Lately I have gone back to playing a lot of counter-strike (I’ve played off and on since it was just a Half-Life mod, and I still suck), and I’ve noticed that in about the last month, the number of people who hack (use programs and alter game code to cheat in a game without cheats) has risen astronomically.
You can’t join a server without some dude who has an automatic aimer and a million other things that effectively take all the fun out of the game for everyone else. Great dude, you’re really cool. Why don’t you go join a game of pickup football in the park with some 9 year-olds? You’ll feel so cool then, won’t you? You’ll really be stuffing those little kids! You sure do rock at playing internet games with a program that does the playing for you! I bet you’re really proud of yourself.
Have you tried punkbuster? I haven’t played CS for a while, but I remember that punkbuster was pretty effective at keeping people with hacks off the servers.
Also, and this is not meant to be a slight against you, you may not be as good as you think you are. At least, I now know I’m not. I used to think I was decent at those games, until I met one of my current roommates. He has at times been rated in the top 10 world wide of several FPS games, and he consistently mops the floor with pretty much all comers.
Playing four or five of us against him, we began to realize that not everyone who headshots you all the time is cheating. Some are just robots. Or something. Because GODDAMN how else can he be that good?
The worst part about the hackers is that now everyone assumes that anybody with any talent at the game is cheating. I consistently get 3-1 kill ratios, and get kicked from servers for “hacking” consistently. I DON’T HACK, goddammit.
One time, I managed, primarily through the sheer force of luck, to get six kills in one round. Immediately after, there were five people accusing me of hacking. My response? “Just watch me.” I love the new First-Person View you can take when you die… you can see everything from the point of view of just about anyone in the game (on some servers, anyway)… so you can easily double-check if someone’s cheating.
There are a lot of people who can get headshots from 100 meters with an M4. I know, I’m one of them. I can take on someone who has an AWP (I know, it’s actually an AWM, but the game calls it an AWP) when I only have the Colt, and win. Boy, does that ever piss them off.
The worst is when you KNOW someone is hiding behind a box or a door, and you start blasting at it, and manage to kill them. Immediately after: “SPOOFE’s wall hackin”. You ask 'em why, and they say, “You shot me through the wall!” Apparently, they don’t realize that a 2-inch-thick wooden door doesn’t offer much protection against a 5.56 bullet.
And besides, some of us can’t get BF1942 yet, and some of us are getting really sick and tired of the WWII motif anyway.
Personally, I wish they can get more of a sci-fi-ish game going. Jedi Outcast multiplayer is nice, but even with a cable modem, there’s ALWAYS too much lag for me to use my Force Powers, putting me at a huge disadvantage (and missing out on one of the cooler aspects of the game). I’d like to get something that’s more like Tribes, but with more emphasis on specific goals than something mundane like “kill all the teammates” or “capture the flag”.
I played the game since beta and would consistantly go at least 3 or 4:1 often high if I was on an ok team. around patch 1.4 when they nerfed the hell out of the game, I was at my peak for getting kicked often for being too good for a server. Of course too good always equals cheater when you are playing against people that suck. I used to take great pride if killing those who I knew where hacking. I was kicked from one server one day for going 28:2 and uninstalled the game on the spot.
I play BF1942 now and absolutely love it.
They’ve stopped updating punkbuster now becasuse Valve refused to pay them money for what was turning into a full time job to stop the hackers. The people who make punkbuster are now working on Quake3, which seems to have a better standard of player anyway (ie. not 12 year old kids)
Blame the server admin. Really. There’s no goddamn excuse for having a CS server running without HLGuard and Valve Anti-Cheat, but still, I see it every goddamn day. It is not a coincidence that the servers that run HLGuard with the updated VAC DON’T HAVE ANY FREAKIN’ CHEATERS. Things should get better as VAC is enhanced and the global ban duration is increased. VAC has already completely eliminated traditional wallhacks. Active admins to ban the cheaters that aren’t automatically detected are quite helpfull, too.
CS 1.6 is going to own, quite powerfully. I’m not quite sure how Ts are going to defend themselves from assault-shield wielding CTs, but I’ll enjoy finding out:)
Tuco: By the way, punkbuster kind of sucked. It required client-side software and lagged the HELL out of users when it sent screenshots up to the server. Modern anti-cheat methods like HLGuard and Valve Anti-Cheat are much more effective, and completely server-side.
I’m just wondering when some dork is going to enter this thread and proclaim that hackers are kind, benevolent folk akin to leprechauns or wood-nymphs, while it is those vile and repugnant crackers who have made a bad name for those who use their unconventional talent to bring joy to the world.
Thing is, if people pay attention, it’s really easy to tell who’s wall hacking (less so with auto aim and whatnot). People with wall hack run around staring straight into the wall all the time. It takes about 30 seconds of following to be sure of it. But god forbid anybody take the time to check out whoever popped em before declaring him a cheater.
I think hackers are kind, benevolent folk akin to leprechauns or wood-nymphs, while it is those vile and repugnant crackers who have made a bad name for those who use their unconventional talent to bring joy in the world.
It’s a fun miltary like Half Life mod. Each side has objectives and a certain number of respawns. Lots of weapons, the physics are getting better and they changed the maps so 1 sniper can’t hold off 10 people (Granted fear me with my russian drangov (sp?) sniper rifle)
I love Fire Arms. I haven’t played much since 2.6 but I think it’s a much better game than CS. More my style. Give me the H&K G3 Nato and the M79 and I’m good.
