Cheating

[MrAnza]

I think I saw a cheater on AH tonight. This guy was a knight and flew 190. He seemed very stable when he engaged me from 6 oclock. After a few manouvers I managed to get on his 6. Then came a major warp, lasted about 10 seconds and he appeared on my high 6. Again some manouvering, and after a while he warped again. I saw his plane warping (sliding that way) below me and simultaneously I heard a lot of pings and got killed in a nanosecond. He got a kill, but was nameless!
HOST: #1 shot down MrAnza appeared. I asked who killed me  no answer. I checked roster, 4 rooks, but i could only count three names when I checked the list. He left very soon after that.
I've seen warping and been shot down by better pilots many times, but haven't experienced this before. I don't think this all can be bad connect or coincidence, and needs considering. I just hope this great game won't be ruined by those low morale cheaters  

MrAnza...

[CombatWombat]

Think that was me.  Actually you killed me more than I got you...
Anyways....
We were fighting somewhere over 19 if i remember correctly.  On my side it appeared like I had a firing solution, shot, and your plane starting flipping around.  I knew the looks of that.  Wasn't till a few minutes later I got the elusive "Host connection lost".  

It was a dump, one at a bad time mind you, but a dump just the same.  I think we as a community have to be a bit more relaxed before we yell "Cheater!"  Especially in beta, when wierd server things are not uncommon.  Hell...wierd server things are still common in full products.  

[-kier-]

Kudos CW for stepping right in there to quell that. That was very upright of you!

I got dumped last night as well, though not under the circumstances you described. At least I had clearly won the fight and was on open congratulating Taco when it happened.

Things will be weird for a while, and other than the Alt-F4 thing, we should not really expect we are dealing with hackers and cheaters. Assume the best!  

[Fishu]

"weird" warps are not common to beta or server, those are common for them who have poor connection which is losing packets.

So, actually it was bit of your fault, cwombat, because you did still play with poor connection which made plane warp..

Poor connection is usually problem of player, not of server, if everyone else has connections ok.

Can hardly say connection problem as cheating, but its advisable to not play when connection really isn't even close to playable.
..you can find out ping times to server in ms-dos prompt by giving command:
ping -t beta.hitechcreations.com
(CTRL-C will break pinging)
if theres those ping timeouts / packet losses alot, its real bad connection  

[Downtown]

HTC STill hasn't got their T1s?

I know that there have been a lot of Alt F4rs out there.

The Code where a plane just dissapear when you get the kill is a bit of a shock though.

I hate to say it, but I like in WB when the ICON goes white, and the Plane continues to fall from the sky.

This dissapearing plane thing is very distracting.

I know a cheat where you can cause what I call the 12 to 6 cheat, and I won't share it, and I won't do it.  I can tell you that it sounds and looks a lot like what MrAnza Described.

There is also a way to control your beacon, and it can happen inadvertently, espeially if you have a background program like RW or ICQ running.

The only one I am sure is being used, is the ALT F4 cheat.

Generally speaking, If I get a few pings on a plane, and he dissapears within a second, and I don't get a kill I put it down to Alt F4.

I guess that it is statistically possible for someone to disco right after I shoot at them, but I would say the statistic are leaning towards a lot of Alt F4rs, not poor connections.

If HT or Pyro check in, perhaps they could info on us on the number or frequency of Discos.

I live in South East Michigan, and discoed once this weekend.

Had pretty good green beacons in the 4 or 5 hours I got online in AH.

Perhaps I am too jaded about cheating, I think I have seen quite a bit of it.

I wish I hadn't seen any.

Just closing and being a bit childish.

Cheater SUCK!!!!!!

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"I could feel the 20MM Cannon impacting behind me so I made myself small behind the pilot armor" Charlie Bond AVG
lkbrown1@tir.com
 http://www.tir.com/~lkbrown1
Very Opinionated Person.

[CombatWombat]

Fishu just came out of right field with this warp business.  I'm not sure how he was involved in this, but since he's here lemmi attempt (once again) to clarify.

I entered the fight with an energy ADVANTAGE.  From the appearance of things on my end it looked to be going well for ME.  I heard ZERO pings.  My first warning the connection was sour MrAnza's 190 spinning as it moved along.  I peppered it, and moved right along, figuring one of us had gotten booted.  Wasn't till a couple minutes later that I got the "Host connection Lost" message.  Up until the point of connection loss, I saw ZERO warps.  Everything looked downright peachy.  

I WAS having bad connects last week.  I got it resolved, and have been flying for about 4 days without problems or complaints.  The fact that it was a complete disco and not warps leads me to beleive it was a fluke.  If it continues, i'll look into it.  Until then might I suggest you keep yer Fishu-ish nose where it belongs.

[Minotaur]

Cheating vs Testing?

Isn't part of Beta trying to break the software engine or find weak spots in the server?  

Part of this process might very well be someone testing a cheat they have found.  I don't generally worry about it, not saying that is not frustrating.

Although, many times I see a plane I'm ready to shoot start to wobbly quickly, then rapidly lose altitude or stop in mid air.  Spinning out is a very viable escape technique, while any other method is not.  But, they just must be Beta testing.  

Disco's often can't be helped, but a Real  Weiner is the Alt-F4 Maggot.  That is no way to play.

Mino

[Dinger]

Recall, it is a beta with plenty of other things going on as well.
As for lousy conx, I've been on with a connection that I knew was terrible.  I would type things into the radio buffer, and they wouldn't come back -- clearly I wasn't getting through.  But the beacon was strangely green.
Now, with the perspective in this game, unless you're really close to someone, all you see is a dot.  Beacon warpage can at times be difficult to pick up.
Sure, if your connection is lousy, you shouldn't be playing.  This is obvious; it's not fun for anybody.  But if you run into a netstorm, it can take time to figure that out; and as addicts going for our drug, we like to be optimistic.
Moreover, this is a beta and there are plenty of other things that can happen with regards to shootdowns:
A. the unfinished ground model allows for some interesting landings.  A couple days ago, I de-tailed a spit, and left him there to spin.  I watched as he went all the way in, hit the ground and walked away (Hey HTC: now's the time to code forcedowns as kills).  It happened to me too once in a spit -- I bounced around alot, but survived.
B. Some kills just aren't awarded.  Yesterday I was bingo fuel and 0 ord in a '17 with a gunner on board, when I spotted a NOE b17 heading to our airbase.  Answering my calling as an ackstar dweeb, I proceeded to bounce in on his high six.  This was suicide.  I bailed, and noticed that we'd gotten a wing off of the enemy buff.  My gunner got a kill, but the kill of our A/C did not cross the buffer.
So, strange things are afoot.
Of course, the ol' "packet squeeze" is a well-known cheat, and in a free-play environment such as AH beta, I wouldn't be surprised to encounter it.

[Swager]

Last Nite was very strange!  I was on flying for Knights and I got disco'ed once.  Seen many a disappearing acts. Does this mean the  person disco'ed?

Seen some major warping last nite also.  I was flying some with CW.

Are disco's and warps more common while you are furballing?  You know, as people are putting in more inputs?  I was able to sneek up on a 109 last nite, no warping, just perfect.  I shot, hit, and overshot.  Once the turning fight began this plane started to major warp and disappearing (CW this was the plane I jumped while you stayed high covering me).  

Sometimes I wonder if I am warping bad, but others don't seem to have a problem shooting me down.

Just a strange nite!

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Damn Ghostrider!  This bogey is all over me!!

[CombatWombat]

All have to second that motion!  Strange nite indeed.  Was kinda funny in a way.  I counted around 12 different people complaining "Spit A, you are lagged" "109 B, you are an warping all over!"
It continued...and despite what seemed to be everyone on the server lagging, people started yelling "You alt+f4ing dweeb!"
Was wierd....  There were 80 or so people online at the time, and they're all ALt+F4 dweebs?  Give it a break people.