How to tell if a pilot is... cheating?

Assist · 2013-01-11, 12:06 PM

I know that you guys don't want posts about specific players so I'll try to keep the name out of it.

Let me preface this by saying that I am without a doubt the worst pilot in the game. If I kill another air vehicle using my ESF it's either from lock-on rockets, crashing into them, or if it's an infantry unit spamming them with the PPA and then ramming myself into the ground.

There's a TR on Waterson server who has me very skeptical. I've been killed by his liberator more than a few times, and most times I don't even see him in the air when I look for him. He's always at max range and I've seen him wipe out 6+ ground vehicles while everyone looks for him. I've been writing that off as the Liberator being ridiculous and needing a nerf. I figure I cannot see him, he's either really high and far away and somehow is spotting us, or something is buggy with the game.
My skepticism comes from his Mosquito 'skills'. He picked off 2 other ESF around me(people in voice comms with me) and none of us saw him or knows where he was at the time. He then killed me, while I was banking around a corner with afterburners on at full speed(serpentine pattern failed me). All three of us he killed with 1 clip of his main gun on the Mosquito, he never missed. After this happened, he then proceeded to use the Mosquito, somewhere out of sight again, and take out 2 Magriders using the main gun on the Mosquito(Rotary?). Once again, no one saw him. Then he finally showed up, coming in full speed over the wide-open base, and killed me on a Flash without damaging my Flash, using the same main weapon on the Mosquito.
So, after all that, and being confused and raging like a tard, I reported him. There's no way someone has that kind of aim, in an ESF, to not only kill another ESF that is doing their best to avoid damage, and kill those vehicles without being seen, and to kill a player on a flash without even damaging the flash. Or is there?

Like I said, I'm a horrible pilot, but I have a general idea of the limitations of player skill and this specific person has really made me wonder. I've seen this guy only once on the ground, he was afk inside a spawn room. He plays as much if not more than I do and I am 100% sure everyone on Waterson knows who he is.

Baneblade · 2013-01-11, 12:16 PM

I'm not saying he is or is not suspected of cheating, but it has been my experience that really good pilots are easy to suspect of it. Even in PS1 all the jinking in the world never seemed to make some pilots miss.

So, I think he is a Cylon... or an ingame UAV being controlled by the USAF.

Zlodey · 2013-01-11, 12:54 PM

Good pilots, huh?
Look at this: http://twitch.tv/eldaen/b/343937646

Skip to 13.40

If you think this is one really serious problem of Ps2, I will show you more:

In the current state of game protection, PS2 is doomed with cheaters. They will kill this game sooner or later.
This is too bad idea - give so much calculations to client side.

What happens in PS2 now:

maradine · 2013-01-11, 01:16 PM

It's very difficult to assess these situations. I occasionally get bounced hard enough to have that "WTF just happened?!" taste in my mouth. On the other hand, I occasionally get a ridiculous chain, like coming up on a little swarm of bugs on the tail of a buddy, and 6 bursts later it's clear skies and beers back at the ranch.

I usually dogfight by sound - could you hear the guy, even though you couldn't see him?

Assist · 2013-01-11, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

I usually dogfight by sound - could you hear the guy, even though you couldn't see him?

Not when we were in the ESF's. I almost never see/hear him when I die to him, it's almost always when he's in a lib and now recently the mosquito piloting.

Chaff · 2013-01-11, 03:06 PM

Sounds fishy at best. Cheaters suck. There's not a lot (yet), but there are too many for my taste.

AThreatToYou · 2013-01-11, 03:14 PM

I would suspect this pilot of cheating, but there are many times where I graze infantry off of flashes without 1 bullet hitting the flash in an ESF. There is also a game bug where occasionally the server/you/something will lag and you will become stuck to certain players in a certain location. It could be possible that this is area-related, and all of you in your ESFs were lag-stuck in one location. When this happens, you are completely immobile and take damage as normal, except you may be on the other side of the map entirely, able to take damage normally from other sources and deal damage normally (and move normally). That's also what he could be hacking to do.

The Jamhead · 2013-01-11, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by Zlodey

Planetside 2 - OPK / Mass Kill - YouTube
Planetside 2 - Autowall - YouTube

Wow. That just sucks man

Saintlycow · 2013-01-11, 05:31 PM

I've also had a dubiuous encounter with a TR on waterson as well. He was able to kill me at an insane range with his rotary cannon, while i strafed sideways. Like, his craft was small than the reticle on my zoomed in nose cannon.

He could have been good, but the speed at which i got killed left me with a strange feeling

Thunderhawk · 2013-01-11, 07:55 PM

Cheaters disgust me, seriously the lowest form of life

Raka Maru · 2013-01-11, 11:03 PM

Has to report 2 NC cheaters in liberators on Connery. Both had 3 letter names that were all caps and when we got shot down, it was an unnatural sound. Every bullet hit from the front gun. I hope they get banned.

StumpyTheOzzie · 2013-01-11, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

I would suspect this pilot of cheating, but there are many times where I graze infantry off of flashes without 1 bullet hitting the flash in an ESF. There is also a game bug where occasionally the server/you/something will lag and you will become stuck to certain players in a certain location. It could be possible that this is area-related, and all of you in your ESFs were lag-stuck in one location. When this happens, you are completely immobile and take damage as normal, except you may be on the other side of the map entirely, able to take damage normally from other sources and deal damage normally (and move normally). That's also what he could be hacking to do.

That has happened to me. I saw a couple of "stuck" scythes so I blew them away with my Lib nose cannon. A few minutes later I got tells calling me a cheat and whatever. So a "one off" like that is ok, but the OP then tells us how this has happened again and again under different circumstances (aircraft and ground vehicles) and at different times.

Assuming all other factors are normal, this paints a bad picture. If the OP was just unlucky with lag or some such, why wasn't he farmed by someone else when he was on his flash in a different place and time? Very suspect.

I say report and let the devs sort it out.

Towe · 2013-01-12, 04:39 AM

Once I got a McAfee Scan going on in the back and suddenly I was told Im suspected of cheating and also that two admins would observe me.

Left a strange feeling that you would be told when observed and that every virus scan takes two admins. Hope they do more about it than just popping those messages to scare people...

Mox · 2013-01-12, 06:12 AM

Originally Posted by Towe

Once I got a McAfee Scan going on in the back and suddenly I was told Im suspected of cheating and also that two admins would observe me.

Left a strange feeling that you would be told when observed and that every virus scan takes two admins. Hope they do more about it than just popping those messages to scare people...

These ingame messages are SOEs weapon against cheaters. I got it too and everbody of my friends got it. I think they send it randomly. No one of us is cheating or running any 3th party. It is just sad that they have no better instrument to get rid of cheaters.

Canaris · 2013-01-12, 06:22 AM

those videos made me throw up in my mouth......