For the matter of false positives, you need to reread what you quoted. A Thinking Cap with 15 AC, (not durability, as you implied) is and will always be illegitimate. The AC on a TC can be 2-4, and nothing else. As for the matter of a duplicate potion, or a ring, for the potion, yes, there is the chance, and it's been observed by my scanner twice. I laugh about it and ignore it. As for false rings, it is HIGHLY doubtful that two of the exact same ring will drop. If I recall correctly, there are two hexidecimal bits, giving 256 outputs for a single item. With potions, this happens occasionally, sure. With rings? Say two Obsidian Zodiac. Obsid can be one of 10 different values, and Zodiac can be one of 5. This gives 5*10*256, or 12800 chances. Not to mention the rarity of actually finding one of such an item. If he has two of the exact same ring, I'm going to go ahead and trust my scanner.
The only false positives that I suspect are dupes added by DiabloGuard, as foolish as that may sound. This is actually from an experience I had today with a legitimate claiming that Triv. is a cheater himself, and manipulates the dupelist with an itemtheft program, and adds all other items used by legits encountered to the list. Judging from the dupelist which can be viewed on DiabloGuard, this wasn't very farfetched of an idea. There were items no cheater would ever be intelligent enough to wield, such as a Garnet shield of Brilliance or Obsidian Armor of Harmony (This one especially. How many LAW cheaters have you seen, ever?). While I'm doubtful to trust such shaky evidence, I do believe that this is a possibility, and the claiming of item numbers as legitimate in a forum would really only act as both a precaution and a deterrent to potential cheaters. Also, I like the idea of everyone starting fresh at the same time with a new character. Then in say a couple of weeks, you could have a duel tournament and it wouldn't be able who found the three Dragons/Wizardry jewels, but more about the challenge and ingenuity of players to work with non-idealistic setups. I would actually almost prefer a sort of ladder like D2 has, where players that level up are ranked accordingly. This would take a good deal of commitment from someone, though, and is a bit of a dying wish for a dying game.
While cheaters generally aren't the sort to be absolutely moronic, most are. The twinking of new players is just a small step of it. I'd guess that about 35-40% of the cheaters I encounter also have hacked stats, through the use of a trainer. These know full well what they are doing, and are worse than most.
Also, your point that some cheaters are not complete scum is proven by the fact that you can still play public games on Diablo 1. I was recently told separately by a couple of different people that by exploiting the code skillfully enough, a player can modify your character as well as his own and the environment. The programs to do so are supposedly private, which is logical, because they could as easily be turned on the creator as anyone else. Since I've played Diablo, I've maintained that this is impossible. However, I also recently had !~God~! be kind enough to show me Blood Knights on Level 1 of the dungeon. I don't know what to trust, anymore.
As for your mention of Diablo II, I refrain from playing it. Yes, I own it, yes, I prefer Diablo 1.
The only false positives that I suspect are dupes added by DiabloGuard, as foolish as that may sound. This is actually from an experience I had today with a legitimate claiming that Triv. is a cheater himself, and manipulates the dupelist with an itemtheft program, and adds all other items used by legits encountered to the list. Judging from the dupelist which can be viewed on DiabloGuard, this wasn't very farfetched of an idea. There were items no cheater would ever be intelligent enough to wield, such as a Garnet shield of Brilliance or Obsidian Armor of Harmony (This one especially. How many LAW cheaters have you seen, ever?). While I'm doubtful to trust such shaky evidence, I do believe that this is a possibility, and the claiming of item numbers as legitimate in a forum would really only act as both a precaution and a deterrent to potential cheaters. Also, I like the idea of everyone starting fresh at the same time with a new character. Then in say a couple of weeks, you could have a duel tournament and it wouldn't be able who found the three Dragons/Wizardry jewels, but more about the challenge and ingenuity of players to work with non-idealistic setups. I would actually almost prefer a sort of ladder like D2 has, where players that level up are ranked accordingly. This would take a good deal of commitment from someone, though, and is a bit of a dying wish for a dying game.
While cheaters generally aren't the sort to be absolutely moronic, most are. The twinking of new players is just a small step of it. I'd guess that about 35-40% of the cheaters I encounter also have hacked stats, through the use of a trainer. These know full well what they are doing, and are worse than most.
Also, your point that some cheaters are not complete scum is proven by the fact that you can still play public games on Diablo 1. I was recently told separately by a couple of different people that by exploiting the code skillfully enough, a player can modify your character as well as his own and the environment. The programs to do so are supposedly private, which is logical, because they could as easily be turned on the creator as anyone else. Since I've played Diablo, I've maintained that this is impossible. However, I also recently had !~God~! be kind enough to show me Blood Knights on Level 1 of the dungeon. I don't know what to trust, anymore.
As for your mention of Diablo II, I refrain from playing it. Yes, I own it, yes, I prefer Diablo 1.