# Anti-cheat off

## Request (2026-10-25)

The Gladiator (Character03, level 106) "randomly exploded" fighting an
underleveled dragon on Silber. The user: the cheater detection is not
necessary, remove it.

## Measured

A temporary damage log showed the hero at full health (17200) going to 0 in
one tick, with the game logging `cheat statBonus 0/3`, `cheat SkillLevel 0..7`,
`Hase!` and `cObjectManager::destroy: tried to delete local hero #1!`; the hero
came back with 1199 health and died to the next hit.

- The game mirrors the local hero's fields on a protected page (pointers
  `0x182cddc`, second copy `0x182cde0`): +0 hero +0x3b4, +4 hero +0x3ee (gold),
  +8 hero +0x3fe (u16), xor-ed with the hero's key byte (+0x38) repeated four
  times (the second copy: key << 1); +0xc a raw copy of hero +0x3b0..+0x49d
  (attributes, skill levels). Writer: `0x603d9c` and other places after
  legitimate changes, all starting with `VirtualProtect(page, 0x1000,
  PAGE_READWRITE)` and ending with `0x201`.
- Checks: `cCreature::Think` about once in 101 ticks (`rand() % 101 == 10`,
  `0x5389b5`), `VerifyHeroMirror` `0x5905f0` (callers `0x57fc71`,
  `0x580001`, `0x580331`, `0x61ce22`), inline copies at `0x4659f6`,
  `0x564c6f`, `0x57e09c`, `0x585bd0`, `0x619d33`, and a trap in Think
  (`0x5385a6`: a creature whose level exceeds its experience by more than 3
  gets fields raised behind the mirror's back). A mismatch resets the field
  (attributes 1, skill levels 0); any mismatch, or no hero at all, kills the
  hero ("*** Cheater detected! ***", health 0, action dying) and sets the
  cheater flag `0x182cdd0`, saved in the hero file (record +0xf3, `0x604409`)
  and read back by loadHero (`0x6066eb`).
- Stream checks in the quest manager's hero data (`0x465980`): a marker
  `0xfea4fea4` (`0x467782`) and three stored values compared with the hero
  (`0x46a60b`, `0x46a64e`, `0x46a696`).
- In the failing log every skill level mismatched: the mirror was stale
  (changes outside the game's mirror writers, e.g. the shared hero loaded into
  another world).

## Mod (`src/mods/anticheat.cpp`)

- `VirtualProtect` hook: when the mirror page is made writable, the mirror is
  rewritten from the current hero first. Checks then compare the hero with
  itself; writers overwrite it as before. The game's control flow is
  unchanged (skipping the inline checks would not be safe: code after some of
  them uses registers they set).
- Patches: the stream checks' jumps past the punishment are unconditional;
  loadHero never sets the cheater flag (a flagged character is clean after its
  next save).

Confirmed by the user 2026-10-25 (attributes fine, no more exploding).