How to conduct yourself if there is a cheater

Conan Exiles General Discussion Players Helping Players
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Here’s my advice as a PVP player who has thousands of hours on PC Officials:

Shut your mouth while in game.
This is the most important part. No seriously, do not talk to the hacker. Do not use global to chat with them. Do not use voice to say anything. Do not tell them how upset you are. Do not tell them how unfair they are. Or that they are insert insult. Restrain yourself, even telling them you will report them, shut your mouth. Do not not even comment on others being affected. Zip it.

Why?
Because they enjoy your misery. They want a reaction. The more attention you give the more likely they will reappear at your base, killing your thralls, emptying your chests, destroy your base or whatever current method of 3rd party injection they are using to make your playthrough unfun.

What I have done and this isn’t for everyone but has helped to mitigate or avoid disappointment:

• If they are frequently logging in and causing pain, dump your loot when the hacker(s) is offline, only keep the bare minimum on hand
• Consider a different server temporarily and monitor
• Be careful what you post in social spaces about the situation, there are many eyes watching

Why?
Because they need amusement. The more bodies, bases and loot there is, the more salt they can extract. While it isn’t your fault no matter what preceded it, you still give them relevance by giving them attention of any kind.

Unless you are experienced in fighting hackers, do not try. Do not even think of looting their corpse or body if you find it. Any trace of your involvement in their games is only fuel for their amusement, you being the butt of the joke.

This is just what has worked for me and many others to, on occasion, avoid being in their path. It is not a guarantee as there are many instances where no one is safe. Chances are if you’ve played on a PC PVP Official, you are/were on a server with hackers even if they were only in the shadows. Intent, attention, revenge and entertainment are the driving factors.

Now with attention being paid on PVE and PVE-C by cheaters, it does present a new layer to the situation. This has been the ongoing reality of PC PVP Officials for years. Some of us stuck around, some of us left, even some of you are on PVE now as a direct result hoping to avoid it.

I do not say these things lightly. It is in no way to encourage, excuse or accept. I realize all this might sound hollow, maybe even tone deaf. But I know exactly what it is like. It is first and foremost the CE Team’s responsibility and I hope that things will get better.

How to properly report:
• Record a video of the hacker cheating with nameplate visible, upload to Youtube or equivalent website
• If a video is not possible, ensure that you write a detailed description of events, avoid conjecture, state FACTS, example: “My loot in locked large chests are missing, there are no logs to show what happened” also;
• Have a screenshot of either the nameplate or playerlist highlighting their name, FuncomID and clan name - the ID is most important
• If you are not sure who did it, do not assume, and contrary to popular opinion a 123#00000 or special character account is not indicative of a cheater
• If there are chats in global of admission then screenshot it or record it
• Head on over to https://funcom.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new, select Report a Player for request type, input all of the info and submit
• You will receive an automated email, this is normal
• If there are additional occurrences, gather the proof and reply to the email and keep updating it - do not make another report for the same problem
• Should you receive an email about “hope the situation has resolved itself”, this is an automated email. If the issue is not resolved, reply to it and state it has not
• Be polite to the Zendesk staff, writing a nasty report or responses in email can make things more difficult than they already are, treat them as if you were the one receiving the report

If you are a private server admin:
You are probably already well versed in means of security. But if you have not already consider passwording access and change it frequently.

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I wish not to make such videos with IDs showing. The videos I have made just confirm that the specific gameplay is possible (and probably not wanted). Does this much bother you? It could be posted with “lossless file compression”, like when we put the spoiler tags around it, if needed. Right now, the system doesn’t do it all.

:thinking:

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Very correct Kiki, well done.
This goes even to the troll reactions in other modes too.
Try to be funny i say, joyful, you already won!

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@Kikigirl, this should be put front and centre on all logging in screens, on all servers, for all players to read and to click-tick they have read it.

Great summary and advice and instruction!

Thank you for posting! :coffee: :cookie:

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Yes, it absolutely is transferable for simply dealing with toxic individuals :slight_smile:

Aside from the report part; that should only ever be reserved for true infraction of the ToC.

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Thanks!

I feel so bad for everyone who was affected last weekend and beyond. Doubtful any of them were targets aside from simply being within those play modes.

This has never been easy to deal with. I hope only to impart the way I and my circle dealt with cheaters. Sometimes it was successful.

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what?

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Yeah, I heard it was a bit of a horror. I heard, but not 100%, that FC have been doing stuff to resolve all that. Time will tell.
I’m on private servers so the Admin does their thing and no issues there.

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Well said, especially the hard part about not engaging with hackers. Ive said that on these forums many times too, that the players and their reactions are the “game” for hackers.

Dude, youve got a long history on the forums of being on the “defend the hackers” side of problems. Good for you that you understand and can reproduce how things work, or how to manipulate them.

Anyone can see your post and the first thing that comes to mind:

“Well, he doesnt want to expose hackers, hes just as bad as Funcom”.

Youre making a name for yourself.

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This is such good advice, I can’t praise it enough. And it applies to more than just dealing with cheaters on PVP. Trolls and griefers on PVE and PVE-C servers have the same motivations and react the same way.

When dealing with asshats who feed on other players’ misery, every day is STFU Friday.

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You haven’t run into him before? You were away longer than I thought :smiley:

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While I do agree - I’m having some difficulty squaring that with the fact that you and I have spent years (and many many hours) arguing with asshats on these very forums - even when we should have known better :rofl:

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I can’t even give you a rough amount of how times I’ve seen it, it was normal behavior and I would be scampering for contingency plans watching Global thinking “shut up, shut up, shut up” the whole time.

“Ya you’re such a sore loser, can’t win so you use hacks?” or whatever variation.

Many times it wasn’t even someone that was affected yet.

Cue the lamentations while the hacker speed godded, bombed, killed them, etc.,… As much as anyone would like to see a hacker as nothing more than a soulless entity, they’re people too and just as fickle as anyone, making it a point to remember names, IDs and hunt those that antagonized them and will do so for years, foiling each and every attempt at a playthrough.

Anyone victimized by this are not responsible, at all, however those in the know do not poke the bear. So I figured for those ignorant to it all, well here’s the deal.

I thought about adding some general security precautions as well. Throughout the 7 years playing this game I’ve been surprised just how much information people give. Like phone numbers and real names for christs sake. Like don’t.

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I do remember losing my patience in times in this game mode and went offlines. It’s the adrenaline rush that can easily make you rise your temper and loose control.
In times my hands were sweating and my controller was slipping from my hands.
Not to mention the zombified mode that pvp in this game often creates. There were times that i was 12 straight hours connected, so it’s not easy to control yourself after a period of time.
Especially in very competitive servers, that every minute counts, people may play under great pressure.
So it would be best, to start playing “healthy” before everything else. If someone cannot play “healthy”, it’s best to walk away from this particular mode this game has. It just doesn’t worth it, it’s no fun anymore!

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Can’t say I’ve made the best decisions at all times XD

For better or worse I couldn’t be anywhere else though ^^ (I’ve tried)

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I agree with OP in all regards. BUT… if im playing a game that lets these things go on for years. I’ll just stop playing it.

“Oh yeah, Exiles, was a fun game but too many bugs and hackers so I stopped playing” – is a perfectly reasonable sentence.

BUT

“Ah, Exiles, love that game! Its full of bugs and cheaters and I keep getting my time and effort wasted, but I still play it every day and spend heaps of $ on their cash shop!” – put your hand up if you know whats wrong with this one.

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Maybe you mistaken me as someone that subjects others to a thread here. I do, however, stand up for hackers as a consequence. Realize there is not much difference in process content between “hackers” and non-hackers. I’m just not enabling any party or side of it. I wrote my opinion. :adhesive_bandage:

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:metal:

Too many wrongs happens to “this one” (i borrowed this sentence from a friend).

The 1st and most basic “wrong”, is that in this game and forum, i met really good people. You may find it absurd but they are friends even if i never ever met them in person. I cannot wait the hour to meet them in game.

The second “wrong” is that if i’ll join a pvp server, i won’t drag anyone with me. I will join and play for my personal challenges and exit.

The third wrong is that it’s my beloved daily habit, my hobby, after an age people love their routine, they feel comfortable in it. I am nearly half century man, i love tea, cookies and Conan :rofl:.

So people may spend money for better or “higher” reasons someone else may had imagined. There are way more perspectives to play this game still, i just gave you my own most basic.

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fair enough :slight_smile:

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I wouldn’t call these wrongs XD

We all play for different reasons and most are completely valid.

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Aaaaaa… No Nemisis :joy: he has a long history on the forums of being something… else. Let’s just say, you can skip over everything he posts and not miss a single thing.