how to spot cheaters

[rockrocks508]

There are many types of cheats but in online First Person Shooter games, we typically are on the look our for two types of cheats in general.

• Aimbots: An aimbot (sometimes called "auto-aim") is a type of computer game bot used in multiplayer first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of target acquisition assistance to the player.
  
• Wall hacks: Wallhacking allows a player to see through solid or opaque objects and/or manipulate or remove textures, to know in advance when an opponent is about to come into targeting range from an occluded area.
  

Catching cheaters is about experience and common sense IMHO. It is a little about understanding the game and what is or is not possible. You have to take into consideration as well that there are truly some talented players out there, who have been gaming for years! They constantly tweak and adjust their game play via software that generally comes with gaming hardware, or game configuration files that newcomers don’t take advantage of. So because you cannot get precise aiming, game strategy awareness, and high scores no matter how hard you try does not mean another player cant or is cheating.

It is at this point in my opinion that players turn to cheats, simply because they can’t improve their gaming, they can’t accept that there are better players then them, or have low self-esteems and are looking for recognition in a game, that they can’t otherwise get in the real world, some are just plain douche bags, then there are those who really think they are better than others with cheats and don’t see anything wrong with it at all these are the worse for me in general.

Alright enough with my little rant in-short I just want to say Play for Fun!

I want point out as well, that to really catch cheaters you need a decent pair of headphones, I can't even begin to count the times I been banned because of this one simple flaw in admins (I use Beats by Dre).

When attempting to identify a cheater you are looking at one or more of the following:

• Movement: How is the player moving around the map?
  
  • Do you notice the players looking through walls? I don’t mean standing at a corner and leaning! (thx mew ) I mean does the player seem to be looking through the middle of the walls as they are running or walking? Instead of ahead and aiming at areas where players might show up.
    
  • Do you notice them backing away from/avoiding areas where they might be over powered (after noticing the above). Sometimes you will see them running then just suddenly stop and head in a different direction, or they suddenly stop and hide for a kill and then you notice the following below.
    
  • Do you notice the players cross hairs following a player through the wall that just came around a corner?
    
  • Are they finding players in hidden places? (pay attention to sound for this, you can hear a player walk, switching weapons, firing at other players, jumping, from a very long distance away, IF you have good headphones).
     
    

  [*]Aiming: How is the players aim?

  • Do you notice that the players cross hairs are all over the place? Not steady and precise like a good players, but aiming towards the floors/sky but yet when an enemy shows up in front it’s steady and accurate at the players mainly around the head area?
    
  • Is the player’s cross hairs snapping/jumping towards enemies? You can typically see this action when they fight several players it will jump from one to the other similar to this video:
    
    
  • Do you notice that in fights the cross hairs usually jump to the same specific sections on a player (snapping to right/left/center of the head, then as described in A above).
    
  • Aimbots are becoming more difficult to detect as some no longer snap at players as show in the video in B. Instead they now have what is called humanized AIM. What this means is that the cheaters can control the way the cross hairs go to a user, the amount hits etc.. But if you use a little common sense, and apply some of the tips above you can still identify them.
     
    

  [*]Ratings (Accuracy, K/D): This one is a little naive as good players can get exceptional ratings, but if the above seems right, then how is this player playing against players?

  • How is he playing in comparison to known good players on the server?
    
  • How is his accuracy? head shot to kill ratio? in comparison to everyone else (Good players)?
     
    

  [*]Strategy (Personal Opinion): I think good players play the map with strategy in mind even if the point is to rack up as many kills as possible. They typically fall back on defense, camp known choke points/spawns, seek higher ground for surprised attacks, and plan their battles accordingly to be as effective as possible.

  [*]PB/GUID (Personal Opinion): When I find players that fit the criteria above, I check their PB aliases (pb_plist/pb_alist), this gives a date of when the GUID was first created, from my experience good/pro players have long standing GUID's. When I see players with a GUID less than one month old, it makes me wonder.

  [*]Engage the Enemy: This is new from the original post, but figured I would share some of my tips as well. When I am unsure whether a player is still cheating or not I try to talk to them (if language permits). I try to find out how long they have been playing the game, have they been part of any clans or scrim teams? what other aliases do they use etc.. basically I am trying to get and understanding of the player, from my experience I might sometimes ask about their settings, the configuration file they use etc.. basically I am trying to size up this person to know his history in ET and how well they understand the game. again from my experience it is nearly impossible to completely dominate veterans of this game. There is no way someone who has been playing this game for less than a year, and they are now PRO players.

Take A|G for example! I been playing with A|G for quite sometime now across various servers, you would not believe now just how much of a noob this guy was/is. But as of the past year or two he has been playing a lot of ETpro and scrims and has drastically improved his gaming (and shitty attitude I may add), but as you can see it takes time and dedication to really become a good player it just does not happen over night. He has more to go, as I still kill his ass and I don’t play ETpro

If I find a player that meets the above criteria, I do not feel uncomfortable issuing a ban, and posting the DEMO. My idea is that if after the above and the player is banned, he will come here and do an unban Request, we will look at the evidence, get to know the player, how long he has been playing etc.. (This does not mean Ban first ask questions later, that's not how we work).

If you feel uncertain about it all, then simply record the demo and post it in the Troubled Players section we will all review the demo, and make a community decision, this has worked great in the past, and the player can be banned regardless if on the server at the time or not.

I also recommend you go on Youtube and search for aimbots and wallhacks in et, I like to watch some of the "Busted" videos as it shows more accurately real players hiding/disguising their cheats.

[SunLight]

this text sounds familiar

[*Dream*]

this text sounds familiar

[slenderman]

Dream no offense but everytime I see your comment its just that emoticon with the 'I agree'

 

Also I googled it and this is legit, nice work with the topic rockrock

[SunLight]

http://fearless-assassins.com/wiki/index.php/W:ET_-_Spotting_Cheaters

[Aniky]

What i find odd is that most of the fail banning cases are done by un-experienced admins, meaning they never been playing on a decent level and have no clue what a person is able to do without any additional programs. I have seen so many bans, on me and my mates that used to play at past without any cheats, yet we got banned for "hacks", "wallhacks" and anything else u can image.

 

Pretty much when it comes to busting a guy who u think is hacking, its very good if u are actually skilled urself, so u can understand the game he is playing and realize if that could be done without hacks. Secondly, when i think that a player is cheating, normally i drop menu with /players and then /weaponstats and just do a quick check of his stats, which allows me to see his acc, kills/hs ratio and that normally tells me enough if a player is actually cheating or not.

 

Mostly the odd ones are wallhack cases where its really hard to prove that there's a person wallhacking, but normally i suspect a person using that program when i would hide somewhere behind the wall, without doing any noise or anyone seeing me and getting randomly killed by panzer for a case.

 

But as u mentioned, these days humanized are pretty much set to the point that it takes u really quite some time to spot a cheater, normally they aren't very smart and u can spot the mistakes good players wouldn't do.

[BossHK]

© BossHK 8/2010 (Edited dates/years etc. to match the year 2012)

 

Ok so this file is mostly for those people, who have acces to ban or kick people from server. I know that usually those people are just normal students or workers who like to be part of nice community and they like to play sometimes couple of hours at evenings. But they are not putting more effort to "learn" ET and usually they know people just from their community. And that's it. But when there comes "cheater" to their server, its time to consider either to kick or ban him/her.

 

And here I show up and I'm gonna share some of my experience here.

 

So, who I am to talk and teach you how to see difference between good player and cheater? Well, I have been "travelling" ET world (nerdy expression huh?) over 6 years, being part of different communities and played in many, many servers. Also I have been kicked and banned over 100 times, and on every ban case I have made an ban appeal. So I have got known many different kind of admins, good and bad, and different kind of players, skilled and less skilled, friendly and not so friendly, but what is most important here now, I have seen how and what they are thinking and what actions usually crosses the line that banhammer strikes. Well, reasons are quite obvious: Aimbotting suspicions start if player have good mouse controlling, its not so much about hs's, but about to track and switch targets fast. Wallhack suspicions start if player makes preshoots(and there is always, or almoust always, enemy) or if player just enters somewhere and starts suddenly to wait enemies and enemies come or if player seeks enemy from some abnormal place.

 

Usually banhammer strikes, because those admins haven't have time or interest to "learn" or get better at ET, so they can't completely understand what kind of players and skill levels even exist or what is possible to do. They compare that "new player who pwn everyone" to average player on that server. And if that new player is way above average player, usually it makes admins think that he must be a cheater, because some individual actions of good player might be very similar to cheaters actions (Wh<-->Sounds(+compass), Aimbot<-->doing hs's/tracking nicely/swapping from target to target).

 

Also I know how it feels when you think that you are a good player, but then someone just slaps you straight to the face by pwning you hard. So let me share a little story about me:

 

When I was noob(and I really mean noob) about 6-7 years ago, my life situation gave me a lot of time, and sadly(or NOT) I learned to play ET. I played sometimes 16h per day on public servers, tested things(different fovs, graphics etc), it was so exciting and fun and satisfying to see how I was improving. I felt I had potential, so I just played. I played and played.

Then on some day I noticed that I could make top frags on some maps sometimes. I felt pro. Untill some random pro came to that server and pwned shit out of me. I was stunned. First I though he was cheater, but something inside me said to me that he wasn't. And guess what? I still have that demo(I was recording because I though he was a cheater). He gave some tips, like "move dude" etc. because there were only very few players on server at that moment. And nowdays when I watch that demo, I see how noob I actually was :pp So, I got owned hard by random pro. After that night I knew I'm still far away from good player. So I just played, more and more. Little by little I got better, but it happened slowly because there was no one or nothing who should show me how to train or where to concentrate. And I didn't knew anything, because this was my first online fps game.

On some day I decided to try other servers too. I noticed I was pretty good there, it was a much bigger server than where I was played before. About that time I read something about mouses and different things about technical side of ET. Again after couple of years I got very excited, I learnt things and actually pretty soon I noticed how it was somehow easier to play, and now I concentrated again to improve my aim. Well, it got better and better, and I was pretty often highest fragger.

And there started my trip around public ET world. Later I went also to competitive side of ET.

 

 

So, now I will give some things that should make it easier to see difference between cheater and just good player:

----------

 

So when speccing someone and thinking he might be cheating, then always remember that line: Aim-movement-hearing-gamesense. It should be pretty balanced. So if someone is making much wh actions, check how he aims in generally(high acc, much hs?), and how he moves and how fast he make decisions(for example in fight, if he is getting much damage, can he make fast retreat ot taking cover fast etc?). Also how he is positioning, is he just running toward enemies or making some intelligent dodges or just wait enemies somewhere etc.

So to sum it up: Line should be in balance; aiming-movement-hearing-gamesense. (Though on BIG public servers there is no much usage for gamesense, maybe it should be aiming-movement-hearing/gamesense).

 

Also if player comes to forum to make ban appeal, and he can explain different moments nicely and exactly, not just like "I heard him from another side of map", and he is willing to show proofs etc, then there is pretty big chance that he is not a cheater. Though I need to knock on wood here, because the hardest cheater to spot is someone who is using wh skillfully, I mean he is pretty good player already, but is using wh too. Its almoust impossible to spot tbh. So player is already pretty good, knows how to play ET effectively etc, but is still using some kind of cheat. But luckily you can just ask his nicknames(if he is using others too) and go and ask from etpro community or asking around different forums/server in public world what they know about him. Because nowdays there is only very small chance that there pops out a new random player who have just started to play ET and is powning everyone.

 

 

Also I have here an example about humanized aimbot:

---------------------------------------------------

 

First before getting even started, download these 2 demos here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BLJYI6RX

 

*Put demos to jaymod--->demos -folder, then start ET, load Jaymod from Mods- tab and then open Replays -tab and choose demo you want to watch and then just click view. You need 2.60b version of ET to watch these demos*

 

*To see demos in lower timescale, u need to put NumLock off and then use buttons 8 5 2 at right side of your keyboard to change timescale*

 

Well, overall his moving is pretty shit, and his crosshair is moving pretty "fastsensitivitylike", like twitching around. But then when it comes to track enemies, he can track them perfectly, and he is doing that tracking by his mouse/aiming, not moving(like usually high sens players are aiming by movement, so they are not moving their mouse much, but they try to move same like enemy, so they can track them nicely). Also he couldn't hear enemies near him, again one mark that things are not matching(Aim-moving-brains/gamesense-hearing/sounds). Usually all of these are pretty much in balance, depending player skilllevel. But for example at this case, that duff guy aim was too good compared to his other abilities.

 

Then some individual moments:

 

Demo01:

 

11:58 He jumps to air and crosshair moves to enemy's head, but he is in air so spread is big so he can't hit enemy from air.

 

11:33 His aim is lost, but suddenly he swaps his aim to enemy and its appressed to it.

 

11:30 - 11:10 Very good moment to see that he is not good player but just using humanized. First that kill in stairs, very abnormal track, i mean crosshair is not moving normally. Then maybe most lol thing, enemy panzer shoots, and this Duff just keeps his aim on that panzer; as you can see, its just appressed to enemy, BUT he is standing and just spraying&praying and hitting nothing. How could a good player track enemy perfectly but not realising that you cant hit him if you are standing there like that. He should be crouching if he want to hit him. Then another very lol moment, enemy poisonknifes him, BUT hey "i'm the duff guy, i can still hit people by aiming 100miles away to wall, np4me". -.-

 

*Here I got totally bored to spot more moments, but lets see still couple more*

 

10:00 Basic humanized effect, when you give a little time for it(humanized bot), it(crosshair) will go to head. Easier to see with slowmotion.

 

9:20 Again perfect tracking, and nonsense standing and shooting...also when he swaps his aim off from enemy, and then enemy moves near that crosshair, crosshair first swaps to enemy and then away to direction of ammos&health. Easier to see with slowmotion again.

 

8:10 Perfect tracking

 

7:30 Random mouse swapping to body etc.

 

etc etc etc

 

I'm sure you will find more, but I got bored even now. On demo02 there is also couple of more clear botting and then just normal humanized working. If you want, you can spot some moments.

 

P.S. Yes, no mercy for cheaters, thats why you all know now that this guy is cheater, bad for him, but good for us, the clean players.

 

© BossHK 8/2010 (Edited dates/years etc. to match the year 2012)

 

 

 

I have no idea why I posted this, maybe because the guy who started the topic copy&pasted someone elses text, so I did it too(except I copy&pasted my own text).

Edited August 31, 2012 by BossHK

[docwarren]

Rock, Rock, Rock...... I had such high hopes for you. Don't worry, you're still one of my favorite regs on server. Forums..... that's a different story. Forum rule #1....... never post something as your own........ especially with a clan that has the best admins around.

 

 

[Novice]

 

@BossHK, good points, maybe you can add/merge this into the Wiki sometime.

[Wolf (Bl!ZZy)]

nice presentation 1+ every word is true. Especially that aimbotters cant accept that there is better players than them !

[Novice]

nice presentation 1+ every word is true. Especially that aimbotters cant accept that there is better players than them !

 

Also I googled it and this is legit, nice work with the topic rockrock

 

Thanks took me a while to make: http://fearless-assa...otting_Cheaters

Edited September 1, 2012 by Novice

[hobbit]

A|G is the worst possible example to use, kid was and is still crap at this game, even after almost 2 years of him nerding it 6 hours a day

[krAzy :)]

A|G improved his attitude? rly?

Edited September 1, 2012 by cTRL-krAzy

[Novice]

A|G improved his attitude? rly?

 

I meant it the other way around, he has attained a shitty attitude in the process.

 

A|G is the worst possible example to use, kid was and is still crap at this game, even after almost 2 years of him nerding it 6 hours a day

 

Oh come on, he is in your scrim team still no? LMAO

Edited September 1, 2012 by Novice

[goku]

A|G is the worst possible example to use, kid was and is still crap at this game, even after almost 2 years of him nerding it 6 hours a day

ahaha aha hobbit xD