MOD detect in MP can be bypassed

Age of Empires III: DE III - Report a Bug
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:arrow_forward: GAME INFORMATION

  • BUILD #: ######
  • PLATFORM: Steam
  • OS: Windows 10

:arrow_forward: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

:question: DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). Limit to ONE issue per thread.

Now, mods are not allowed in MP games, espeacially ranked game. But I found the game only check the mod folder, if I put the modified files into BAR files, I can join or create an MP game without difficulty. The modified text files works well in this way, I don’t know whether modified unit data files works as well, if so, it could be terrible.

:arrow_forward: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

:question: How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST.

  • 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)

:arrow_forward: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:question: List the DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue… Be descriptive!

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Unpack the BAR file, decompress files you want to modify
  2. Modify files, then compress them, repack BAR file
  3. Replace old BAR file with the repacked one
  4. Start your game and enter MP games, you will find no mod warning, can join or create games freely

:arrow_forward: EXPECTED RESULT

:question: What was supposed to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?
All modification to the original game files should be forbidden in any case.

:arrow_forward: ACTUAL RESULT

:question: What actually happened (what went wrong) because of the issue you’re reporting?
The game does not check game files! An MD5 check can solve this problem, but sorry, it seems does not exist

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I think it depends which files you edit.

You are right. I tested with my friend. Edited protoy.xml works if I am the only human player in a game under MP mode, but it will cause OOS when I play with my friend. However, edited stringtabley.xml and fonts3.xml works perfectly in any kind of MP game.

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