92 replies to this topic

[GuardDogg]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 07 May 2025 - 05:38 PM, said:

Prime CT, Rancor STs, BAS E arms

TAG 1t, 4 LRM20 is 20t, 3 LRM15 is 10.5t, 31.5t

14 t ammo or so + skill nodes ez, shave leg armor a bit, enjoy being a complete blight on the game

This is using the Prime Blood-Asp? Because I am not able to get those "Rancor STs".

[a 5 year old with an Uzi]

GuardDogg, on 07 May 2025 - 05:50 PM, said:

This is using the Prime Blood-Asp? Because I am not able to get those "Rancor STs".

Hero BAS

[GuardDogg]

a 5 year old with an Uzi, on 07 May 2025 - 05:54 PM, said:

Hero BAS

Ah okay, I did have problems building this mech (using Prime), wondering how. Now I know. Thank you so much.

Edited by GuardDogg, 07 May 2025 - 06:09 PM.

[T Hawk]

I don't think there are a lot of cheaters. There are cheats like aim assists for sure, but most of the time I die I feel like I deserved it. Out of position, firing without watching the team movements and suddenly I'm left alone, playing Rambo, grilling myself etc. Never felt cheated in any way. There was some dude in one of my last games going on a rant in voice about how everyone was a hacker. Dude just wouldn't shut up and totally forgot to shoot the enemy while ranting. Had to mute him after a while. Really annoying.

[Ilfi]

Considering how rare incoming head shots are for me, if they are cheating, they could definitely put more effort into it. Between that and how important positioning is in comparison, TTK is slow enough for cheats to not matter all that much. Just my opinion.

[W4R GOD]

BlueDevilspawn, on 04 May 2025 - 06:32 PM, said:

Responding to OP:
1. OP takes a break from the game
2. Top players keep playing
3. OP returns to game
4. Top players somehow better
5. Must be cheats!! Seriously?

Compared to any other shooter out there, MWO has very few cheats. It’s literally not worth it, and PGI does ban people still.

As for other things, I’ll list my take here -
1. user.cfg files - PGI does not view them as cheats but reserves the right to exert its muscle if it gets out of hand. While this isn’t definitive, it makes sense because the game (like many other games) is not optimized and the cfg file allows people with lesser PC builds to able to run the game at a playable frame rate.

2. I once saw someone post something along the lines of “switchable dpi mice is p2w” and “getting better at the game is unfair” to which I reply - no they’re not and get over it

3. Depending on when OP stopped playing before coming back, the initial balance patch back in April 2021 extended many weapon ranges. It is entirely possible to do damage that adds up over time at 1.5k, and minor chip damage with the right builds out past 2k.

4. If you’re getting pre-fired the most likely explanation is you were spotted and so the shared targeting data gave you away.

5. If you still feel like cheaters abound, plenty of others have said to report to PGI and you should do so. Just know that it’s entirely possible that it’s you and there were no cheaters. As I pointed out, PGI have been active banning a number of players thru the last few years.

This is exactly the issue. Every bad player in the game that thinks everyone who is better cheats, should be forced to read this.

[LordNothing]

the cheaters are at the low end. they cheat because otherwise they simply would be outclassed by everyone in t4 or higher.

[Moldur]

High match sense from people who have played this game somewhat consistently for a long time. I remember when MWO was my main game. You start to just know things because you know the builds people are running, the limitations, the maps, etc. Not saying cheating isn't possible, but you can get so good to the point every now and then you go, "wow. That guy probably thinks I'm cheating. I would too." because your bets are just right on the money sometimes.

[TELEFORCE]

I've played this game for over a decade and I've never encountered anything that couldn't be done within the game's rules. I don't think cheating has ever been a big thing in MWO.

[Dubious Squirrel]

I don't notice much cheating. But there is a culture of ridicule against those who think they have seen it. I may be indoctrinated.

[LordNothing]

evidence inst hard to come by on youtube. some of it even recorded by the cheater themselves so you can see all their overlays. see players cycling components with their aimbots. ive seen lag switching in use first hand. watching ping time jump up by a precise factor of ten right when they start losing a brawl. stable ping, just 10x worse. bad internet is significantly more random than that. had players calling mech locations on comms via wall hack (even admitting to using wall hack).

Edited by LordNothing, 20 May 2025 - 07:11 PM.

[epikt]

It is a thing to be able to find "evidence" on youtube, it is another thing to regularly encounter cheaters ingame.

[LordNothing]

epikt, on 20 May 2025 - 07:39 PM, said:

It is a thing to be able to find "evidence" on youtube, it is another thing to regularly encounter cheaters ingame.

to be fair i only think ive seen suspicious things like 2 or 3 times, and only one where i was 100% sure it was a cheat (the lag switch). of course ive never been lower than t3. so where im at its not an issue. but i strongly suspect (based on a number of gamedev conferences) that cheating is happening mostly at the very low end by people who are so bad at the game they cant even progress with the aid of cheats. the only way this hurts upper tier players is if the game hemorages players at the low end, including new players and that puts the game in the red. you know what happens next.

[GreyNovember]

LordNothing, on 20 May 2025 - 07:06 PM, said:

ive seen lag switching in use first hand. watching ping time jump up by a precise factor of ten right when they start losing a brawl. stable ping, just 10x worse. bad internet is significantly more random than that. had players calling mech locations on comms via wall hack (even admitting to using wall hack).

Is THAT what people are accusing me of when I spazz out and cant aim in the middle of a fight? As if this is somehow also to my advantage when I can't land anything twisting and turning, and I rubberband to different orientations?

Ignoring that wallhack / Seismic can be conflated?

Assuming that the ping indicators in game are something update real time with no appreciable delay, and you can reasonably look up, glance at, find the person you're fighting, and determine that something sussy is indeed happening.

[BlueDevilspawn]

If you have clear proof on video/vods then go ahead and report it to PGI. If you're going through the effort of interacting on the forums then the reporting function/email should be easy for you to do.

Otherwise it seems like you're believing you see (or want to see) cheats. Or you might go off on "well PGI doesn't do anything" and I can tell you they do. I could name 5 specific people banned for cheats over the last couple of years.

[KursedVixen]

TELEFORCE, on 10 May 2025 - 05:17 PM, said:

I've played this game for over a decade and I've never encountered anything that couldn't be done within the game's rules. I don't think cheating has ever been a big thing in MWO.

I think it might be a higher occurance in higer tiers... i've had some questioinable things happen mech tanking dual lbx20's at near point blank range and walk away with almost 0 damage...

[epikt]

KursedVixen, on 21 May 2025 - 06:08 PM, said:

I think it might be a higher occurance in higer tiers... i've had some questioinable things happen mech tanking dual lbx20's at near point blank range and walk away with almost 0 damage...

It's a problem with hit registration, not cheating.

[LordNothing]

GreyNovember, on 21 May 2025 - 09:59 AM, said:

Is THAT what people are accusing me of when I spazz out and cant aim in the middle of a fight? As if this is somehow also to my advantage when I can't land anything twisting and turning, and I rubberband to different orientations?

Ignoring that wallhack / Seismic can be conflated?

Assuming that the ping indicators in game are something update real time with no appreciable delay, and you can reasonably look up, glance at, find the person you're fighting, and determine that something sussy is indeed happening.

its not that the ping was all over the place, its that it was rapidly switching by a factor of 10 at regular intervals, real network glitches are more random. intentionally sending packets out of order so as to confuse the server.

epikt, on 21 May 2025 - 07:03 PM, said:

It's a problem with hit registration, not cheating.

sometimes it is, sometimes its not. its not uncommon for small mechs to do this, but when its a slow hunchback you got to really do a double take. besides its obvious when your target starts teleporting.

besides breaking hitreg is kind of the point. if you cant fix the position or the timestamp correctly, then you cannot compute hitreg. that's just the way collision detection works.

its also easy to catch with a ping audit. i reported and i never saw the guy again.

Edited by LordNothing, 22 May 2025 - 08:33 AM.

[1453 R]

Nobody is trying to say cheating doesn't exist, LordNothing.

People are saying that the attitude espoused in the OP, i.e. cheating/cheaters are an all-pervasive and inescapable scourge sweeping MWO, is simply incorrect for all the same reasons we've been telling people they're wrong about matchmaking, stomps, hitreg, and whatever-else for years. This is a very complex game with a lot of moving parts, it's easy to mistake simply being outguessed or outplayed as "cheating".

"How could he have possibly known I was around that corner?! Wallhack! Wallhack!" My guy, you're playing on Mining Colony. Everybody knows where the common peeking/poking spots on that map are. You didn't get wallhacked, you were simply predictable.

"That guy hit my Locust's side torso with a double Gauss shot from 500+m away! He HAD to be aimbotting!" Were you driving in a straight line, or in a predictable pattern? Did you stop behind concealment that wasn't cover? Is it possible the guy simply took his shot and got lucky? Locusts are small and squirrely; they aren't invulnerable.

"They couldn't possibly have known my left leg was weak, there's just no way! They had to be running hacks!" Oooooor....somebody pinged you, read your paperdoll, and said "Golf Battlemaster, weak left leg." Good communication amongst the OpFor can certainly feel like cheating if your team cannot match it, but it doesn't actually count as cheating. Yet.

So on and so forth. Most examples of "they HAD to be cheating! They HAD to!" can be explained without needing to involve cheating, and while there's certainly cheaters out there and tools they use to do it, there's no evidence cheating is rampant in this twelve-plus year old niche game barely anybody remembers exists.

[LordNothing]

im more interested in the technical aspects really. i dont feel like cheating effects my game enough to make a stink about it.