Anti-Cheat / Glitch in game

Question

Currently I am working with a team on a Unity-based game. The game is still in development and alpha version.

Recently, we saw that the game was vulnerable to Cheat Engine, speedhack etc. Updates after updates, cheats are now stable. We also introduced the ACT or anti Cheat Toolkit of Unity. As the game is Unity-based, it is easy to implement ideas in the game.

Though "hacks" are stablized, "glitches" are not.

This is an open world Survival game and it consists of picking/dropping items. The glitch is that when two players pick the item together, (currently you have to press E while the crosshead is over the item to pick it up) the item gets duplicated. We have been working DAYS to fix it, but no fortune.

We introduced that a player cannot pick up an item when there is another player nearby. It looks odd and we want the game smooth. We also tried auto pick up item. That's our plan, but are there any more ideas what we can do?

Answer 1

If your concerns are players cheating by modifying memory values, as well as maintaining a synchronized game state to avoid problems like item duplication, you should look into setting up an authoritative server that will contain and update the "official" values and state of the game.

Basically, rather than storing values and performing actions directly on the player's computer, the game will send a request to the server of what it wants to do, and the server will perform the actions, update the official game state, and send the new state back to the player so their game is updated.

This will prevent memory editing because even if a player modifies a value on their screen (such as currency or health) the server contains the true value.

It will also prevent exploits like speedhacks, because rather than having the local game directly move the player when a key is pressed, the keypress will just send a movement request to the server, which will update the player's position, and send back the new position.

Finally, this will prevent item duplication, because when both players attempt to pick up the item, they will both send an item pickup request to the server. Whichever player's request arrives first will receive the item, then the server will update the game state so that the item is no longer on the ground, and the second player's request will be ignored, because the item they're trying to pick up no longer exists.

Simply put, the best way to prevent cheating is: Don't store important values or perform important actions on the player's computer.