Fair Play Notice: Chestfinder and ESP are now considered Hacks

[OmerParlakyigtYT]

Good job , Made me happy.

Good Luck !

 

[iLucidictive]

So you're telling me it used not to be considered hacks before? LOL.

crazy right. good thing there is a change in policy going through

 

[Vigilo]

Nice to see that the thread is posted so quickly!

 

[Vinyl]

Wait wait wait. How was this NOT a hack previously, it is an extreme advantage to players!

I would have thought they were hacks anyway :?

Literally what is the point of posting if you don't read?

 

[Tigerstain]

It's kind of upsetting that these weren't already considered hacks to be entirely honest. We seem very behind in this.

 

[KiDD]

Cool

 

[Zinc // Akash754]

Pretty minor announcement, since it's a minor change in our policies. But since it is a policy change, we've decided to announce it anyways. Do note that none of these policy changes will go into effect until June 6th, 2015, so you users with Chestfinder and ESP had best listen up.

Hey folks,

An small suggestion was brought to the Admin's attention regarding our current policy regarding Chestfinder and ESP. Both modifications are currently listed under Hacked Clients (punishable with a 7 day ban first, and then permanent), but it was suggested to us that we classify both as Hacks instead (permanent first offense). After a brief discussion at yesterday's staff meeting, the Sr. Staff voted and agreed.

As of June 6th, 2015, Chestfinder (or any similar modification that displays the location of chests in-game) and ESP (or any similar modification that displays the location of players in-game) will be classified as Hacks, and will be punished by a first-offense permanent ban.

When coming to the decision of what modifications are Hacks, what modifications are Hacked Clients, and what modifications are acceptable for use on the network, the staff looks for user intention.
If someone uses a modification that confers a major gameplay advantage whose use offers no other realistic usage, we classify such a modification as a Hack; there's no time when you would use Aimbot or Regen without the intention to win at PvP.
If the modification grants a minor advantage (usually in the form of improved information or convenience that impacts gameplay), or has an acceptable usage outside of PvP, it is considered a Hacked Client; you might use Increased Gamma for mapping in dark areas, and Increased FoV beyond Vanilla grants a pretty minor advantage but an advantage nonetheless.
And modifications that offer no gameplay advantage are generally acceptable; Optifine and Chat macros are A-OK by us.

Chestfinder and ESP were both originally considered Hacked Clients under the belief that their advantage was minor, offering improved information (i.e. the location of chests and players, respectively). However, the suggestion was made that such information is actually quite influential to gameplay: Chestfinder allows a user to access any and every chest (including those meant to be hidden), thus removing the need for exploration and granting a major boost in equipment without relying on skill or experience; ESP allows players to hunt solo players and avoid teams, thus skewing the gameplay in their favor by removing the fog of war and granting them immunity from unfavorable encounters. In addition, we could not think of a common non-PvP usage for either of these modifications. As such, the decision was made to reclassify both modifications as Hacks.

A note about Mini-Maps:
The Sr. Staff discussion also lead to the consideration of the various mini-map modifications available out there. These mini-maps offer different functionality, with some offering only a top-down view of the terrain while others offer a complete view of every entity on the map.

Due to the decision regarding Chestfinder and ESP, any mini-map modification that detects player locations or chest locations will be considered a Hack as well. However, any mini-map modifications that do not offer such functionality, such as those that only show topographical terrain information, are acceptable.

The staff will be enforcing this decision starting August 6th.

yay

 

[Col_StaR]

Why not both on the same day?

After the first Fair Play Notice with the Multilogging decision, it became clear to us that giving people some warning time with gameplay-related policy changes helps people acclimate to the changes. If we started enforcing the policy change right off the bat, a lot of people would face the consequences of that policy change before the necessary information could reach them. By waiting a week, we ensure that people are prepared for changes.

This change was pretty minor, so maybe a wait time wasn't necessary. But the next change might not be so minor, so I'm sure you'd all appreciate fair warning.

(Side note: if you caught the latest Patch Notes, multi-logging is now being prevented via proxy usage. Yay!)

@ those people confused about how it's detected. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who self incriminate. Like submitting report screenshots whilst having hacks on, streaming with hacks on, making YT vids. As someone who has banned a lot of them as staff - a lot of people aren't very bright.

This.
Put another way, we ran into enough occurrences of people inadvertently admitting to such hacks that we actually formed official policy around it.

June 6th, you mean?

Fixed. Thanks for catching that. The date is definitely June 6th.

It's kind of upsetting that these weren't already considered hacks to be entirely honest. We seem very behind in this.

The original decision not to list those modifications as hacks was passed for the reasons stated. In the original argument, having additional information was less severe than traditional hacks; you had an edge in a fight, but the hack didn't fight for you. The decision was not argued much, if at all, and there was no substantial outcry to increase the severity of ESP and Chestfinder. That only changed when someone nicely left a small suggestion note in our suggestion box last week.

But behind or not, that's why we update our policies.