PGLS News: NEW LEGITIMACY CHECKS AT PGLS

[MiMiC]

Hi to all,

With the recent arrival of the Perfect Golf update vers. 1.4.2.4, there has been some movement forward on issues which we have been focusing on over the past month with regards to addressing potential exploits within the game.

The new update includes changes in 3-click, which will address concerns expressed over time about use of mechanisms to slow down the swing. These were not originally addressed in previous builds and we are very pleased to say that the developers prioritized a request made by us to make sure this was looked at and fixed.

Our own investigations into movement swings have also revealed where a quantifiable but small number of rounds are being played where the player is, or is likely to over the course of 18 holes, see a message telling them that they are using a device (mouse or controller) which does not return the variance in swing which the game was designed for.

If, as a player, you have regularly been seeing this message, then it has been and continues to be in your interest to address this. We also feel if you are receiving this message, you should have decided that the honourable route would be to address the issue and not compete in competition until you had done so.

In most cases, the issues come about because of a controller which is 'generic' and not of a sensitivity level such as those of Official XBox or PS4 standards. For mice, you may also find this happens if you are using an older model with very low sensitivity levels and dpi where one axis is vastly different from another, or where some form of 'auto-correction' is in use by the mouse.

From the end of this week's forthcoming events (1st June 2017 onwards) events played which return a measurement which would have resulted in a message being sent to your screen, or which on shorter rounds of 9-holes would have meant the same, will no longer register at PGLS. This means, on a round-by-round basis, your score will not register if you were outside of the sensitivity parameters. You will receive a message when this happens to explain.

Please note, this in NOT a player ban, but a safeguard to make sure you address the issue of equipment which is meaning the game is being played in a way it was not designed to react, and which could gain unfair advantage.

As a courtesy, we will be informing a very small number of players that they will need to address their equipment. If you do not receive one of these emails or Private Messages, then you should have no concerns.

For those that do, PGLS can help you with knowing if your swing is massively in need of change, or if a tweak will bring you into compliance. Please contact one of the admin team to make arrangements for a private testing session.


We hope that our ongoing quest to make our game environment as fair and transparent as possible meet with the approval of our members, and rest assured that we continue to look at issues, including new ones if brought to our attention, to bring you the best home for your golfing enjoyment.



PGLS Admin Team

[xxDannyxxo]

not sure what all above means being a new player to PGLS is it basically saying some people are cheating to slow down the meter ?? & they have now fixed it.

[MiMiC]

Hi Danny,

Yes, part of the new update addressed the use of 'Cheat Engines' which act to slow down the swing and in fact all processing.

If a player now performs a swing in more time than when running at 100%, distance and direction penanlties are now applied.

The other side of this, and what we wanted to make sure that ALL issues of illegitimacy were addressed at the same time, is that our data will show when a player is always hitting a straight movement with absolutely no offset. When this happens, it records a positive return and keeps adding to that with subsequent shots which show the same. Shots which show a variance take away from this total. If the total is too high (more than one in 5 shots hit without any variation) then the sensitivity is below where the designer inteneded competition to be fair, and so these rounds are rejected.


Mike

[terbal]

good work guys

[DocHelm]

I was one of the "very few" who were notified about the forgiving mouse issue an d have played my last 4 rounds without a black message of death showing up at the end. My 17 year old mouse has no way to alter the x axis deadzone, so I decided that the straight shots were due to edging. I am just as lousy without edging, so don't know why I was singled out...I shot -8 for the 4 9 hole rounds and others shot -28. As long as people play these games online, there will always be those who will do ANYTHING to win...what fun can that be. Good job, Mike and Mark for trying to even the playing field, but not sure it is possible.

[MiMiC]

Doc,

It is because, even if you feel edging makes little difference to your scoring, our data shows when it is present. If you can drop the use of straight edge then the message shouild 'magically' be a thing of the past.

[Steve2golf]

"Good job, Mike and Mark for trying to even the playing field, but not sure it is possible."

People have been on this quest for decades in online golf games, but one problem exists in that attempt. There are players who are just good, who play legit, hence will never need worry about getting caught with these automated programs programmed to catch so-called cheaters.

Some sites in the past and present instead turned to false labels using bogus stats or false assumptions or pure fiction to rid themselves of the good legit player.

Have fun and play well.......

[Crusher]

"Good job, Mike and Mark for trying to even the playing field, but not sure it is possible."

People have been on this quest for decades in online golf games, but one problem exists in that attempt. There are players who are just good, who play legit, hence will never need worry about getting caught with these automated programs programmed to catch so-called cheaters.

Some sites in the past and present instead turned to false labels using bogus stats or false assumptions or pure fiction to rid themselves of the good legit player.

Have fun and play well.......

Those games didn't have built-in cheat detectors. New technology allows for this and Perfect Golf was made to be as tough as possible in Tour Pro. Super low scores are not realistic for this game. No one can be that good (realistically) IF they use a swing method that is not altered or use exploits like closing the game screen immediately following a bad ball-strike.

When PP, Inc. and hosting sites put their minds together there will be a level playing field. Just that this game had to cater to several new/different swing methods. They'll get there, I have faith.

[MiMiC]

People have been on this quest for decades in online golf games, but one problem exists in that attempt. There are players who are just good, who play legit, hence will never need worry about getting caught with these automated programs programmed to catch so-called cheaters.

Some sites in the past and present instead turned to false labels using bogus stats or false assumptions or pure fiction to rid themselves of the good legit player.

Have fun and play well.......

I'll make no secret of the fact that we started on the 'quest' because of the level of scoring we were seeing. We decided we needed to take a closer look to see if there was anything which identified exploits. We did so because our very vocal membership were calling out the scores being posted. They were doing this without any data to substantiate those claims, which is something we wish to avoid.

Some time ago, fixing the use of closing down the game to retake shots was a relatively easy nut to crack, once we could trace data as to when it was happening, and it immediately made a huge difference to leaderboards where players were using that particular exploit as a matter of course.

One part of the new legitimacy check is based purely on whether the box comes up having played a round, or on a slightly less stringent figure for 9 holes of play, actually giving players a slight bit of leeway on shorter rounds.

Whilst Perfect Parallel call it a 'courtesy' message, in competition such as we have here, where everyone is scrutinizing the scores of those amongst them and again making claims which they cannot back up with fact, we have decided that a message which tells a player that, by accident or design, his method of play employs a lessened sensitivity for which the game was not designed to play, we feel duty bound to make as level a playing field as possible in using this data to have absolute transparency in scoring.

I still contend that if you have been playing this game for over a year with that message coming up, you should either find equipment which does not produce the message or remove yourself from official competition.

For information, the check we have in place have confirmed that the scores at the top of the leaderboards which we are seeing are, according to the data we can observe, legitimate. This is as much as we can do. We certainly don't want to go on a witch-hunt to winkle out scores at the top of the leaderboard just because they are head and shoulders above those of the main group. We will leave others with a pitchfork and burning torch attitude to do that. However, we WILL NOT allow players to make accusations of cheating without any proof to back that up, and WILL take action to remove those who do make such unsubstantiated claims.

In many cases, these claims are being made without the player ever having played a match against these players, and having seen how they play. We agree that such interaction is desirable, but we do not and will not be making online play a requirement to register scores at PGLS.

We can do what we can at the tour provider level, and can do more with the assistance of the game developer when we have it. The battle to prove legitimacy is never-ending - we are aware of this and will continue to quietly work at all methods at our disposal as well as developing new investigative solutions to keep as up to strength as we can to ensure as fair a competition as possible.

[Steve2golf]

Don't get me wrong, I take no issue with the automated checks and think they are great and love what you are are doing and hope it continue. However, I'm just telling everyone straight up, that even with all the checks in the world the low scoring by people will still happen and no automated anything will catch anything they are doing. Admirable goal to level the playing field, but people being people, some people are just that much better at stuff than others plain and simple.

PP has a small player base presently, and if by chance it were to 10 fold increase, the low scoring would go even lower by far more many for a few reasons not limited to, the greens are mainly flat, the muted wind effect, the roll out of the greens and the measurable miss hit.

So carry on, but IMHO, the low scoring will continue, and continue to get lower and lower.

As far as players not playing as well in MP, well I can see reasons for that as well again not limited to, the practice swings, finely scouting the greens for ideal landing areas, waiting for ideal wind, utilization of multiple camera angles, better FPS in sole play, many of which is not acceptable behavior in interest of speed of play in MP , but offer sole play the opportunity for much lower scores.

Have fun and play well.