( deutsch gibt es ganz viel weiter unten oder: http://www.ese-protect.de/homepage/page.php?id=27 )
Hello,

As we’re all aware with, there is much darkness and shadows overcastting the TO:AOT World.
To destroy and eliminate the pessimism amongst the community, here below are some brief, yet vague news to settle the worries.

The ESE-Team plans to make a Beta Release in June 2007 (Can I stress, plans… so give us some leeway if things don’t go as smoothly as intended!)


The Release Process
Nothing is going to be easy, it is a complicated and thoroughly thought out program which will require some many man hours of manual labour and tears from our behalf, and much cooperation and user support from the community to keep us thriving on for the good of this game.

The exact release process is not clear, but it will be broken down in to segments as to deal with 1 process initially before moving on and creating more issues in the long run. So expect more in-depth and detailed news posts up and coming on the road to an open, public-beta which will make the whole transition comprehendible.

Our reasons for the extra guidelines are imminent, which you’ll appreciate is a necessity;

- We want everyone to be up to scratch with what’s going on as to aid us in fewer hiccups being created.
- We want to avoid overloading our systems in the release period (each stage)
- It will be a means for us to see, with real time data how our system copes during ‘mass use’ on a large scale and make amendments along the way to provide a better service.
- At a last resort, if we work in stages – in the absolute worse case scenario, we’ll be able to revert back to the previous stage rather reset the whole movement.


An overview of the ESE Pieces
The below list a summary of the ESE Pieces that collate together to make our anti-cheat software package:

- ESE Player RegTool
- ESE Client
- ESE Clan Manager
- ESE Server
- ESE Game Server RegTool
- ESE Trust Server


ESE Player RegTool / Client
As mentioned above, our first ESE Piece up for release will be the Player RegTool. With this program, each individual gamer will register the following information:
Username
// This is a LoginID, a unique username which will be used to authenticate yourself for every ESE Piece. It has nothing to do with your in-game nick or our anti-fake system!

Playername
// This MUST be your in-game nickname, but without a clantag!

Some current beta testers have ignored all our help messages and suggestions and just don’t grasp the above concept!
Once you’ve registered successfully with ESE you can download and install the holy ESE Client – the cheat protection!

Important information:
Aside from the .u and .dll file(s) which will be created within your AOT System directory; there will be a very important ESEkeyfile.xml which is unique to every individual and should be immediately backed up externally!
This single file identifies you to our system when authenticating in-game, so should be kept personal and not distributed to friends/family.

If this file is lost or deleted, there is no way for it to be recovered DURING the beta release process, plus keyfiles are limited to individuals.
[Duration Period – Approx 1 week]


ESE Clan Manager
After the huge fluctuation of players signing up, we’ll move ahead and work towards assigning players to clans, with our ESE Clan Manager tool.

With this tool alone, it is possible for clan leaders to add players to their clan.
(If you’re not in a clan do not worry... you’ll still be allowed to play, please read on for more info)

Problems:
As you’re be aware, we’ll have players and clans legitimately registering and using our software as intended, but there will of course be the odd few ‘kiddys’ and clans trying to spoil it for the rest of us!
Unless we verify each CLAN registration, it would only take 1 person to clone a clan, pretending they are the leader and assigning players to a DkH tag for example.

For this extensive reason alone, every clan registration during the Beta Release Process will be activated by the ESE Team alone.




How will this work?
As for every process at the moment, the exact details are unclear, however we’d more than likely work along the lines of requiring each clan leader to write an email, with all their details and home page so we can manually prove they are who they state, so your site HP should contain relevant information for us to cross check (so PLEASE get updating, it will help us in the long run.. to inevitably help you all)

How does the Clan Manager system work and benefit the community?
After a clan has been registered by its leader and in turn approved & activated by the ESE Team, the Clan Manager will provide an anti-fake system in-game.

As briefly mentioned in the FAQ section, if the anti-fake feature is enabled server side (yes, this is optional) it will automatically assign the registered tag via the Clan Manager Tool to your playername in-game.

If a leader of a clan has not entered you in to their Clan Management utility you’ll be forced with .cl added to the end of your playername if the anti-fake facility is enabled.

Note:
As already highlighted earlier, do NOT register with a clantag when using the Player RegTool! Otherwise you will have a double clan-tag ‘ESE-ESE-aRny’ for example.

What if I wish to change my Playername?
During the whole Beta Release stages, we’ll have too much on our plate to deal with minor problems, one of which will be players wanting to change their registered in-game name (nickname). However in due course it will be possible for alterations and Full nick changes, and these will be logged in a player user ‘history’
[Duration Period – Approx 1 week]


ESE Servers
After all players are registered and recognised with our systems, we’ll then proceed to announce ‘x amount’ of ESE Servers for public use, so we can check for unknown bugs occurring, lag issues and authenticating problems (if any?!)

The limit of servers is essential for the ESE team to start off with, so we can monitor them carefully and be hands on and pro-active for arising issues and to ensure our Trust Server is working accordingly to design, without faults, crashes or hardware failures!
[Duration Period – Approx 1 week, possibly shorter]


ESE Game Server RegTool
Going on the assumption that things will of gone smoothly from one stage to the next up until now, we’ll release the Game Sever RegTool.

Serveradmins will be able to register and inform the ESE Trust server of their game servers, once you’ve gone through the necessary points, filling out the essential requirements, you’ll get an email with the ESE Server .U file (you will need to install this LIKE as a TOSTPiece) including your login details needed for your server to authenticate and be recognised by the TRUST system.

Note:
The ESE Team suggests that Game Server Providers (GSP’s) get their customers (clans) to register the server themselves, due to each key registration only allowing a maximum of 5 Servers authorised.
[Duration Period – Approx 1 week]


Final Phase
Once and if we make it this far, the ESE Beta release process is finished and we can all take a further 2 weeks off holiday to rest those migraines and enjoy the game, CHEAT FREE!


Additional Notes
It may seem somewhat disorienting and mind boggling at first, but for the majority of this community you’ll only have to concentrate on the ESE Player RegTool, as the other tools will be in the hands and responsibilities of your clan leader and server admin.

In the time schedule between the Player RegTool and Clan Manager registration releases, you may send us special ServerLogos and SoundFiles. We’ll do our up most to get the majority of them included in our White List management setup as to reduce players from being kicked for unknown file types.

We are in search for a Spanish Translator, as our current chap seems to have gone AWOL and enjoying the great weather upon us recently. If you’d like further information of what is required or wish to put yourself/friend forward then please email Kagome@ese-protect.de


ESE Personal Comments
The coders & beta testers are working day in and night as they have done for the past 2 months to make this transition mentally pain free as possible.

In case anyone is under the wrong impression, this is entirely funded by ourselves, from our own pocket and we’ve recently bought some shiny new and very much expensive hardware in preparation for this movement.

The ESE Team would like to thank those who’ve kept by us from start to finish; maintaining faith in our abilities and showing patience over the last 3 years. We hope those doubts and hearsay of ESE being just a myth are abolished completely!

If you have any questions, you can contact us here or on our own forums, or alternatively #ESE on QuakeNet

Regards,
ESE Team