Feedback: Another word on cheat tools

Ex 228, plays with SJR I think and also associated with NKVA.

 

And winner of the last 1v1 tournament in the heavy class.
By the way the B33f made a video of her games in that tourney and it seems he defended her when she was accused, so now he's the suspicious guy. Guilty by association, hurray! I According to his reddit posts he might "make a video about it", which I hope won't add to the shaming.
I definitely love the witch hunt flavour of those hack discussions, some people have absolutely no idea what human rights means.

Speaking of which, though I'm glad they're taking action against hackers, I'm displeased by two points of PGI's statement:
- alt-accounts bans: how can be positive they're the accounts of the cheater? In most cases they could as well be their little brothers or their first floor neighbours.
- no appeal procedure? All this "If you're not using a cheat tool, you have nothing to worry about!" is bullshit. As a principle, because it's the way to do it, there must be ways to appeal from a sanction. I personally don't enjoy potentially being under the sledge of a private justice without any way to defend myself at least a little (those who were faced with Youtube about a banned video know what I'm talking about).

 

Ex is being polite as I've exchanged frustrated words a few times with them in matches. Close friend of the B33f and was in their streaming group. He's been actively defending them but in fairness that could have been Moderatepudding's excuse that it was over an email that she was banned (aka she was lying to him). 228th encouraged people to send in evidence before the ban. Interesting that 228th wasn't one of the 2 units I ran into during the Tukk debacle with the uneering ability to headshot with lasers and inability to be surprised or ambushed. That said 228th were on the IS side so I never fought them.

This is coincidentally why I said I think PGI are going in the right direction and have hope for the future. If things turn out I'll be back once I've got over my burn out and new job.

 

you're all welcome

 

To be honest; Soy you do deserve some props here. This shit has been going on for a while now. Even back when I had the "inside track" to PGI there were whispers about it but no more so than that because nobody really wanted to address it. It wasn't until you put out a video and put some hefty light on it that the curtain began to roll back. You especially put PGI in the spotlight and they HAVE to address the issue now or be seen as punk bitches.

While I don't even really play MWO anymore I definitely give props where its due. Hopefully it isn't too late to save the franchis (shrugs).

 

Definitely a cumulation of things here. The hightened awareness via @Soy , the 1v1 tournament, etc.

If moderatepudding had NOT won the heavy bracket of the 1v1 tournament, or even participated, would we have still ended up where we are now? She drew a lot of attention onto herself by doing that, LIVE, viewed by a hundred people, defeating a few VERY good players.

I personally believe we would still be here based on the situation with 228th and other evidence being given to PGI, however the stream videos were definitely the focus of the community because it was all live, public, and easily accessible. Obviously the drawbacks from this entire situation is a rise in hackusation in-game and probably overall reports. Is that a good thing? idk. Could go either way with that.

meh, good residence, hopefully PGI DOES have tools that work as they claim and this is being resolved behind the scenes. @Soy you seemed rather assured this was the case and it really is the best any of us can hope.

Carry on, try not to read to much into it. I'm trying to keep playing the game without thinking cheats have any influence on my matches. And if they do and just aren't blatant, that PGI's "tools" will rout them out eventually.

 

Is there any links to the "cheater" stream that everyone is talking about?

All i really think of was watching throu some b33f more serious gameplay.

Spoiler

8 minutes we got from the b33fs point of view and then 11:30 from the spectators.
From the spectator view we can see they starting to group up at about 11.35 ingame time. 8:10 into the video we can see it from b33f point of view and she call out that they are definitely going to drop this a full 30 seconds before they actually do and they had just started forming up.

OFC this is from another persons view and some parts of it is cut to save the viewers some dead waiting time so cant really say i got all the information. But thats the best call iv ever seen someone make from seeing 1 stormcrow poking.

 

I compiled quick links to the twitch stream of the 1v1 tournament here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/OutreachHPG/comments/34nteo/mech_masters_event_1_results/cqwhlnu

 

I played with her one some solo drops during the event.
Starts with the usual gay/homo troll and goes on during all the match, won't be a big loss, cheater or not.

I'd also like some PGI guidelines about macros as well now, since there's the risk that you get banned using 3rd party tools, while they said so far that macros were ok.

 

Amuses me that some of the most prolific shit talkers who liked to rub peoples faces in are heavily in the spot light now. I ran into that particular group a few times and sarcastically mentioned the amazing way I was being tracked in my jenner one time - wherever I went and however round about a route I took they were ALWAYS facing me despite being out of seismic range and no UAV's. The second I said that the scorn they dropped on me was insane - accusations of being a noob, blind, incompetent, whiner, a sore loser etc. Now in fairness B33F wasn't there in that match and the vast majority of that unit I've met have been well mannered and professional. That said I'm feeling so smug now and I'm honest enough to admit it. The big problem is the collateral fallout - does anyone really trust B33F and his crew anymore?

We've all had times we think ... mmh but at times we need to be careful and I know I can be too quick to jump to conclusions when tired and frustrated. A few months back I was headshot twice in a day by a particular dual gauss equipped DWF pilot at around 900m... while in full avoidance mode ducking and diving ... in my Locust. Ok I admit I got a bit sarcastic congratulating him on his aim...

Other times I review fraps later on and have to be honest that I've got confused or mixed up people or just plain made a mistake. That happened last weekend where I mouthed off at a particular well known Atlas pilot though I didn't outright accuse him. On looking at the fraps I found it was another Atlas pilot not even in a unit. Might have to grovel and send him an apology mail on the main site. I was just utterly frustrated at yet again being head shot with lasers while in a light multiple times in a match.

 

The negative with this is the EXTREME shit show that's started with accusations and such being made. I mentioned this during my stream, but I honestly believe that 99.9% of the people who are "fucking hacking" in this game are, in fact, completely legit. Proton regularly wrecks my shit, I don't think he's full of it, I just acknowledge that he's probably better than I will ever be at the game. Lucky headshots and shit happen, after all.

There is a lot of shit flinging right now, but I'd bet that most of the people bearing the scarlet letter right now never see a "Banned - Cheater" tag on their profiles. Nor should they.

 

motorhead dont worry about macros you're fine

 

Guilt by association is going to be the route many take. I've already seen it on Reddit and I'm certain it won't be the last. Not being a fanboi or anything, I personally don't think TheB33f either knew about it let alone taken part in cheating. Many others have brought up that if PGI had the tools to detect pudding's hack that it would make sense they would have been able to detect from TheB33f as well. That's assuming a few things and trusting that such a tool actually exists. But, chances are, if they were both cheating they would have both been using the same software. Another good sign is that we are led to believe this was NOT just one person who was banned, but rather a wave of bans for this cheating tool. If that is truly the case, then there is even more weight on the theory that TheB33f would have been banned as his association DOES make him a prime target for such an investigation.

Whether we like it or not, or he likes it or not, this does leave a bad taste in people's mouths. However, it's up to us to move forward from this and trust in our PGI overlords.

My recent response to a hackusation against TheB33f:
http://www.reddit.com/r/mwo/comments/35rk6v/concerning_theb33f_moderatepudding/cr7g7ca

 

Personally I don't believe the cheat detect software exists. The process works like this; enough poeple complain that someone is cheating and PGI will flag that account as a warning. When the offending player logs on then a GM also logs in and sits in the cockpit watching the player play. If the GM sees fishy activity then poof you get nuked.

With an advanced cheating tool like what Soy showed in his video and with all its customization options how are you going to get detected? Unless you are hitting headshots 24/7 good luck.

Also pgi will do the minimum here to show they are on it but they won't muddy the waters too much. If 1/4 your player base gets banned it looks bad. REAL BAD and others go away because they no longer know who is cheating and who isn't. Its a snowball effect that they want to avoid.

 

one moment, let me just and pull this fraction out of my ass

 

Well in fairness anti-cheat tools are there to be bypassed as its an arms war. For all its reputation in certain quarters perhaps the best system is Fair Fight as its purely statistically based - it measures everything and is easily the best anti-wall hack measure our there. Did the player look at someone through a wall? Did their viewpoint follow that person? Did they prepare to fire before the target exited their cover? Where did they hit? How many times did they hit in one location? How many times did they headshot that day? etc etc etc. As far as I'm aware its all totally automated and designed to flag up suspicion. Of course its a system with certain problems and not cheap... It also needs time to gather data ergo why the comments about recent beta's actually being to gather initial data ready for launch on player averages. Don't get too caught up on my examples as I don't play those games so just have read some articles a while back.

World of tanks had an interesting approach as tank location isn't echoed to the game as such until a tank is detected so I understand its harder to wall ahck there. Not really my area of knowledge though in fairness but someone else might know more.

 

Is the fanboi in you mad I used a larger fraction? How about 1/25

 

The ultimate anti-wall-hack would be for the server not to send to the client what it's not supposed to render.
It seams easy say like this, but from what I understood such a system would induce more latency and stuff like that.