Would you agree with Hardware ID bans?

[Cuchillo_Baishan]

And what this has to do to do with VAC, you'd probably say.

Here's the thing, we don't know how VAC works for understandable reasons, so there's not much sense in discussing a secret anticheat system.

However, we do know it's just tied to personal accounts and especially on FTP games, takes 5 minutes to create a new account despite the rage of the "unfairly banned" crowd and the minority of faulty brains who spend a fortune on skins and then decide it's a good idea to go cheat with their precious account worth thousands.

So if it was up to me, at the very least Free To Play game bans should be tied to a Hardware ID , which is easily obtainable by companies detecting a mix of the computer components: hard drive number, processor, GPU number, and so on.

Those bans would be permanent, not negotiable, etc. as well.

I'm giving some feedback on VAC, or whatever new anticheat Valve is developing that supersedes 2023 VAC.

[Hangry Henrys]

Well you can spoof the id

[Zarineth]

Hardware ID, just as IP can be changed and if someone really wants to cheat, they would do it either way.

[Unn4m3d (♥AUT♥)]

No, because it doesn't work anyway.

[Cathulhu]

The only thing that will achieve is people buying second hand hardware getting banned for something they didn't do.

Cheaters already know how easy such bans are to circumvent.

[blunus]

1. Hardware IDs can be spoofed easily.
2. Sellers would agree for you when they sold used parts to the innocent and get them banned.

No.

[Cuchillo_Baishan]

That Hardware ID doesn't have to be a number anyone can see.

Valve can create a random secret number for every user account after detecting the hardware mix, for example. We're not in 1999, when a Pentium III id number was akin to a car plate.

That ID would be known only for Valve.

[Cathulhu]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

The only thing that will achieve is people buying second hand hardware getting banned for something they didn't do.

Doesn't fix this issue. People can have more than one account you know.

[blunus]

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

That Hardware ID doesn't have to be a number anyone can see.

Valve can create a random secret number for every user account after detecting the hardware mix, for example. We're not in 1999, when a Pentium III id number was akin to a car plate.

That ID would be known only for Valve.

Still doesn't fix the issue for used hardware parts.

[Cuchillo_Baishan]

Originally posted by blunus:

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

That Hardware ID doesn't have to be a number anyone can see.

Valve can create a random secret number for every user account after detecting the hardware mix, for example. We're not in 1999, when a Pentium III id number was akin to a car plate.

That ID would be known only for Valve.

Still doesn't fix the issue for used hardware parts.

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

[Hangry Henrys]

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

Originally posted by blunus:

Still doesn't fix the issue for used hardware parts.

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

Still useless it can be SPOOFED

[Cathulhu]

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

Originally posted by blunus:

Still doesn't fix the issue for used hardware parts.

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

Indeed, but you really want innocent people get banned because they bought used hardware?
You can't be serious.

Your idea will not solve the issue with cheating. It will only create a mess. Fix society if you want cheating gone.

VAC works the way it does so innocent people do not get banned. There are no hardware bans or IP bans for that specific reason.
All bans are delayed. Not only to obfuscate the time of detection, but also to make sure the ban is checked and verified.

Yes, a few still fall through the cracks and actual innocent people very rarely get banned.
Which is why every ban is constantly checked and verified.

[Ducks on Fire]

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

Originally posted by blunus:

Still doesn't fix the issue for used hardware parts.

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

The trade off really isn't worth it. Besides people buying used parts or PCs if a family has a single PC then every single person has to be punished if any person uses cheats.

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

However, we do know it's just tied to personal accounts and especially on FTP games, takes 5 minutes to create a new account despite the rage of the "unfairly banned" crowd and the minority of faulty brains who spend a fortune on skins and then decide it's a good idea to go cheat with their precious account worth thousands.

That's why EAC and BattlEye use HWID bans.

Valve is testing VAC Live (which in turn is based on VACNet which in turn got trained by CSGO Overwatch) which bans cheaters in real time by using AI and server-side play data. No need for ring 0 spyware nor any HWID.

[Cuchillo_Baishan]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

Indeed, but you really want innocent people get banned because they bought used hardware?
You can't be serious.

Your idea will not solve the issue with cheating. It will only create a mess. Fix society if you want cheating gone.

VAC works the way it does so innocent people do not get banned. There are no hardware bans or IP bans for that specific reason.
All bans are delayed. Not only to obfuscate the time of detection, but also to make sure the ban is checked and verified.

Yes, a few still fall through the cracks and actual innocent people very rarely get banned.
Which is why every ban is constantly checked and verified.

Originally posted by Ducks on Fire:

Originally posted by Cuchillo_Baishan:

There's no silver bullet. If you VAC ban the account plus the hardware ID ban, it makes it a lot more difficult to try cheat again, or more difficult than is right now.

The trade off really isn't worth it. Besides people buying used parts or PCs if a family has a single PC then every single person has to be punished if any person uses cheats.

Sure that would change the second hand market for hardware in some ways.

People will make sure they buy different computer parts and not a whole gaming pc already built, just in case. Or maybe just getting a different network adapter will do.

It's also not fair to get an overpriced GPU that has extensively used for crypto mining. That is the second hand market exactly, sometimes some sellers are scammers, then again you often have returns policy, like on eBay.

Society is not going to change unfortunately, this is offtopic but being a Gen X guy I only experienced it getting worse and worse in every aspect, empirically. Now it's like becoming a pride to be scum instead of just plain honest.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

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