Time to BAN all the 'special trackers' out there

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Trebor, Jul 6, 2020.

  1. Tucoh Augur

    This would be a decision the Head of Studio should probably make.
  2. trevock Augur

    They can most certainly detect people running it. If they can detect and ban users from having VMWare Horizon Client installed on their PC (even if it's used legitimately for work reasons), then they can detect any software and service running on your PC and that includes SEQ.

    They're just not doing anything about SEQ because they would literally lose probably 90% of their playerbase over night and they wouldn't come back.
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  3. Zansobar Augur

    Not in the slightest is this true, unless they don't put those rights into the EULA. You are playing this game given your agreement to those rules, if you don't agree you don't play, EQ is not a right it's a privilege. Numerous software companies do this, many install software on your machine to track what is running when the game is up, ever heard of Punkbuster software? I think even P99 does this.
    Bullsnooze likes this.
  4. Dagud New Member

    At this point, we don’t need a ban. We simply need an official announcement that they don’t care to enforce it, and everyone is permitted to use any third-party software without restrictions. Those few of us left that still care for and abide by the rules are the only ones currently disadvantaged.
    Pelrond likes this.
  5. TheChosenOne Augur

    Not to mention, a week later there would be a new version of the cheat program released that bypasses all of their tracking.. then they have to spend more dev resources upgrading their detection and it becomes a cat and mouse game (similar to Antivirus software vs creators of viruses)

    DBG will not invest the resources into combating this, its a losing battle.. like trying to occupy afghanistan or something, its just a long battle of attrition that will lose them more money than they'll make, therefor there is no good business reason for them to do it

    The players they would lose from banning this program would far exceed the players they might lose from frustrated players who dont like people using them
    Tucoh likes this.
  6. Zansobar Augur


    Allowing players to cheat and get an unfair advantage keeps new players from playing and creates an incentive for rule abiding players to quit. I seriously doubt more than 10% of the actual player base runs this software. I bet its a much higher percentage on the poop-sock guilds, however, but losing those players would be addition through subtraction anyway.
  7. TheChosenOne Augur


    yea its a bummer... I was a purist with EQ for 20 years, only played 1 character and didn't use anything beyond Brewalls maps in terms of modifying my Everquest experience.

    Its the TLPs and the rampant use of these programs that have completely converted me.. ive had to adapt in order to survive, now I'm an avid boxer and will use whatever means necessary to battle people trying to steal my spawns, etc

    The RMT culture of this game is really the root of the problem, combined with the insanely long camp times on quest items, etc... No game does it like this anymore, where you can spend 100 hours in OOT camping AC and come up empty

    Given the INSANE amounts of time you have to invest into this game to accomplish anything,along with the RMT elements, it creates the perfect storm for this type of behavior.. and if you don't get on board and fight fire with fire, you're at a significant disadvantage
    KimchiGoddess likes this.
  8. TheChosenOne Augur


    These cheat programs have existed for 20 years... if anyone was going to quit because of the existence of these programs, they would have done it a long time ago

    and i guarantee you more than 10% of the playerbase uses this. The biggest eye opener for me was when i was trying to get a +6 wisdom mace from Kithicor Forest... that is when I saw the rampant use of this, and started doing some research online which lead me to discover ShoEQ... i was angry and very upset, because ive always played this game as a purist... but the TLPs have completely warped that utopian view of this game
  9. trevock Augur


    Lol 10%. That's funny.
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  10. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    With great power comes great responsibility - sadly not enough EQ players employ Spider Man's more philosophical thinking & abuse the power they gain.
  11. Ilshade Augur

    GM
    Go to Paniel newbie zone
    Skel spawn - 1-3 bards afk AOE skells all day

    I no its not a big issue to you, but the poor people starting out in the game have nothing to kill in a newbie zone and you want people to startup in the game right - or no i guess not or you would have policed it already - not to mention the afk bards and one rogue lock picking the paniel door for 1-4 hours straight
    you have people having to click that damn accept agree button on log in of a character - do a search for the application running while EQ is running and then just ban - eq is getting worse not only do you h ave server issues you cant even maintain the flimsy rules you have on the servers - you know eventually you want have anything - milk it now i guess

    just wow really wow
    KimchiGoddess likes this.
  12. That0neguy Augur

    Someone who played on Live for 20 years is saying TLP cheaters are the problem? You must of had your blinders on for those 20 years to not have played the game with the 90% of live players running M Q 2 to box and farm with.
    Skuz likes this.
  13. Kiaro Augur

    They can't, since it can be run without being on the computer at all.
  14. TheChosenOne Augur

    they would never just outright ban players for using something like ShoEQ without some sort of memo or warning going out first.

    They aren't just going to wipe out a huge percentage of their subscribers with a ban wave on something like that.. and it would be foolish to do so
    Tucoh likes this.
  15. Abacab New Member

    Let's be realistic.

    This isn't a highly competitive game that has wild dreams of esports and high market value (See: Overwatch, Valorant etc.)

    This isn't even a popular MMO that has millions of players and guilds some of which are sponsored by companies like Corsair (see: World of Warcraft)

    This is a hobbyist game of a few thousand players with quite a bit of disposable income, it's like collecting Warhammer figurines you're spending your $100 on bags, then going to Ectunnel and spending your $100 on krono and $150 on Shields of the Immaculate etc.

    DBG has no incentive to curb cheating or RMT in the same manner Project1999 does because they have a literal staff of paid employees they need to write a biweekly check to, the market is so small for this game deciding to go hard on banwaves like WoW or Valorant for example would just completely eliminate entire guilds over night.

    If you want games that don't have rampant RMT or rampant cheating, you'll have to play something more refined than this game which has become a mirror image of a Chinese Mobile Game
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  16. code-zero Augur

    They actually do ban waves, ten years ago they'd announce the numbers at Fan Faire and things like that but really it's pointless to say "we banned <somenumber> of accounts" because it's never ever enough.

    If they banned 500 accounts and listed the character names and servers for every character associated with those accounts there'd be people who'd diligently read them all and loudly denounce DPG for playing favorites for not banning <soandso> whom they know is cheating because they've got a necro FD at every single camp in game and they watch those characters for hours every day.
  17. Machen New Member


    Without going into too much specifics, setting SEQ up in a way that could theoretically be detected by the EQ Client is a choice people make, for convenience, because it's been so long since there has been any enforcement targetted against it that people don't think there is any risk at all any more. If DPG started banning people, most users I suspect would quickly revert to a setup that is completely undetectable to EQ and doesn't run on the same computer as the EQ client. Which would effectively render the whole thing pointless.

    With the current state of things on m q 2 and the agreement they made with eqmule, I think the chances of them doing anything at all on SEQ are exceedingly low, even if it were just targetted at the truebox servers. Seems like if they wanted to roll something out like that they would have hit it at the same time as ixboxer and m q 2 when they released Phinny.
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  18. TheChosenOne Augur


    Havent played it straight for 20 years, but off and on

    I honestly didn't even know what M Q 2 or SHOEQ was until a few weeks ago (well couple months ago really for M Q 2).. When I was raiding on Coirnav a year or 2 ago, i remember hearing some references to "Harry Potter" a few times, not sure if that was code for something or another program

    I was fairly naive back then so yea, i guess i did have blinders on.. but i said in another post its the long farm times and RMT element that is the root of the problem.. TLPs are so competitive in terms of camps and rare drops that it creates the demand for these types of programs
  19. yerm Augur

    I was accused of maphax countless times on selo without ever using it. People were CERTAIN they gotcha'd me over something. I actually had a huge campaign against me on fippy accusing me of using McQuaid2 plugins to disable call of the hero when I wasn't running anything at all at the time.

    Then I did install it right before quitting there because I was frustrated at warpers abusing me. Not called out even once during my last 2 weeks on the server.

    You guys calling it easy to spot these folks are probably wrong plenty of times.
    Machen, jeskola and Tucoh like this.
  20. Mercanyin Augur


    Yeah, pretty much how I have played. One character at a time. Standard UI.

    Although I would never camp AC for 100 hours. Rather just wait for Luclin to drop and get the runspeed AA's.