Guild Wars 2

ANet, hacking is still a major issue in your game. I’m on Mag, and since the server’s we’ve been facing are wrecking us without hacks I don’t really have any experience seeing them except for a few weeks back, before Mag crashed. But it seems hacks are spreading over to PvE worlds as well, and are still an issue in WvW.

By creating an environment in which you have no reliable tools to report hackers, you encourage the action. This is because of the fact that hackers know that the odds of them being banned are pretty low. What’s even worse is when hacking is discussed on the forums, a Mod tends to lock and/or delete the thread, and then may even infract certain users who discussed the topic!

Right now, the tools for reporting hackers are just a giant petri dish for hackers to grow. I’m sure many a player has become disillusioned after being the victim of a hacker who has not been banned for so long, and downloaded a custom client to even the score in their mind. We can all agree that this is not a desirable course of action, however anyone who has been the victim of a hacker taking a tower you spent time to take and upgrade understands the frustration felt.

This all could be fixed, by the way. Many solutions have been openly proposed on the forums, only to all be merged into a mess of a thread that proceeds to die unceremoniously. I normally feel that you, ANet, need to take action and not just make empty promises. However, at the moment I would settle for a post or two from the devs about this topic, and really just an understanding that this IS and issue and ANet IS going to deal with it. Because right now, it seems that you are more concerned with the gold sellers than the hackers that are ruining my, and many others, gameplay.

-sishbob

Say hello to the mod for me

reddit if u really want to talk about this or else face this posts getting pulled

for anet the word or the “race” of hackers dont exist
we complain about them over a year..we take picks of them we record of them and then post it here..and what hapens???

nothing they just delete the post and move on…so relax and get use of the “non exixst” hackers

Guess we should have some international Hack events where every player starts to hack. Maybe then they will acknowledge the problem but i highly doubt that.

Hackers? Is that even a word? I’ve never seen it here before.

In before it is locked and disappear into the Mist

Didn’t you get the memo? WvW isn’t supposed to be balanced, as per the devs. Hacking and siege griefing is just another deep strategy that players can use!

Hackers = cheaters in games.

First of all you should screenshot/record a video with the one who’s cheating.
Would be great to also provide time + time zone + place to let them nail it more precisely.

And send it to support, not post on forums.

And one more thing since people say anet don’t do anything etc.

Fighting people who create such tools is very hard and time consuming.

It’s easier and faster to catch someone using it and ban him than actually fix the issue – because not everything server side is that great.

Applying protections like GameGuard or HackShield is simply useless, since they’re easy to bypass.

As an example, same is with antivirus software.

To make antivirus work, it needs to have a data about specified virus. To have that data, such virus must be created.

People who create such software are always 1 step ahead of the ones who create shields against them.
It’s no rocket science.

Tao.5096:

Hackers = cheaters in games.

First of all you should screenshot/record a video with the one who’s cheating.
Would be great to also provide time + time zone + place to let them nail it more precisely.

And send it to support, not post on forums.

And one more thing since people say anet don’t do anything etc.

Fighting people who create such tools is very hard and time consuming.

It’s easier and faster to catch someone using it and ban him than actually fix the issue – because not everything server side is that great.

Applying protections like GameGuard or HackShield is simply useless, since they’re easy to bypass.

As an example, same is with antivirus software.

To make antivirus work, it needs to have a data about specified virus. To have that data, such virus must be created.

People who create such software are always 1 step ahead of the ones who create shields against them.
It’s no rocket science.

I’ve actually thought of a few ways around this via algorithms. Most hackers act in a very similar way. If ANet could write an algorithm that checked to see which players had those patterns and investigated them, it could lead to a wave of hacker bans that would clean up WvW for quite a while I feel.

sishbob.3987:

I’ve actually thought of a few ways around this via algorithms. Most hackers act in a very similar way. If ANet could write an algorithm that checked to see which players had those patterns and investigated them, it could lead to a wave of hacker bans that would clean up WvW for quite a while I feel.

would be great, but not exactly.
People tend to like to explore and check various things in game.
Any bug or rubberband caused by latency or something else, could always trigger that algorithm(have seen such cases), and that wouldn’t point out that player was actually using any 3rd party program to enchance it’s abilities.

That would also could shoot anyone after each patch, as they could break something or cause a bug with certain skills or anything else. Therefore that would lead to algorithm triggering and poof, banned.

This would lead to massive complain and flood of support ticket system regarding wrongly distributed bans. That adds a lot of work, each one has to be checked throughly, since leaving it as it is, means losing customer.

So far the best solution was to always record such people and send them with timestamps to support where support can check it also in server logs.

Have to also remember that every protection or w/e else can always backfire at normal users and cheaters can always a find a way to bypass it.

So, I myself haven’t met anyone cheating so far.
That may only show that cheating issue is minor at the moment and should be boycotted by community by reporting such players immediately.

I fought a possible hacker last night in Borlis Pass’s Bay last night. I’m a ranger, so I know the heal rate of a ranger. I rapid fired him and did various other things that got him down to 10% of his health. As another player and I(both in teamspeak) approached to rob him of his last HP he jumped off the ledge near the center bridge and his health went to 100%. Has anyone ever seen that happen? 10% to 100% after jumping, which should have killed him, is not possible. We both confirmed what we had both just seen happen. We didn’t have time to snapshot or record him. I know what his avatar looks like though. Too bad there’s no way to actually report a hacker. I think ANeT should have a login script that checks the player’s game. Any non-authorized or altered files will prevent the login and direct them to contact an admin.

Other hacks I, and other people, have seen: Flying Mesmers/Thieves and Speed Hacking runners.

Side note – I will always believe that someone who has to hack/cheat to win at a video game has absolutely no skill, much less, integrity.

Tao.5096:

sishbob.3987:

I’ve actually thought of a few ways around this via algorithms. Most hackers act in a very similar way. If ANet could write an algorithm that checked to see which players had those patterns and investigated them, it could lead to a wave of hacker bans that would clean up WvW for quite a while I feel.

would be great, but not exactly.
People tend to like to explore and check various things in game.
Any bug or rubberband caused by latency or something else, could always trigger that algorithm(have seen such cases), and that wouldn’t point out that player was actually using any 3rd party program to enchance it’s abilities.

That would also could shoot anyone after each patch, as they could break something or cause a bug with certain skills or anything else. Therefore that would lead to algorithm triggering and poof, banned.

This would lead to massive complain and flood of support ticket system regarding wrongly distributed bans. That adds a lot of work, each one has to be checked throughly, since leaving it as it is, means losing customer.

So far the best solution was to always record such people and send them with timestamps to support where support can check it also in server logs.

Have to also remember that every protection or w/e else can always backfire at normal users and cheaters can always a find a way to bypass it.

So, I myself haven’t met anyone cheating so far.
That may only show that cheating issue is minor at the moment and should be boycotted by community by reporting such players immediately.

What you said makes a lot of sense, but I feel like I didn’t make my idea very clear. The idea isn’t for the algorithm to trigger the ban. More like add them to a watch list. Kind of like the “No-Fly” list the American TSA has, but in this case the user wouldn’t even know he was on it or be affected. What it would do, however, is send reports on this user straight to the stop because their actions are the same as many hackers. It would just make finding hackers easier imo.

What hacks are these guys using any how?
I’ve tried to find the one which hides their names from the combat log, but all you find online are the ones from last year, teleport speed hacks.
But then even when we link the hack to anet support nothing has changed.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

What hacks are these guys using any how?
I’ve tried to find the one which hides their names from the combat log, but all you find online are the ones from last year, teleport speed hacks.
But then even when we link the hack to anet support nothing has changed.

Hacks that basically let them go under the ground and attack the gate from a position they cannot be damaged is something I have heard and seen a bit. Also there was just a thread in the General Discussion about a hacker who was flying above keeps and towers in front of dozens of people with proof. If its not deleted by now, you should check it out

The one you are describing has been around for over a year, and been reported with links to support.
The one that allows them to appear as an unknown player is something different.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

The one you are describing has been around for over a year, and been reported with links to support.
The one that allows them to appear as an unknown player is something different.

I think the real issue is that it has been reported WITH proof to ANet, which shows ANet must know they exist, yet ANet turns a blind eye to hacks and does next to nothing to stop them.

Thats the main issue imho

Tao.5096:

Hackers = cheaters in games.

First of all you should screenshot/record a video with the one who’s cheating.
Would be great to also provide time + time zone + place to let them nail it more precisely.

And send it to support, not post on forums.

And one more thing since people say anet don’t do anything etc.

Fighting people who create such tools is very hard and time consuming.

It’s easier and faster to catch someone using it and ban him than actually fix the issue – because not everything server side is that great.

Applying protections like GameGuard or HackShield is simply useless, since they’re easy to bypass.

As an example, same is with antivirus software.

To make antivirus work, it needs to have a data about specified virus. To have that data, such virus must be created.

People who create such software are always 1 step ahead of the ones who create shields against them.
It’s no rocket science.

seems you r new player on the game..or at least on wvwvw
we have record/screenshot /report them milions of times and post it here
you know what anet did??
nothing just delete the posts and the players that did that they only that they get was infractions
then ppl start to use reddit for those hackers…

anyway..anet dint fix that issue over a year now..so ppl have stop bothering with it

hackers/hacks is a taboo word for anet and they never be fixed

so move on ppl next topic (probly they delete this one soon like they always do when they cant give any answer or solution to any big problem in the game)

Just watched a mesmer heal, stealth, and cast illusions seemingly with no cooldown. A thief use some skill to leap to the top of a building that should be unreachable, then immediately stealth – and constantly stealth – over and over. Both on DB. Are you telling me that Anet believes this game is hack proof?

Here’s a solution – you are caught, you lose all your characters. All of them. Gone. Goodbye.

misterman.1530:

Here’s a solution – you are caught, you lose all your characters. All of them. Gone. Goodbye.

Of course. But Anet has shown zero willingness to address this issue. It’s been like this since the beginning. For example there are a couple well-known hackers on FSP (for over a year now) that have single-handedly given FSP the reputation as “that server with the hackers.” Nothing you can do but grin and bear it.

misterman.1530:

Just watched a mesmer heal, stealth, and cast illusions seemingly with no cooldown.

This points to an even broader problem, which is that because the players see examples of overt hacking and little seems to be done about it, it can lead to players assuming that any questionable abilities that they see (moving a little too fast, staying in stealth a little too long, etc.) are due to hacking. It undermines confidence that other players are following the rules.

Problem with calling out ‘hacker’ is a lot of stuff can sound like mere bug exploits.

Thief permastealth: CnD off a wall
Thief teleport: get lucky (or good timing) in return shadowsteps
Flipping a keep without any siege: under-the-map glitch and shooting into the lord’s room.
AC fire into the blindspot of a keep: Widescreen desktop (or stretched window) to give more visual than normal players.

Reports on hackers are just as reliable as reports on UFOs. Anet devs need solid and concrete proof to invest the time to look into hackers. Anyone can say what they want on the internet.

Berk.8561:

misterman.1530:

Just watched a mesmer heal, stealth, and cast illusions seemingly with no cooldown.

This points to an even broader problem, which is that because the players see examples of overt hacking and little seems to be done about it, it can lead to players assuming that any questionable abilities that they see (moving a little too fast, staying in stealth a little too long, etc.) are due to hacking. It undermines confidence that other players are following the rules.

This is a really good point.

If people knew that hacking were punished, the default behavior would be to educate yourself about what skills/traits your opponent is using.

A more educated player base means fewer false accusations and in the end leads to fewer reports that Anet has to follow up on (should they ever decide to deal with hackers), which makes it much easier for them to deal with hackers.

TLDR: Anet deals with hackers (as opposed to doing nothing) leads to: dealing with hackers becomes easier. Or I guess they can just continue to do nothing.

Lord Kuru.3685:

This is a really good point.

If people knew that hacking were punished, the default behavior would be to educate yourself about what skills/traits your opponent is using.

A more educated player base means fewer false accusations and in the end leads to fewer reports that Anet has to follow up on (should they ever decide to deal with hackers), which makes it much easier for them to deal with hackers.

TLDR: Anet deals with hackers (as opposed to doing nothing) leads to: dealing with hackers becomes easier. Or I guess they can just continue to do nothing.

Won’t do a squat.

I have played many MMO games, and in all of them, even the oldest players, kept spamming hacker here and there, while having no idea about game mechanics, which is why they behaved that way.

If people refuse to learn at least basic game mechanics – and hence we have combos too – then even if Anet will ban them and show it that they do or not won’t change attitude and mentality regarding learning a bit about game.

Because it’s easier for them on complaining about something they don’t understand and get frustrated over it and not wasting time on learning the game.

Tao.5096:

Lord Kuru.3685:

This is a really good point.

If people knew that hacking were punished, the default behavior would be to educate yourself about what skills/traits your opponent is using.

A more educated player base means fewer false accusations and in the end leads to fewer reports that Anet has to follow up on (should they ever decide to deal with hackers), which makes it much easier for them to deal with hackers.

TLDR: Anet deals with hackers (as opposed to doing nothing) leads to: dealing with hackers becomes easier. Or I guess they can just continue to do nothing.

Won’t do a squat.

I have played many MMO games, and in all of them, even the oldest players, kept spamming hacker here and there, while having no idea about game mechanics, which is why they behaved that way.

If people refuse to learn at least basic game mechanics – and hence we have combos too – then even if Anet will ban them and show it that they do or not won’t change attitude and mentality regarding learning a bit about game.

Because it’s easier for them on complaining about something they don’t understand and get frustrated over it and not wasting time on learning the game.

Just saw my first hacker in EotM, of all places. I’ve only seen three hackers in the two years playing GW2 WvW.

Seems someone was upset I built up all the siege in a tower and stopped two ktrains. Hacker was an ele. We had the tower for some time so there was nobody hidden in the diving tower. The ele popped into the tower without a gate or wall down. I went to attack and poof, ele gone. Ele came back when I went back to the mortar. I knocked the ele over the wall and outside the tower and then poof, ele back. Don’t talk to me about how I don’t know about game mechanics. No ele could ever do something like that. Later on I died on one of the cannons and the ele ported to the top of the wall, before the wall was down. Four times for a tower in EotM.

Earlier this year I recorded, uploaded and forwarded a video of a guy hacking to Arena Net. It showed blatant teleport hacking, me adding him to block list and showing his name there.

The reponse from Arena Net? An automated response about how to recover my hacked account. I facepalmed and went about my day knowing that it’s pointless to report hackers through support even if you have completely condemning evidence. If I go through the inconvenience of policing ArenaNet’s game for them, I’m sure as hell not going to be EVEN more inconvenienced afterwards. I draw the line somewhere.

Most frustrating about this topic is that ANET just released information that they are now focusing in-game GM’s to police DUNGEON exploits. WP just spoke about it in a recent video and I’m still trying to find it in the patch notes but to the WvW community, this is a SLAP IN THE FACE.

Someone exploiting Dungeons = Great you get rewards faster so you can get your shinny gear to show off to your friends but really HURTS no one.
Someone Hacking in WvW = Ruins the game experience for 100’s of other players.

The fact that ANET things Dungeon Exploit is a MORE IMPORTANT issue than WvW Hackers is pathetic.

For those who don’t believe hacking existing in GW2, there is a place you can get hack app as a premium member. Every hacks people described here is there. I won’t tell you what it is but if you know how the net operates, you should find it pretty easily.

Ed: As for zoom hacks w/ many monitors, it’s just another Anet’s incompetency because it should never be allowed but I doubt if they know how to fix it as w/ many issues w/ collision detection. Fix your ****, Anet.