View Full Version : Cheating and dirty play on the PC.....
Ok, I've played enough matches on the PC version of SFIV to suspect that there are people using cheats or modified game files to gain an advantage.
First off you have the guy with the 4 or 5 hacked accounts sitting at the top of the leaderboard with maxed points. This has been pointed out before, it's quite obvious he hasn't earned those points.
Next up there are the guys who bind all of the specials/combos/supers/ultras to one of the macro buttons on their keyboards or record the inputs from their controller using software. Honestly, there's no point in even playing the game in I-Win mode but there are quite a few that are doing it.
Then we have the Random Select issue, where Mr.Cheatypants has hacked his Random Select to pick the same char all the time, trying to either counter pick his opponent or trick them into using one of their weaker chars. Similarly being able to see who your opponent picks in Championship Mode so you can counter pick with their characters worst match up. I have personally experienced both of these online.
Lastly, I strongly suspect that there are players out there with modded game files that ignore their opponents block. Yesterday I was on the receiving end of a bucketload of unblockable Level 1 and 2 Focus Attacks. No matter what I did, I couldn't escape getting hit whether I jumped, performed a reversal or tried to block. It was ridiculous.
The lengths to which people will go to gain an advantage they otherwise can't gain from patience, practice and skill is quite sad and pathetic really. I think this game needs some sort of anti-cheat system.
You can't do pretty much anything about the macro thing there. It's just platform related problem. You can set those easily in controllers own driver control panel.
This is why consoles have the advantage over PCs in certain type of games. When PCs have advantage over consoles in FPS games in controllability (mouse+keys).
This is the main problem with PC games preety much everything can be modded because you have full access to the internal files of the game. This is why console games are better to play online because if a game on the PC doesn't have a Anti-Cheat system you cant do anything about it.
I can say that G11-G13(that I own)-G15 etcetera cannot be used in the game. And not only to use macro, but just to assign to each key a single keyboard key.
Then we have the Random Select issue, where Mr.Cheatypants has hacked his Random Select to pick the same char all the time, trying to either counter pick his opponent or trick them into using one of their weaker chars. Similarly being able to see who your opponent picks in Championship Mode so you can counter pick with their characters worst match up. I have personally experienced both of these onlineThe first is senseless... the second is paranoia.
Mate, in this game we have 2 layers of cheating:
Mild cheating:
1) Using macros to perform specials/combos
2) Using the lag cheat
Full cheating:
3) Forging packets
4) Altering/hacking through game logic
For 3,4 there isn't so much you can do. This should be handled like Blizzard handles the various World of WarCraft or StraCraft or WarCraft III.
An external host is needed to start and host the games.
This way they'll be able to analyze the flow of data and spot then ban the cheaters.
With this kind of infrastructure they should be able to spot even lag cheaters (2). If they see a discontinuous flow of packets (symptom of lag cheat), and every time this is bound to host X being able to successfullly hit the other player, then there you go, you just found a lag cheater (and you ban him).
The problem is that neither Capcom neither Sony/Microsoft are willing to do this. This solution costs money, bandwidht and people (paid just to investigate and ban).
Why do you think Blizzard's RTS (WarCraft III and StarCraft) are considered one of the best e-sports? Because they care about this and they actively ban cheating.
And for other proper e-sports games, like the open-source warsow ( http://www.warsow.net/ )? Simple. Every major online tournament is hosted on the tournamet organizers' servers and there are 2~3 referees for each game; not only this, each player has to submit their replays, who fails to submit it has automatically lost.
As you can see there are methods to stop cheating, but all these require technology, money and most of all will to do it.
This game could be one of the best online e-sports, but will never be because of this.
It will always be a great offline e-sport. Playing face to face no one can cheat, and btw hell if this game is entertaining.
It's just a shame that online you have to play and hope your opponent is not cheating.
On a closing sentence, the lag is very important in this game as well. A lot of times if you're unlucky your opponent has managed to send a huge amount of information to your host (eg. a jump then instant Sho-ryu-ken) all in one, and you just are blocking, but your information comes a little slower than his, then is like if you didn't block at all. This is not cheating, but is definitely bad network code.
I've come to this conclusion, when you play as host your commands have lower priority than your remote opponent's; so this can inevitably happen.
Naturally this doesn't exist when you play in offline matches/tournaments.
As it is now, fighting cheating/lag in this game is a sort of lost cause.
Usually on consoles you fight cheaters of type 2 and 1...generally there are no 3,4...but still some games are just a total shame...you bust your *** and bham, they lag cheat (you see it before they start attacking/special you) and you go down, unless you are able to luckily guess their moves 0.5~1s before they actually do those.
Hope this will explain something,
Regards.
LittleDoctor007
11-08-09, 14:47
I totally agree with being annoyed about cheaters.
On the other hand however, I always play honest and cheatfree. I don't like to brag here, but I think I'm pretty good. You won't believe how many times I've been blamed for cheating/using macros/using lag (?) to my advantage. My message box is full of those. When I started playing, it was really fun and I got lots of compliments. Nowadays, I just get insulted. It's no fun to play like that anymore. I don't even know HOW to cheat.
Anyway, good luck and I hope Capcom finds a way to eliminate cheatingpossibilities.
Macros for zero frame combos? Ahah. And how you do them? Please explain us some tips and tricks to link combos with three/four separate moves with one button and to have success in doing them against someone who is able to parry a kick. If you find a player who KILLS you with all sort of combos, leave the joystick/pad and give props & kudos to him (and then go figure how to contrast that attacks).
Don't take pathetic excuses just because you're not able to do things other players can.
When I play this game, I'm always being accused of cheating by people who cannot do basic moves. Go play in trial mode instead of accusing other people. Your skills are not that great you can allow yourself to consider other people cheating.
Second: I'm wondering how you recognize a skilled player from a cheater. Simply answer: you can't. So go play the arcade mode, lower the difficulty level and don't bother. I have more than 600 online matches on my shoulders, I can say the probability to find a "cheater" is near to ZERO. Just learn how to play this game. Everyone speaks about lag cheaters. When I play against someone who has a decent connection bar, I NEVER have problems. The connection bar is there for this purpose. The truth is: this game is full of uncapable players who gets frustrated for their inability to play something different from Call of Duty / World of Warcraft and all they can do is:
1) Complaining about cheaters (they consider cheaters everyone who can beat them).
2) Sending whinings / complainings / bad words to everyone.
I'm not saying there are not cheaters. Cheaters are present in every game of the world. I'm just saying this is paranoia, because the level of cheating is so low it can be ignored. For the sake of completeness, I say there are people who doesn't want to just win. They want to win with style. And to win with style, they excercise all day long in trial mode, practicing combos and other things. If you can play just like a button pusher, this doesn't mean this kind of people are cheaters. It's just your inability to recognize you're inferior. I personally don't use cheats in my games. Never. Looking at my GFWL reputation, I see 37% of the people I played with, avoided me for some reason. And they call me "cheater" just because I put a 7 hit combo with Akuma against their balls. No, I don't use macros (but are they really possible, come on), I just have an arcade fightstick and 95 hours of exercise (and still counting, of course) in trial mode. So, next time, before opening threads like this, think about at the things to fight: cheaters or your laziness/inability in improving at a game. Not everyone are good at everything. I suck at Quake Live and Call of Duty: I'm not going to open a thread on how much cheaters that games have. I have just changed my game. Basically, the psicology that dominates in this game is:"If he can do some sort of combos, he's a cheater. If I can never win an aerial contrast, it's lag". Pretty wrong. This is Street Fighter. It's a bit more technical than the games I mentioned above.
It always makes me laugh when someone sends me a message:"You have lag, please fix it" just after losing a match. It makes me laugh because I don't understand how he can say the lag is mine. No, it's not lag. You choose me because I had 4/5 slices in the connection bar. So it's not lag. It's your lack of skills. These are people who should learn to lose, before learn to play.
Then we have the Random Select issue, where Mr.Cheatypants has hacked his Random Select to pick the same char all the time, trying to either counter pick his opponent or trick them into using one of their weaker chars. Similarly being able to see who your opponent picks in Championship Mode so you can counter pick with their characters worst match up. I have personally experienced both of these online.
This is BS. BS to self justify total lack of skills against everyone. In over 600 online matches, I have never seen things like that. And even if it's true, someone who can play under a decent level don't even notice that behaviour. I repeat: I suck at Quake Live and Call of Duty. You probably suck at Street Fighter.
I think this game needs some sort of anti-cheat system.To my knowledge, that bunch of cheats that works online, never goes past the first round. After the first round, accuse your incompetence.