In essence, our policy on hacks can be expressed in the following points:
1. All use of hacks on public servers will be considered illegal and grounds for issuing a game ban.
2. All use of hacks without personally notifying moderators will be considered illegal and grounds for issuing a game ban.
3. All use of hacks for purposes of development of security measures with prior warning to moderators must be conducted exclusively on private servers.
4. Any request to issue a game ban for the use of hacks must be backed by concrete video evidence with proof of identity of the accused.
5. There will be no possibility to appeal a game ban issued for the use of hacks.
With the introduction of this policy we aim to make game bans more significant and fair while still keeping their numbers the same, or even potentially decreasing them. At the same time, we realise the importance of developing anti-hacking solutions and the role hacks play in this process.
In plain English, the five points above boil down to the following:
If you need to use hacks for "white hat" reasons, notify a moderator. Any other use of hacks will be treated as "black hat" behaviour, and banned for. And remember - you won't get away with messaging a moderator and using hacks on public servers. That's still illegal. Use your own servers and call your friends or add bots. Additionally, not knowing about these rules is not a valid excuse.
In order to notify us of your intentions, message EngiN33R or GeoB99. Do not message DC. In your message, include a brief description of what you'll be using them for, what you'll be doing and for how long.
If you are a server owner and you would like to report a player for using hacks, make sure they are logged in to USGN first. Remember - we cannot magically ban users not in our system, that is up to you. The report should be sent to EngiN33R or GeoB99, not DC. For your report to be considered, you must provide video proof of the offending behaviour - a spectator recording of the hacker with a confirmation of their identity in the video (scoreboard with USGN number and listplayers output). Plaintext logs will not be considered. In order for your report to be handled faster, the video should be uploaded to a video streaming service (YouTube or similar) and not a file uploader (Mediafire/Mega etc.). You should also provide a list of players online at the time (names and USGN IDs) so that the moderator team could interview them and ask if they can support your story, in case there are doubts.
Proof for all game bans issued by moderators based on a third-party report will be stored indefinitely and available to all queries, and such bans may not be appealed. If the moderator team has found that you are, in fact, guilty of hacking, the game ban will be permanent and non-reversible.
Please note that this policy is not retroactive - there will be no amnesty, and all game bans issued up to this point will remain in force.
We hope that these changes will make the game a more enjoyable and fair experience for you. As always, we are open to feedback, so this thread will stay open for an indefinite amount of time. Please bear in mind, however, that this is not a place to ask us to unban you, either on a server in-game (which we can't do) or on Unreal Software.
Any significant alterations to this statement will be recorded underneath for future reference.