Reasonably recently, I've been working on a means to detect and block cheaters during games on Mario Kart Wii, and would like to discuss the allowability of the method during Worldwide and Regional races.

The system is somewhat like an in-game version of mkw-ana, but not nearly as advanced. It looks out for players who are either sending impossible commands, or using items that they don't have, or similar. If it encounters one of these players, and gathers enough evidence to suspect cheating, it performs three commands:

1 - Stops the opponent from being able to use items on your Wii
2 - Stops the opponent from being able to collide with you
3 - Makes the opponent finish in last place no matter what they actually did

There is a lag threshold built in to attempt to prevent false positives during laggy race conditions. I've not seen it return a false positive yet, and it has been used in rooms with 12 players many times.

If it ever does return a false positive, it will only affect one race, as the system automatically resets between races.

The system is basically ready for usage, but I'd like to discuss the fairness of using it during Worldwide and Regional races. The system is designed to stop a cheater from interfering with a race; and yes, if everyone in the room was running this system, it would do exactly that, and the cheater could do nothing good. But, that doesn't take into account people who are NOT using the system. Automatically, by running the system, in a hacked race, you get an advantage over those who aren't, because they'll still be able to see the hacked items and race positions, which is not fair. But you can also argue that a hacked race is not fair to begin with.



As far as I can see, here are the advantages/disadvantages:

Advantages of using the sytem:

- Hackers have less incentive to cheat in races if they know that players won't be affected
- Hackers can't hit players who are using the system or interact with them, or beat them
- Hackers may be distracted by the people who have this system (WHY CANT I HIT THESE PPL) and leave the people who don't have it alone
- It can be made into a GCT or an expansion to patchers making it fairly easy to obtain
- Those who have it don't have to worry about hackers as much
- A false positive only lasts one race
- If everyone in the room has it, the cheater's existence is completely pointless
- A hacked race isn't fair in the first place, so arguing it's unfair to those who don't have this system is a little strange

Disadvantages:

- My main concern is that those who don't have it are automatically disadvantaged because they still have to put up with hacked items and race positions
- To make it widespread, a lot of patchers would have to be updated and games repatched
- A false positive would severely disadvantage the player who was ruled as a cheater until the race ends
- A lone person running this system in the presence of a hacker may also look like a hacker
- Hackers will invent stronger codes to break this (but it would still slow them down)



It's also possible to have the system switched such that it only makes a hacker finish in last place but doesn't remove their items and collisions, which may generate fairer races for those who don't have the system.

Advantages:

- It's an even playing field during the race for those who do and don't have the system, but those who have it aren't affected if the hacker beats them
- FTW hackers won't have the slightest idea that their actions are having no impact on the races
- Can be made into a GCT, or expansion to patchers
- Those who have it can ignore hackers who just shroom or bullet away at the start line and are never seen again, as they will not win
- A false poitive only lasts one race, and doesn't affect the player's racing ability during that time, just their final result (but not on their own Wii)

Disadvantages:

- Most hackers aren't trying to win the races, just disrupt them. This system would not help with that. If a hacker loses anyway, there's no point to forcing them into last place
- The hackers that spam items are arguably more of a problem than those that simply race off and try to win
- There is no incentive for cheaters to stop cheating, they still can affect the races just as much as they always could
- You could STILL argue it's unfair that players without the system are disadvantaged, but I think that's flimsy at best
- A hacker could relentlessly target someone and there's nothing they or this system could do to stop it
- To make it widespread, a lot of patchers would have to be updated and games repatched
- Even if everyone in the room had the system, the hacker could still do as they please

Or, of course, it is possible not to use the system at all. And that's why I'm here, to have a discussion and hopefully reach a proper verdict as to whether releasing this is a good idea or not. Regardless, I do plan to implement it on CTGP's CTWW and Countdown modes, where I can guarantee everyone will run the system, and as an option for private rooms too. But I reckon there are many advantages to a Worldwide/Regional version as well.

A video demonstration:



Let me know your thoughts!

In theory, if the player who has the cheater blocking is the host, they could shake off the hacking client. It's been proven before that if a host deliberately firewalls the IP of one of the racers playing with them, that racer does disconnect from the race, so something like that is possible.

CT-CODE is by far the easiest way of doing it since it's a decent, already established way of loading additional ASM, but I'll consult with Chadderz because I'm sure there's more than one way to get the job done. If we think of something clever, I'll let you know.

As soon as we reach a consensus on how fair it is, and I work out a reliable means of adding it to various patchers.

Seen it, and I've already thought of a few ways to counter-counter... that is, if there's any need. Doesn't seem like the guy plans to release it.