How bad is the cheating?

How bad is the cheating lately?

I haven't received a single user abuse report in 2 days so I'm assuming it hasn't been bad: I've read a lot of griping about cheating but I haven't received reports so please let me know if it gets worse. Its probably easiest to send abuse reports to me, so I can send them to Sonic Team in an organized fashion. All of the abuse reports I have received were immediately sent to Sonic Team.

thanks
big 8)

===

When reporting user abuse, please report all the information you can, including

Location: Ship and Block.
Time: PLEASE INCLUDE TIME ZONE!
Username: EXACTLY how it appears onscreen: pay close attention to caps and text symbols.
Guild Card number: This is very helpful, although we realize this is hard to get.

Optional: Screenshot of the offending complaint [For symbol chat/language] (Some of the more hardcore users may know how to do this)

email this information to me at:
adminhelp@segaamerica.com.

Without a complete report, we don't have a case to ban users.

thanks,
big

[Mr Crono]

Let me put it this way, Ive been home for 20 minutes and Ive been FSOD'd twice >.<

[adri]

well u mean fsod? or just general cheating? cuz i know of a fsod bubble spammer that was spamming last night but, well i had myria handle it, but can i ask a question Big? how many times have u seen ST move in on those reports u sent them? dont get me wrong i'm not flaming u just i dont trust sonic team, cuz they have no respect for the games they make. but i'm glad to see ur a admin that cares about pso & is doing ur job to keep it clean as u can. i respect that, PM me some time i'll talk to u about cheating & the ppl i know that are problem cheater.

well u mean fsod? or just general cheating? cuz i know of a fsod bubble spammer that was spamming last night but, well i had myria handle it, but can i ask a question Big? how many times have u seen ST move in on those reports u sent them? dont get me wrong i'm not flaming u just i dont trust sonic team, cuz they have no respect for the games they make. but i'm glad to see ur a admin that cares about pso & is doing ur job to keep it clean as u can. i respect that, PM me some time i'll talk to u about cheating & the ppl i know that are problem cheater.

I guess I was referring to the rash of FSODs.
I just send the emails directly off to Sonic Team. Its not my responsibility, but since the boards are here and I'm in charge of them, I don't mind passing them on to ST. Thats as far as I know; they're in Sonic Team's hands now.

They have told me that the more informative the reports are, the more likely they can take action on them (see my instructions above). So keep them coming!

big

[Rue]

This FSOD thing gets worse by the day. It's not just one user, it's people using the ENGLISH CODE for japanese version of PSO. (For those whom don't know, this is a code that gives the users of JP PSO a chance to select English so the can better understand the game.) There's a bug in the word select somewhere that US PSO doesn't see...thus, the game freezes up. The bug info has been given to ALOT of people. About 2 days ago, while I was in japanese mode, Vega 01-C1 was full of FSODers, continually FSODing users under the US version (on english language) of PSO. Sword+75 just happens to be the most noted of them all. He/she likes to go through blocks and just post the glitch in text...Here's a pic for you, if you do not believe me. This is what is causing the FSOD:

http://www.phantasycard2.com/swordfsod.PNG

Thanks to GetInTheGame for getting such a picture.

It may not look like a threat, but a few people I know have freaking lost level 30 characters...About 200 hours go bye-bye because of this! Now, it's being rumored that someone named FOnewmKiller wants to start an FSOD clan. Ok, if he figures out how to do this...This could be bad. The issue of banning still is necessary, but now the matter of patching the problem needs to come into play. Unless Sega wants to continually repeat what they have done since version 1 of PSO...Then I fear PSO Ep3 is already doomed..Not even a month into the release...Which, indeed, would incredibly cripple their sales...

[windoflife]

Here is some info I can offer, you may use it however you like.

Mainly there are about 3-6 people doing the FSOD in lobby, they often change their name around to act as cover. Reasons are, they probably just got bored... Or, they want to get rid of people that they will be facing in tournament. They can FSOD a english setting player with US version, as long as they are nearby... Lobby, in game, during battle, selecting deck, anywhere you can see another person's message aside from mail. When the FSOD occur, the game will then freeze and make a high pitch noise. The only way to get out of the situation is to shut off the gamecube with its power button. If the FSOD occur while a player is trying to save the game progress, then the file become corrupt and can not be use. These 3-6 people usually stay in popular area. Each day, there are probably over 100 people getting FSOD. However, most of them probably dont visit or post on any forum or message board... They simply just quit the game for good, especially when their hard work file have been corrupted. The population of PSO episode 3 is defintely decreasing, I have 4 pages of guildcards, and I used to be able to find a whole list of those player... now I only can find 2 or 3.

The FSOD only effect US version. The FSOD user are all import user using JP version of the game. Apparently there was someone who made a code for Cheating Device such as the Action Replay. The code's purpose was to translate Japanese in the JP game to the incomplete English in the JP version game.

From here is mostly pieces of info I had gather and link:
Someone then probably found out that there is a little difference in data between the US version english setting and the incomplete english setting in the JP game. There are probably a little extra code that help them to enable that different data in JP version game of english, it will then crash the US version game causing FSOD due to lack of certain data in US version game. However, when the US version was change to Japanese Language setting... the FSOD and crash will not occur, I suppose the data between Japanese setting on US version and the Japanese setting on JP version are the same.

There are probably more... I can not think all of on top of my head right now.

[adri]

well i dont think it will get fixed ^ i dont think ppl will care cuz this sounds just like the fsod bubble all over agin, but its sad that we cabt do a think to stop this other then post on these boards about it

[sharky~]

Well Big Did you here about what Blizzard did with there online games like Diablo ect.

Im not sure how but they band sooo many cheaters
from being able to play online. That is deffinitly what sonicteam should
think about doing.
Its not like they will loose any money because the cheaters already have the game.

.. They Should put out a worning on the game that in like a months time they will be baning all the cheaters.. that will stop most people from cheating and other will get band.

If a Company like Blizzard can do it im sure SonicTeam can do somthing about it to.

[Makojin]

Not only would FSODing hurt some pleyers, it makes players paranoid. I play with a Japanese language setting on to prevent it from happening to me, and I mention it to someone that had the english setting. He then accused me of being an FSODer, when I only mentioned the possibility. I didn't mean to hurt him in any way, though I can understand his paranoia.

[Vahagn500]

Not to mention Blizzard's online gaming is free... so sonic team should defenitely do it, since we are paying them

[adri]

lmao like sega is gonna do any thing for there users! lmfao! all Sonic Team is gonna do, is r@pe u for ur $ then blow smoke up ur azz. if u dont beleive me just think back abbout DC pso v1 & v2, GC ep1&2, & now GC ep3. ST just dont care about there games. the company has no honor or pride. i pity ST so much.

ya i know i'm pizzed & if u want know y read page 16 of the moo thread!

[Jonathan_F]

If you read my open letter, you would have seen my request for the servers to be taken down tempoarily until the problem is fixed and when they are restarted, mesta levels are reset to 0 so those who have been doing this to cheat their way to easy mesta will have lost all of the mesta they cheated off the system. I still stand on this, and the situation has made me officially retire from PSO ep III.

I understand that detecting two gcs being used by the same player is a bit harder to deal with, but all it takes is for the computer to take a look at the logs and see who has fought who over and over (say 15+ times in one day, and throughout a week's time.) This could also be placed under the idea of stalking, since one player is in effect, stalking the other to leech mesta off of them.

Either a serverside patch is needed, or a recall of the game is required. Unfortunately, the recall may be required, as someone could create the bug offline, and then come online and make it happen, thus evading any sort of serverside patch that ST may put in place to block Action Replay disks. Sonic Team has done it before as this has happened between JP episode 1&2 v1.0 and v1.1 with the duping bug that happened in offline challenge mode in v1.0 didn't happen in v1.1. Even the servers between 1.0 and 1.1 were kept separate. The proof that sega cared enough to do it for JP players means that they should care enough to fix things here with the US version. we pay nearly double a month more than JP players as well, so what does it take to make things happen?

[muscarellajc]

This is why the Gamecube needs a HDD (Hard Disk Drive). People say a HDD does not make a game better. Well, with an HDD, ST could create a downloadable patch that requires you to download it to play the game. The Xbox version of PSO has a patch that removes the ability for people to create dupes and the max stats cheats. I know of this because at one time it was able to be done, but now you cant use the method that is used for the GC version. However, the Xbox problem is that people have hacked the hell out of the game, making any item obtainable. I remember seeing people with the Ragol Ring, even though the Seat of the Heart quest was not available. But thats a different story. I'm basically saying that the GCN needs a HDD. Hell, with a HDD, ST may be able to give everyone brand new areas to explore, if they wanted to. But anyway. Im sure you got my point.

[tay_ulz]

I only dupe rare items to GIVE to my friends...that and luck matirial. O'm a offline gamer.

[Linkooseven]

big, are you getting any of this? Good idea here...send em off to ST.

[armion]

You are pitching good ideas, but to the wrong people. It's not Sega or Sonicteam's say on what gets added to a console. It's the console's home company. Shutting down the servers and resetting everything seems like a good idea, but what about the people who worked hard to get as far as they did. It's kind of unfair to punish all for a few don't you think. A recall of the game would be costly, unreliable, and inconvienent, both to the company and to the consumer.

You are thinking in the right direction though.

[Jonathan_F]

Let me remind you that I was a 9:KING before the FSOD situation started, and i'm quite willing to start over.

A recall is not unrealistic because SoJ did one specifically to save Episode I&II. Why SoA wouldn't do a similar thing to save Episode III is beyond me. Actually let me rephrase it. A trade-in. Those using v1.0 of the US ep III would be kept separate from those using v1.1 of the US ep III, and its up to the user to decide if they want to trade in. Thus its not forced. Ladders will be kept separate as well of course because one has already been contaminated.

Let me ask this. I know that there is an EGM tournament planned some time in the future. When I'm not sure, but the fact that in the game data there is a card with the EGM magazine logo on it is proof enough, as all other magazines that had signed on and tournaments happened (Dengeki and and Famitsu, Nintendo Kids being the exception so far.) If the FSOD situation continues into the tournament, this will mean that all a cheater has to do is activate the bug during each of his matches, and he wins because of disconnection. Does that sound like a fair tournament? The question is does SoA care enough to not let things get as bad as they did on the Dreamcast?

[Viciouskavu]

How/Why the he|l do people get joy out of FSODing people? They like seeing people losing all our hard work? I hate idiots like that

[Vahagn500]

How/Why the he|l do people get joy out of FSODing people? They like seeing people losing all our hard work? I hate idiots like that

That's exactly why they do it. Your misery and anger is their joy

[CalintzPSO]

i just went asking around and found out that sonic team made the servers and is sorta running them with sega looking over there shoulder. guess what? Sonic team wanted the servers to be free, but sega stepped in and said no, they wanted a profit. Version 1 on the dreamcast was sonic teams main idea...not have to pay, then when sega pressured sonic team on that issue, they made version 2. so anyways what I am saying is, sonic team isn`t truely to blam for troubles...I know they make mistakes alot, but there learning. But it is to my knowledge that segas got there claws in ST and is controlling them, making them do what they say...Sonic team is just another puppet, stuck in another corperation plot to drain everyones money...In a way...I pitty sonic team and re-aim my hatred towards sega...

[muscarellajc]

It would also seem to me that ST is not controlling the American servers, since ST is a Japanese game-creation team within SEGA. SEGA of America controls the American servers, if I'm not mistaken. So overall, it may not be ST's fault.

[Rue]

Ok, well. In ways, it is Sonic Teams fault. They are responsible for just about every costumer on PSO. How are they not responsible? Easy, they run the server...have an EULA...and have people pay their hard worked money.

Now, How in the hell are people supposed to use their hard worked money to play PSO, when there's an incredibly small bug (WHICH CAN EASILY BE PATCH) destorying an entire community? Johnathn did say before...alot of people are quitting episode 3 already. This...is bad. ST should no longer sit there and drain money, and lose money all at once. Instead, it would be easier to try and earn that money back by patching this small bug. Patching this bug really is NOT hard. How is it hard? How can changing card preferences be easier than patching something in the word select? It can be done, they are just extremely lazy.

I predict, in the next month or 2, PSO ep 3's community will be incredibly small. People are leaving by the dozens everyday. Now, FSOD has gotten worse, and it's rumored that people know how to FSOD-X....And yes, FOnewmKiller did say he was making a clan. And yes...this guy is an extreme idiot. Talk to him about about 2 minutes and you will feel 3 times smarter than what you think. I pity the no-life :):):):):):):).

I'm extremely upset now. Bigs post didn't do anything at all. No matter how discriptive we get with our reports, Sega won't do anything. Admit it, THEY ARE LAZY!!!The WORST thing you can do for a company is BE LAZY. LAZINESS IS GETTING THE BEST OF YOU, SEGA. SAY HELLO TO SAMMY FOR ME WHEN THEY FREAKING BUY YOU!!!

As the community deminishes, I will continue to make fun of FOnewmKiller and his sped clan of FSODers as long as I please...Should I go extreme and spam? Oh wait, someone will report that to Sega...OH WAIT, Like Sega will even do anything. (Extreme sarcasm here...But I will make fun of all the sped FSODers =P)

[windoflife]

I predict the episode 3 population will be steady. Most people on right now are the sturbon bunch, that's the main reason. Most of the easy going people have probably had already quit the game, or until their HL run out. Some will come, some will leave... and until 1 day of another year... the population will be gone just like every other online game.

Having recall with no rock solid proves will be a company's dumbest move. What I mean rock solid prove is, you catch the person doing it in the real world. Yes, it is probably correct he is dual GC earning cash, or just bashing COM... However, there are still limit with just that... Who can really take your word for it? If you really want ST to go that far, you will better prepare more evidence than just a simple theory and explaination/bowcot. I suggest you take a screenshot of the person's log window and chat baloon of him claiming that he did it. But, I honestly believe even that wont be enough... worth a try that's all.

He may have done something that is not exactly fair to other gamers on the ladder... However, there are no law or rule saying you cant do it... You can be upset all you want, but fact is that. ST probably never saw this comming, so they didnt mention ahead about this kind of thing... So now, technically they do not have right to punish those who had dual GC or COM bashing to get those rank. If they do reset the ladder... They will have to mention their new rules that cover every single possible way of unfair ladder usage.

I have been disappointed with ST lately, but I dont really blame them... the whole company is not exactly in good shape, and they had alot of change within their team during the pass years.

[251]

Sword+75 just happens to be the most noted of them all. He/she likes to go through blocks and just post the glitch in text...
Sword+75... I know Sword+75! He has been doing this since June, and I was there when he first discovered how to use it, or maybe even discovered it. He was gloating about FSOD`ing somebody(with spam) so that leads me to believe... he discovered it. twas in Antares 8-1 in June. He was in some kind of evil clan. I followed him into antared 8-6 and some of the other names were Wand+75 and DB(scrotum). DB(scrotum) was the leader of the clan so he was teaching him how to fsod. I saw a `scrotom` in EpIII the other day so I believe he is around as well.
You are wrong about the corruptiong though. People can`t corrupt because of the FSOD bubble, only FSOD whil joining the lobby. I know that corruption is a GLITCH. the first save is always when the screen is black, but saving during the second leave you vulnerable to FSOD, a error in the server, possibly lag.
What causes this FSOD to happen is... In the English version there is `and you`, the japanese version, there isn`t so it comes up a blank bubble, not saying how to activate..

[shadow5a]

This fsod is still going on in ep3? jc..

first of all really it dosnt matter who is watching the servers sega or sonicteam,they both know whats going on.The hard drive thing is an exelent idea even though it would jack the price of a gc qute a bit, thats nintendo's fault though not segas. Another thing is if sega did it for the japs for half the price when you pay double so we deserve it more then them, they play it japanese anyways. A recall would take a lot of time but if they do they should have space for patches put on the disk or somin like that.and last knowing sega and the @$$'s they are they nwont do a dam thing but sit and suck ur money. thats sega for you

[251]

i FSOD`d 3 times today while just sitting in an epIII lobby. Everyone in the lobby except jp FSOD`d when this happened.
Vega 02-C1
12;48 central time
12;54 central time
1;05 central time
Everyone around blamed Samzo for it, since he was in the lobby all 3 times when it happened... but I am quite sure he is resposnible, as one time there was only 3 people in there(people who werent in during the first 2, im pretty sure), and he was one of them.

[Rath]

To tell you the truth the cheating has lowered quite a bit that I have noticed since I joined in September. I dont see those 1304 mags anymore, I dont know about all of you... But yeah. Let me sum of the basic unlegit... Sword-Dark Flow, Tsumikiri J Sword, BKB, Double Cannon, Armor-It varies Shield-Red Ring Mag-Chao,Devils Tail/Wings I know I am being very stereotypical but thats basically how all HU unlegits are. And the most of hacking that i've seen ina game is after we beat the dragon. A force in the game set a hack that made each char have little lightning bolts around em' then after we killed the Dragon a weird little sparkly warps started appearing yet they did nothing. All appearance. Anyways in my opinion the hacking has cleared up quite a bit.

[PunxZero]

Well, I just got MY hunters license today... after I've been playing for maybe an hour... some person (I don't remember thier name) dropped over a dozen of dupe/hacked/illegit mags... I was wondering why level 22 characters were doing 300-400 damage a strike....

[Rath]

So did you turn down the unlegit things? Please say you did.

[Vahagn500]

Well let's see...

Today and many times before i have seen people with 300% stats on certain categories on their weapons..

I am guessing these guys are cheaters?

[ROMBON]

one question i dont play pso any more but can u still dupe and doble wild that was cool

[PunxZero]

So did you turn down the unlegit things? Please say you did.

Yeah, I hate noob unlegit items... makes the game way too easy...

[ROMBON]

ok pso is no good any more hacker have make the game suck and i still remember that they sayed in the gc vertion there would be nno hackin lol YEAH RIGHT

[Rath]

Good to have ya Punx Zero good to know that we are getting more and more legit people. I swear at the rate that I run into more and more legits PSO will eventually have almost all legits. Omg that world would be awesome.

[Vahagn500]

Good to have ya Punx Zero good to know that we are getting more and more legit people. I swear at the rate that I run into more and more legits PSO will eventually have almost all legits. Omg that world would be awesome.

I don't understand what you guys mean by legit people...

By legit do you mean they don't use dupes or that they aren't the ones that do the duping and have weird hacked super weapons

[PunxZero]

Good to have ya Punx Zero good to know that we are getting more and more legit people. I swear at the rate that I run into more and more legits PSO will eventually have almost all legits. Omg that world would be awesome.

I don't understand what you guys mean by legit people...

By legit do you mean they don't use dupes or that they aren't the ones that do the duping and have weird hacked super weapons

Legit players are players that DON'T use or even possess duped, hacked, or altered items... and they don't want to have anything to do with cheating whatsoever... yeah you get called "weak" "ur atp sux" "noob" "u suck' etc... sometimes but, it's THOSE people who are only hurting themselves :)

[Vahagn500]

I always thought it was a person's choice to decide whether they want to use dupes or legit weapons.

Personally.. I don't think I have the patience to play 400+ hours fighting a certain monster in hopes of finding a decent weapon. I rather just use dupes that are so much easier to get a hold of...

But these people you talk about that call others "noob" and stuff of that sort seem like jerks. I have a lot of good weps and armors that I use but I never call others who don't bad names or criticize them

[Rath]

I am sorry that you feel that way Vahagn. Yet finding your own rares makes your char more unique. More like you I guess...

[windoflife]

actually, honestly saying... the legit players are more oftenly bashing the dupe users and so on...

I am a legit player, but I do not interfere with other's business and choice. However, I did not like the fact the ST for all these time cant think of some way to prevent it from happening... I went legit to train myself against temptations...

[Crumb]

Rath,

Just out of curiousity, was it a TTF quest where those so-called warps appeared, and where your and the others' characters had little lightning bolt things surrounding them? I don't know if you know this, but at the TTF dragon boss, the dragon can inflict two status ailments, and two healing pillars appear that allow each of these to be cured separately. I believe this only happens when one of you in the group becomes the dragon.

[Rath]

Oh... I was testing you... XD

[Crumb]

lol
Ok! :D