Concerning suspected cheaters in L4D2.

[Strawberry Daisy]

I've learned when you suspect someone of cheating it's best to be certain they are actually cheating. I used to run my own Condition Zero server for years. The cheats they had back then Punkbuster and other anti-cheat systems were pretty much useless against. Then OGC I think it was called came around. I began to see certain patterns of movement and reaction time in people I suspected of cheating, so I decided to do the unthinkable and actually download this OGC hook. I installed it and used it for about 2 hours. I went to servers that were actually allowed to operate by Steam because they labeled their servers as being cheat servers in the server info provided.

I went to one of these servers and used the cheat. I couldn't believe how stupid it was. I mean you could literally get up from your desk and walk away and the cheat would move you in the direction of an oncoming target and shoot for you. Why even play at all? Just go watch some TV while the cheat does all the work for you. While using this cheat I noticed the way my character moved with auto aim engaged and I realized this would be pretty easy to notice when playing against cheaters. However if they turn off auto aim it can be extremely hard to determine if someone is cheating. If their simply using wall hacks and are using it wisely it's very hard if not impossible to know their cheating.

Later on in Left4Dead2 I could see no evidence of anyone cheating for the first year. Then one night while I was dead I saw someone using a cheat that was auto aiming and it was extremely obvious. The guy never missed a target. Early on in the game I realy expected him of cheating. He just didn;t seem to be aiming with any natural human movement. It was not fluid, it was mechanical. Once I was dead I knew he was cheating. I never said a thing about it. Then weeks later it began happening more often. Same deal. It appeared that while I was dead I was seeing other players using similar cheats. These cheats were not very hard to notice when your dead. I began to worry that Left4Dead2 might be infested with these cheaters.

Well that never happened except once in awhile. We all know cheating exists in nearly any game. It would be unwise to think it simply doesn;t happen in Left4Dead2. It does but I rarely ever notice it if it is happening. There was a period some 2 years ago where I was catching people cheating and there was no doubt about it what so ever. Most of it took place in VS. After all what the fun of cheating against bots? Peope want to do it against other people. I stopped playing VS some time ago so I am not sure if cheating still happens in it or not anymore. None the less I saw enough of it and I decided to create a topic about it here back then. Man was that ever a mistake.

I got rained upon with insults and judgements, and doubt that what I claimed was true. In fact not one person believed me, but they were wrong. It was happening and it is a fact. I know enough about how to spot cheaters and it mattered not if these people believed me or not. I knew it was factual. After that I never accused anyone of cheating ever again. On my own server I didn't either. Once I was certain beyond any doubt they got one warning and then if it continued I banned them. Turns out I was usually right. I would follow these players when I could find them by going to servers where it seemed everyone cheated. I'm talking about Condition Zero of course, not L4D. Sure enough these same people that swore up and down to me that they were not cheating were on these servers blatantly cheating and not even trying to hide it. I even would say to them sometimes "Yea I knew you were cheating all along even though you denied it till the end", and they usually responded with something like "Yea and? F**k off!"

So when I say I can spot cheaters, I'm as good as anyone can possibly be at doing so. But I will never ever complain about cheating in these forums again. And I strongly suggest that if anyone is going to you better have real proof or you'll be met by a snow storm of people filled with judgement against you and they will often not be nice about it. Just some sound advice from a person who has been gaming for more than 17 years. Luckily I do only play Dead Island, Condtion Zero alone with my bots or Left4Dead2, which is normal campaign playing doesn't seem to have much cheating going on that I can notice. Or if they are cheating their so good at it no one can tell. But again if your going to accuse someone of cheating you had better be damned sure they are or you'll be met with a lot of resistance.

As for that OGC? I unistalled it 4 hours after I installed it. How people who use something like that don't feel like absolute morons is beyond me.

[Lunatix]

Wow can't you concentrate your text ? nobody want read a story about cheaters we all know they exist.

[Walker☻//︻ ---]

Too much text abowe. YAWN! Some editing shuold be an order.

[Dilemma]

A good thing to lookout for is their SI skills. If u actually compare their human skills (accuracy/awareness) vs SI (co-op/map knowledge of chokepoints,basic SI combos and setups), if the 2 set of skills does not match up (with humans being for too superior), its just fishy. So far i have not seen a cheat that gives SI an advantage.

Ytd night i had met a pair of cheaters.
Before - 0 sense of awareness / practically spraying / SI spawning 1by1 and spawned early
After - Perfect aim / Skeet hunter through biled screens / SI still as noob as ever
That's the perfect scenario. In no sense, a person will have different skill level / co-op for humans/SI. They will always grow together.

A good point from the author is that, why bother playing if you're using hacks. It takes away the fun element, or they just wanna feel superior about winning? Do they even feel good to win with hacks? That's the question.