Discussion about the KAG guards

Just picking up from the discussion from the Announcement thread. Since Shad wants it out of there (i think)
Anyways, Is there a possible way for the KAG devs to create a simple anti cheat system that kicks speedhackers specifically?

 

I raised this issue, too. As an ex-developer myself, we used to have a few automated systems that would flag an account if it did something detected as hacking. They are not that hard to implement if you’re on a 2D game that uses tilesets, but it is very hard to do right. As Shadlington says, it WILL flag players who did nothing wrong. That’s why our system did not ban anyone; just put a flag on the account. That, along with player reports of hacking within the same timeframe, and a screenshot, helped with processing a ban.

 

We stop speedhackers fairly easily.

It's the griefers that are the issue, griefers can avoid capture entirely by doing then hiding, or blaming it on others. Speedhackers can't hide behind anything. We need more guards and better methods of preventing griefers, such as already suggested spectator modes and better logging.

 

You’ll need to think outside the box. Even if you MAC address ban everyone who griefs, more will join. It’s something very difficult to control. While we didn’t have griefers (no destructive scenery) we did have players who would break the rules all the time. What made it worse was it was a pay to play game, so they would willingly pay 10 bucks a month and still not care if they broke the rules. If KAG ever gets as big then don’t think a premium account will stop it from happening - it won't. Bleh.

 

The cases of premiums griefing will be few and far between. Consistent griefers will be the ones creating dozens of new accounts just to grief. Some griefers like to play the game legitimately and occasionally grief on off days. Then there are those with winning motives, switching teams to grief then switching back. You can target the first by disallowing all quick and easy to get email account systems, it won't stop it, just help. The second is difficult, since people may even learn to trust the players, but enough reports would eventually get them punished. The third is just an issue with teamswitching, it is far too easy to do at the moment.

All kinds of griefing can be prevented and stopped by guards and mods. If people are aware mods are in the game, unless they are attention seekers, they may not grief at all. This would especially be the case if spectating was made and all players knew of this, potential griefers would then know they could be caught at any time. Prevention only works so far, though, as some griefers simply don't care about getting banned, they move from one account to another, and from one game to another. Sedgewick was like this. He didn't care about the threat of being banned, he simply created new accounts, and formed new ways of griefing once the previous ones were stopped. I'm presuming he's gone now, because we haven't seen any of his signature styles or classic taunts, so he has clearly moved onto a different game. Either way, he showed no signs of caring about being banned. I think the only way to stop these kinds of griefers is really debilitating anti griefing changes or simply having 24/7 mods and guards. Since the first is undesirable, and the second is near impossible, we have to accept that some griefers will always show themselves from time to time, and just get on and play.

 

We managed to maintain a 24/7 staff prescence by having a global staff list. All staff had to log onto a separate rcon system, even developers had to login there in order to make changes (the rcon had a built in FTP/script & settings editor). Once they logged in they would appear on the global staff list, allowing any players to PM them.


It certainly annoyed the devs because of the constant “Plz help!” messages, but it A. Deterred hackers because they’d pretty much always see staff as online, and B. Allowed users to complaint to staff even if they were not on the same server.

 

Ah but you're forgetting that KAG is a fast paced game. It only takes a griefer about 30 seconds to collapse something big, if they do it subtly from the inside. If you have a global staff list, a lot of the staff will be afk and such and won't reply for at least a few minutes, fine for griefers blocking in your base with blocks continually but not okay for destroyers.

It would certainly help a bunch though.

 

^^ No problem. The way we did it was by having a seperate list, like: Staff, Friends, and Players (or in your case: Staff, Blue, and Red). That way they were not having to play the game, just be in chat for users to contact them.

That being said, an in-game friends list is also a good idea I think. Chat with friends, play on the same server, etc.

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but the best thing would be to make the "tab-check" system a little easier. Some people don't even know that you can press tab to bring up the players. And then you have to carefully select the tiny box on the far side of the screen. Perhaps it should be something more obvious, like you mouse-over the player and then a griefer check box appears that you can then click.

 

This would be the easiest and most helpful fix at this time.

 

How about fast double right click over a specific player would bring up a box? I can't see that happening too much. Builders don't double right click, they hold right mb, and knights tend to hold down right mb too.

 

Or you guys could just enlarge the check box TAB kick thing so it would check the box when you press on the griefers name inside the tab box, instead of trying to line up the griefers name to that little tiny box on the far right.

 

@Who

"You don't need the green names, the forum titles, or anything else cosmetic to help you ban griefers."

The green names are to help prevent griefers and let people know they should report griefers and speedhackers if they see them. It makes things quicker. It also makes people feel a little safer knowing they're playing with a guard. It's supposed to anyway. The forum titles are for reference. It's helpful. Anything else cosmetic is sort of a reward but mostly a bit of fun with the community.