Cheating

[jdp]

Ok, I am fairly new to AH, and admit that I only play in 8 player free mode, so I have little to complain about, but......can anyone tell me, is it possible to cheat in this game.  There have been several occasions that I have been shot down by an enemy that was nowerer to be seen or when an equal plane seemed to perform like an F-16.  For instance, earlier today I was flying a spit MK 9, and another guy in a spit was gaining on me in level flight, even though I had a light fuel load and emergency power engaged with the throttle wide open.  Now, I don't claim to be an expert at ACM or anywhere near very good at this game, but I am a real pilot, and it seems to me that there must be a few jokers around that have figured out how to hack the game and turn themselves invisible or make a piston perform like a turbine.  Am I nuts or is this a legit concern?

[T0J0]

Incoming!!!

[Ripsnort]

Alt-R.

Alt-R again when you're happy with the film.

Then send the film to HTC if you suspect cheating.

I can honestly say that I've never viewed anything as a cheat in 4 years of playing AH, with the exception of a few "modem-Experts" that like to go from 12 to 6 really fast...but those are far and few, and due to the ability of the users to film, you don't find these types of cheaters often as HTC deals with them quite swiftly.

Regards

[SirLoin]

I too have never seen a game hack in the years I've been here.There was a disapperaring plane bug that was fixed not too long ago,and sometimes when in the proximity of lots of planes,some funny things do happen..I once saw a PT boat take off a runway of a 7k base...It flew for a minute or so then turned into a P38.

[AKDejaVu]

In H2H, several things come into the picture.  If the host is running to small of a bandwidth, lag becomes an issue.  If the host has tampered with the arena settings, that too could become an issue.

H2H is not where you form hacking/cheating oppinions.  The MA is.  There's just too many variables in the H2H arena.

AKDejaVu

[vorticon]

thats because of a bug in the game if your ion there and you see noone but your getting shot down quit to desktop and go back in...

[muckmaw]

Is it possible that the enemy spit was diving from Alt and just had alot more E than you?

I know this sounds overly simplisitic, but I do not know how much experience you have in this game.

If this is insulting to you, please understand, it was not intended as such.

[Ack-Ack]

If you're not called a cheater, in my opinion you're doing something wrong.


ack-ack

[AtmkRstr]

There are some hacks. They are rare. If you get caught, you get banned for life.  AH has some protection against cheating. HTC can catch cheaters without anyone filming you. Film questionable people using alt-R and send it to HTC.  That means we're pretty safe from cheaters, especially compared to other online games.

[Vermillion]

Also was the other guy in a Spit XIV ?  If so it makes alot of sense.

[Ratbo]

Unlikely a cheat - most likely a bug or connect issue. HTC is both paranoid of cheaters (they can ruin a game) - and ruthless in dealing with them.  Cheaters are *very* rare.

-W

[Sixpence]

"I once saw a PT boat take off a runway of a 7k base...It flew for a minute or so then turned into a P38."

Lay off the purple micro-dot Sirloin;)

[humble]

Cheating is an unlikely situation...it does happen but as others have posted it is quite rare. Suprisingly the only real hacking I can recall involves bombing. In 1 case I saw 1st hand a fighter was level bombing like a buff (others were filming and I never heard of a repeat). The other is via the grapevine and involved a uberbomber...huge bombload + arado speed. Never saw clip but it was all over channel 1. H to H maybe different but online the arena's are well policed. So sign up and play with the big boys:)

[Grimm]

Most likely noone was cheating.  

sometimes you can misjudge the enemys energy state.   He probably had a good head of steam up before your engagement.  This happened to me the other day.

I was flying a FW190-D9  "Dora"   That is a pretty fast aircraft.  I was flying level and was at or near my max level flight speed.  I spotted a lower F4F Wildcat lower than me.   I elected to not engage him.  

He passed below me and pulled up into a loop and came on my tail about 500yrds behind me.   Well at first I was not too conserned, but then I noticed he was still closing on me.  

The Dora is much faster than the wildcat, but he probably had been in shallow dive before I spoted him and was probably near max controlable speed.   He looped over and still had enough speed to begine to close on me.  I evaded enough that my speed gained and I pulled away in the end.

Iv played long enough to know that sometimes things that might appear as cheats are probably something all together different.  

Another thing that will happen is being chased down by someone you think you can evade, and suddenly dead.   When its examined you find a second enemy you didnt know what there that got you from below while you were watching the higher guy.

Film your fights and you can review them.  You will find most of these things that seem like cheating are actualy a differnt situation.

[Innominate]

Half of cheating accusations can be chalked up to simply being out-flown, or not picking up on what your opponent was doing.
The other half is caused by weird lag problems.
Then there is the infinitesimal fraction of a percent that were actuallly doing something.

To a new pilot, what seems like cheating, is just a good pilot flying well.  Play long enough and you'll become one of them.