Dicen is "cheating" and hacking in the Multiplayer Beta

Homeworld Remastered Collection Homeworld Remastered Multiplayer
#1

@BitVenom @Cefasm
Dicen, named “dicen” as his player name, has created or sourced a map and compiled it into his game files. Somehow this doesn’t trigger a file-incompatibility.

The map he uses is based on Crimson Bond and has a piece of salvage worth 150,000 RUs that he can then harvest. It’s worth noting that I’ve been informed by others that he also has another map which features a 280,000 RU piece of debris.

Is there a way to have his SHiFT account banned or removed? Or is there, in fact, any way resolve this?

Thanks.

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#2

That guy. Still at it after all these years. You’d think he’d change his name or something.

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#3

He poses as quite a rude host, having Crimson Bond loaded at first, usually with high starting resources and a huge unit cap. He’ll repeatedly say “tick.” and eventually “tick or go.” …Even if you’re wanting to discuss the game settings with him. Even that “You shouldn’t have joined then.” if you even show a hint of disapproval.

Once everybody is ticked in, he’ll switch the map to the “Unknown Level”, which won’t actually download as a custom map because it’s “compiled” - Or so he informs. This is backed up by the fact that I cannot find the map file in my custom map folder post-event.

During the match, if you challenge him, he’ll repeatedly state the following phrases:

  • I am Dicen.
  • I have been here for over a decade.
  • Show me the source.
  • Do you know what compiled means?
  • And later on he expressed his homosexual-erotic desires towards my 19-year-old person.

Frankly, this is disgusting, and an absolutely unacceptable thing. Is there anything that can happen from the developer’s side of things?

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#4

Watches with interest at how this will be handled

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#5

Can’t you just not play with him?

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#6

Yeah, I thought there would be some sort of video evidence or screenshots, or anything, attached along with this thread. I wouldn’t expect them to do anything without any evidence supporting this request.

After you have compiled that information, and provided it to GBX, I would assume it could be Steam that could ban him. Also, technically, he is using a custom map that is tailored to his needs, hence your “cheating” in title, so how can we expect him to get banned? Personally, I don’t see it happening, but I guess I could be wrong.

I laud your diligence though.

#7

DICEN has been cheating and swearing since the early days. Avoid!

#8

Normally I’d close this down- as there’s such a likelihood of drama- but since it’s the beta, let’s see what happens.

Try to avoid the personal stuff, though, eh?

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#9

FYI, I think I found a picture of the alleged cheater / hacker…

http://i.imgur.com/1OvdB8S.gif

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#10

The next update won’t ‘download’ maps at all - they are never saved to drive. As for cheating, it also auto-clears the ‘okay’ flag for everyone if you change the map - so people can’t be forced into playing a custom one. As for ‘compiled’ - that means nothing. If during MP with this guy before the game ends you just alt-tab - you should be able to find the map downloaded (before the next patch) - and prove that it is hacked.

As for banning… a Shift account is NOT meant to be DRM - it’s just a way of tracking the beta users. So that’s a pretty difficult request to really address. @Burly @pdeupree - any thoughts?

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#11

@BitVenom
I’ll see what I can do. Should the map appear in the custom-map folder (leveldata/deathmatch) while the game is active?

@raynernycz
I would have included some evidence, although it was only discovered that he had an inordinate amount of resources later on, confirmed by my teammate when he explained it after-the-fact.
I didn’t even believe the information about the compiling until I couldn’t find the custom map on my local PC. Hopefully something more can happen or I can retrieve this map without his realizing.

#12

I don’t think this should be bannable. Sure, it’s not nice but you don’t have to play with him either.

#13

This works.

1 Like
#14

And so it begins…

#15

While this is an ■■■■■■■ move, it is NOT technically cheating, and solved by simply not playing with him (i host 99% of games i play in, and they fill fast, so even if he is hosting the only game up its simple to circumvent a player like this (and ofc blacklist him from ur own games for being a douche)) but u should almost never witch hunt someone without good reason (not that i dont think he deserves it if true, but when there is an easy solution already as an alternative then dont bother with witch hunt)

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#16

If your definition of cheating doesn’t include editing maps to give yourself an advantage in a hidden way and switching to it after people agree to play on a well known map, I’d submit that your definition is overly narrow.

I’m generally against the witchhunting stuff though, it tends to get pretty ugly.

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#17

It only gets ugly if people allow it to…

This is a report. Was never intended as a witch hunt.
It’s a thing that we should be discussing though.

#18

I just want to give you a little hope here, see Mad Bomber TFL and I were suckered into the same thing, Mad noticed the chunk in the map when we got in, I noticed the map change right off but too late to untick, together we realized what had happened and proceeded to spank him and his ally.

I would like to say we beat him soundly but the game synced before we had a complete victory so all I can really do is say we were VERY confident we were going to completely destroy him. We completely destroyed his and his allies fleet two times over and took out a total of 4-6 carriers with that big RU deficit we had due to his shenanigans. If anyone completes a game against him the stats file should show the RU difference as proof BTW.

The hope I am trying to impart here is that he is not a good player, his style of play has left him at such a low skill level that he can’t win a game with massive numbers on his side unless he is playing new players or people that are totally unaware of what he did.

For now we can just not join his games, in future as pointed out, we won’t even have to deal with his crap. Me, I’ll just boot him if he tries to join one of my games, that is all we really can do, as a community, leave him to his own sad little corner.

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#19

Here are the stats files. I believe the one created at the later time was the match, however I’m unsure, so I’ve included both.

#20

Here are the stats from the correct file, sorry for the length but I marked the details too, the attached stats file in question is the one ending in 04_21_42 (the time stamp).

MapName = “Crimson Bond”,
Player0 = {
BUILDING = {
BuildCapableShips = 2,
BuildingTotal = 13750,
ResearchCost = 0,
ResearchPercent = 0,
TotalSubsystems = 5,
},
COMBAT = {
CombatTotal = 6,
TotalShipsBuilt = 13,
TotalShipsCaptured = 0,
TotalShipsDestroyed = 0,
TotalShipsLost = 13,
},
DIPLOMACY = {
DiplomacyTotal = 996,
TimeOfDeath = “0:7:24”,
TributeDonated = 0,
TributeReceived = 0,
},
GENERAL = {
Name = “dicen”,
Race = “Vaygr”,
},
OVERVIEW = {
BuildingTotal = 13750,
CombatTotal = 6,
DiplomacyTotal = 996,
OverviewTotal = 96427,
ResourceTotal = 81675,
},
RESOURCE = {
MobileRefineries = 2,
ResourceCollectors = 6,
ResourceTotal = 81675,
TotalRUHarvested = 150000,
TotalRUSpent = 5350,
},
},
Player2 = {
BUILDING = {
BuildCapableShips = 2,
BuildingTotal = 11700,
ResearchCost = 700,
ResearchPercent = 13,
TotalSubsystems = 0,
},
COMBAT = {
CombatTotal = 23140,
TotalShipsBuilt = 129,
TotalShipsCaptured = 0,
TotalShipsDestroyed = 37,
TotalShipsLost = 129,
},
DIPLOMACY = {
DiplomacyTotal = 2404,
TimeOfDeath = “0:17:51”,
TributeDonated = 0,
TributeReceived = 0,
},
GENERAL = {
Name = “-----------------------”,
Race = “Kushan”,
},
OVERVIEW = {
BuildingTotal = 11700,
CombatTotal = 23140,
DiplomacyTotal = 2404,
OverviewTotal = 57588,
ResourceTotal = 20344,
},
RESOURCE = {
MobileRefineries = 0,
ResourceCollectors = 6,
ResourceTotal = 20344,
TotalRUHarvested = 18000,
TotalRUSpent = 15489,
},
},
Player3 = {
BUILDING = {
BuildCapableShips = 3,
BuildingTotal = 43775,
ResearchCost = 12400,
ResearchPercent = 21,
TotalSubsystems = 11,
},
COMBAT = {
CombatTotal = 37298,
TotalShipsBuilt = 67,
TotalShipsCaptured = 0,
TotalShipsDestroyed = 71,
TotalShipsLost = 30,
},
DIPLOMACY = {
DiplomacyTotal = 5225,
TimeOfDeath = “–”,
TributeDonated = 0,
TributeReceived = 0,
},
GENERAL = {
Name = “Mad Bomber TFL”,
Race = “Hiigaran”,
},
OVERVIEW = {
BuildingTotal = 43775,
CombatTotal = 37298,
DiplomacyTotal = 5225,
OverviewTotal = 158402,
ResourceTotal = 72104,
},
RESOURCE = {
MobileRefineries = 4,
ResourceCollectors =22,
ResourceTotal = 72104,
TotalRUHarvested = 63064,
TotalRUSpent = 57144,
},
},
Player4 = {
BUILDING = {
BuildCapableShips = 2,
BuildingTotal = 19275,
ResearchCost = 5600,
ResearchPercent = 15,
TotalSubsystems = 4,
},
COMBAT = {
CombatTotal = 24758,
TotalShipsBuilt = 39,
TotalShipsCaptured = 0,
TotalShipsDestroyed = 15,
TotalShipsLost = 24,
},
DIPLOMACY = {
DiplomacyTotal = 5225,
TimeOfDeath = “–”,
TributeDonated = 0,
TributeReceived = 0,
},
GENERAL = {
Name = “[TFL]TheWorldSmith”,
Race = “Vaygr”,
},
OVERVIEW = {
BuildingTotal = 19275,
CombatTotal = 24758,
DiplomacyTotal = 5225,
OverviewTotal = 84833,
ResourceTotal = 35575,
},
RESOURCE = {
MobileRefineries = 1,
ResourceCollectors = 10,
ResourceTotal = 35575,
TotalRUHarvested = 33200,
TotalRUSpent = 28350,
},
},
TotalTime = “GAME LENGTH: 0:17:51”,

As you can see above, the 2 players with the extra RUs on their side only had 6 collectors each, Mad bomber had 22, WorldSmith 10, yet Dicen has a total of 150,000 Rus harvested, very curious wouldn’t you say? I blanked out the team mates name because the stats show he was not in on the problem.

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