SA-MP To MTA-SA

[ReZurrecti0n]

I've been recently considering to switch over from SA-MP to MTA-SA, but this is something very serious as it does mean that I must start from scratch again which is to familarize myself with a new GTA SA MP Modification. This might also mean alot of other players (From SA-MP) would follow me here (To MTA-SA) especially from Gaming Communities I got some influence over through my previous SA-MP Creations. Therefore, I have a few questions about MTA-SA before I can make a decision...

The most important concern I have at the moment is how the Hackers/Cheaters are handled in MTA-SA compared to SA-MP. SA-MP is basically over run by this problem & offers very little defense against it. For example, SA-MP's RCON, even with it disabled Hackers are still finding ways to access it. Scripts meant to detect & act on users accessing any part of the RCON have failed which is the SA-MP Modification itself (Not the script). There are Hackers/Cheaters on just about every SA-MP Game Server & Administrators are kept busy banning offenders all day & all night. Even with great Anti-Cheat Scripts, they manage to find a way through, 100's of them. Cleo Modifications & such are also a problem which are much more difficult to detect.

Now the question is: How does MTA-SA handle thier Hackers/Cheaters & how much of a problem is it here? Remember that SA-MP has alot more players than MTA-SA (From what I've read up on), so judging from numbers alone when compared with SA-MP simply won't work. But perphaps with the right Scripts, Hacking/Cheating is near impossible for MTA-SA or so I hope anyways. I've noticed how MTA-SA is capable of changing the player's client therefore believe that Hackers/Cheaters easily are detected?

Furthermore, a Pros & Cons List for both SA-MP & MTA-SA for comparasion would be greatly appreciated too, thanx

(As for Player Amounts, not worried, can always bring more people. Also, better to have 100 Players than 1000 Hackers)

[Towncivilian]

As far as I know, MTA:SA's anti-cheat works very well. I don't remember the last time I read a forum post or an anecdote on IRC about some moron hacking or cheating in-game. No *.asi or other module files are loaded by MTA, so that stops arguably the easiest method of code injection. Hell, I'd say MTA 0.5 for Vice City & III had a more effective anti-cheat than SA-MP, if it's as bad as you claim.

There is a lengthy thread comparing SA-MP and MTA here.

Welcome to the forums. I see you're a fellow Floridian!

[Tren]

I can say only:MTA have strong anti-cheat and data files protections.AC and protection enabled by default,so you can't play with cheats,MTA AC block almost all cheats (maybe there is some private cheats) and won't let you join the game,for example,with modifed handling or weapon.dat.If you have a server(and owner of it)you can disable ACs and data files protection(not recommened)

ah,towncivilian first :>

[Zango]

MTA's anticheat is actually doing remarkably well in my opinion. A few years back it was problematic, not to the same degree as SAMP is currently but still a problem because it did not block cheats like as sobeit. However due to MTA functions it was possible to script your own anticheat against this until today where MTA has this protection natively.

MTA blocks any clients with any important file modified (VF fail) and any known cheat (AC). If you run a server and it get's a reasonable amount of players you'll notice how many players it actually kicks out over time. To be honest I haven't seen a cheater in over half a year.

I'm wondering if the interest in SAMP is still so high because of the lack of anticheat

[ReZurrecti0n]

Thank you for all your responses...

The MTA-SA Anti-Cheat seems very promising which is enough to consider switching over even though it would mean I must start from scratch again. What I specialize in is Roleplay, but may actually create something of a Military Roleplay with the option of Freeroaming as a Civilian (Or would probably be better known as Normal RP). I don't know how many of you might be familar with Civilization III Conquests (C3C), but currently involved & inspired by it to create this new genre gamemode for GTA:SA. But anyway, judging from the link I was referred to (Thanx TC), MTA-SA is capable of most SA-MP's Features.

Thanx again guys

Off Topic: Yes, been in Florida for the last 15 or so years now (From Wisconsin) because my parents decided to sell thier business to purchase the cheapest house they could find here (lol). It wasn't long after that which I then followed and now stay in Florida, but one positive aspect made it easy for me to stay which was to escape those cold winters. I might miss the season change & perphaps the snow, but certainly not the cold! Would you believe that my first year living in Florida was when we had those 4-5 Hurricanes that came through? Heh, I was having 2nd thoughts about Florida back then

(Reside near the Lakeland Area)

[Oz.]

General rule of thumb is anything SA-MP can do, MTASA can do better. More importantly, there are a vast number of things that can be done in MTASA which aren't possible at all in SA-MP. The potential here for you to be creative is far greater than it is there, so you'd definitely be making the right choice to make the switch.

[DiSaMe]

SA-MP can remove GTA SA map objects, MTA isn't capable of this, though it's possible to workaround this by replacing object models with empty ones. Apart from this feature, everything possible in SA-MP is possible in MTA. Some things aren't directly available in MTA, but they can be scripted. For example, SA-MP has a function SetPlayerAttachedObject which attaches objects to player's bones. MTA has no such function. However, MTA has a function getPedBonePosition, so function for attaching objects to bones is scriptable. This requires a little bit more work, but is advantageous, as you don't have any limits (in SA-MP, maximum 10 objects can be attached) and you can do many other things you may think of (for example,

).

[ReZurrecti0n]

Thank you again for the responses...

All the time I would save on creating some Anti-Cheat Script, I could point towards work arounds for functions that aren't directly (Or Native) supported like the SetPlayerAttachedObject Example. I understand exactly what you mean, in SA-MP, it sometimes felt like I was scripting nothing but workarounds because of the limitations. But as I understand it, there might be some work arounds required here, but for the most part that there are no limitations compared to SA-MP's limitations. Now attaching vehicles to bones would be interesting indeed, perphaps one day when I want to create some Superman GM, lol. But thanx again, enjoy reading the reponses here, I'm more & more leaning towards dropping SA-MP for MTA-SA

[DiSaMe]

Well, if you're interested in object attachments to bones, you can use this resource: https://community.multitheftauto.com/index.php?p= ... ls&id=2540 . It has functions related to bone positions and rotations, including attaching function. The part which many scripters couldn't understand was bone rotations. getPedBonePositions only returns positions and not rotations. So I made the script which calculates rotations from positions of three bones.

[12p]

I want to create some Superman GM, lol.

There is a resource made for that purpose

SUPERMAN (click me)

[lil Toady]

Attaching vehicles to bones you say?

[LooooP]

I don't remember the last time I read a forum post or an anecdote on IRC about some moron hacking or cheating in-game

Now you'll problably remember:

Anyway it doesn't seems that this hack was released to public, but that means a way to bypass 1.1's AC system was already found.

[coolman]

fake

[AGENT_STEELMEAT]

Switching from SAMP to MTA will be one of the best decisions you will ever make as far as gaming goes. I switched from SAMP about 2 years ago, and it's been a hell of a blast since.

[ReZurrecti0n]

Even if some Hack/Cheat Program were to break through, MTA seems to be right on top of it & wouldn't pose as a problem for very long. But the whole basic point is that Hacking/Cheating is rare compared to SA-MP which the defenses are none at all. Just as a precaution though, I'm likely to build up a very basic AC such as handling the player's money etc.

The Transformer Videos were a bit shocking as it wasnt at all what I expected, but certainly shows the possibilities of MTA Scripting which is very impressive. Only thing left to worry about is convincing SA-MP users to abandon years of work while starting completely fresh with another era of GTA:SA (Not at all going to be easy to do)

[JR10]

Switching from SAMP to MTA will be one of the best decisions you will ever make as far as gaming goes. I switched from SAMP about 2 years ago, and it's been a hell of a blast since.

Same for me, about 6 months ago.

[Arran]

But Just as a precaution though, I'm likely to build up a very basic AC such as handling the player's money etc.

There hasn't been a reported case of money cheating in 2 years or however long its been since the release of MTA SA 1.0 you do however need to worry about exploits in your own scripts which will happen.

I created something which makes tracking down money exploits incredibly easy: Instead of scripts using givePlayerMoney you have a resource which has an exported function for the money functions and the only way to give money is via those functions. You then add a third argument of "reason" so that every money transaction has a reason for example "Sold a car", "Bought a pizza" etc etc. You can then use the file* functions to create a logging system and log every single money transaction.

This extreme amount of logging has saved my server many many times and such logging is recommended for any game mode where money matters. If a player is walking around with too much cash, we can check the logs to see exactly where the money came from.

Also, removing GTA SA world objects is now possible in the most recent builds of 1.2.0

[Phat Looser]

There is several things you need to know about MTA.

1) Don't bother with scripting an anti-cheat. I have made one about 2 years ago, and disabled it step by step since MTA's anticheat made it obsolete.

2) If somebody actually manages to be banned, a serial ban will ban his hardware. It is hard to avoid the serial ban, and up to now I haven't had the time to crack it. If I would be able to crack it I'd tell the developers

3) It was some time ago you were able to detect even s0beit with scripts only. This is not necessairy any more, but it shows how powerful MTA's scripts are.

4) Every time a new MTA version is out, I am trying to crash the server or to find an exploit. There were bugs, of course, but I know of no security-relevant exploits or crashes.

[Thelastride]

MTA is much better.

[Otto]

Multi Theft Auto is modern, has some awards, has a lot of players and nice gamemodes. SAMP is old, looks old, and their gamemodes are old and ugly.

That's why I prefere Multi Theft Auto.

[natsuto]

I turned from SAMP about 2 years ago, an explosion and it has been hell.