# ANTI-HARASSMENT PATCH : Get rid of rotating vehicles in Old Athen and in Anarchy Online – AOPP upgrade
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Link to Athen Paladins forums: https://www.athenpaladins.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15632

Authors: Jim of Athen Paladins and thanks to Bullshot of AP for main testing, and to all testers – Based on the well-known “AOPP“, Anarchy Online Patch Project, by Xeropresence

Recently, some players decided to harass the Anarchy Online Community and spoil the fun of other players, disrupting their gameplay,  by creating big rotating vehicles (typically Hydro-vehicles) blocking the view in several places, like the Vanguards building ramp near Old Athen Grid terminal. By doing so, they also make difficult, sometimes impossible, for legit players to interact as they should be able to do, like trading or buffing. This is visual abuse and disrupting behavior.

FunCom’s support service has been informed of this severe issue by the way of petitions and messages. But before they can do anything, AO players must be given back their right to play the game without being harassed.

That’s why we are happy to introduce a very simple and easy-to-use anti-harassment patch, based on the well-known “AOPP“, Anarchy Online Patch Project (details below).


# WHAT THE PATCH IS – AND WHAT IT IS NOT

- This is NOT a cheat: it doesn’t affect the game and does NOT interfere with FC’s servers.
- It affects ONLY what you SEE on YOUR game client.
- DISRUPTIVE PLAYERS IN BIG VEHICLES WILL BE VISUALLY CHANGED TO NOT-ANNOYING SMALL LEETS ON YOUR SCREEN.
- It is ONLY VISUAL: nothing changes in the game itself.
- It makes no permanent change to your install of Anarchy Online.
- It can be installed or removed by JUST putting or deleting a file in your Anarchy Online main folder. No configuration required.
- It is based on the well-known and frequently used “AOPP“, Anarchy Online Patch Project by Xeropresence that “fixes various bugs and add quality of life improvements to the game”. (Original AOPP and description: https://github.com/xeropresence/AOPP)
- So this is technically our “fork” (variant) and upgrade of AOPP.
- If you already have AOPP installed, this will just upgrade it and you will keep all the features of AOPP you already know.
- If you do NOT have AOPP already installed, you will also get all the features of AOPP described in the link just above.


# HOW TO GET AND INSTALL THE PATCH

- It’s a simple as adding (or removing) a file, mswsock.dll, in your AO install.
- Download the compressed archive Zip file called aoantiharass.zip here (we keep it safe on our servers). Put it anywhere you want on your computer.
https://www.athenpaladins.org/aopatch/aoantiharass.zip
(SSL secured connection)
- Open the “aoantiharass.zip” Zip file. Windows file explorer can do it for you: just double-click aoantiharass.zip and you’ll see its content.
- The Zip file “aoantiharass.zip” contains:
	. README.txt: this is the text you are reading now
	. mswsock.dll: this is the file you’ll place in your Anarchy Online folder
- Close Anarchy Online completely
- Copy the mswsock.ddl file to your Anarchy Online install folder. This the directory where your anarchy.exe file is. If you have several installs of AO on your computer, copy it to each directory where you have an anarchy.exe.
- IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AOPP installed, you already have a mswsock.dll file. Replace the old one with the new one. You will keep all the features of AOPP you already had and you will get the anti-harassment new functions.


# HOW TO USE THE ANTI-HARASSMENT PATCH

- Launch AO normally.
On first launch, AOPP will create files in: %appdata%\AOPP
This is expected and normal.
- All the features of the regular AOPP are available: see https://github.com/xeropresence/AOPP
- Commands:
	/ban Targeted-Player : the selected character becomes visually a leet.
	/ban Player-Name : the named player becomes visually a leet.
	/ban clear : clears all bans.
Use /ban, not /ignore, for all the above.
This doesn’t replace /ignore: you still have to /ignore someone if you want to get no messages from this person.


# SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT MICROSOFT VISUAL C++

AOPP (and therefore this AOPP upgrade requires that your Windows have at least installed
MS Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2022 (also known as Visual C++ 14.40 and above)
- If your computer runs under Windows 10 and it was regularly updated, or if you run Windows 11, you normally have it, or even a more recent version. All good. No need to go further.
- To see your version, go to “Settings” on your Windows, then “Apps and features”, then type “Visual C” in the applications Search box.
- If you don’t have at least the version mentioned above, you can update your Windows. All the solutions below work for AOPP.
	. EITHER get the December 2025 update (full package of all versions) and READ the info on the page : https://www.techpowerup.com/download/visual-c-redistributable-runtime-package-all-in-one/
	. OR get just the version strictly required for AOPP :
	https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
	. OR get the very last version :
	https://aka.ms/vc14/vc_redist.x86.exe
If you don’t know what to pick, just get the December 2025 update and don’t forget to read the explanations on the page.

