PenguinPlug for Starcraft

This page is an answer to the Frequently Asked Questions.

Question of the week : (i moved this question to #1 because i recieved 7 emails about it in 2 days)

There is a new maphack for 1.13, when will you add anti-hack ?

It's impossible. The old one was created specialy in a way that allowed to control it remotely and easily. The new one is different and probably doesnt allow remote-control.

So the short answer is: penguinplug wont integrate any remotely working anti-cheat for now, and there is no need to ask when, it's not even planed.

why is it important to read the borring documentation ?

PenguinPlug has been downloaded by more than 35000 different visitors, so if everyone ask me just 1 question (even if it doesnt seem a lot individualy), i wont have much freetime if i had to answer :) I like very much the interessant feedback, but please, read this and dont ask me something that i answered 10 or more times.

What is PenguinPlug

PenguinPlug is a program that provides features to get starcraft a little more interesting than it is already. The main features are :

Replay With Text
Anti cheat (against 1 particular maphack)
Unshift hotkey (allow users of azerty keyboard to use hotkeys without shift)

Legal questions

Is it allowed to use PenguinPlug with starcraft ?

Like any third party program (bwscanner, lasgo tools, RWA, apmlive), it is forbidden by the Blizzard EULA.

Will blizzard ban me ?

I dont know. I didnt heard about anyone beeing banned for using it, but i have seen many many maphackers, disconnecters, other cheaters that completely abuse on battle.net and they were not banned. PenguinPlug is the opposit of that, it try to disturb or prevents some cheats and provide additional features that doesnt modify the game balance. If you are already using BWScanner, then you are allready breaking Blizzard EULA, but it doesnt mean you are bad. Blizzard find no way to enforce their "games fairness" rules and nobody can do that without third party programs.

I heard that if a program doesnt write memory / modify the game code, then it's not a hack ?

It doesnt mean anything. You can do awfull things without writting the memory, like getting your enemy ressources, and it's theoricaly possible to invent a maphack that is just reading the unit positions and update the minimap just by reading the memory. On the opposit, even for simple things like detecting the game start, it will be much faster and cleaner to writte something to notice your program that the game is starting with an "event" than to only read the memory repetedly in a loop. Basicaly, IMHO, reading or writting, modifying or just spying, it's the same.

Unshifted hotkey give an unfair advantage ?

All users of qwerty keyboard can use the hotkey without shift and without any program like penguinplug. Users of french keyboards (azerty keyboards) cant press the hotkey directly without penguinplug, they have to press shift or CAPSLOCK before. To sum up, i would say that there's a disadventage in this Blizzard game that target 1 particular natitionalitay (in fact 2 : Belgium and France). Unshifted hotkey is an attempt to allow equaly skilled players to have the same chance to win.

Running PenguinPlug

How to install it ?

- Copy the 2 files "PenguinPlug.spl" and "PenguinLauncher.exe" in your starcraft directory. You need to know what is your starcraft directory, and if it's too complicated for you, then you shouldn't use PenguinPlug.
- Double clic PenguinLauncher.exe

I clic on the penguin icon and doesnt works ?

- check if you see the penguin icon in your system tray (near the windows clock in your taskbar) and check if there is any message when you start a game. If they are there, it's probly working
- check that you have the 2 files "PenguinPlug.spl" and "PenguinLauncher.exe" in your starcraft directory, the one that have "starcraft.exe" inside.
- check that you are using the lastest version
- read the readme.txt

PenguinPlug is loaded but commands are not working, it say "invalid command"

make sure you type them with the "\" character and not with the "/" character.

unshifted hotkey not working ?

Durring the game, type "\unshift on" as a message. Read the readme for other command help.

I dont like one of those feature: Anti-cheat, Replay with text, unshifted hotkey

You can enable/disable them with the command line, check the readme.

Does it work with my no CD crack ?

I dont know, it's your problem, i provide no support for this question. I dont have any opinion about this. However, Blizzard have some interest and opinion and are in a good place to decide, so my final decision is i'm not supporting or recommanding any use of no CD crack. I didnt made PenguinPlug specificaly to prevent those no-cd crack, but i will not make it easyer to use it with them. I had several reports that said it works on XP but dont ask me to help you about this.

Where is my starcraft directory ?

right clic the icon of starcraft and clic "propertys" you will have a textbox where it's written "target", followed by the name of the directory. If you think it's too complicated, then dont install PenguinPlug.

Any chance of you making this program usable on a mac ?

No, sorry... It would involve a lot of work, because the mac version is a completely different program compared to the pc version and PenguinPlug rely a lot on the way the binary file works. Even if it would be possible to reprogram everything, I dont have the hardware and the mac programming environement to do that.

Anti-cheat

I have some message about the replay geting corrupted, does it mean my enemy hacks ?

Not necessarily, in games with many players, it can corrupt without hacks. The part of responsability is written in the numbers, if you see 29/30 for example, the "suspicious player" is responsible for almost all the corruption, if it's below 50%, it's probably just the usual SC bugs and bad lucks and conditions.

What is bwac

It's "a complicated way to catch some cheaters". You should NOT use it if you dont know what it is. I suggest you read this article if you realy want to know more, but if you want to stay out of technical details, just ignore it.

RWT : replay with text

Does it record my enemy secret messages ?

Do you need PenguinPlug to see the text in RWT when you play them ?

Yes

Can the text be modified in RWT after they are recorded ?

With the new version, if you see the message "Integrity ok" at the beggining of the replay it means they have probably not been modified. In other cases they could have been modified, corrupted, or saved with the old version that doesnt save integrity informations.