Originally posted by MajIssue
1. The mission upped at a secure base far from any cons.
2. It was out of visual range of the shore when busted.
3. There was a friendly CV on the other side of the grid square (In between the main body and shore) also out of visual range of the mission.
4. ALL mission aircraft were below 200 ' MSL and beyond any shore based radar circles.
5. The aircraft that busted the mission flew directly through the CV radar coverage and corrected course toward the mission while beyond visual range TWICE.
AND
6. I personally encountered a pilot that was in the mission list later flying for the country that busted the mission.
My accusations are not baseless and this isn't the first time I've suspected spying. It is only the first time that spying has been so blatent and poorly executed.
In my experience, it happens most often when you run an NOE mission more than once with a lot of strangers - after two or three of them, invariably, one or more strangers leave the mission, then come back on the other side to bust it.
I've also met a few people who have admitted to me privately that they run two accounts - mainly to track enemy CVs - as to vector in and bomb them, but they will also bust NOE missions from time to time when they see 'em.
The trick is to never run NOE missions all night long - never do more than 1 or 2 in a row, and keep it to your squad preferably (public NOE missions are dangerous). Also, keep them short range if at all possible, and never hit the same place twice.
Doing NOE missions constantly, over great distances is a recipe for disaster (and great boredom).
So yeah, there is spying and there always will be - luckily, it's not widespread... I've learned to accept that it will happen from time to time (as it did in the war) so I live with it - and institute the above measures to counter it.
Also - you can have fun counter-busting the busters - go NOE with a bunch of 109s then pop (with WEP) as soon as you see a dar bar heading your way - the three or four dweebs coming out to bust you will soon get much more than they bargained for. I also found that cheatin types only cheat because they suck - skilled players don't need to waste their time with that BS to get kills - so when you do counter-bust them, it's great fun slaughtering them.
If you happen to be in a squad that loves capturing unmanned bases via NOE missions, your best bet is to stay out of the Late War arenas and stick to Early/Mid ones where there's less people (since your goal is to fight and capture inanimate objects, it makes no sense to do these missions in the popular arenas). A lot of good players will make fun of you, of course, but I'm of the opinion that people should play the game in whatever way entertains them (to each his own).
Will also finish by saying - 99% of the time you get busted, it was just bad luck - bona fide spies are a lot rarer than most people think.
Shamroc
