The issue of hacking/cheats/exploits is an immense pain in the rear to not only the players who play fair, but the company who has developed the game and invested resources into technology, marketing, etc. However, banning players who are NOT guilty of the offense and using the below ***-in-a-can reply will quickly become a problem from a business standpoint if not addressed CORRECTLY. So, GM Mephistocrat and SOE, I suggest you read the below and ponder a more “paying customer” friendly response… This is the reply I received to my inquiry as to why I was banned (my line item responses in red): ------Begin-------- Please understand that the system we use to detect hacks and exploits is extremely accurate (I doubt it no IDS/IPS is capable of catching everything. Unless of course the signatures and vulnerability databases update every 5 seconds). I would imagine you want proof of these hacks and exploits being used on your account, (umm…yes you have accused a paying customer of being dishonest and denied me access to something I am paying for) but we are not at liberty to provide them to you, for fear that the information could be leaked and used to improve them(This I understand, I work in the IT security field and you should never release information concerning system vulnerabilities. However, a list of 3rd party applications that could potentially be flagged as an exploit by your detection systems is not the same as saying your system is open to SQL injections). That being said, there is, without a doubt, evidence that indicates to us that you were benefiting from the use of a hack and/or exploit in-game (A player BENEFITING from an exploit is NOT the player USING an exploit. If I run an alert or a raid w/ a player who is and I have no knowledge of it, WHY am I being punished for it?) At the request of development and our own discretion, your account was suspended for 3 - 4 days from yesterday and, I am afraid, that it isn't eligible for premature release by us. Your current suspension is your first offense, so I would recommend that you keep your account free of violations in the future; otherwise, your next offense is likely to result in the termination of your account. Like you, we would prefer that didn't happen to your account, so be sure to obey all our rules and all our policies upon your return to the game, (This whole paragraph sucks eggs, because I HAVE been obeying the rules and policies. Yet without warning I have been denied access to a service I am still paying for, and dismissed as a lying cheat. And the business taking my money tells me I have to just accept their methods of determining my guilt as fool-proof) because, if you truly value your account, you would do it. I apologize if this is not the answer you were hoping to receive from us, but this type of behavior will not be tolerated in-game. (WHAT BEHAVIOR!!) Sincerely, Lead GM Mephistocrat Sony Online Entertainment, LLC --------End------ I love DC Universe, I have collected comic books for many years, I own every DVD/Blu-Ray that contains an animated or live action version of the incredible characters, stories…etc. I enjoy my time logged into DCUO, but I do not enjoy being called a dishonest person and accused of potentially illegal activity without so much as a POLITE response to my inquiries as to the origins of the infraction. DCUO Staff/SOE, I implore you to please address this issue responsibly and thoughtfully for the sake of your loyal, paying customers and the integrity of this game that we love. Rant done.
SOE does need a look at their detection system. Every time I think about buying a yearly sub I go... "No way... $120 and I'll be banned tomorrow for no reason."
This isnt true, a GM has to ghost and observe the offence to collect evidence of it being used and abused in game. It didnt stop me from buying lifetime. Maybe the OP is one of those very very very few who are innocent, but then again since launch and all the rage on here from banned players only 1/100 really are innocent. A month ago people were blaming Java for their bannings, then it was bad network version, then it was team speak overlays, then it was lag, please. If the devs get their hands on the source code of hacks etc, they can adjust their script when they need and soon as someone starts to use them in game expect to be banned. Good luck, you will have better luck beating your head against a brick wall, and take some time off from computing for 3-4 days. That time frame has always annoyed me too - be consistant rather then vague.
This is what they say. No way you can prove, nor I can disprove they do this before banning. I've known plenty of people on USPC who have gotten banned for reasons not pertaining to hacking (Program in their computer tripped the system) yet a GM has told them they were proven to be hacking. When you get banned for hacking / exploiting a GM will ask you to make sure to reinstall DCUO and check if any programs on your computer could be causing the system to be alerted and flagging them. If they actually shadow (observe) the player to gain visual proof before banning, then why would they insist on the possibility of it being a program on your computer causing the ban? Makes absolutely no sense. I do agree with you on one thing though, trying to get any help on the matter from SOE is like banging your head against a wall. So really there's no point in the thread.. It'll get no where.
The problem is worse for people at P7S1, because they seem to trust that system absolutely and permaban anybody who gets detected. Something has to be done! When people start to refrain from spending much money on the game (eg. dropping legendary), because their friends get banned for no reason, then something is seriously wrong with the way bans are being managed... I do my best but I cannot garantee to keep my PC free of malware for the next....let's say 2 years...
They do ghost you or even use non GM name toons. Doesn't Mepps ghost people on FNL lol. hacks/cheating are taken seriously and Priority action, so GM's will ghost you. Mepps has already proven it, what he can do on FNL, and the GM's can do it. They just can't disclose the results of the actions they have taken.
From my Online experience and aimbot/wallhacks on Steam Valve FPS Games, VAC is terrible, and yes, a few ppl I ran into PVP as my teammate used speedhacks and told me he been using them for months, and have only gotten a warning, not a ban/suspension. being my partner in all, me queing in alone, he spammed supply drops, and sidekicks, and just Popped shields for me, he is sorcery and spammed colas -.- So I asked him, speedhacks? he said yeah. lol.
What they can do and what they do or don't do are 2 different things For instants they can track your stats to see any irregularity but don't. Every thing you do can be tracked and put in a database then flushed at a certain interval. Excuse me GM but the system said i hacked and got a warning letter.. Well let me check for you.... Correct this is what you did (insert details here) see you in 4 days after your banned/suspension. OR Our apologies, its incorrect but rest assured that we are making the game a better place by catching hackers Well at leased i wish that is how it could happen
The thing that gets me is that it always seems to happen on the PC-side but I haven't seen this discussion ever happen on the PS3-side. With PS3 users, if they are caught "hacking" in-game it is usually down to the peripherals they may be using or some really strange issue with their networking. It is extremely, extremely rare; it is also very difficult for the offending player to review what he (or she) may have done if they believe themselves to be innocent. To that end, the PC-side is different in as much as by reviewing your My Documents -> My Games -> DC Universe Online -> Logs -> Combat.txt file, a PC player can see every character directed event that he or she has done. Since most "hacks" or manipulations are done in combat, anything weird would show up there and the player could then see it for themselves although, admittedly, understanding how the log is time stamped may take a little bit of understanding. By coupling this with understanding what peripherals and processes your system (or systems) is running, you might have a clearer understanding of where the GM might be seeing something more unusual from you based on log flags and then by ghosting your play. Since most players immediately deny or become defensive about their virtue instead of wondering what may have flagged them in the first place, discovering what may have occurred gets pushed back or is never done thus setting the stage for the exact set of circumstances to happen again. The overall discussion in this is two-fold. That (discovery) is the first part and how the GM handles the situation is the second part. I do believe that the GM could give maybe a little more information regarding what they've seen as it would help an uninformed or less technically inclined player understand where to begin looking for answers (should they be so inclined to look closely at their set-up). Based on the responses I've seen from the GM's as posted in these threads, their correspondences could be better written and maybe a little softer but, at the same time, they must stick to their guns if the are sure something is afoot. Both parties in this, the affected player and the SOE GM team, should aspire to communicate maybe a little more clearly to ensure that a repeat of the incident does not happen again.
Hello, This is Lead GM Mephistocrat writing you today. It was recently brought to our attention that you have been hacking in-game again. As a result, your account has been suspended for 7 - 8 days from today. Please understand that the system we use to detect hacks and exploits is extremely accurate. I would imagine you want proof of these hacks and exploits being used on your account, but we are not at liberty to provide them to you, for fear that the information could be leaked and used to improve them. That being said, there is, without a doubt, evidence that indicates to us that you were benefiting from the use of a hack and/or exploit in-game. At the request of development and our own discretion, your account was suspended for a week. Your current suspension is your second offense, so I would recommend that you keep your account free of violations in the future; otherwise, your next offense is likely to result in the termination of your account. Like you, we would prefer that didn't happen to your account, so be sure to obey all our rules and all our policies upon your return to the game, because, if you truly value your account, you would do it. I apologize if this is not news that you were hoping to receive from us, but this type of behavior will not be tolerated in-game. Sincerely, Lead GM Mephistocrat Sony Online Entertainment, LLC Well, thats the email I just got last night. I rarely play dcuo during the school year because I'm well, at school and a little busy. During spring holiday, I played DCUO at school since I had a bit of free time. Didn't play it for long however, because I was banned and accused of hacking. I play DCUO on my MacBook Pro via partitioning windows using bootcamp, a program that comes with every Mac that allows its users to run OSX and WindowsVista/Windows7 at the same time. While playing at school, i activated my characters fast motion while in the watchtower, then looked away to answer my phone, when i came back, to my amazement, I was flying OUTSIDE the watchtower. Let me guess, how is this possible right. Well it happened. Whats worse, I couldn't get back inside the watchtower afterwards. Then I decided to log out and log back in, but what do you know, I got banned for hacking. I didn't start playing again until a few days ago because school was over and I'm home for the summer. When I first logged back in, my character was still outside the watchtower, but I then I realized I could use the Warp to HQ on the map screen to get back inside. Everything was fine until yesterday. At home, my Wifi is considerably less powerful than it is at school, and when many computers are running at the same time, games tend to get laggy. While doing the HIVE Alert duo, (the one where you have to fight Booster Gold) I noticed that when there was a lot of enemies on screen, the lag would get so bad, that sometimes I'd attack an enemy and get no response from it. It also seemed like some of the enemies didn't even notice I was there. And the ones that did just seemed to drop dead with one touch, thought I assumed that was because my partner killed them, and I was only just seeing the animation due to lag. I decided to finish the duo since I was already more than halfway in. After that I logged out of DCUO and didn't try logging back in until three hours later. But, whats this, I can't because I'd been banned. And received the lovely generic email I copied and pasted above. Now, for all you people out there who have complete trust in the games administrators, and since they ghost and everything like you claim, please tell my how in the heck what I did was considered hacking. Yeah, I can see how enemies not being able to attack me can be seen as a benefit, but I had no hand it that. I don't even have to technical knowhow to even know how to hack into anything, much less a highly secured game such as this. So, for all you smart people out there that claim this only happens to 1/100 honest people, well, guess what bud, you're looking at a number 2. Sincerely, Pissed of customer who wants their money back. But is that gonna happen. No, didn't think so.
And whats more, they didn't even post a link to the support ticket in my email, and whenever I try to click on the support ticket on their website, I get a message saying this The page isn't redirecting properly Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete. This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept cookies. Same thing happens no matter what web browser I use, no matter what computer I use. It even happens when I try doing it with my phone. Guess they don't want to talk to me.
Don't play at school. Whenever people get access to the web freely on a PC that is not their own, especially when they log in anonymus, some tend to visit unsecure webpages and collect malware. Malware can get you flagged. That probably looked like a teleportation hack to others, but it could also be something else. Check your PC for malware and reinstall the game. Officially Mac is not suppported, so that could be a problem too...
So taking away around hundred $ investment without explanation is ok for those 1% of cases? Well. Just be happy it was 3-4 days and "first offence". On my case they went dealt with situation much more professional. Instant perma ban without any previous offence. And after i suggested that i would upload any files they need from my computer they went with "we are checking errors on our end" and ignore every ticket i send style. They have been "checking errors on their end" literally over 6 weeks by now while ignoring any of my responses. Now that's professional. So yeah...could be worse :> I guess i have to be popular then if they follow me that much. As after i got permabanned on my main i created secondary account couple days later. I literally Created a new character (on the account i created to open a new ticked on the old accounts permaban). Leveled him to level 5 (quickly boosted through the content with lunging between targets and using natures Roar). Had 1 quick Legends Arkham Asylum match. And talked with old leaguemates in Hall of Doom for ~15-20 minutes doing nothing. Then i logged off and i never touched the account again. About 4 days later (by the date when i received the e-mail) i was permabanned for hacking. How exactly did they see me hacking there...specially when i was offline for the past 4 days? Yes, they should "see it themselves" but the "we can't release information about the subject" already completely covers their *ss. That's one of the reasons its there to begin with. Collateral damage, s**t happens.
Unfortunately, DCUO is not supported on MAC which may be have caused the system to detect third party programs that can be seen as cheating in the game. My best recommendation is to play it on a pc if possible.
Ok so, here's my question for you. If that might be considered a reason, why then would they say that they have undeniable evidence that I was benefiting from an in-game hack when obviously I had not done so. I think an email saying, some software on your computer is raising flags for us, try doing a system cleanup instead of saying, consider this your last chance and you will be permanently banned if ever caught again. All I can say is that I'm glad I never decided to go legendary, woulda been a crap ton of money down the drain. Heck, I'm afraid to play at all anymore regardless of what type of computer considering the next time I'm caught "hacking", or unfortunately playing while carrying some sort of malware I didn't know about, (or even using some nice controller to make playing on a laptop easier) my account, and all the work I put into the game will be permanently banned.
See, this kinda response in an email would've been nice and helpful. However, an email threatening that I might be banned permanently without letting me know what I did wrong, (so I can, I dunno, try and fix any problems on my end) doesn't exactly do me any good other than scaring me away from playing the game.
Yes, you should maybe consider getting something else than a Mac to run the game on. The minimum requirements for DCUO are tiny compared to other games.
Playing on a Mac alone can lead to issues because it is not supported. Once you are able to play on a PC, feel free to pm Sean or myself your ticket reference number and we'll be more than happy to look over your system for you.
