The only way they'll ever fix this is via a server-side patch. It's criminal that this hack is still around -- if someone uses the commander hack it basically means the entire game grinds to a halt, the server can be crippled and everyone leaves.
I bet they could fix it relatively easily by doing two things.
1. Put range checks on the commands. If someone tries to request a commander action (arty, supplies etc.) when it is not ready to go, then don't blindly let them use it. It's absolutely absurd that they shipped the game without any checks of this kind and just left it up to the client to decide whether the commander actions were available. Client hack + no server checks = bad design. While this wouldn't stop non-commanders exploiting the assets, this would stop hackers ruining the game for the other (potential) 63 players (as the hacker would still be able to access the assets, but wouldn't be able to deploy arty / supply drops etc. faster than they legitimately recharge).
2. Make sure the commands requesting commander actions come from the commander and the commander only. This may be more difficult to implement, but I'm sure it could be done by checking the IP the commander request is coming from and matching it to the commander's playerID (i.e. if they mismatch, it's obviously coming from someone trying to use a client hack). Since commander actions are relatively infrequent it wouldn't be a resource drain, either. Even better, they could silently roll this out and harvest the account information of commander hackers and ban 'em.
Any punkbuster 'fix' is just going to delay the inevitable. If punkbuster 'fixes' it by detecting the illegal requests, then the hackers will just exploit it in a slightly different fashion each time. I've heard numerous times that it was meant to be fixed by PB and still I see commanders hacking away using it. In short, if the fix doesn't come from Dice, we're never going to see a definitive fix. They could probably do fix #1 via a server patch, but fix #2 will probably need a new client patch.
In short, I dount we'll ever see this get properly fixed because they don't give a shit despite the fact that it's easily the most obtrusive and frustrating cheat out there.
I bet they could fix it relatively easily by doing two things.
1. Put range checks on the commands. If someone tries to request a commander action (arty, supplies etc.) when it is not ready to go, then don't blindly let them use it. It's absolutely absurd that they shipped the game without any checks of this kind and just left it up to the client to decide whether the commander actions were available. Client hack + no server checks = bad design. While this wouldn't stop non-commanders exploiting the assets, this would stop hackers ruining the game for the other (potential) 63 players (as the hacker would still be able to access the assets, but wouldn't be able to deploy arty / supply drops etc. faster than they legitimately recharge).
2. Make sure the commands requesting commander actions come from the commander and the commander only. This may be more difficult to implement, but I'm sure it could be done by checking the IP the commander request is coming from and matching it to the commander's playerID (i.e. if they mismatch, it's obviously coming from someone trying to use a client hack). Since commander actions are relatively infrequent it wouldn't be a resource drain, either. Even better, they could silently roll this out and harvest the account information of commander hackers and ban 'em.
Any punkbuster 'fix' is just going to delay the inevitable. If punkbuster 'fixes' it by detecting the illegal requests, then the hackers will just exploit it in a slightly different fashion each time. I've heard numerous times that it was meant to be fixed by PB and still I see commanders hacking away using it. In short, if the fix doesn't come from Dice, we're never going to see a definitive fix. They could probably do fix #1 via a server patch, but fix #2 will probably need a new client patch.
In short, I dount we'll ever see this get properly fixed because they don't give a shit despite the fact that it's easily the most obtrusive and frustrating cheat out there.
Last edited by Arnie_Ze_Austrian (2007-07-18 14:48:15)