New Anti-Cheat policy for Mootown ChaosDM server

Discussion for the original Quake 2 Chaos. (DM & CTF)
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HasBen{Moo}
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New Anti-Cheat policy for Mootown ChaosDM server

Post by HasBen{Moo} »

Hi All

It's come to our attention that a new Quake2 cheat is getting past Mootown's anti-cheat software. Based on that fact, I've decided to change the server's policy for players... At present, it will be voluntary compliance....

We are asking all players to run their quake2 game with the nocheat.exe file..... The nocheat.exe file has some built-in anti-cheat functions... it also has many needed improvements to the quake2 engine..... See Below....

NoCheat website: http://www.bryceinc.com

We are reserving the right to single out certain players and make it mandatory for them to use NC (NoCheat) to play on Mootown. Basically, any player that is winning maps consistently will be required to run the anti-cheat NC version. This decision will be left up to mootown's admins.... We really hope the top players will embrace this NC exe and not view it as a punishment. We feel that using NC is like putting on a badge of honor and should bring more respect for those that deserve it.

There will be a few good reasons for not using NC... like minors playing on their parents PC where the parent does not give permission to download and use the NC exe file. There will be more, but there's no reason for me to list them now.

I would agree with anyone that says this is not a very good solution to this new problem. We will do our best to find a better way of controlling cheats on Mootown... but until then this is the best that we can do for our players.

Trix and I, would like to thank all of you that are supporting us with this new change and encourage the rest to see the logic in asking this from our players.

Fun Fraggin or DIE!.....
HasBen{moo}

======NoCheat changes & improvements to the q2 engine======

2.34 changes:
- (hopefully) fixed the nocheat.dll not loading bug for everyone
- Added a nocheat menu in the options menu
- Maybe fixed a bug where nc_say didn't work or you didn't reply to !nocheatsay
- changed cl_hightlight (default: 2).
* 2 = only highlight non-chat
* 1 = highlight everything (like in 2.32)
* 0 = disabled
- removed the Code\\ failure "explanation" message
- fixed cl_highlight affecting console logging


in ref_ncgl:
- jpeg support for anything like 2.33's tga support (from q2ice)
- more tga image formats supported (from q2ice also)
- gl_coloredlightmaps now takes any value between 0 and 1. 0.5 would be 50/50.
- made celshading less obvious and fade out better
- fixed player setup bug and screen resize problem.

Auto-update does not update ref_ncgl.dll, so if you want the new features, you'll need to download the nocheat234.zip in the downloads section. Enjoy!


NoCheat 2.33 Sunday August 3, 2003


NoCheat 2.33 is done for Windows.

2.33 changes:
- Completely recoded auto-updating
* NoCheat.exe can now also be automatically updated (requires game restart)
* Updates shouldn't cause dial-up box to come up if disconnected.
- Added cl_railtrail_color (value 0-5)
- Added cl_highlight (default on). Will highlight people's names in console
- Fixed nc_help's opengl vendor/renderer data
- Removed cvar "fixedtime"
- Fixed loc overflow bug when dealing with large distances
- Lowered cl_maxfps's minimum to 5 from 15
- Fixed screenshots/demos/etc being saved to baseq2 instead of the mod folder
- Added cvar_toggle and cvar_inc (from BeefQuake)
- Removed gl_ztrick
- Added celshading (gl_celshading)
- Added hud/text scaling (gl_scale)
- TGAs now can be loaded instead of any other image format (wals, pcxs, etc). This means you can now use TGAs for skins, console backgrounds, the font, etc.
- Removed XP/Normal mouse acceleration messages
- m_xp set to 2 will force it to use the XP fix, even if you aren't in XP
- Added video mode 1280x1024
- nut.pcx checked for AQ2
- command "error" removed
- gl_coloredlightmaps (default: 1) added. Setting to 0 results in greyscale lightmaps with a software render look. (code by evilpope)
- AMD drivers support


One other big change is NoCheat's ref_gl has been renamed to ref_ncgl. If you want to use NoCheat's graphical improvements, you can either set it to "NoCheat OpenGL" in the video menu or change vid_ref to "ncgl" in your configs. In order to use celshading, 32bit textures, hud scaling or the greyscale textures, you must use ncgl instead of gl.


NoCheat 2.32 Monday June 30, 2003


NoCheat 2.32 is complete. With an extra suprise--there is also now a linux client =). Here are the changes I could remember off the top of my head:

Fixes and changes in 2.32 from 2.31
* MOUSE4/5 support added
* cl_railtrail added for Xania rail effect
* NoCheat's ref_gl will no longer crash when switching to software mode
* "intensity" will now be saved in the config file
* loc_save will now create a locs folder if one doesn't exist
* Many secret =) changes to NoCheat.dll
* 3Dfx support fixed. Oops.
* nc_help command added. More on this below

JBravo has done a lot of work and included the following improvements in the Linux NoCheat release:

Linux Improvements from Quake 3.20:
* Mwheelup and down now work.
* Sound handling made more error resistant.
* /etc/quake2.conf sillyness removed. All .so's (ref_*.so) simply in gamedir.
* Clicking the close button on the window Quake2 is runing in executes a clean shutdown of the game.
* Fullscreen GL should always work now.
* Added 48khz as a legal audio frequency.
* Quake2 now uses $HOME/.quake2/[mod name]/ for writing.
* Various old MESA GL Versus modern GL conflicts cleaned up.
* Various defaults in the game default to Linux values (e.g. gl_driver = libGL.so)
* Quake2 now saves its config in $HOME/.quake2/[mod name]/config.cfg and reads it on startup.


Improvements from 3.20/3.21:
- Automatically updates nocheat.exe and nocheat.dll
- net_port (default to 0) allows you to select the local port you play on. This is helpful for some players behind a firewall. The value 0 means it will choose a random port.
- m_xp (default to 1) will automatically detect if you are in Windows XP, and if so, fix the mouse acceleration bug that XP introduced. A value of 0 turns off auto detection and the mouse fix.
- Support for pak1.pak to pak99.pak
- Tab will now display a list of commands like Quake 3. However, it will complete the command like Quake 2.
- Support for CFGs increased from 8k to 32k
- Mouse wheel scrolls console
- Console can be used during demos
- cl_draw_x (0 to 1) and cl_draw_y (o to 1) is the x and y location for new NoCheat hud data (all off by default).
- cl_drawchathud (0 disabled, 1 enabled) displays the 4 last chat messages
- cl_drawtime (0 disabled, 1 enabled with 12 hour format, 2 enabled with 24 hour format)
- cl_drawfps (0 disabled, 1 enabled)
- cl_drawrate (0 disabled, 1 enabled) displays the upload and download rate. Higher FPS will result in higher upload speeds while a server with more players will result in higher download speed. 56k users may find this useful for tinkering with their settings
- cl_drawping (0 disabled, 1 enabled)
- "netgraph" value now saved in config file
- netgraph background removed and drawn behind hud icons
- LOC support added
- cl_drawlocs (0 disabled, 1 enabled) will show all loc positions near you. The one you are nearest to will bounce up and down
- $loc_here gives the name of the location where you are (ex. bind b "say_team I'm $loc_here")
- $loc_there gives the name of the location where you are looking (ex. bind n "say_team Enemy spotted $loc_there");
- loc_add [location name] will add a location where you are standing with the given name
- loc_del will delete the location you are nearest to (with cl_drawlocs 1, this is the one moving up and down).
- loc_save [filename] will save the loc. NoCheat automatically loads [mapname].loc so [filename] SHOULD be the map name.
- loc files are saved and loaded from a folder called "locs" off of the __Quake 2 folder__. So if you are in the map q2dm1, it will look for "locs\q2dm1.loc".
- MOUSE4 and MOUSE5 support added
- cl_railtrail (default to 0) uses Xania rail effect instead of the Quake 2 effect
- cl_railtrail_color (value between 0 and 5) specifies the color of the Xania rail effect.
- cvar_toggle [cvar name] will toggle the value between 0 and 1.
- cvar_inc [cvar name] [amount] will add the amount to the value that [cvar name] holds. Negative values are accepted
- New video mode 1280x1024. (gl_mode 11).
- cl_highlight (2 = only highlight non-chat [default], 1 = highlight everything, 0 = disabled).

Security Changes from 3.20/3.21:
- cl_pitchspeed and cl_anglespeedkey have been locked
- "fixedtime" has been removed
- cl_maxfps cannot be set below 5
- "error" removed

Improvements with optional ref_gl:
- 32bit TGA and JPEG texture replacement support (Create a TGA or JPEG with the same name as the WAL to replace it)
- Support for larger TGA texture sizes than their .wal equivalent
- Transparent console controlled by gl_contrans (default: 0.75)
- Screenshotjpeg new command. Creates in folder "screenshots" rather than "scrnshot" (quality controlled by gl_jpg_quality, default: 85)
- Black clearcolor rather than the pink
- Extended zbuffer to allow seeing further
- Skybox drawn behind the map rather than around it so that it can't interfere with the map
- "intensity" value now saved in config file
- gl_celshading (0 disabled, 1 enabled) will celshade the models.
- gl_scale (default: 1) will scale the hud and text.
- gl_coloredlightmaps (default: 1). Setting to 0 will result in greyscale lightmaps with a software render look. 0.5 is half color half grey.
HasBen{Moo}
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri May 17, 2002 7:39 pm
Location: PlanetEarth
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Post by HasBen{Moo} »

I know I should really start another thread for this but hay!.... :lol:

Other mod's like gloom have admin tools built in... such as they can send a @check command to a player's console and then have a response from the player.... like the !stuff command used by q2admin.... this can be a very useful tool for detecting q2 hacks... however the !stuff command doesn't work with this new cheat (hacked q2 exe)

I know this question has made it's rounds before... but is there any chance of getting some updates for Q2 chaos?.... maybe by recruiting a few more coders to the team for doing q2 updates. I know the game/engine is old, but we still have quite a few fans playing it regularly.
R.Flagg
Chaotic Dreams Team
Posts: 8460
Joined: Thu May 09, 2002 2:55 pm

Post by R.Flagg »

Thank you HasBen! Thank you Trixie!

And thanks to all the others who help to keep MooTown such a fun place to play. It's been kickin' the Chaos for very long time now, and it still rocks.

NoCheat installed and running Sir.
HasBen{Moo}
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri May 17, 2002 7:39 pm
Location: PlanetEarth
Contact:

Re: New Anti-Cheat policy for Mootown ChaosDM server

Post by HasBen{Moo} »

HasBen{Moo} wrote:It's come to our attention that a new Quake2 cheat is getting past Mootown's anti-cheat software.....

This is no longer true... Thanks to MrG and his work on a Q2chaos update/patch, We now can detect and auto-kick this cheat off the server. 8) 8) 8)
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