Prodigal
Shitlord, Offender of the Universe
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Since we can’t sway Bubbles, perhaps someone could use their ill-gotten gains to pay for a new tit job for her.
EQ TLP - Vaniki (Level-Locked Progression)
- Thread starter Zaide
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Rajaah
Honorable Member
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Sieger
Trakanon Raider
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The banwaves at least since January and maybe since 2021 are not people being caught the way you describe. MQ has basic protections in place against the detection techniques already discussed in this thread, however if you modify MQN simply to add truebox servers to the enum list of allowed servers, you haven't implemented that protection so if you're using a version like that it isn't protected. The banwaves of the last 12 months have also not just been hitting MQN but other compiles of MQ and non-MQ cheat software.
There's been extensive discussion about this in the various discords with the MacroQuest developers, and there's a general consensus that DPG has a heuristic script that flags cheaters based on certain defined behaviors. No one has clearly established what those behaviors are, but this isn't a simple process scan or memory scan or anything like this, they have a server side process that is flagging people based on certain in game behaviors that they have determined is associated with cheating.
For example, one reason many people in the initial banwaves shared in common that they were using overseer.mac (which fully automates the Overseer system) is likely because the Overseer window being a new part of the game was pretty easy to build such that they can see if you're putting in 300 inputs in a minute to the buttons on that window and that isn't the sort of behavior someone does unless they are automating the process.
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They might also being doing this but I'm sure they detecting mq2 and eqbot type stuff better than just that. I doubt every single person suspended would have tripped this supposed script? I think it would be too easy for people to avoid triggering their script if that was their only way of detection and no one has figured it out yet? It would be too easy to get around.
I certainly haven't heard of anyone getting busted for running just autoclickers. You would think people spamming chanter stuns would trigger this script. Or people spamming autoclickers on their monks. Plenty of examples of people who don't run mq2 aren't hitting hit and people running mq2 are. No autoclicker ppl busted. No hotkeynet people busted. No map people busted. Literally all mq2 mqnext eqbot people.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I'd be impressed if they had a heuristic detection system that cleanly segregated macroquest users from people running inner space boxer, programmable keyboards, autohotkey etc.
Sieger
Trakanon Raider
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They don't. These ban waves have not been limited to only MQ use.
The problem is the sort of detection you are assuming gets most people is trivially bypassed by MQ as it is now, you can essentially control any program on your computer's ability to investigate things through Windows OS commands, using detours and other techniques. If the detection was primarily client side checks of the nature you're assuming they would be far easier to test for and defeat. The MQ community also does not know exactly what sort of heuristic they are using, if they did they could potentially code around it, knowing that this is DPG I would assume it isn't anything crazy advanced, but I also suspect it isn't quite as simple as "autoclicker" behavior, either. This sort of client side checking does happen, but it has been going on for years and the MQ devs generally adjust to each newly released bit of client side detection.
FWIW the MQ community now that Mule has been put out to pasture is pretty much an open book, you can join the MQ (not Redguides) discord and ask these questions yourself and they'll give you reasonable answers, they won't necessarily fully explain to you how they do everything.
Remember MQ is fully open source, a DPG employee could easily setup a copy of their own and use it for a bit, and determine "hey, what are some easy things that running this does that makes it obvious I'm running it, that I could test for and that would also not flag too many non-cheating customers?"
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Rajaah
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It's easy to catch people who use SEQ. Just wait until Kunark release, sit in SONH, drop medallions and ban anyone who runs over to you.
The best thing about Vaniki is that it skipped Kunarrk medallions.
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Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
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Ecko
Trakanon Raider
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2 hours?! Guessing that's with an xp pot going and xp bonus, gonna be using charm too??
I'm probably not going to be able to level until the Friday which is annoying. Just have to do a necro now rather than a 4 box so might not be too bad. No XP bonus, but will have a pot and can solo if needed but should hopefully have a group for most of it. As long as i'm 55 by Sunday for our raids i'll be happy!
Zapan
Molten Core Raider
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What’s the status / focus / server pop on Vaniki? Is it one guild focused on progression or more? Is it a shitload of enchanters for charm? How’s gear being handled as a means of progression? OW vs DZ schedule? Bazaar used much? Boxing prevalent (or even required)? What are people and guilds focused on?
I imagine it feels like small man crew stuff on one very long expansion launch, which sounds interesting and fun.
I imagine it feels like small man crew stuff on one very long expansion launch, which sounds interesting and fun.
They had a policy shift recently, I'm inclined to believe.
Someone at the top must've instructed them to no longer tolerate third party programs. Given the roadmap, I think it's either Jennifer Chan or someone higher up (Ji Ham, EG7, etc)
They seem to be hitting 3rd party programs a bit more directly.
They are hitting their backlog of detections more frequently, and are also shutting down havens that allow for botting (ie; Drunder in EQ2 - which was the 'ISXEQ2' server to isolate the botters to their own 'prison server')
Emu folks who were using the test server to collect spawn information were getting hit with MySEQ detections... on accounts that only played on Test. So yes. They're definitely more aggressive.
As someone who always thought assisted multi-client botting is kind of out of place among those that don't box on TLP, it's a welcome change. Emu has servers similar to Drunder for EQ1 (ie; Project Lazarus is a 6-box MQ2 approved server) so they're always welcome to come play on emu on those MQ2-allowed servers if they get banned.
There's a version of MQNext being made for RoF2 emu as well. Expect to see that whenever it's done.
Zapan
Molten Core Raider
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A server where they hard enforced SEQ, MQ, etc and moved people over off of the TLP to another server would be very interesting. Imagine having actual trackers in zones again, and all of the downstream implications
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Seems like they're mostly cracking down on show EQ and macroquest and leaving Gamparse, GINA, inner space boxer etc alone. If they start going after ISBoxer users they'll lose a lot of users without really hurting botting much. ISBoxer makes life easier for manual users than it does for someone trying to automate stuff with autohotkey. Will be a lot more people using the linux version of ShowEQ on a separate computer if this continues, which can be done in an 100% undetectable way.
This doesn't make sense from a business perspective but I kind of wish DPG embraced botting and whitelisted a version of macroquest + plugins that didn't have any warping for usage on a special server where botting was encouraged. Maybe it's just that I've been playing a lot of Factorio lately but EQ is such an automation friendly RPG that it could be fun to bot. I imagine the server would be totally dead though, most people who bot either want to make $$$ or do more than just bot trivial content on their server.
Rajaah
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Weds at 5 PM EST. You down?
Yeah, I'll be running charm, would be cool to get another charm class for the last spot.
I thought about leveling a necro on another account this week with the bonus, but I figured it'd be redundant for trueboxing later since I have an Enc already for soloing stuff while my SK (actual main) sits in a corner.
Server pop is pretty good on Vaniki, saw a ton of people playing on July 4th when I expected it to be empty. Apparently the numbers aren't super high but you can't really tell from the amount of activity in the zones.
Bind Rush is focused on progression but a couple others seem to be competing as well. We'll see how things shake out at 55 when multiple guilds are probably gonna go for Emperor, Vex Thal, and Planes targets.
There are a lot of enchanters but not as many as I've seen on other server launches TBH. Saw a pretty good diversity of classes with this one, especially with Beastlord and Berserker available for once. Charm is about as OP as usual, can charm higher targets, but also get more breaks it seems like even on lower level mobs. Casters in general are OP on here with the resist changes while melees have it a bit rougher (constant misses).
I dunno how different guilds are doing gear. BR was doing loot council now DKP. Gear was generally funneled to main tanks and clerics first. As far as OW vs DZ goes I dunno how it is at the moment but I don't think a lot of batphoning is going on because there isn't much need. Bazaar is heavily used. Not a lot of boxing. Guilds are focused on all kinds of stuff but I've seen a bunch doing Luclin progression.
There's a hard cap on what raid mobs we can take down with the level limits, and the cap goes across a few expansions. Like I don't think anyone's doing NTOV or anything past the first couple of GoD zones. At 55 with AAs we're gonna see a ton of targets suddenly be doable.
so if i recompile myseq.exe and server.exe into your_mum.exe am i good?
what about changing the name of macroquest.exe?
I mean p99 at least detects injection (and this renaming of the myseq program did not work on p99 long time ago when i tried)... so i dont see how process list is the only detection method? is there evidence of them having more detection than simply what programs i'm running when launcher/eq is running?
what about changing the name of macroquest.exe?
I mean p99 at least detects injection (and this renaming of the myseq program did not work on p99 long time ago when i tried)... so i dont see how process list is the only detection method? is there evidence of them having more detection than simply what programs i'm running when launcher/eq is running?
