PunkBuster

[The_Eliminator]

You all know my personal beef with PB, what about yours, how do you feel about it?

[sniperghost666]

what's your beef with it? i've never had a problem with it, well on BF2142 i did

[The_Eliminator]

I just dont think its the best solution to cheats out there, Valve have a much better anti cheat software that never encounters problems, yes its Valves, but surely someone can work off of this.

Why do i need to install crap on my PC that hogs resources when playing, making for worse gameplay?

I have never played a game where PB has worked properly and caught hackers instead of kicking the innocent.

[sniperghost666]

that's probaly true, i like valve's protection better myself. but i've never really had a problem with PB, bummer you have though

[The_Eliminator]

Im not saying PB is useless as in the past it has proven itself, but its the lack of support between developers and PB that get me. Ok this may not be all PB's fault, but when the developer and third party software are put together in a game, there needs to be communication, which i dont see alot of.

Its easier for valve communicating with VAC because its their own cheat protection.

[sniperghost666]

oh i agree PB is far from perfect

[Micster]

I can't remember the last time PB did anything useful. Then again, I still haven't ran into anyone using any sort of hacks yet.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need PB. Then again, in a perfect world, we wouldn't have wars, and thus wouldn't have such games. :p

Anyway, PB to me is more of a nuisance than any help it has given me, unfortunately.

[StoneCold313]

I personally don't have anything against PB...

Sure it got on my nerves at bf2142, but in this game i have been kicked only once.

System recourses? At this moment i got PnkbstrA running on the background and it uses half as much memory than the taskmanager...

Hackers? In CoD4 i have ran into one hacker and it was on non pb server... So i don't know about it...

[Cantina_Fly]

PB will (probably) never be able to consistently catch the pay-for-hacks type of cheater. They do catch them (in waves) and ban them, but only as they get copies of these hacks and take them apart. The hackers however, just get the newest version and come back. It's an endless cat and mouse cycle.

What PB does an excellent job of though is dissuade "would be" cheaters. Fear of being caught is far more powerful then any actual detection methods PB employs. They quickly detect all the free public hacks, and I'd wager 90% of folks that get banned once, never cheat again.

I agree PB is far from perfect, but I'd rather have it in it's current form, then play without it. If you need more proof, go spend some serious time on non-PB servers in any game of your choice. ;)

Personally, I've played several PB protected games, and had very few problems with them. Maybe once every 3-4 months, and it has always been cleared up within a day.

[StoneCold313]

*Snip*

I agree PB is far from perfect, but I'd rather have it in it's current form, then play without it. If you need more proof, go spend some serious time on non-PB servers in any game of your choice. ;)

*snip*

Agreed 100%...

[Killerus]

punkbuster is better than nothing. How does it hog resources? It takes a whopping 5 megs of memory to run. That is for both A&B services. Maybe if you are running a p2 with 64 megs of ram, but with todays PC's that's a drop in the bucket.

[The_Eliminator]

I have a top end machine and when im playing Punkbuster gives me endless amounts of lag, its ridiculous.

And you say Punkbuster cant catch the hacking sites, am i the only person who thinks its companies like PB who secretly release new hacks to sites such as to keep them in business?

as i said, i have beef with PB.

[[DBD]crowfoot]

PB works most of the time and catches a few hackers.

[StoneCold313]

I have a top end machine and when im playing Punkbuster gives me endless amounts of lag, its ridiculous.

And you say Punkbuster cant catch the hacking sites, am i the only person who thinks its companies like PB who secretly release new hacks to sites such as to keep them in business?

as i said, i have beef with PB.

Maybe something else causes the lag...

I don't have über gaming pc and PB doesn't give me lag at all... Actually i don't even notice that they are running in the background...

[The_Eliminator]

i have thought that it may be something else, but it only ever seem to happen when PB releases an update, i get kicked due to PB then for the rest of the time i get lagged out until another patch is released which either fixes it or makes it worse.

[StoneCold313]

Have u tried different servers?

Checked what eats lot of memory when game is running?

Maybe it's your internet connection?

Malwre, Adware?

As u see there is lot of possibilities...

[imported_Whiskey]

For the most part, I feel PB does an OK job, and I haven't had any problems with it for quite some time. A few yrs back, when I first started playing BF2, I had trouble for about 2 days getting it to run. After that, pretty much smooth sailing.

I've read a lot of comments on other boards, both gaming and anti-cheat specifically, from people who are very familiar with VAC...they complain about it, and its lack of effectiveness as much as the PB people do. Most say that VAC does even less to prevent cheating.

So, it appears that there simply just isn't a good solution out there, or at least not a well-known one.

[solofowaffles]

Vac doesnt let one hack thru though....it may let them hack for a long time but they do get banned,ask our own moderator sniper1432 how h got banned ;)

[Hjodin]

PB doesnt stop anything, I pub all the time. I always see my deaths via death cam. There are alot of hackers out there.

The sad thing is they are horrid at hacking and hiding it. I hacked in CS, and BF2. I dont hack now, nor have i hacked in a few years.

These morons track you behind walls, aim there nades, all kinds of stupid sh#t. Just a few minutes ago i watched a guy with a saw get shot then while falling his aimbot took out me and another with perfect head shots.

It is getting to the point that PB, admins, or IW needs to do something soon or this game will go bye bye like the others in its wake.

I am thinking of resubbing to a site just to f%ck w/ the cheaters that are very bad at it.

Something needs to be done, PB doesnt work.

[Killerus]

PB doesnt stop anything, I pub all the time. I always see my deaths via death cam. There are alot of hackers out there.

The sad thing is they are horrid at hacking and hiding it. I hacked in CS, and BF2. I dont hack now, nor have i hacked in a few years.

These morons track you behind walls, aim there nades, all kinds of stupid sh#t. Just a few minutes ago i watched a guy with a saw get shot then while falling his aimbot took out me and another with perfect head shots.

It is getting to the point that PB, admins, or IW needs to do something soon or this game will go bye bye like the others in its wake.

I am thinking of resubbing to a site just to f%ck w/ the cheaters that are very bad at it.

Something needs to be done, PB doesnt work.

i am sorry but someone who claims to have hacked in the past loses all credibility in my book.

Look at any game and tell me the anti cheat is perfect. No matter what the game and anti cheat system, cheaters always find a way past. Anti cheat comes through in the long run, but those determined to cheat will always cheat.

[solofowaffles]

i am sorry but someone who claims to have hacked in the past loses all credibility in my book.

Look at any game and tell me the anti cheat is perfect. No matter what the game and anti cheat system, cheaters always find a way past. Anti cheat comes through in the long run, but those determined to cheat will always cheat.

You cant just ignore the cheats likes punkbuster likes to do though.

[sniperghost666]

I have a top end machine and when im playing Punkbuster gives me endless amounts of lag, its ridiculous.

And you say Punkbuster cant catch the hacking sites, am i the only person who thinks its companies like PB who secretly release new hacks to sites such as to keep them in business?

as i said, i have beef with PB.

what are you running in your rig? i have a pretty high end dell XPS, and i never notice any lag due to PB....just curious

[Cantina_Fly]

Eliminator, haven't we pretty much established you have kraptastic ping times and network problems in general playing from AU? So you're saying that if you jump on a non-pb server, you get a lot less lag? I could be you're getting great connection to the game server itself, but having issues with traffic to the PB servers. I don't know where they are relative to you, but I'd guess West Coast, USA, which would explain why you'd get lag even when playing on local Aussie servers.

[Hjodin]

i am sorry but someone who claims to have hacked in the past loses all credibility in my book.

Look at any game and tell me the anti cheat is perfect. No matter what the game and anti cheat system, cheaters always find a way past. Anti cheat comes through in the long run, but those determined to cheat will always cheat.

Why would I lose credibility, I have admited and paid for my mistake and moved on. I know what hacks are out there and what they do. Its no secret what happens in game. Through my expierince I can tell when someone is hacking.

Its not your position to judge me. I beg to differ with you on another point. Everyone has cheated sometime somewhere, It is what you have learned from cheating that dictates what you do in the future.

[Iwantcable]

"PB works most of the time and catches a few hackers." seems to fit well. I have problems with it fairly often, so I wish there was something better. But, it is definitely better than nothing.

[sniperghost666]

Why would I lose credibility, I have admited and paid for my mistake and moved on. I know what hacks are out there and what they do. Its no secret what happens in game. Through my expierince I can tell when someone is hacking.

Its not your position to judge me. I beg to differ with you on another point. Everyone has cheated sometime somewhere, It is what you have learned from cheating that dictates what you do in the future.

seriously, for all of you old enough to know what a SNES is, EVERYONE who played cheated at some point in time. me, i really don't have the attention span or the need to learn glitches, hacks, or cheats for online games. but yeah i cheated all the time on the SNES and the NES, anyone remember the game genie?? i personally blame nintendo for all the cheaters (over 30) ;)

[FPS[VT_NERD]]

seriously, for all of you old enough to know what a SNES is, EVERYONE who played cheated at some point in time. me, i really don't have the attention span or the need to learn glitches, hacks, or cheats for online games. but yeah i cheated all the time on the SNES and the NES, anyone remember the game genie?? i personally blame nintendo for all the cheaters (over 30) ;)

"Cheating" in a single player game is completely and totally different than cheating in an online multiplayer game. The only person who suffers from you entering god mode into single player is possibly you. When you cheat online you ruin the game for everyone else that has the misfortune of playing with you.

Let's not trivialize cheating by saying everyone does it. Half of the console and single player games out there have cheats built into the single player mode, but that really isn't in the same domain as a multiplayer hack. Everyone might occasionally use the single player cheats for various games, but I guarantee you that everyone has not tried hacks for online, multiplayer games.

As for the topic at hand, PB does a fair job detecting cheaters but the problem is that the punishments are not severe enough. If Valve detects you cheating you get a ban w/o warning. If PB detects you cheating you get a 5 minute slap on the wrist. PB just needs to up the punishments to immediate, permanent CD key and/or hardware bans and see what happens at that point.

[imported_Slashiem]

yeah works most of the time,
but i can offen suffer problems with pb updating sometimes and forced to upadte manually which isnt the ideal thing but isnt the a great problem and forces me to have a break from games
yeah agree catches the old hacks but new are made and just an wheel of patches for hackers and pb
but there is greater anti cheating methods like VAC and such but yeah its ok and there is tweaks u can make to pb that is leggal and wont get kicked for and uses less resources

[sniperghost666]

VT_NERD;1801964']"Cheating" in a single player game is completely and totally different than cheating in an online multiplayer game. The only person who suffers from you entering god mode into single player is possibly you. When you cheat online you ruin the game for everyone else that has the misfortune of playing with you.

Let's not trivialize cheating by saying everyone does it. Half of the console and single player games out there have cheats built into the single player mode, but that really isn't in the same domain as a multiplayer hack. Everyone might occasionally use the single player cheats for various games, but I guarantee you that everyone has not tried hacks for online, multiplayer games.

As for the topic at hand, PB does a fair job detecting cheaters but the problem is that the punishments are not severe enough. If Valve detects you cheating you get a ban w/o warning. If PB detects you cheating you get a 5 minute slap on the wrist. PB just needs to up the punishments to immediate, permanent CD key and/or hardware bans and see what happens at that point.

i'm not defending people who do cheat in online games, i don't like it either. but it will ALWAYS be a problem. but saying the guy has no credibility is pushing it too far. so he used to cheat, big deal, he said he dosen't do it anymore. IMO i just think that's taking it a bit too personally. and cheating is cheating is cheating.

[The_Eliminator]

Lets keep this on topic please.

[imported_Spuddy]

Well CoD4 is full of cheaters anyway, and would only be worse without PB. But something more needs to be done, either with PB or the addition of something else.

All this sooner rather than later, as I'm already growing bored (and I don't get chance to play so much these days) of having to hop servers to find one with fewer cheaters on.

[sniperghost666]

i haven't ran into any cheaters and if i did i didn't know it

[kr4z30g]

i was reluctant to believe that there were people using aimbots, i thought it was just people whining when they got shot... but for the past week i've been joining servers with people with aimbots morre than half the time! i'll watch their killcam and its obvious, so then they get kicked off the server only to join again 5 minutes later and keep doing it ;\

[The_Eliminator]

^^^^

I have never once called a person a hacker in game because i too am reluctant to think they ar hacking, and just generally a good player. But recently i have had the same problem of noticing several suspected wall hacks and aimbots through spectating (kill cam is not a good source of evidence imo) and even when the admin banned them , they simply reconnected and returned to the server.