When I found out about the hex edit, it was before the last season of SO5 as far as im aware, which I was not involved in, finding the edit had nothing to do with me not entering the league. I found the edit just messing about surprisingly easy using a compare tool. I was getting into Assembly language and working with Ollydbg which lead into hex among other things, decided to have a look at the horse files and mess about.

The horse with the time at different distances had to be edited each time to run a different distance.

I didnt want to put it on the forum during a league season I was not involved in but I sent this email to Leon the same day I discovered, including an edited file that I requested Mark run through the checks to see if anything came up and if so, to get it sorted.

8/1/14

"Hi Leon, that horse I posted on the forum IS unbelievable, its actually an edited file, was just posting for a laugh but obviously I have no intentions of trying to upload it, I wont be back in the league until SO6. I have been messing about with Assembly code and that lead into binary/hex and remembering the stuff about hex editing on the forums I decided to have a look to see if I could change anything in the horse files today. Im very basic with this stuff but I managed to come across a byte that is setting the horses stamina/speed, it doesnt appear to be affecting the horses overall ability but it means if someone had 5 good horses at 1 distance, they could easily turn that into 5 good horses at 5 different distances.

Im sure it will probably show up in the security check, but I was a bit surprised as I seen a few posts on the forum saying that you cant edit the files anymore.

I have attached a file of a horse I have changed from middle distance to a sprinter, can you run it through the checks to see if anything shows up, and if not then give Mark a shout. Id be surprised if it was that easy.

Cheers

Joe"

Reply

"Hi Joe

Thanks Joe. We should be able to pick it up but will get Mark to check just in case. We did run a few checks last season on some of the top horses but nothing cropped up. Will run a few this season again just in case.

Leon"

I'd like to thank u for bringing it to Everyone's attention.

No problem Ghostzapper, I just assumed that as Leon never got back to me that it had shown up in the checks. Everyone needs to calm down as the email I received shows, these checks have been done on uploaded horses every season so its highly unlikely any cheating has been going on since the Australia thing was fixed. The assembly and hex stuff would be considered a pretty boring subject by the vast majority I think and the chances of someone else finding this cheat and using it is slim. I was trying to learn about reverse engineering and it was a long time spent on that before I even had the idea to look at a horse file, the chances of someone learning enough about that stuff just to attempt to cheat an online game, where chances are they would be caught, is even less likely.

So stop the outrage please!

It looks to me like this game is drifting away from the online side in SO6 sadly, seems a lot of the work has went into the graphics and i'll need to buy a new pc just to play it well! Had to be done anyway so what better time than for the new SO6. Would liked to have seen the breeding engine improved, if thats even possible, and some more features added to help league players, skip to end of season maybe. Apparently the CK wont be available right away? Be interesting to see how it plays out, switching to 3d graphics is good but for hardcore league players I think once the novelty wears off we will be left with SO5 without the tab skip, although that will take a while and I know the game will be worth £20.

Doc how do I get in touch with u I'd like a word as everyone wants to keep u quiet.

Is that a threat?

I am sick and tired of coming onto this forum and having bullying muppets who thinks when people disagree, they attack people. The reason I did not do the online leagues is because of the suspected cheating of horses and money in the game.

I applaud Mark to stop this happening and I applaud the Opening post.

What threat ?????

I've been in the league for the last three season's and Doc's said certain things that interest me, like he made a Feat Ping reference yesterday and I'd like to know more about it. I was going to ask a question to him but it got locked so I would like to know what he knows. If u don't ask questions then u will never know the answers.

I don't see any threat there and i have known John for a few years here on the forum and that
definitely is not in his nature.

Some of the Revelations released over the last week people are bound to have questions

BUT Can we not mention any accusations that members have said about other members its just going to glorify
the situation and start another major row think we have seen enough of that last week

oz1235 Bullying is not tolerated on this forum i am sorry you think it is

I have been a participant in the league for the past 3 seasons and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge actually i have loved it
i hope you will consider trying it in the future and as you say Mark has plans to secure the whole thing up
it really is rewarding when you get that winner.

I do agree some of the things on the forum recently have not been good but i think people are just
putting over there concerns hopefully things will calm down now

I just don't like the constant drop and little niggling things being said and left in the air for john and othersf thinking what does Doc know Doc seems to have been busy in finding out about editing horse files Doc if you know something just say it why would you say ask matt about Feat Ping are you suggesting that feat Ping was a edited horse because that's what you are implying and where is the evidence for this I am sure other trainers like myself and john would like to see it.

Gray

I dont know anything, was just trying to wind keith up. But when I found this out and seen how good you can make a 2m4 horse I immediately thought of Feat Ping, as handicapper I had the horse files and I ran races with pacemakers and Feat Ping was so much better than anyone elses stayers in a true race, maybe he was just that good.

Horse on left is the edited file, horse on right is the original, that is the byte that changes, lower the hex the more speed, you can make horses so fast they dont stay 5 furlongs and so much stamina they are off their feet over 2m4. The orignal was 1m4 horse the edited one is now a sprinter.



I dont know how software could pick that up to be honest, file same size, only one byte changed.

I just want to clear up that Doc isn't being silenced in any way shape or form. I closed the initial thread because it was just going around in circles, and then another moderator closed the more recent thread to stop it spiralling out of control again.

I have absolutely no problem with Doc sharing his findings on the forum, it can only help shed some light on the situation in regards to the future. As I said in a previous post on the forum the horse files are currently with Mark, and awaiting him to run through them and I'm sure if anything has been edited by whoever it will be picked up and dealt with in the correct manner.

Well for me if Doc enters a league in SO6 i will not
I cant stand cheating its just a game not real

I found an exploit and reported it to the league president the same day I found it when I could have tried to use it myself if I was a cheat. I dont think anyone else can do anything to prove more that they are not a cheat....

So yeah, makes sense you not playing if I enter.

And I will be entering just so you know.

If I had posted this on the forum at the time a couple of weeks before a league was due to start it would have caused mayhem, so I just emailed Leon. Way I see it, I done the right thing, would have been better if I found it a lot earlier but its not like I was looking for it, it took me about 20 minutes to find when I decided to look at the horse files, never entered my mind to try and cheat, just to have my fun with distance freak and then to tell leon about the exploit.

No security ever improves unless people break it, looks like it will be irrelevant anyway as there will be no more horse files.

Good saves me money then

happy to help

U have not helped anyone have ya
When SO6 league comes along if it ever does
someone has good horse then they will say he is cheating in some way

If i was president i would ban u from the League but im not so is up to Mark to rid of u