I have some unfortunate news to share. I was approached by Riot back when I first released Ace, and we agreed to a call to discuss the future of Ace. During this call, which happened just a few hours ago, me and Riot agreed on some important points:
- A third-party program running with full permissions that can automatically update is a tad bit unsafe.
- All the features that Ace offers are either not really required (think of easy queue dodging, old IP/RP icons), or something that Riot might add later.
- There is no viable way to prove that Ace will never be malicious or otherwise compromised.
Keeping these points in mind, we came to the shared agreement that Ace can not continue existing. Unfortunate as it is, Riot simply cannot give potentially unsafe code their blessing, and keeping the safety of their users in mind, they'd rather that Ace not exist at all. While developing Ace, I had considered all of these points, and thus this verdict was not unexpected for me. Ultimately, I feel like Riot is doing the responsible thing here by ensuring the safety of the majority, even if it means sacrificing Ace.
However, Ace did not go unnoticed. During the call, Riot acknowledged that many of the tweaks currently available do enhance usability, and that some of the tweaks will potentially go into the new client. To potentially accelerate this process, I have agreed to visit Riot HQ somewhere in the near future. While we don't yet know the exact details of the trip, I might end up working for Riot on the new client, which would mean that I can do what Ace did, but only officially.
As of right now, the following is going to happen:
- I will push out a final update that disables all Ace plugins. If you are reading this from the changelog, it means that your Ace installation is now effectively the same as your normal installation.
- I will remove all code from the Github repository, leaving the issues intact for future reference.
- Riot will push out an update in 6.24 that will permanently disable Ace's method of injection, rendering it unworkable.
All of the 9319 users that ended up downloading either the Mac or Windows version of Ace, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You were all trusting (or dumb?) enough to install something that was made with the best intentions, but unfortunately had a little too much power.
So long and thanks for all of the fish,
- molenzwiebel.
P.S.
If you want to just enjoy the game that we all love, hit me up on League and we can play a game some time. I am available as Yahoo Answers on EUW.