A Stance on Scanners
by Armin
13 August 1999

Or: why let a stupid program do a job badly that you can do yourself
much better - and learn to be a better player underway.

Or even shorter: Why "a fool with a tool is still a fool." (Bostic)

About once per page of the recent Diablo Strategy Forum you'll find a
post like "Where can I get a scanner", "I'm sick of cheaters and PK's
I need help!", "I need a scanner badly" etc., etc. And you'll usually
find the forum old timers (the so called "regulars") answering in what
could be summed up in a sentence: Scanners are useless, get some
knowledge and common sense instead.

Why you ask? Don't people want to help newbies? Don't the arrogant old
bastards see the needs of them?

In my own most honest opinion:
Because the above sentence couldn't be more true. In fact, in my
humble opinion, I'd even go as far as to say: scanners have done MUCH
more harm on Battle.net than some of the more harmless other hacks.

I'll try to explain in detail, once and for all, for further
reference...

What are "scanners"?

A so called "scanner" is a program that reads information out of the
memory of Diablo while it's running. It reads the stats and inventory
of all players in the game, and can display it on screen, or compare
it to a list with common dupes and hacks and give a comment on
legitimacy of the character scanned. There are two main problems with
that already:

Scanners are cheats.

By plain definition, a scanner is a third party program that
interferes with the running Diablo program. It also lets you have
information about other people's characters that you were not supposed
to have. Knowing another player's stats and equipment can be a VERY
unfair advantage in a duel, and I won't even dwell on the uses of that
info for PKing scum... If you want to call yourself "legit" or "pure"
or whatever - use of a scanner should be out of the question. You
can't avoid cheaters by cheating, can you? ;)

Scanners may give false info.

Most programs I tried were... well... mediocre at best. Their lists of
common hacks and dupes inaccurate, their tables of possible items
incomplete or out of date and the conclusions simply WRONG. Just
because some program, written by a guy who doesn't necessarily know
anything about Diablo, says someone is legit or cheating doesn't make
it the TRUTH in ANY way. In fact, even the very best program I tried
showed a Stormshield as a hack (it was the gothic version, I guess the
table listed only the tower version's stats) and some other minor
glitches... Dupes can only be detected if either two of them are in
the same game, or if the one in question matches the id byte of one of
the common ones in the scanner's list file (which may or may not be
worth a dime...).

Note: an item's seed code (the number from which the game recreates
the items at each start of a new game) contains this "id byte", a
number between 0 and 255. Even items with identical stats differ in
this byte, so two identical uniques, for instance, can exist in the
same game and are NOT detected as dupes by Diablo's own detection
routine. However, the chance for two legit items, found in different
games or different spots, with the same stats to have matching bytes
is 1 in 256. With 20+ big Mana potions (of course they have identical
stats ;) in backpack, the chance that two of them match isn't THAT
uncommon. Yet foolish people keep insulting fellow players because
some silly scanner shows two healing potions as dupes...

Sheer ignorance. Yet spoiled another game.

The next problem comes immediately after:
The scanner can't detect things running on the OTHER players' comps.
It reads YOUR Diablo memory and extracts the stats the way they are
sent to YOUR computer. Hacks/trainers running in the background of the
other player's comp CANNOT be detected. Godmode, autokill, in game
nukes... basically ALL the really malignant hacks one can have running
are impossible to detect. So, even if all the stats and items you look
at appear as white as snow, it's impossible to be sure. Actually, if I
were a cheating PK with half a brain, I'd use a scanner MYSELF to make
sure that my character will show up as "legit"... And THEN
autokill/res you a couple dozen times... The really sad thing is: if
you had spent the time alt-tabbing out, starting the scanner, getting
and reading the results and alt-tabbing back in with simply chatting a
lil' bit with the folks you intend to play with, chances are you might
have gotten a MUCH better clue.

Which brings us to the real problem:
that scanners have turned B.net into a bickering, paranoid,
namecalling crowd of ignorant would-be legits that trust some silly
computer program more than their own wits and let them ruin the game
for them just as silly hacks do.

It is the rule rather than the exception that a legit player who KNOWS
something about the game will be called a cheater by some scanning
fool.
"You are using some obsidian (or zodiac/heavens/tiger/mammoth - insert
powerful enchantment of choice) stuff, you must be cheating"
"No one can survive in hell with that equipment, you must be cheating"
"Everyone knows that dreamflange is a HACK..."
and so on and so on...

The REAL problem is: those folks have stopped learning anything about
the game the second they hit the download button. It is NEVER wise to
let a program do your thinking. In Diablo, it's madness.

There is a complete and accurate list of possible items around. It's
called "Jarulf's Guide to Diablo and Hellfire", it's free, complete,
accurate and can even be accessed by hitting the "strategy" button on
the left of the Diablo Strategy Forum. It can tell anyone ALL the
possible items, the possible combinations, where to find them, and
what they REALLY do.

Read Jarulf's Guide, Freshman Diablo and the Diablo Strategy Forum...
YOU will be the best scanner around! You won't only recognize silly
hacks like dreamflange rings, helms or armor - as a nice side effect
you might also realize why the legit form (the mace, by the way ;) is
the most sought after item by sorcerers (and even the other classes at
times...) anywhere. And you might even understand how such items are
generated by the game and why Dreamflange is a rather common find...
You'll realize that "of the zodiac" is an existing suffix, but that
only three base monsters (Soul Burners, Advocates and Blood Knights)
and some bosses in hell can drop it. You might understand why obsidian
of the zodiac items are thus so incredibly rare, and that NO ONE who
was lucky enough to actually FIND one legitly would let it lie around
on town square or give it away to any random stranger. You'll know why
a Godly plate of the Whale can NEVER be created in ANY form by the
game... and maybe you'll even realize what mediocre piece of armor it
is, compared to much better things that can even exist legitly ;) And
endless more.

A good place to start getting all that knowledge and putting to good
use is Freshman Diablo. Everything in Battle.net 101 and Avoiding PKs
101 there remains true to the point. And everything there is 10 times
more useful than any silly 3rd party program ;)

In conclusion: a scanner gives a ton of information, that may or may
not be accurate and will not make ANY sense to someone who has no
knowledge about the game. The catch 22 here is: An experienced player
can use such a program to good effect, as he/she knows what to do with
all the info. I toyed around with DiabloSight a bit. Good for laughs.
But my judgment was at least as accurate... and much faster ;) BUT: if
you are experienced enough to put the info to any use, you don't NEED
the silly scanner anymore. Catch 22 ;)

A look at the other character's hitpoints (above 796 for warriors, 681
for rogues and 618 for sorcerers can ONLY be reached by cheating) and
their appearance (plate at level 3? ;), a little friendly chat, some
common sense and some knowledge. It doesn't take much.

If you're too lazy to do THAT, I hate to break it to you, but forget
about enjoying a game on B.net. 95% of people there cheat - there's no
easy way out. But investing some time in learning always pays.

No pain no gain, right? ;)

-Armin