Venice Unleashed

Ok, so most of you know of PB-Bans. It's a community devoted to keeping a huge database of known cheaters for a particular game using punkbuster. Since punkbuster is disabled here, there is effectively no global protection on Nexus against hackers. I personally don't foresee any for the next couple of years based on how much of the game that is still unsupported by the project (functionality). And once you factor in the time that will be spent on the Venice project (will need anti-cheat too most likely as punkbuster is weak). Since all of the Bad Company 2 server files use a text file ban list, I figured why not build a database of known hackers. And have that database synced across every Nexus server that is "EN-Bans enabled".

Player bans will be at sole discretion of our team of experts. I myself have written both hacks and anticheat protection for several game's before. So it's not hard for my staff to determine if a player is playing fair based on just playing with that player in-game. Keep in mind this system will have nothing to do with Nexus, there is no server calls or anything being done on Nexus's side. The only thing that's happening is the global server ban list will be checked constantly (every few minutes) for any possible updates that we have in our database of confirmed hackers. If your servers ban list is out of date (e.g. missing someone we just banned 5 minutes ago) the application will automatically update your servers ban list to reflect the changes.

I also plan on adding a separate list that the tool will utilize as a private ban list for your own server. So if you have players already banned on your server for whatever reasons, they will automatically be added to your ban list every time it's updated. So not only are you banning known hackers from our end, but also banning known hackers that you've found on your own servers.

We will be banning players on the grounds of hacking, being completely disrespectful to other players, and not following server specific rules (e.g. no base raping). The first couple of offenses will be taken lightly and the user will receive a warning, if they continue to break our code of conduct or the servers administrations rules after that then they will earn a place in the global ban database.

All banned players by our system are final. We have a 0 tolerance policy.

Ban List (as of 10/29/2013)


Download
Windows: en-bans_client_win.zip
Linux: en-bans_client_linux.zip

What about publishing the system also as a Plugin for ProCon?

Rodney wrote:What about publishing the system also as a Plugin for ProCon?

I am thinking of working on possibly modifying the Nexus hook. So that we can distribute a client side anti-cheat engine of our own. The trick will be to get the servers to kick players who aren't running it (heartbeat). As the engine would be a global engine, so it cant be pertained to a single server. Unless we monitor what server address the client is connected to, and have the engine send the heartbeats there. So if the server doesn't receive any from player "X" it will kick him/her (e.g. engine not running). That also means I will have to code a master server to keep track of all of the bans, time stamps, and ban reasons. So that I can publicly display who was punished by the engine and for what reason. Tho it seems like too much work, for a game I don't even host a server for. It wouldn't be the best protection, but it would catch hundreds of players doing what they shouldn't. Meh.

'The project' sounds nice yes. I already sync my banlist.txt for my 4 servers, so if I am banning a guy on server 1, he is banned global :>

MAGIC wrote:'The project' sounds nice yes. I already sync my banlist.txt for my 4 servers, so if I am banning a guy on server 1, he is banned global :>

I'm thinking it will be better to have actual code in place over the syncing a global ban list idea. This way everything is entirely automatic and the bans are more precise as banning by visual appearance isn't guaranteed. Tho code itself can nearly guarantee if the player is doing something they shouldn't.

I'm very glad to see finally there's a anti-cheat project started by us now. I still remember my posts about cheaters and PunkBuster stuff.

Warmonger wrote:So if you have players already banned on your server for whatever reasons, they will automatically be added to your ban list every time it's updated.

So if someone is banned for something that is only disallowed on the one server that he was banned on (e.g. using a shotgun etc.) they will be banned globally?

Warmonger wrote:I am thinking of working on possibly modifying the Nexus hook. So that we can distribute a client side anti-cheat engine of our own. The trick will be to get the servers to kick players who aren't running it (heartbeat).

NoFaTe doesn't support/allow any modified (custom) hooks.

RobbingHood wrote:

Warmonger wrote:So if you have players already banned on your server for whatever reasons, they will automatically be added to your ban list every time it's updated.

So if someone is banned for something that is only disallowed on the one server that he was banned on (e.g. using a shotgun etc.) they will be banned globally?

No, only on that particular server. I think I made it very clear that the feature is for maintaining self made bans.

RobbingHood wrote:

Warmonger wrote:I am thinking of working on possibly modifying the Nexus hook. So that we can distribute a client side anti-cheat engine of our own. The trick will be to get the servers to kick players who aren't running it (heartbeat).

NoFaTe doesn't support/allow any modified (custom) hooks.

I don't see why not. It's not stated anywhere on the website nor forums that the hook cannot be modified. If he's against the modification of his hook I can build a new hook from scratch that will allow players to connect to nexus servers. It wont have any fancy fixes in it, just will point the client to nexus servers as it should. Which will allow me to distribute my anticheat across players clients without touching NoFaTe's hook at all. People will have the option to use it or not. If they join a server that uses my protection, than they will just be kicked as soon as they join for not having the client module (probably with a kick message "This server runs XXX-Guard, install it and come back."). That way I don't have to worry about modifying NoFaTe's hook without his permission. Mine will be just a drop in replacement. I was going for a Nexus mod, but a 3rd party replacement seems like a much better idea. If he wishes to ban players for using a 3rd party hook to enhance their gameplay, I guess that's something he'll have to figure out. Players such as myself are sick of playing without any protection at all. With the Venice project in place, there will be no alternative for Rome for several more years (Rome itself is far from being completed). So really there is no alternative, other than sticking with my main plan of monitoring players in-game. Which will result in several players improperly banned due to visual glitches and lag issues. So I will await his response here in this thread and see what the deal is, if its such a huge issue I may stick to my first plan. Tho it will cut Nexus players nearly in half without concrete proof of the player ever being in the wrong (this is why I rather have code in place).

Warmonger wrote:No, only on that particular server. I think I made it very clear that the feature is for maintaining self made bans.

Ugh, misread, sorry >.>

Warmonger wrote:I don't see why not. It's not stated anywhere on the website nor forums that the hook cannot be modified. If he's against the modification of his hook I can build a new hook from scratch that will allow players to connect to nexus servers. It wont have any fancy fixes in it, just will point the client to nexus servers as it should.

Hm, you better talk to him about that personally. I'd say you should come to the IRC (see Announcements section) to catch him there (though I notified NoFaTe already).

Regards

I'm perfectly fine with anything that doesn't touch the hook at all (that includes both modifying it AND replacing it).
An external server-side tool for a 'talking' to a global ban database (similar to PBBans) should also be fine.
However, I should note that if you plan to make something client-side which injects code into the game executable and/or the hook, you should take into consideration that the current hook will become deprecated and unusable when the new version is released (which will also feature an anti-cheat solution, meaning it might get detected as a cheat).