Thank you EA for going serious on the Anti Cheat for 2042!

Just to start out this thread, the title is not meant to be ironic! EA just dropped a substantial load of official info regarding their Anti Cheat (AC) measures implemented and prepped for the BF204...

discussion

CyberDyme
4 years ago
I agree @Rev0verDrive ,
The IP bans are no longer a viable option, as most ISP these days issue their IPs dynamically ad-hoc on new connection requests, and some even refresh on 24h shifts as you highlight.
Its actually because many ISPs have started to monetize providing an exclusive and fixed IP as a premium service to some of their clients. So YES, you can get a fixed IP, but you have to pay extra for it! 😀 The rest of us cheap gamers connecting through our local ISP just have to be happy with whatever IP they assign us at the time and place...
The only place where IP bans still works, is if wanting to avoid users to login through VPN connections, as the VPN vendors have a static IP address range pool they own, so to speak. And that is publicly kept up to date globally by IANA (function under ICANN). Many may object to this, as there are thousands of alternative VPN service providers out there. But they do all not to confirm with the intl norms for connecting their service to the net. And the simple use of BGP and DNS hostname lookup is providing info if a given connecting IP is belonging to a VPN service.
Anyway, the most solid approach forward for EA (and all of us!) in this domain to ban a given user is to issue a ban to individual game licenses and potentially combined with or on top also a ban on the client's hardware finger print. The AC is running on the kernel, so its not for the ordinary dimwit to circumnavigate. And to get back on for a previous banned cheater will always incur then a substantial cost to culprit. And in all circumstances, the original soldier in the game is no longer active, so it will be starting all over from scratch with a new soldier from XP=0.
No warnings and no silly temporary suspensions anymore.
Play fair by the rules or you are out!
Just this last point is a huge improvement versus previous and makes me confident the fair-play results will be substantial, making the BF2042 eco-system a great place to have fun for the next many years out!

Rev0verDrive

4 years ago

EAC is no better than Battleye, or 247FairPlay, or FairFight, or any other anti-cheat on the market. Anti-cheat is an ongoing 24/7 Loop of infection, detection, patch and start over.

IP and Hardware bans are a joke. Both have been deprecated approaches for almost two decades. The only people that get excited about them are those that don't understand you can get a new IP by rebooting your router, or use a VPN in worse case scenarios. For hardware you can Spoof ID's with software at the kernel level. CPU, GPU, OS, Mobo, Mobo components etc.

carsono311
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@Rev0verDrive I am sorry, but that is not how IP addressing works, so no, they are not a joke.

As for the rest of your post, it is not really helpful in any way, so what was the point of it?
- ChugKendall
  4 years ago
  It's great to see EA step things up to combat cheating, but there is one thing I worry about with such ease of reporting, and the current frenzy about cheating: False positives.
  I have watched streams of guys playing FPS games, and some of these guys are truly, amazingly talented. They can destroy an opposing team, and rarely die. They have researched the hot spots on the maps, choose great loadouts for each map, effectively use area-denial tools, properly check corners, use proper teamwork to their advantage, etc. In other words, they play smart.
  Are they cheating? From what I have witnessed, no; they are just that good. And I've heard ragers yell "cheater!" in the mic when they get repeatedly owned (No, bruh, he wasn't cheating; you just aren't very good.)
  I want to see true cheaters SLAMMED, but just because someone goes 50-5 it doesn't necessarily mean they are cheating. They may just be awesome, get all the lucky breaks, and the other team may just royally suck--and I don't want to see anyone reported, because someone got butt-hurt and wanted petty revenge.
  I think all things should be considered before we get trigger-happy with the reports.
  - Lancelot_du_Lac
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    I have posted this before, but I think it is worth repeating...
    "A quick scan of EA patents (source: https://companyprofiles.justia.com/company/electronic-arts) reveal the following:
    Secure anti-cheat system
    Granted Oct 1, 2019
    An anti-cheat system may be accessed over a network and stored directly into volatile memory of a user computing system. In some embodiments, this anti-cheat system may scan, or access portions of, the volatile memory of the user computing system to detect whether cheat software or other unauthorized software that may interact with a game application is detected on the user computing system. The accessed portions of the volatile memory may be compared with one or more signatures that are associated with the execution of cheat software on a computing system. The anti-cheat system may be prevented from being stored within non-volatile memory, thereby preventing malicious users from modifying the anti-cheat system."
    So, additional AC could still be added to EAC, as well as player reporting.
- 1Hairy-Gorilla
  4 years ago
  @carsono311 At least in the UK that's how it works IP wise... Sever admins ban reset router and back again :P Unless things has drastically changed in last 10+ years.
  - carsono311
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    @1Hairy-GorillaYour router at home is using a public, static IP address. You might get a different local, private IP on your computer at home upon reset, but the public is static. This is pretty standard worldwide.
    
    VPN IP addressing is the same and I would expect commonly used VPN services have known static IP blocks that could be preemptively blocked if EA DICE so chooses… but I doubt it.
- Rev0verDrive
  4 years ago
  What do you mean that's not how it works?
  Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt (Admin).
  Enter your admin username and password, if prompted.
  A command prompt window will open. At the flashing cursor, type ipconfig /release...
  Type ipconfig /renew to get a new IP address.
  DONE!
  Optionally you can reboot your router. Doing this on mine ALWAYS gives me a new IP.
  - carsono311
    Seasoned Ace
    4 years ago
    @Rev0verDrive It will give you a new local, private IP sure, but any IP banning wound be on the public IP you are leasing… we actually just had a nice long discussion about it.
ragnarok013
Hero+
4 years ago
@Rev0verDrive wrote:

EAC is no better than Battleye, or 247FairPlay, or FairFight, or any other anti-cheat on the market. Anti-cheat is an ongoing 24/7 Loop of infection, detection, patch and start over.

IP and Hardware bans are a joke. Both have been deprecated approaches for almost two decades. The only people that get excited about them are those that don't understand you can get a new IP by rebooting your router, or use a VPN in worse case scenarios. For hardware you can Spoof ID's with software at the kernel level. CPU, GPU, OS, Mobo, Mobo components etc.

@Rev0verDrive at a minimum the tone from DICE has changed dramatically from previous games. I know people on the DICE AC team and they were working diligently in BF1 and BF5 despite the bad guys seemingly having the upper hand. With this renewed tone of non-tolerance I suspect they have additional AC measures they're not disclosing.