Sadly, this is how these things seem to go in *every* flight sim online...
Cheating is suspected... it's confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt... and then the following happens:
- Problem/exploit is reported to the devs/community
- Devs immediately assault the whistleblower
- Community sycophants assault the whistleblower
- Discussion of the problem is actively suppressed (hence why we must come here to discuss - btw, thanks SimHQ!)
- Problem is never officially addressed, because that will surely make it go away
- Everyone just hopes the cheaters get bored and decide to go fail at life elsewhere
I dunno what it is about flight sim communities... they are strange, strange places... MMOs take this stuff seriously, because it's absolutely a blight on the integrity of their commodity... heck, even ARK (which has a server model like IL2) PAYS hackers for reporting exploits.
Except that, in the case of BoS, confirmed methods of cheating have been fixed, once they have been reported to the team.
I should have clarified that my experiences have not been with BoS, or that Dev team, but several other games where cheating is not rampant by any means, but absolutely present in one form or other.
In several cases, long ago, I tried to help expose some of these things to the light and was basically demonized even though I was simply trying to do what is right... I absolutely abhor cheating, bias (not talking about ZOMG RUSSIAN BIAS b/s, I mean lack of objectivity), and illogical assumption. A cursory glance at my statistics has ALWAYS shown that I most assuredly do not cheat in flight sims hahahahaha...
The reason this thing struck me was due to the fact that these are simple bit-flips that are painfully easy to pull off with freely available software and very little instruction. This is the EXACT same thing I was threatened to be banned from a flight sim I will not name (Aces High) for posting about. In THAT case, all I even said was that if the same client that included the code to enable a lead indicator, continuous computed impact point reticle, etc in the training arena was also used in the main arena that his was a VERY BAD THING. My business IP was banned from even loading the forum page immediately after I posted the suggestion to separate the two clients.
Literally, instead of fixing the problem, the answer is to ban a paying customer. It's as myopic as it is arrogant.
In this case, watching the video, it's the exact same thing. If it exists in the engine, it can most assuredly be turned on by force with very little trouble.
I'm not saying the end-state solution is "simple", as I am of course not privy to either the source code or the resources available to the dev team to implement the fix, but the premise is indeed uncomplicated:
If you have two game modes, one of which includes "assistance" (LCGS, CCIP, Icons, Range to Target, sometimes even things like unlimited fuel or depending upon the engine even physics dependent things such as modeled weights, drag, etc) and another mode where all of these things are absent, you MUST completely separate the code for those two game modes.
This can be done several ways I am sure, but certainly the following are options in the case of IL-2:
1. You launch the initial game, and then you launch a specific sub-set of that engine upon selection of a MP gametype... i.e., if you connect to a "Normal" server, you launch with that code (the current IL-2 code). If you connect to a realistic server, you get that set. Modularity here allows for things like the use of icons, but not even having the required code for LCGS and CCIP running or available within the engine itself. Literally it's absent from the code. You are unable to circumvent this by spoofing the "Normal" code as expert settings based on a number of factors (it's essentially a different game, and the connection would simply fail.)
2. Easier, more restrictive, sledgehammer approach... you package two client binaries and two dserver binaries with the application. IL2_N.exe only connects to a DserverN.exe instance, and IL2_E.exe only connects to a DserverE.exe instance. These could be selected from the launcher directly. In fact, It could be IL2.exe and IL2_XMP.exe, and you basically launch one to go to SP or Normal MP, and another to go to Expert Multiplayer Only.
Now, can someone still hack this? Certainly... but now you've upped the price of admission to cheat from simply downloading a program and reading a paragraph on the concept to requiring some serious programming skills, not to mention the end result is bound to be janky and not the very nice and neat built-in Normal settings that the original RoF dev who created them never intended to be used against earnest expert players.
You don't have to personally get food poisoning from Taco Bell to avoid Taco Bell.
Anyway, I'm back flying IL-2 after like a 9 month hiatus... I'm not the guy that's going to avoid the game because of this, but I also have the benefit of wingmen who are breathtakingly better at the game than I am... like a retarded guppy in a school of allied piranha, I am insulated enough from these asshats that I won't as keenly feel the barb.
On the other hand, the guy who ups a solo He-111, cleverly devises a surreptitious route to target, and gets bounced regardless because
[Possible player name deleted] the coolguy pilot is running Fan Song radar and vectors in on him from 50k away... that dude ain't gonna want to play anymore real quick.
TL;DR - I didn't mean to imply that the IL-2 team didn't care or wasn't doing anything about this at all... I just really, really, really hate cheaters... but the one thing that I detest more than a dishonest player is the vilification of whistle-blowers and the blamers of victims.