Some Answers About VAC

[CSN NewsBot]

I spotted this over on Planet Half-Life, apparently Jeh has organized all of Eric Smith's responses to community questions over the HLDS mailing list about the new Valve Anti-Cheat security module. Most of the questions have to do with the "master ban list server" insinuated by Eric's announcement yesterday. Scroll down for the list, which will hopefully help answer some of the rumors and questions floating around out there.



Planet Half-Life also reports on a workaround for the false-positives generated by 3Dfx Voodoo 3500 cards in the latest security module. Apparently those attempting to run CS in OpenGL mode are the ones getting false-positives for cheating, so all you have to do is change to the 3Dfx Mini-Driver in your video options dialog until a fix can be issued. Your FPS may suffer, but your reputation won't.[break="click here for Eric Smith's answers as compiled by Jeh"]

• from what i can gather, the master ban list is in "testing" at the moment, mainly to be sure that it functions properly, and that valve can be sure no false-positive detections are occuring.
  
  
  
  
• the outgoing traffic to 205.158.143.67:27013 will be via udp
  
  
• people caught cheating, once actually banned, will still be able to play counter-strike... just not on any "secure" servers.
  
  
  
  
• there is no word on when, or if, information contained on the master ban list will be communicated to cs server admins so that admins can, for instance, see which players were banned for using cheats on their servers.
  
  
  
  
• valve continues to work on detection / blocking for all known working cheats still out there.
  
  
  
  
• vac (valve anti-cheat) support will be integrated into tfc in the next update or two. no dates on when the next patches may be released. eric has also said that valve will continue to work on fixes / content for it's other mods and titles too.
  
  
  
  
• there are no plans to allow individual server admins running "secure" servers to control how the master ban list affects their server. if you're running a "secure" server then the players wishing to join will have to pass valve's master ban list to get in.
  
  
  
  
• server admins can still ban players via the normal methods right now (i.e. authid and ip). those bans will be stored locally on the server, so as well as players having to get past valve's master ban list, they will also have to be sure that they are not on the servers local ban list too.

[Achilles]

What about me getting banned for my vodoo card??!?!

[Gpig]

If you had a false positive it still got sent. They're probably flush the records if they can't tell whether it was a false positive or not. You can always get a new graphics card. Of course it's basically like the kettle calling the pot black because I have a Radeon VE.

[Colonel Kaos]

Will people be banned by their ip address or wonid[question mark.fucking keyboard]

[Achilles]

Wonid IP's change too much for dial uip

[rebz]

wow, thats great. valve is definately on the right track. eventually, people will be *scared* to cheat. now how cool is that? :)

[Spoonman]

I don't think the great amount of cheaters will be "scared" Getting a new CD Key is as easy as... well... its easy.

[Cuban Missile]

Am i the only one who hasnt seen a cheater in ages?? I cannot remember the last time i played with a cheater. I thought the community was over this crap, i dont even get banned by admins saying ' i hack' anymore.

[-Dice]

Valve continues to work on detection / blocking for all known working cheats still out there.

Well, I'd hope so. It'd be kinda depressing if we found out they weren't.



Kaos: buy a damn keyboard.

[HardPipe]

You Know ppl say that. But it is not easy to get a new CD key that always works online. Those CD key generators do not always work to be authenticated by WON. So I say keep banning the WONID's



Its like quarantine.. Eventually you will weed the masses out.

[Colonel Kaos]

-Dice wrote..

Kaos: buy a damn keyboard.

I will, after I steal several million dollars worth of gold bouillon from an armored truck leaving the bank tonight at 9 pm...er I've revealed too much information.

[downloap]

Anyway Open Gl hack 2.0 is out and work against the new vac

[solace]

valve should check the ogc forums to see what hax work and what don't because there's more than just the old ogc one that gets past it ;x

[Crapola5]

You think that they're that dumb? Of course they've checked ogc forums! They've checked all over the place, and I'm sure they know more than you or I do.

[-:Nighthawk:-]

It's already been mentioned that HLG disables the GL hacks, and VAC kicks for most other things. The end result is, on a server with HLG and VAC, there's precious little you can do to cheat. That doesn't mean nothing, but it's so little that it's no longer really a big issue anymore as it once was. So... gj Valve, as always. :)



I just feel sorry for the TFC/DoD guys, etc who don't have VAC yet... I hope they get it soon, as it's much more of an issue for them now than it is for CS (yay for CS, heh).