watch for lag when speccing

So the Beginner server is lagging again, enough that some European players appear to be aimbotting but are really just lagging.

What happens is that if someone has a ping over 200 (roughly), the game rendered on their computer is not the same as what you would see as a spectator. So it appears they may be hacking.

The idea (from the actual hacker viewpoint) is that a twitchy aimbot is too obvious, so this type of exploit lets the botter have an autoaim that doesn't move the crosshair over the other player visually. Instead it lets them hit the enemy without being directly on target. This is an old trick, and a real hacker will say "it's just lag".

Anyway, look at a player's ping before you accuse anyone of cheating. A lot of our Euro players have more lag and get accused more often.

The best way to tell the difference if you think someone is using this kind of exploit, instead of it being really just lag, is to take a video, and watch it in slow motion.

If you see someone shooting an enemy AHEAD of where the enemy is moving, then this is more often a genuine hack, but if it is always BEHIND the enemy, then it is lag.

The exception (you knew it was going to be complicated didn't you) is if they are using smoothclients or other antilag cvars, sometimes they will score hits ahead of the enemy player (out of the hitbox as seen by the spectator).

Some antilag cvars allow the server to predict for the player where the enemy will be to compensate for lag. Sometimes these predictions made by the server are inaccurate and a hit is scored outside of the hitbox.

ETPro was really bad at this, and you could get shot by an enemy shooting where you used to be. If you crouched behind a rock, you could still get headshotted where your head was 500 milliseconds ago. Or you could get shot around a wall a lot. Then all the hackers took advantage of this bug to make exploits. Jaymod has a better hitbox system than ETPro, so this is not so much of a temptation for people to exploit.

On Silent I will use forcecvar to disable all these antilag cvars on the client, so then these predictions will not be made. Then it is easier for admins to decide if someone is hacking.

I have altogether quit trying to spec people using venom. I cannot tell if is aimbot or not. Friedrich

Yep its pretty hard but its not easy ever to get the botters but thats are job to get them and remove them from the server

Friedrich wrote:I have altogether quit trying to spec people using venom. I cannot tell if is aimbot or not. Friedrich

Yeah that's the same problem we have with the shotgun too. I slowed it down about a month ago, for a week or so, and a lot of people complained that they liked it the way it was. So I set the rate of fire back up the way it was and the players were happy, as long as they are not on the receiving end of it.

I would call it a n00b tube, but a lot of really good players use it too since it is so overpowering. High rate of fire, huge projectile spread, and lethal with one shot.

In a way I think it provides a disincentive to cheat, since what good is an aimbot on a server with weapons like these? It evens out the skill level, since anyone can use the venom or panzer and still get massive kills.

A wallhack would still help cheaters, but anyone who has played for a while knows the compass shows you where almost everyone is anyway. So only a total beginner or idiot would use a wallhack and risk getting banned, when the compass is a built-in wallhack everyone can use.

I agree. There seems to be alot less aimbotters since the shotgun and venom. They don't like getting owned by good players using crazy powerful weapons so they are evidently going somewhere else. Less work for the admins also, just have to watch the backshooters like Fabiano and jonoconnors and unstick bots. Friedrich