While rare, aimbots and other such cheats do exist in MWO.
Two person examples that really can't be explained any other way:
1) Caustic Valley in a Cataphract. I'm moving with the team at full speed up an incline, when I suddenly take a dual gauss hit to my cockpit. The enemy Jager mech is a long distance away. I keep moving and twisting, taking a another dual gauss to the side torso, followed by another to the cockpit for the kill. This was followed up with the same enemy Jager repeating that casual headshot kill process from long range against 1 or 2 other players on my team. There's no way that is "skill" - that was simply cheating. I've never seen performance like that before or since, and I've played against Proton, Lords / EMP, etc.
2) Spectating on an LRM Hunchback that was either a bad AI or running a complex mix of cheat programs. Every time he took any damage, he'd go through what could only be an automated evasion routine. He'd recenter his torso and run in a perfect zig-zag pattern, stop, and then return to combat. The movement was identical each time and far too precise and artificial to be human-controlled. Some of it also made no sense since sometimes that evasion routine wasn't anywhere near a logical or best choice. Near the end of the match, the mech stopped, spun around, and started lobbing LRM's a long distance at... something... Nothing was visible or nearby, so I'm left to wonder what the mech was doing. Again, that's the type of behavior I'd expect from a bot, not a person.
So, yes, such programs do exist in the game. I have no idea how common they are at top levels of play or in matches where anything is on the line, but in Tier 3 or so, they are either rather rare or so ineffective that you don't really notice them.
Edited by oldradagast, 11 December 2016 - 07:02 AM.