Friday, November 14, 2014

Archeage's Update to Anti-hacking

So earlier today Archeage decided to update the game and with that they updated hackshield. And amazingly enough now we have more problems then before cause now normal players are unable to play the game.

* HackShield's unwarranted force-disconnections have been curbed by reducing the number of false-positives it generates. Previous false-positive force-disconnections have not resulted in false-positive bans.
* New, additional anti-hacking detection has been introduced with this build. As a reminder, examples of hacking include but aren't limited to using illicit third-party software, modifying the game client, or intercepting packets between server and client.

Now you have more false positive disconnects then before since you can't stay connected to the game longer then 30 minutes to 50 minutes or less without getting kicked from the game. Has it stopped the hacking or botting? The answer to that question is no. While yes I haven't seen as many bots the land hacking is still happening. Teleport hacking is still working saw someone teleport to the mail box take a potion then teleport into the sky and disappear a low level character as well. Babymewmew yes senpai noticed you hacking on Naima. The land hacking is so bad on Naima you can go into the area and see rows and rows of properties owned by one specific guild or the same name over and over or slight variations of the same name. But the reason for that is trions making money off bots and hacks.

You ask how they make money? Botters buy patrons so they can restore labor faster. They make more then enough money selling items to compensate putting up a small $15 fee for patrons. Aside from that land hackers buy taxes like crazy this is because the longer they need to hold the land the more taxes they need to pay. Most don't use certificates and try to get people stupid enough to spend 1k gold then they come in with another character and while your trying to place take it out from under you. The person you paid the 1k gold to is like sorry bro thats how this game works. You lose 1k gold for the property and time. Some buy certificates that is more money for trion since its cash shop only.

One of the best things too is now trion has started to ban innocent players based off of a low level buying apex with gold obtained from trade pack running and such. Because apparently if your not buying apex via real cash it's a ban. So people are finding that low level 15 characters are getting banned after buying apex though the system. And the messages associated with these ban's are different then the standard "You got caught for hacking" Instead these are you broke the terms of service ban's. These ban's will get the following:

Greetings from Trion Worlds:
This email is to inform you that your Trion Worlds account has been banned due to a violation of our Terms of Use, Code of Conduct. Privacy Policy, or End User License Agreement. If you wish to discuss the reasons for this ban or request reinstatement of your account, please contact us through our Support Center by clicking the following link or pasting it into your browser: https://support.trionworlds.com
 
We recognize that the acts that led to this ban may not have been initiated by you, and we apologize if this is the case. Trion is committed to maintaining a fun and safe place for our customers to play games, and we have taken this action as a last resort to ensure a better gaming experience for our valued customers.
 
Sincerely,
Trion Worlds Account Services

These type of bans have no way to be unbanned and the best thing about them is the fact that it has nothing to do with you actually hacking. You could login to a server level a character to level 15 sell your gilda stars to make money do other things like buying stuff off the auction house and reselling or finding packs in the ocean. And when you get enough to buy apex you find yourself banned when you try to transfer it to your main account. Yet your main account doesn't get banned because you wheren't actually caught doing anything "illegal".

And yet trion wonders why the population for there awesome game keeps dropping. They don't do anything about land hacking and stuff but they end up banning innocent people who play the auction game. The sad thing is the botting and hacking will stop when the population is gone. Then at that point it will be trion trying to squeeze every bit of money out of the small remaining community yet if they fixed things properly instead of relying on hackshield which is one of the worst anti-cheat methods of all time they would have had a very successful game.

So in an effort to help other people playing the game keep this in mind.

  • You will most likely get banned making alt accounts and money making on other servers and trying to give your main account apex or money from another server. Do not play the market even if its sapposed to be "okay".
  • Botting seems to be allowed when you have patrons which was bought with real money thats not a stolen credit card.
  • Hacking is also allowed just make sure people don't see it and flag your account and the above approves the more money you spend apex wise the more you won't get banned.
  • If you run anti-virus you will most likely disconnect and possibly get banned.
  • If you run firewall you will most likely disconnect and possibly get banned.
  • If you do get banned bothering with support is a lost cause your better off charging back.

Keep in mind I don't support botting and I will not tell you how to do anything like that. But its sad cause this game could have been so good. And yet most of the reasons it's ruined have nothing to do with the botters or hackers it has more to do with how trion is handling all of it. Which I might add is very poorly.