Hacking/Unallowed modding in Hytale

[EightyOne]

Hi everyone,

So as everyone knows, there have been hacks in minecraft ever since the beginning of multiplayer.
And because people don't like being cheated, watchdogs/anti-hack plugins were made, resulting in a technological arms race that rivals that of the cold war.
My main concern is that this will happen in Hytale.
I know Hypixel has much experience dealing with hackers and such, however I also recognize he is an avid supporter of modding and plugins(just look at how many resource packs his server has).
Especially because Hytale is new, and plugins/builds will be made early on, I worry plagiarism and infringement will quickly grow into large problems. Of course, mimicking plugins on servers encourages competition and improvement(i.e. skywars, bedwars/cake wars, survival games, spleef), but without any basic rules, I think it will quickly devolve into feuding and spite across servers.
My hope is that there will be basic account supervision to prevent these things. For example, instead of each server individually banning a hacker, the developer can label the account a "hacker" for a period of time and let servers handle them however they want.

Cheers,
EightyOne

 

[Demon]

Yes, good idea. I don't want hackers.

 

[Niroski]

People with servers could abuse this feature and falsely tag someone as a "cheater".

Every game has hackers and there nothing that can be done to prevent them from doing it other than banning or disabling their account.

I don't mind if its the same as Minecraft as in the end the hackers are removed.

I believe that Hytale will have a much much much better anti-cheat than Minecraft.
This new anti-cheat will definitely not stop hackers but it will prevent some hacks from entering the game.

Hackers and cheaters will always find a way to exploit something and it's extremely hard to keep it patched so no hacks can enter the client as someone out their will create another.

 

[AgentB8]

I agree that hacking is inevitable. The hacker tag is clever, but I think there should be levels based on the offense. For example, you could give a level 1 tag to someone who is xraying on a first offense, and a level 5 to someone with fly hacks on a third offense. This may be a little more work for the admins, but there could possibly be an official record for the server with key names or something.

 

[EightyOne]

People with servers could abuse this feature and falsely tag someone as a "cheater".

Every game has hackers and there nothing that can be done to prevent them from doing it other than banning or disabling their account.

I don't mind if its the same as Minecraft as in the end the hackers are removed.

I believe that Hytale will have a much much much better anti-cheat than Minecraft.
This new anti-cheat will definitely not stop hackers but it will prevent some hacks from entering the game.

Hackers and cheaters will always find a way to exploit something and it's extremely hard to keep it patched so no hacks can enter the client as someone out their will create another.

You bring up a good point as servers could definitely abuse this feature.
But my concern here is that the anti-cheat won't be much stronger. After all, if it's "easy for developers" to develop mods, then they could just as easily develop hacks.
Large minecraft servers such as Hypixel have good countermeasures to this, however smaller servers without as many developers on hand aren't able to deal with hackers effectively. Sure, you could ban them after an offense, but after the damage is done, it could be extremely difficult to reverse.

 

[Niroski]

Plugins will be made for people to prevent hackers very eaisly.
Just go onto Spigot and look for a anti-cheat plugin its very simple!

I can guarantee you that someone will create a plugin that will be really good for detecting and stopping hackers.
For example, I know a hack can you make you fly on a Minecraft server but if you install a plugin you can make it so they get kicked if it seems like they are flying and it alerts a moderator.

 

[EightyOne]

Plugins will be made for people to prevent hackers very eaisly.
Just go onto Spigot and look for a anti-cheat plugin its very simple!

I can guarantee you that someone will create a plugin that will be really good for detecting and stopping hackers.
For example, I know a hack can you make you fly on a Minecraft server but if you install a plugin you can make it so they get kicked if it seems like they are flying and it alerts a moderator.

You're definitely right that there will be anti-hacker plugins, but I think we have disagreement onto what extent they will be effective. Things like flying can easily be detected, but things like kill aura, x-ray or perfect jump can be a lot harder to detect.

 

[Niroski]

That is just the struggles.
If these weren't issues then moderators for servers wouldn't be needed as much.

 

[Ivan]

you can't really stop hacking in any sort of way

 

[AgentB8]

you can't really stop hacking in any sort of way

That’s right, and because of this I think a countermeasure anticipating hackers is a great idea, like the hacker tag, or maybe some kind of other public punishment that discourages others to hack.

 

[Ivan]

That’s right, and because of this I think a countermeasure anticipating hackers is a great idea, like the hacker tag, or maybe some kind of other public punishment that discourages others to hack.

or a reputation type system

 

[DSitC]

Afaik, the Hytale Team stated that the client will not be modable, only the server will be able to install/manage the mods used. A handshake is made upon connecting the client to the server and all files needed by the client will be transfered. This enables some pretty strong anti-cheat system to be in place, as you can check for an un-altered client in one way or another. The system sounds robust and I'm having my hopes up.

Edit: Found the source...

Official Website FAQ

Will you support modding?

• Yes. Hytale was made with creators in mind and includes a comprehensive collection of tools that grant players more creative power than ever, from model creation and animation to filmmaking, in-game scripting, and - of course - building with blocks.
• However, to combat abuse we will not permit modifications to the client itself. With the amount of freedom you are given with Hytale’s toolset, however, you won’t need to do so. Having a single version of the game to support makes things easier for us as developers, too.

How extensively can I mod the game?

• Every aspect of Hytale is customizable, from damage values to animations, models, weather, combat mechanics, and more. Our ambition is to empower our community to make entire new worlds for themselves. We will cover this more deeply in an upcoming post showcasing the breadth of content you can make.

How do players customize their playing experience if the client is not open to modding?

• When a client connects to a community server with a custom version of the game, a handshake process occurs in which all of the required files, data, sounds, models, animations, and so on are downloaded by the client.