Another idea I just had is to have part of the hardcoded game query the client machine's MAC address and submit it as part of the profile. MAC addresses are slightly harder and more dangerous to change, so that may be an effective tool in assisting bans.
Don't talk out of your ass if you have no clue what you're saying. Not only is this a bad idea because MAC addresses can be trivially changed, the game is also open source and it would also be trivial to change the code to send any arbitrary address.
1) While MAC addresses CAN be changed semi-easily, they are not as easy to change as IP or GUID. As you said, it involves a registry hack and rebooting, which is more complicated than deleting a file or typing two commands in a terminal. Also, and I'm not sure if this applies to all ISPs, but I know from experience that mine used to deactivate the internet when the primary connection MAC address changed. I say used to because I now have a router, which has a constant MAC address. Every time a new desktop would be wired up, we would have to call the ISP to inform them of the change. So, while it may be easy to change, MAC addresses are generally more stable and thus easier to ban than IPs or GUIDs.
2) Yes, the game is open-source. Yes, as such, it is simple to edit/remove code related to the MAC address query. However, by extension, it would also be possible to make alien hitboxes three times larger. Why doesn't everyone do this and get away with it?
a) It's coding related, which a lot of casual players are not comfortable/savvy with. Even if you find a tutorial online, it involves working with code. A considerable number of people are turned away by that alone.
b) Pure servers. All official servers, by my understanding, are pure. That means they check for altered content in critical game files. This is how servers prevent clients from using huge hitboxes or modified credit systems and the like. The connection could be refused simply because of modified code, i.e. modified/spoofed MAC address query code.
While my idea involving MAC addresses is no certain fix, it does add an additional level of sophistication to the security/effectiveness of bans. Changing your name takes a few seconds in-game, no big deal, obviously longer if you decide to change it in your autogen.cfg. Changing your IP takes thirty seconds and basic knowledge of using a command prompt/terminal. Changing your GUID takes thirty seconds and finding the right file to delete in the right place. Changing your MAC can easily take five minutes, between registry editing and rebooting.
Basically, it is a bigger hassle to change a MAC address and thus changing it to avoid a ban is more work than most people would want to go through.
Then again, an account system could solve most problems. Official servers would require users to be logged in. The account would be universal and linked to both the website and the game. It could also prevent siblings or users of public/shared computers from getting each other banned from servers. Accounts would be set up basically the same as my profile idea and the forum system.
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