreds of hours in Civ V for instance, and using Cheat Engine is the only way I can see myself through it. If I don't I'd hardly have enough time to play more than a game a month or so, let alone have enough time to tend to social and familial calls. In a strange irony- the reason I use Cheat Engine other than that is to finish off the other games I play relatively quickly... to get back and play more Warframe.
Well, changes need to be made because these permabans affect Digital Extreme's bottom line- it's in their best financial interest to have players who have invested thousands of dollars and who will continue to do so feel confident spending money towards Warframe without the feeling everything they've worked towards over thousands of hours and dollars simply disappear into the void. If my account were permabanned, learning the hard way would be me never visiting the game again on the basis of having a bad experience with their anticheat system incorrectly flagging me (not the case here since DE restored my account, but I'm sure there are many who were lesser fortunate)- and I doubt Digital Extremes would be happy with that in the long run- there are players like me with only a single account they've worked tirelessly into making them what they are today and watching it all go away, while fair play based on their Terms of Service, is a bit too harsh a punishment for what could have been an honest mistake.
With how warframe is run, mostly being peer-to-peer rather than server-host, there is still quite a lot that CE and similar programs can still do to WF.
Add onto that the information that someone can gather just by watching memory addresses and its a considerable risk.
Beyond that though while it is possible to detect alterations to memory made by such programs, there are ways to get around that as well, making it rather difficult for the game to tell if you are changing the memory values or not. So DE wouldn't be able to easily tell, or tell at all, if you've actually changed anything. All they can tell is "Well, he was running CE at the same time as WF..."
I was permabanned for forgetting that Warframe was running in the background when launching Civilization V and Cheat Engine, and while I am really grateful my account was restored (hail Digital Extremes) when they could have turned the other cheek; it's left me feeling really uneasy with the game's anti-cheat system and the fact that I'm on the last straw if it happens again. I believe the system needs to change, moreso in times like now when Steam's summer sale is going on and people are buying new games and may be using Cheat Engine, only to get permabanned and be in a situation like me. I created this topic to air out my own thoughts and get a discussion going on this topic in hopes the way permabans are handled can be addressed moving forward.
To help understand how bad it sounds, lets turn this around using your words- DE's anticheat system is not the players problem. If I as a player am important enough to Digital Extremes that they want me to keep spending money into Warframe and recommending the game to friends who've contributed a substantial amount of money towards Warframe as a whole, they will figure a way to effectively distinguish between players who are actually maliciously trying to ruin the game, and those who've made honest mistakes. Otherwise, I'm sure they'll figure complain about not having enough money when their playerbase as a whole starts lacking confidence in throwing money towards Warframe. (see? It sounds terrible, doesn't it? ? )
We (both you and me) don't know that information, so neither of us can assume an answer to that question- all that I do know is, basing on my post on the subreddit and my discussions with other players online- their policy and current implementation of anti-cheat has actually resulted in a few whales being banned from playing the game altogether.
Why is this conversation taking place? CE is not allowed.. Turn it off before you start the game and then turn it on whenever you want to cheat in other games. Why does DE have to change just because you cant remember to do this? It's easy.
DE doesnt need to distinguish anything, if CE is forbidden that's all it takes. Why waste time and resources trying to find out if someone is DOING anything with CE? there are more important things to spend time and effort on. Like trying to make Venus a non broken mess on launch, for example.
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