[Magisk] Older Fogie:
My group and I are faced with a GPS spoofing issue, and I am looking for some additional information and guidance.

The apps in question are simple text-based trivia games. Because they originated back in the Eighties; it has a legacy system of tablets communicating with a PC at specified establishments along side a more modern

smartphone app communicating with a central server. Because the game's economic model depends solely on the establishments paying to have the game (there are no individual subscriptions), you are supposed to be inside the establishment to play the game, even though the remaining establishments are few and far between these days.

The phone apps requires location services and Google Location Accuracy to be on to start, though it doesn't

seem to care if Wifi and Bluetooth scanning are on or off. A simple GPS spoofing program using mock location (Fake GPS by Lexa) has worked fine on the app, with the devices using them generally being older unrooted Samsung Galaxy Tabs A, S2 and S3 running unofficial versions of LineageOS providing Android 10-12, used solely for this purpose.

Recently, the game producers came up with a new game app in which the usual GPS spoofing no longer works; the game says there is an error in determining the location of the device. Some new code has been introduced, and I anticipate this code will soon be incorporated into their older games. I would like to do something to counteract that.

Based on what I know, it seems that the new code is either 1) inquiring as to whether mock location is being used and providing an error reading if it is or 2) more competently using fused location to determine contradictions between the spoofed GPS and other means of location. Are there any other possibilities?

Again, based on what I know, there seems to be two sets of options: 1) Root the devices and then use either Storage Isolation/Smali Patcher or LSposed etc. (I'm aware of the OS limitations) to install code that would hide the Mock Location indicator or more or 2) Use a tethered GPS overrider rather than a GPS spoofing app. Are there others?

Questions:

Based on the observed behavior, is there a likely culprit?

If the older game apps require that Google Location Accuracy be turned on to begin. why does they not appear to see the contradiction between GPS and other information? I could understand that if WiFi and Bluetooth scanning were turned off, but it doesn't seem to make any difference here. How big a factor is IP address likely to be?

The guides to using Smali/LSposed recommend specific programs with joysticks and the ability to rename the program. These features appear to be Pokemon/Niantic specific. There is no movement in these games, so there is no need for a joystick in this game, and it is very unlikely the app writers will be scanning for the names of installed apps. Would using the Lexa program work as well for these apps once mock location is hidden?

Finally, just what do the tethered GPS overriders do? How are they different from the GPS spoofers? Under what circumstances are they better or necessary?

Any help would be very much appreciated, as would links to informational material or more appropriate places to ask these questions. Thanks!