[Feedback] Add Epic Easy Anti-Cheat to FFXIV before is too late

[Katori96]

Here's something I don't think people have talked about. If they decide to act on the entire plugin aspect of the TOS, they need to tag EVERYTHING. Eureka Tracker, Hunt trackers, PvE mods for boss call outs, ACT, Midies (probably spelled wrong), and anything else no matter how harmless you or anyone else feels it is. It honestly would kill not only the social aspect of the game but all aspects. I'm not trying to justify the people using the cheating plugins but pointing out the long term effects of a hard crackdown.

So if everyone is ok with those kinds of things going then go for it. If not then just report the people cheating n accept that it's all you can do. And for what its worth I've been reporting people n usually hear back from a GM the next day n generally its responded with "ty for your report we can't share the results with you but we will take appropriate action."

[Lieri]

I hope for the top 100 they will at least try to check who's legit and cheated since the rewards are exclusive. Would be funny to see the cheaters playing all day everyday getting to top 100 while cheating knowing they will get the exclusive rewards only to receive the standard crystal tier rewards because they cheated. I mean checking one thousand players logs is doable. It's a small pool, they can ignore anything outside top 100 of each data center.

[KageTokage]

Some people have apparently been removed already but only the insanely obvious cheaters doing things like ignoring CCs or straight up making themselves invincible...somehow.

Even if they axed all of the cheaters, though, dealing with the win traders and match riggers would be another story entirely.

[Katori96]

I hope for the top 100 they will at least try to check who's legit and cheated since the rewards are exclusive. Would be funny to see the cheaters playing all day everyday getting to top 100 while cheating knowing they will get the exclusive rewards only to receive the standard crystal tier rewards because they cheated. I mean checking one thousand players logs is doable. It's a small pool, they can ignore anything outside top 100 of each data center.

I can confirm they do actually bring the hammer down on people who cheat to top 100. My GF got top 100 during the last feast season n when we were reviewing the leader boards after the rewards were issued she went from I think around 60th place to 53rd? Honestly people can out play the cheaters u may lose a teammate to do it but it's possible. CC is a team game after all.

[Andeeria]

Also there is also one problem which all the people who are after "ban all mods to prevent cheating" don't see.

Strict banning / detecting code injection will combat only the part of things mentioned here - wall hacks, speed hacks etc (for a day or two... as many people already said - it's a neverending arms race between devs and hackers)

Input based things - like the auto-CC on LB, auto-guard can easily be circumvented by a screen reader running outside of the game (same stuff as many tool assisted speedruns are using). And there is no possible way to ban direct screen reading as it would imply blocking XIV from any streaming service / software.

[Johners]

Also there is also one problem which all the people who are after "ban all mods to prevent cheating" don't see.

Strict banning / detecting code injection will combat only the part of things mentioned here - wall hacks, speed hacks etc (for a day or two... as many people already said - it's a neverending arms race between devs and hackers)

Input based things - like the auto-CC on LB, auto-guard can easily be circumvented by a screen reader running outside of the game (same stuff as many tool assisted speedruns are using). And there is no possible way to ban direct screen reading as it would imply blocking XIV from any streaming service / software.

Auto CC and LB is about timing though and the current plugins fire off instantly. That's what makes a noticeable and negative impact on PvP in this game and that's what Square Enix need to moderate in this game.

[Thorio]

Would it work on console?

[Johners]

Would it work on console?

No, none of the third party programs work on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5. If I'm not mistaken, macOS users are unable to use them either.

[Andeeria]

If I'm not mistaken, macOS users are unable to use them either.

macOS client is basically a Windows one run inside a third party program (officially sanctioned by Square-Enix tho), if the hackers wanted, their cheats would work there.

And that macOS official client is something that could particullary block any attempts from Square in implementing an anti-cheat solution. As the CodeWeavers app running it, is know to not work or trigger false alarms with most of the modern anti-cheat solutions.

Besides, seeing the latest steam launcher debacle, I'm not quite sure if you want to mix up the legendary spaghetti code of FFXIV with the anti-cheat software.

[Johners]

macOS client is basically a Windows one run inside a third party program (officially sanctioned by Square-Enix tho), if the hackers wanted, their cheats would work there.

And that macOS official client is something that could particullary block any attempts from Square in implementing an anti-cheat solution. As the CodeWeavers app running it, is know to not work or trigger false alarms with most of the modern anti-cheat solutions.

Besides, seeing the latest steam launcher debacle, I'm not quite sure if you want to mix up the legendary spaghetti code of FFXIV with the anti-cheat software.

Sure, you could do that, but as of right now you can't even play FFXIV on the latest macOS release because Python2 was moved and the wrapper-based client relies on Python2. The Mac client in general needs a proper update to actually be a proper macOS application rather than some wrapper-based piece of garbage.

The Steam thing was fine and literally just SE following by the terms of service Valve applies to all publishers selling games through Steam. The fact Square Enix weren't already doing this account linking was the problem to be honest.