Submitting a good cheating report

# Submitting a good cheating report ~ ashquarky 2024-12-08 (not an official document) Pretendo takes online cheating quite seriously, since if people can't get a good match they won't play, and the project will wither on the vine from no-player-itis. Even as detection technology in this area improves, manual reporting will always be an important part of preventing cheating. The best way to ensure we can process and take action based on your report is: - Take (long!) video of the cheating. Some claims are obvious (bomb spam in Splatoon) and others require context and careful measurement (speedhacking in MK7) to ensure cheating actually occurred. Phone camera's fine, though try to hold it steady enough to make out Mii names if possible. If not, an additional photo helps. - Have a clear statement of what is actually wrong and make sure it's visible in the video. I reject many reports because the video looks completely normal to me - you need to mention if the weapon loadout is wrong, or that corner cut isn't possible with that combo. - Identify the player. This means the PID (Wii U/3DS), PNID username (Wii U), or friend code (3DS - a PNID is not enough on 3DS). Community plugins are available to help. - For Splatoon, [SDL Foundation has a PID grabber plugin](https://github.com/sdlfoundation/sdl-grabber) for Aroma, and [Splatheap grabber is available](https://github.com/javiig8/Splatheap-PID-Tool) for Cemu. - For Mario Kart 7, a [PID grabber is developed by H4x0rSpooky](https://github.com/H4x0rSpooky/mk7-pid-grabber) ("main" on Discord). - Ask in the Pretendo community discord before using these links in case there is newer tech or updated plugins available. - For Mario Kart 8, [the gatherings website](https://mario-kart-8.pretendo.network/gatherings) lists the PIDs if you hover over the player count. - For many Wii U games, the Friends app's "Player History" section will display the PNID and other info. - Please include the *full* log as evidence (SDL log file, picture of the MK7 plugin, picture of Wii U Friends) as details like the time, Mii names, and other players in the match are very helpful for review. I would like to formally thank the community and developers who create plugins and tools which make moderation possible. We would be much worse off if not for your work. - Post all of the above somewhere the moderation team can see it. Usually this means the forum or the Hacker Reporting Thread in #support. Other methods of report submission are being developed. - On Discord: Please try and keep it all in one message so I don't have to go hunting through a chat backlog to find details. - On Discord: Please upload media to Discord so that we can archive it with the forwarding feature. We may need to review the evidence many months from now in case of appeals, so things like YouTube Live clips aren't suitable. - The moderation team will review it and forward into my team's inbox. We usually don't release the result of individual reports, but we might mention it for particularly disruptive players. All reports are indivudally tracked and updated and consoles are checked for alt accounts automatically. ## Game-specific notes ### Mario Kart 7 If you can, please try to show the bottom screen in your video, and touch the screen to show the Mii names for at least a couple frames so that I can work out which character the cheater is using. Try to stay on the zoomed-in view for most of it since the held items are visible in that mode. When using main's PID grabber, please prefer the session logger function or the live view. "Opponent data" can be modified by cheaters. ### Splatoon For Splatoon reports, we need additional information: - The PNID username or PID of the person playing in the video, and/or - The *exact* time the cheater joined the match (visible in Wii U Friends' "Player History" - please note your timezone as well) A complete SDL log file or picture of Wii U Friends will fufill this requirement. This data is used for additional security checks - similar requirements might come to other games soon. ### Mario Kart 8 MKTV replays are okay as long as the cheating is actually visible in the replay. Don't forget to include the PNID info from Friends. ### Minecraft: Wii U Edition Minecraft is currently set up such that only people on your Friends list, or friends of those friends, can join your game. Thus, if someone is hacking, you should unfriend them. At this time, Pretendo is only interested in bypasses of the Friends restriction or evidence of remote-code exploits. ### StreetPass Relay (AC:NL, Mii Plaza etc.), friend requests, SMM levels... As before, we need a PID, PNID, or Friend Code to take action - so make sure to include it with your report. We *do* evaluate and action reports for offensive content in Mii names, PNID names, friend request text, uploaded levels and islands etc., so please report it if you see it. (Note: For SMM, we can look up the uploader based on the level code) # Thank you for helping to keep Pretendo online safe and playable for everyone!