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PBBans supports Red Orchestra 2

As has been pointed out we take the cheating threat very seriously, and have seen several games tank in the past year not because they were bad games (some were very enjoyable), but because their multiplayer environment was destroyed within weeks by cheaters.

We have listened to our community and others about what they want from an anti cheat environment and with that in mind we designed our current plan.

*VAC will be available for all servers and turned on by default.

We know some have had (and some still do have) problems with Punk Buster and with that in mind we are working with Even Balance to address that situation. Our current plan has PB implemented in three stages.

*Stage 0: Off
*Stage 1: Access to the server screenshot functionality and streaming bans
*Stage 2: Standard PB protection that WILL NOT interfere with Steam (and the overlay)
*Stage 3: Full PB that WILL (most likely) kick for the steam overlay

Server admins can work with these to decide what anti cheat environment works best for their server. And players will be able to filter for those settings as well to find servers that fit their preferences.

But remember, the greatest tool against cheaters is an active community both reporting cheaters (to Steam with the built in report function, and PB Bans) as well as forwarding any cheats they can get their hands on to any of the parties involved (ourselves which is preferable as we can get it to all the others quickly, EvenBalance and the VAC Team).
 
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As has been pointed out we take the cheating threat very seriously, and have seen several games tank in the past year not because they were bad games (some were very enjoyable), but because their multiplayer environment was destroyed within weeks by cheaters.

We have listened to our community and others about what they want from an anti cheat environment and with that in mind we designed our current plan.

*VAC will be available for all servers and turned on by default.

We know some have had (and some still do have) problems with Punk Buster and with that in mind we are working with Even Balance to address that situation. Our current plan has PB implemented in three stages.

*Stage 0: Off
*Stage 1: Access to the server screenshot functionality and streaming bans
*Stage 2: Standard PB protection that WILL NOT interfere with Steam (and the overlay)
*Stage 3: Full PB that WILL (most likely) kick for the steam overlay

Server admins can work with these to decide what anti cheat environment works best for their server. And players will be able to filter for those settings as well to find servers that fit their preferences.

But remember, the greatest tool against cheaters is an active community both reporting cheaters (to Steam with the built in report function, and PB Bans) as well as forwarding any cheats they can get their hands on to any of the parties involved (ourselves which is preferable as we can get it to all the others quickly, EvenBalance and the VAC Team).

Words cannot express how much I love the effort that was put into all of this.

Great job TWI.
 
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But many cheaters don't care, they just want to cheat.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, I was referring to getting banned by a false positive with a too trigger-happy anti-cheat.

But remember, the greatest tool against cheaters is an active community both reporting cheaters (to Steam with the built in report function, and PB Bans) as well as forwarding any cheats they can get their hands on to any of the parties involved (ourselves which is preferable as we can get it to all the others quickly, EvenBalance and the VAC Team).

Could you point me to the Steam built-in report tool? I thought VAC is fully automated and doesnt accept any reports of cheating players.
 
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Any word on the .ini scripts? like binding a key to change sensitivity like in RO:Ostfront? Will that be PB allowed?

That should be fine. PB itself doesn't ban for modified configs. It can be setup to enforce a defined range of cvar values. Handy for scanning cheat cvars.

http://www.evenbalance.com/publications/aa-ad/index.htm#monitoring

I'm not sure what you mean by that, I was referring to getting banned by a false positive with a too trigger-happy anti-cheat.

Ahh I misunderstood you post. If anyone is caught with a false positive they can submit a ticket with Even Balance. In many past cases PBBans members have even tried to find the reason a person is triggering a given violation. At least with PB you have a violation name and number (ex GAME HOOK 125003) which helps finding others with the same problem.
 
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I'm not sure what you mean by that, I was referring to getting banned by a false positive with a too trigger-happy anti-cheat.

If there is a false positive ban, then it would be removed from our system, as well as Even Balance's, immediately. I don't see what the big deal is. Sometimes the anticheat can make mistakes and think that legal software is a cheat. If EB determines it to be a false positive, then it will be removed.

That is why it is crucial that people fill out Even Balance trouble tickets, after they raise a violation, with everything that is needed to help solve the problem. Use details in the tickets and then let EB figure it out.
 
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Punkbuster... Good god. Man, the hours I've battled that abomination trying to get Battlefield games work. To quote Kenny Everrit I'd like to get the creators of PB "and put them in a field and bomb the ba$tards"

How can people have so many problems with PB? I have not had one issue with it since I started playing games back in 2003. Now I have Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit and still have no issues.

If there is an issue, 98% of the time it is the end-user's misinformation on how to use it.

Just install a PB game and go here to manually update it on your PC, allow PB to run on your firewall, and you should not have any problems. Done!

Edit: I have a post here on how to manually update your Punkbuster.
 
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I'm really happy you guys are working closely with PB to make a system that, for lack of a better phrase, doesn't utterly suck ...

I'm sure I'm not alone in expressing countless game-breaking issues I've had with Punkbuster over the years -- BF1942, CoD (and later iterations), BF2, and BFV (and all their mods), have actually been broken repeatedly by Punkbuster. Most of the time it's the main reason I can't get a game to work or repeatedly get kicked from servers. And then there's the notorious auto update that never works for some reason.

Again, I'm hoping all these issues can be avoided by communicating directly with the PB guys. I have faith ;)
 
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