Some Ideas on Detecting/Blocking Cheats

Now, let's be real here.  There's no 100% fool proof way to block cheaters from the game.  Simple string detection for spotting, for instance, Cheat Engine, can be thwarted by watching a YouTube video.  Ban an account, and the cheater can create a new one.  Ban an IP address, and the cheater can just change it.  It's just a perpetual struggle.

On the bright side, it's possible to monitor certain key variables that these folks are messing with, as KoGaMa already does from my understanding, and kick players accordingly.  Here are some suggestions for additional screening methods from a total non-professional.

There are like three different sizes that the player model can be: default, small (mouse effect), and giant (growth effect).  Surely there must be a way to kick players in violation of this, right?  As it is, at least January 18, a user was able to enlarge a player model to engulf an entire War 4 battlefield.  Since this is well beyond the scope of the growth pill, I *imagine* something like this can be blocked.

Destruction of non-destructible terrain shouldn't be possible in any scenario, yet it is via cheats.  I imagine there's probably a way to detect these violations, but of course there's the question of determining which player to kick.  Perhaps force an auto-reset of the game...?  It could become a new avenue for cheaters to harass players ... but then again, as it stands, cheaters can crash a game anyway.  At least this would prevent lasting indestructible terrain damage (what a weird combination of words, huh?).

It's possible for a cheater to switch to the null/white team in a team-enabled game, thus removing their name from the in-game menu.  I'm not sure if this is a big deal, but I imagine it's detectable: if a player somehow joins the null/white team or a nonexistent team, kick him/her out for nonconformity!!

Based upon how the game can tell me what pickups and such my tier unlocks, I'm guessing it should be feasible to create a list of all pickups present in a game at the time it's published.  It'd be great if the system could create a list of present cubegun variants as well.  If a player is found to be wielding a gun or cubegun (i.e., poison) that isn't actually obtainable in the game (in the whitelist), he/she should be kicked.  If cubegun blocks appear that shouldn't be obtainable as per the whitelist, maybe trigger a game reset.

Same as the above, but with blueprints.  As it is, cheaters can kill players with nonexistent oculi, freeze them with nonexistent ice sentry towers, and so on.  If there are no oculi in the game, then disable the possibility of death by oculi.  If there are no ice sentries, disable the freeze effect.  Maybe this could give cheaters more avenues to become invincible, but they can already do that with ease.

This is a new take on the hell ban used to combat trolls in comments, and it utilizes an existing capability currently unlocked with /?local=1.  If a player is known to be a cheater, but other ban methods fail to hinder him/her, then apply an isolation ban to the IP and accounts.  That is, no matter what the player does, have all games he/she visits set to local singleplayer (without alerting him/her of this, of course).  Since this isn't an outright ban but a forced isolation, he or she may not immediately catch on to the ban's existence.  (I mean, I can't tell you how often I visit games that supposedly have tons of players and find myself utterly alone - it's not an unusual occurrence.)  And, as with the hell ban and trolls, they may eventually grow bored of the lack of attention and leave.  (Hopeful thinking, I suppose, but better than nothing!)

As said before, you can't outright block all cheats and ban all cheaters, but maybe some of these suggestions can potentially lessen the impact cheaters have on the game at large.