Cheaters: kthula666, Ardenwolfe and !!!!!!

[TuttiDeLeon]

Kind of makes me wonder having posted a bogus score now myself on the mimban table if something similar with different circumstances obviously because of the all 000,000's occured with them considering that if you take the time to look, at least !!!!!! and Kthula666 both have seemingly legitimate scores posted as well and each is surprisingly good.

Don't go getting soft in your old age mate, those scores are a result of blatant cheating, not some kind of glitch.

[cantankerous--]

Don't go getting soft in your old age mate, those scores are a result of blatant cheating, not some kind of glitch.

I think the standard definition of blatant is different on the internet vs the legal definition is all Im saying. Zen themselves say they reviewed the scores and although they are obviously bogus they (Zen) stated they saw no wrong doing on the part of the members who submitted the scores. Now, I have no idea how intensive their investigation of the scores were or how much actual data they have at their disposal to look through is, but if Zen is modifying the servers and allowing some with version 1.0 and people with newly modified version 1.1 play on the same playing field at the same time it's easy to see how a condition might exist where odd, bogus scores might have been posted.

Ive said it over and over. Delete the bogus scores no matter whether intentionally posted with malicious intent or not. Figure it out on your own time Zen.

[TuttiDeLeon]

I think the standard definition of blatant is different on the internet vs the legal definition is all Im saying. Zen themselves say they reviewed the scores and although they are obviously bogus they (Zen) stated they saw no wrong doing on the part of the members who submitted the scores. Now, I have no idea how intensive their investigation of the scores were or how much actual data they have at their disposal to look through is, but if Zen is modifying the servers and allowing some with version 1.0 and people with newly modified version 1.1 play on the same playing field at the same time it's easy to see how a condition might exist where odd, bogus scores might have been posted.

Ive said it over and over. Delete the bogus scores no matter whether intentionally posted with malicious intent or not. Figure it out on your own time Zen.

Legal definition? Haha, I don't think legalities are an issue with regards to scores posted on a digital pinball game. I completely lost faith in Zen's ability to keep their leaderboards clean years ago when playing PBFX2 on the 360. The responses they've given in this thread about their strategy have been feeble @ best. I honestly don't think they care that much about these obviously phoney scores, & the community liason manager has been left with the undesirable task of spinning us all a bit of palatable rhetoric until we all just forget about the issue...which, clearly, we haven't as the same people have been posting in this thread (myself included) for months. I'll repeat your statement, as I agree entirely: Zen, kindly delete the bogus scores no matter whether intentionally posted with malicious intent or not. I'll be back in a month or two to pass remark on how nothing's been done, as usual!

[SiggR22]

Zen will fix their leaderboards the very same day they fix their tables, that's a given. Now hurry up and buy new ones, mind you!

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

This is getting ridiculous.

It’s been many, many months now. You acknowledged the cheaters, you promised to give them high priority and to remove them but you do nothing. Not a single of these cheaters has been removed.

I’m happy that your Williams tables are doing so well but you’re still selling your older tables too.

Remove the cheaters or if you just don’t give a damn (and after all this time, it’s the only reason I can think of) at least be honest about it and tell us. Stop lying! Then your customers can decide for themselves if they still want to deal with a company that has zero respect for them.

Hey Guys!

First of all, thanks for your patience!

We could see lots of statistics about the players you were complaining about: Ardenwolfe, kthula666 and !!!!!!, we were also able to see more helpful information about their gaming style and scores. Our biggest concern is that what they actually do during the game is totally normal, we couldn't find any unusual strategy, steps or tricks. The only thing which is extremely strange is their zero ended scores, what you guys also mentioned. It's fair enough to say that it is almost impossible and not realistic to have scores which always end with zeros.

However we haven't found their "trick" yet, how they actually do the score cheating, we are not able to officially prove it.

Our Lead Developer created a whole new team who will work on this case exclusively, and that's not everything: we are also planning to develop our whole "Anti-Cheat System", but it definitely takes more time to make a visible progress.

We would like you to know that we are absolutely aware of this cheating issue's importance. Our whole team, also my Community Manager, Ákos and myself are daily pushing the progress, and trying to get every information what we can communicate for our players' community.

It's not just a problem for us which we have to solve, we are seeing it as a moral issue in our community. For us it's an emotional mission.

I personally feel upset about it, because you guys have been supporting us for so long and we would like to have a game which can provide fair circumstances, where you are able to enjoy the competition without experiencing these kind of unfair situations.

So, just to make it clear for you guys: At the moment we are not able to ban these mentioned users yet, because we still want to observe their behavior. However when we find out how they have these unusual scores we will take the necessary steps, I personally will take care of this.

We highly appreciate your support and your passion for our game.

Again: thanks for your patience guys, we know how it feels waiting for so long to see any progress, and we are truly thankful for you!

Chili

[zaphod77]

i am 99% sure they are using a program or an exploit to submit the scores directly.

there is just no way they can always get scores rounded to an even million every time.

the only real fix i can think of is saving a replay with the game, such that the score can be played back. this would make any cheating very obvious.

you say they aren't doing anything unusual.

if you can say that than surely you can see that the scores are not matching the real points they should have you should be able to play back the replays and verify that they score what the leaderboard says.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

the only real fix i can think of is saving a replay with the game, such that the score can be played back. this would make any cheating very obvious.

Replays are a great idea. A VAC ban system to get rid of the cheaters for good would be even more welcome but I understand implementing systems and features like that cost a lot of money and time. I don’t see it happening in FX3. Maybe in FX4. But I don’t see it happening at all if Zen doesn’t change their stance on cheating.

Because right now, they don’t seem to care at all. The scores listed in this thread are impossible and 100% cheated. They know this and do nothing. A VAC ban system or replays might to be too much to ask at the moment but removing those scores certainly isn’t.

They asked us for patience and they got it. Months and months of it. This thread hasn’t become a monster, which is kind of unique when it comes to cheater threads on game forums. There’s no constant whine. We haven’t been breathing down their necks and our request is perfectly valid.

Remove the obvious cheaters first, see what you can do about other questionable scores, and then stay vigilant. I understand there’s no foolproof way to catch them all at this time, but in a game that centres around high scores, you should at least do what you can do.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

>Bump

I understand that this not a nice thread to have on the forum but I feel the subject matter is too important to be ignored.
I hope I'm not the only who still cares. This issue has to be addressed by Zen.

[Tech101]

You're not the only one but at this point (over a year now) it feels like we are beating a dead horse.

[gaz5021]

I also still care but I don’t know what else to do to get any action or response from Zen.

[grenadier]

Seems like if they can't manage to figure out the cheat, the responsible thing to do after all this time is remove the scores, and remove the accounts of anyone who posted them. Or at least ban their accounts from appearing on the scoreboards. They could then still play, but receive no credit on the rankings.

[gaz5021]

Seems like if they can't manage to figure out the cheat, the responsible thing to do after all this time is remove the scores, and remove the accounts of anyone who posted them. Or at least ban their accounts from appearing on the scoreboards. They could then still play, but receive no credit on the rankings.

Agreed.

[Tech101]

Zen's to busy censoring Williams table to care otherwise this would've been done a year ago when it was first brought up.

[Umma Gumma]

Zen's to busy censoring Williams table to care otherwise this would've been done a year ago when it was first brought up.

This is horrible nothing is being done about this...

I lost all my Upgrades on Pinball FX3? I was playing and all of a sudden my XBOX One reset itself, and I noticed that when I got back on that not only were the Upgrades gone in the Pinball FX3 Table I was on, but all were no longer present. And I had just befriended someone before this all happened. Not sure if this person had anything to with it, yet? Anyone who knows of this happening and if it can be corrected please let me know. I put a lot of time into Pinball FX2 and FX3, if I cannot get these things back, I am done with this, I play it the most. I would rather play Pinball Games than most other games. So I would appreciate any help that I can get, thanks...

[cantankerous--]

This has been going on now for far too long and still the bogus scores exist and the discussion of them fills my ps4 community regularly with people wondering why after so long Zen refuses to police their boards even after admitting that the scores are near impossible to achieve and certainly repeated posting of near impossible scores ending in all zeros even more impossible???? Impossibler????

Look Zen these guys are all on computer using the cross play function and you clearly have either no intention of removing them or ability to keep them from posting future bogus scores or seeing how important this is to not just me or the people who continue to post to this thread, who only represent a small percentage of those willing to publicly air their disapproval with the way you have chosen to do nothing. The sole measure of a persons skill in pinball is the score........................how do you not get it? Playing for hours upon hours to achieve a record, only to have some jerk post a bogus score above you sucks bad and makes it feel futile when the company you continue to support doesnt give one single poo.

Anyway, since this thread seemingly amounts to just talking to a wall I will take my grievance elsewhere questioning the necessity of cross play since there is no way to legitimize any of the scores. I intend to post to Sony and Steam and your Facebook account and your Twitter account and provide links to this post and hopefully start enough stink that you will finally see how important this is to us and remove the scores.