Self-compiled server binaries

[MasterKaen]

I want to tweak the source a bit on my servers to integrate it into my www server. I've read (in this post) that self-compiled server binaries lose ACAC (closed source cheat protection). Flowtron seems to be the most reliable of sources on this matter, but I have some additional questions:

1. Is the ACAC considered essential on high-quality servers?
2. Can lack of ACAC be mitigated via diligent wielding of the banhammer and community blacklists?
3. Why isn't ACAC just distributed as a dynamic library?

Thanks all for your replies.

[jamz]

1. Is the ACAC considered essential on high-quality servers?

Absolutely not

2. Can lack of ACAC be mitigated via diligent wielding of the banhammer and community blacklists?

Not entirely, but as good as. The ACAC was designed primarily to remove the blatantly obvious cheats that most experienced players would spot within a couple of seconds. Some cheats, that might be missed by a good admin for a couple of minutes, are very well detected by the ACAC. Likewise there are some obvious cheats that are currently missed by ACAC.

3. Why isn't ACAC just distributed as a dynamic library?

It's a plan for the future.

[Ronald_Reagan]

The developer for ACAC is constantly busy, so it hasn't undergone too much development afaik.