This current scene which splits SWAT 4 community in two, making it weak and shrink dramatically, has historic roots of complacency, stagnation, and above all: ignorance about the v1.1 Patch and its fixes.
So I think that's the propitious moment to list the fixes published in official SWAT 4 v1.1 Patch changelog.
I'm not expert in v1.0, but I know that's possible do almost everything in v1.1 without need of load 'cheat programs/files'; so what think of this fully unprotected v1.0 heir of an engine which countless titles still suffering with easy cheating methods? But at least those titles have security mechanisms like GUID based login.
I wont get into details to prevent malicious use of the information, but make a short just comment for some items.
Btw, I have reason to believe that's changelog should be longer...
------- SWAT 4 v1.1 Patch ChangeLog -------
- Added multi-player versions of 3 single-player missions
MP-ConvenienceStore
MP-Hotel
MP-JewelryHeist
Added the SWAT 4 SDK, available in the 'SDK' subfolder of the SWAT 4 installation
directory (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE SDK IS NOT SUPPORTED!!!)
Added Massive Streaming Ad Support
Fixes for several exploits -> yep, they did! Just check in SDK referred above many of them.
Fixed UMP .45 JHP ammunition to have correct ballistics properties -> "Server rule: Don't use .45 SMG" who never saw that?
ToggleBehindView console command no longer works in multiplayer -> Remote everything...
Fixed potential wallhack exploit -> Something more sophisticated.
Fixed recoil negation keybinding exploit -> Better don't comment... It already said all.
Fixed exploit that allowed players to make themselves appear to be arrested -> ...and also can't be arrested.
Fixed problem where kicking by ID would kick the wrong person
Fixed problem where player IDs would not display in the GUI in co-op games.
Improved validation for game content (INI files and binary packages) -> Oh yeah! Forget all those red lines above, cuz you can be the God and doing anything in game. All that you need is a pair of neurons. Luckily seems that cheaters don't have brain ;D but most of them already learn to read & write: enough to become semi-Gods.
Admins can now set up to 256 IP Policies (i.e., for banning players) instead of the previous limit of 50.
Fixed problem where servers with 16/16 players would still show up when "Filter out full servers" was enabled
Fixed problem where incorrect server information would be returned when ping filtering was enabled
Fixed problem where only Rapid Deployment games would be returned when filtering servers for the Co-op game type
Fixed several issues related to language localization
Fixed issue with character not appearing in Russian localized SKU
Fixed cases where some game strings were localized preventing them from being properly translated in some regions
Fixed issue where server password characters were restricted in then password popup dialog but not in the server setup page. Server password characters are now completely unrestricted
Fixed problem where if you switch from Internet to LAN during a server browser refresh some Internet servers would show up in the LAN listing
Fixed a problem where equipment selection would not work correctly in certain situations
Fixed problem where if your voice type was set to Random it would change in-game every time you pressed the o, m, or b keys
Removed unused network uplink code that was not necessary but would cause problems when enabled in INI files
Fixed problems with mirrors in the MP-Hotel map
Functionality added for Intel 915G/945G cards for SWAT 4
Increased default timeout for clients when reconnecting to a server. This should reduce the likelihood of users being disconnected during map changes due to long load times on older machines and some hardware configurations.
I know 5 anticheat systems what supports SWAT 4: none of them is perfect even running together.
Over all these years we have fight ruthlessly against cheaters in v1.1 servers, and we got make it clean through a extraordinary alliance between clans and its intel services, and also by individuals efforts like Jax & Neod meaningful contributions.
In the v1.0 scene that's fight is virtually not possible or at least pretty tiresome. Brainless cheaters will be caught as usual, but is it worth spend time to investigate cheaters almost impossible to be caught if we can just install the game fix released many years ago?
Omg! They didn't release the patch for nothing! There're critical vulnerabilities easily exploitable. We don't have how to be sure if someone is cheating or not.
Ppl kick, ban, fight, and make every days drama about "someone was cheating / someone was clean", but seems not able to do the little step of fix the game joining in a unspeakable most safety environment, leaving behind a kinda beta version and help the SWAT 4 Community thrives and perpetuate itself, like many other FPS games communities such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Counter Strike 1.6, Call of Duty 2 & 4, and many others with less expressivity.
Well I think there's no excuses anymore to v1.0 clans: support a flaw game bring all those possible consequences and nothing can be done in practical way.
About poor players who acquire the game illicitly, once Direct2Drive gone with my original game copy too, rest only count with luck to get the Golden Edition (v1.1+TSS).
Unfortunately many new aspirants chooses the very smaller file of v1.0 copy and have no absolute idea about the patch, and probably wont care about it since exist v1.0 servers populated (or at least with fake players... ).
A curious fact about "v1.0 Community" is that there are countless active clans and server in latin SWAT 4 community, including Brazil. Seems that they don't have knowledge about v1.1, and as I could see several times, no one knowledge about server config.
For those who don't believe in time-machine, that's the SWAT 4 reality: or you get back to wild outlaw times, or you engage in struggle to keep our safe present alive until new times come.
I think there's no problem in expose those official info already widely spread, once we had a front page post in FPA, with more than 800 hits, with name references of injector and cheat files, in addition a totally off-topic content, even under protests