Case

Exactly. And if you do a 'new search' instead you'll see only the servers that are actually up. One minute ago our server was crashed again, and when I checked the lobby, only 3 servers were up. Will post a screenshot later. That is the 5th deliberate crash of our server in 4 hours.

If anyone knows a software firewall that can filter packets based on content, then please let me know. That may be the only way to prevent these attacks.

Who ever is doing this, be it a single person or multiple, is using proxies for these attacks. So far there is no clear trend in the IPs that are used, hence IP banning is not the solution. ED is aware of the issue. If they can fix it or provide information that can help us fix it is not clear at the moment.

On the 51st server we've traced the CTDs to a TCP packet by sniffing the network traffic to and from our server. These packets originate from different IPs, most likely proxies, but the packets contain the same TCP data section. We do not yet know if there is something fishy in the TCP data section or the TCP header.

That ED is looking into this issue does not mean that it will be fixed for FC2/BS1. Most likely what ever results from it will be implemented in the future titles. Though the AI planes hack is annoying, it is by far not as annoying as what has been happening over the last week, where quite a few servers were brought down by malicious network packets.

The 51st server has experienced this as well. We have some ideas on how this is done, but no definite proof yet.

Though I have no hard evidence, I am of the impression that some people can change their UCID. Whether this is due to multiple copies, or a hack, I do not know. As such, UCID banning is not foolproof. Similarly, I have hard evidence that legitimate players will sometimes connect with an empty UCID, while the next time they have their normal UCID. Then there are even different people that share the same UCID. So all in all, UCID banning is not the answer to this problem, and I am getting more and more convinced that if this cheat persists, UCID whitelisting may be the only option.

Hi Speed, thanks for showing an interest in this thread! If your script can detect planes spawning in the air, both AI and human controlled, then that might be a good way of stopping this cheat. I would've done the same using the mission triggers, but both the human controlled and AI planes are obviously not listed in the server side mission file. Let me know if I can be of help porting your code to FC2.

For the three instances on the 51st server where I have been able to identify the IP of the cheater the IP traces to the same ISP. Now assuming that there is just one cheater and he always uses this ISP, I have checked the logs of the 51st server to see which IPs trace to this ISP. They narrow down to 17 distinct IP ranges (xxx.yyy). If anyone wants to try to pre-emptively ban them as opposed to passwording their server, send me a PM.

If server admins can trace IPs of the offender(s) using the method I outlined earlier (http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1370036&postcount=36), we can try to narrow down the IP ranges and perhaps keep them out.

He is logged onto the server. What his cheat does is that when he enters the server he does not spawn in his selected plane, but spawns in the air over another airbase.

If server admins have the server logs, servman logs, tracks and tacviews, this is what they should look for to find the offending player. From the track or tacview, locate the mission time when the human flown Su-27 spawns Also get mission times for when other players spawn Correlate the spawntimes to UTC times from the servman server logs, or the server elapsed times in the network logs From the network logs, get the IP/UCID from the player

From the three times this has happened on the 51st server I have been able to find out the following information. When this happens: The player causing this must be on the server When he selects a plane (enters the server), the AI planes and the one he flies spawn (but not the one he selected) The AI planes spawn over a spawn point, and follow the waypoints Events made by the cheater are not logged Events made by the AI planes are logged as unregistered The offender(s) is/are located in the same city and use the same ISP (pm me for more info), however, they do not share a common IP/UCID When the offending player is kicked from the server the plane he flies dissappears, but the AI planes remain and will engage players Because of the different IPs/UCIDs you can not pre-emptively ban the offending player.

I just realized that we can already test if this is fixed in BS2 and A-10C.

Two pretty serious bugs concerning AI behaviour in multiplayer: 1. In a simple head to head setup, AI vs human, the AI will engage from 60km if the human player is hosting the game, while it will engage from 25km if the human player joined as a client. http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1232743&postcount=1 2. No lock or launch warning from semi-active missiles launched from the AI on clients. http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=953336&postcount=1

This is very interesting. I've always wondered if it is possible to broadcast a fake GPS signals to make GPS receivers think they're somewhere else. In principle it should be possible... Looks like they might've used it to make the drone think it landed on an Afghan airstrip :D

Thanks Crunch. Any chance to get the debrief.log as well?

I haven't seen the scoring rules for OPFOR, but I recall that for (some of) the LOCERFs the missiled that were launched were tallied and substracted from the score. I don't think it affected the way people played though. In Georgian Incident we employ a limited stock pile, but also a two take off rule; during one 3 hour event you can take off only twice. This puts some very interesting constraints on planning, as it requires the flights to be spread out over the event. The other thing is when you are actually flying; you are extra careful with your fuel and weapons and trying to decide when the best time is to RTB for a refuel and rearm. With the Su-27's we routinely fly missions of over 75 mins in length, and even longer when we fly 33's and can refuel in the air. On our public server I've instated weapon limits about a year ago. Each month each pilot can use 100x AIM-120B, 100x AIM-120C and 200x R-77. There are no limits on other weapons. This rule alone has had quite an effect on some of the F-15 pilots which would usually load 8xAIM-120C. However, since we put an 80's mission in rotation not that many pilots reach the weapons limit.

Thanks c0ff!

Another belated happy birthday! Congrats!

There used to be an option in I believe default.cfg for FC2 and BS. I would expect something similar for WH/BS2. Search the forums for it.

Great news! A big salute to Wags and ED for sharing their roadmap!

Wow! Excellent news! Thanks to Wags to share their roadmap! :thumbup:

I used to fly the chopper using the Z and X keys for rudder, but obviously these only give you a full deflection. Since I mapped the rudder to a rotary the chopper is a lot more fun to fly.

The DCS series claims to be a modular design where previous releases can be made compatible with newer releases. Can you explain which things have been given a work-over, and what the bottle necks were for making BS compatible with A-10C?