cheating

[AustinDave]

I am not good, but I have fun.

I generally set the settings for very low power and such to prevent rushing and then I have fun because I like progressing through the build tree rather than rushing out with all kinds of early and to mind uninteresting tools.

But recently I have had several experiences that were clearly cheaters.


One guy with one power generator and one factory showed up at 3 minutes precisely with DOZENS of tanks I had never seen even when playing crazy advanced end games with the computer.

It was literally impossible given the power constraints and factory constraint and time it takes to research late game units.

This was an extreme example where he gave himself away and hence gained nothing, since any moron can place a few dozen free late game tanks that cost nothing to build or research and blow even the best player, which I am not, away at the three minute mark in a game that has it settings set up to only have powerful units at about 40 minutes or so.

I love this game, but I am seeing more stuff like that where units across the entire displayable map evaporate in a single instant and despite my base still being there behind the board wide mega explosion the game is declared over.

It is becoming tiresome. I'd hate to quit this game, many people have done hard work to make it fun and interesting.

But I tell you, however these folks are doing it, and I suspect hacks, if it does not stop, I won't be the only one, who very reluctantly moves on.

I really hope that at least one dev takes a break from the imminent 3.x release schedule to see if they can see how this is going on.

[NoQ]

3.x release is exactly what they do so that it didn't go on.

This sort of thread appeared over 9000 times, but i'll still post this standard reply. Please say thanks, or at least try to use the forum search next time.

Network code of v2.3 is a crappy heritage of the original game and allows as much cheating as possible extremely easily.

The new network code in 3.1 will cause a desynchronization every time somebody cheats, and points to a particluar player, and this is something you see.

The fact i'm repeating here is a part of every 3.1 beta release notes:

New deterministic netcode that makes sure the same things actually happen for all players, should be much more cheating-resistant

Something else i've realized: Don't play with anonymous users from the lobby at all. Bad for your health. Even when they don't cheat, they whine or call you a cheater when they are defeated, they are often newbies (and it's a waste of time playing them ... you may say training, but you won't see them again anyway), you can't arrange fair teams of unknown players, etc. Alternatively, pre-arrange games in the IRC. People are friendly here and have a reputation; if something goes wrong in the game, you will at least have a chance to ask what happened.