Resource Hacks, Cheats etc?

[ebert.s]

Is it possible to cheat or do resource hacks in multiplayer? I mean with cheat-checkbox off, of course.

I played a lot aoe2 multiplayer in the last year, i know i am not the best, but i am not a total noob.
I know build-orders, i know to minimize idle time of vills, what units are good counters, some strategies like archer, scout, tower rush, fast castle etc.

But sometimes there are players with ELO like me (around 1550 to 1650) which have insane economies. Their scores are like over a thousand ahead of me when entering castle age.

I always look into the replays, but i do not find anything wrong, but somehow i am suspicous.

How it is technically prevented, that some players hack their civs with hidden eco bonus? Like their workers are 25% faster or something like that.
Would something like this possible?

[T-West]

While there may be some players who use cheats, there aren't many of them. It is far, far, far more likely that you simply run into people who are better at managing their economies. There are huge differences in skill level in the 1550-1650 range. Some players in that range may know a basic build order, may have watched a few tutorial videos or streams, or just have played lots and lots of games. Finding people who seem much better at managing their economies should be expected, especially at this skill range. But that just means there's a lot of room for you to improve too :)

[-Dare Devil/x/]

-Post a video of your gameplay instead of looking for proof of hacking. I've deleted the links.

[Duck Twacy]

Originally posted by ebert.s:

Is it possible to cheat or do resource hacks in multiplayer? I mean with cheat-checkbox off, of course.

I played a lot aoe2 multiplayer in the last year, i know i am not the best, but i am not a total noob.
I know build-orders, i know to minimize idle time of vills, what units are good counters, some strategies like archer, scout, tower rush, fast castle etc.

But sometimes there are players with ELO like me (around 1550 to 1650) which have insane economies. Their scores are like over a thousand ahead of me when entering castle age.

I always look into the replays, but i do not find anything wrong, but somehow i am suspicous.

How it is technically prevented, that some players hack their civs with hidden eco bonus? Like their workers are 25% faster or something like that.
Would something like this possible?

The hacks I've come across are typically economy boom hacks (vills work faster or gather more resources per trip), damage hacks (enemy units hit with more damage) or armor hacks (enemy units take forever to kill).

On balance, most games I've seen seem to be honest, but there are rare occasions when someone's economy just shoots off the scale. It can be a hack, or, like the other guy said, that person is just a genius at managing economies.

One game, a 4v4 BF map, two of our allies quit, and I had been trolled again for the umpteenth time and was about to resign. But the guy I was playing with said "No, stay, We win!", and this guy, who did not hack, just steam rolled over everybody while I rebuilt my econ from a dark and feudal age rush. I don't know how he did it. He built farms and took resources as he moved his army all over the map. He must have been clicking like a madman, he was that good. And in spite of our two allies bailing on us, he won that game. I had that game recorded, but had to reset Win10 due to some bug, so I lost the recording and I lost his name. Dude was a genius. I'll never forget it.

The other aspect is that maps may be rigged to give extra resources. On an African Black Forest game I got Turks for random civ. I'm not very good with Turks, but suddenly my vills are harvesting resources like mad. Super fast, and I'm able to get to Imp real fast and get Jans and siege canons to just lay into the dude across from me. I don't use hacks, especially this game, but the map itself was tweaked to give extra resources, and it allowed me to Imp fast and just slam the opposing player.

I won't say hacked games are rare, because I've run into a number of suspicious games, all of which I've reported, but they don't happen as often as I used to think they did.

One strategy is to keep a lot of vills moving with you as you batter someone's territory, and immediately just start building barracks, archeries, TCs, farms, and whatever else. That forces the defending player to split his forces or to concentrate on your buildings while you attack his troops and kill his vills. If he's good enough, then he'll just take your town. I've seen that happen, and really good players are very skilled at that.

The other strategy is for one player to concentrate on economy, and just "sling" or tributes to players who go on the military offensive. This strat actually bugs me to no end, and I've lost lots of games to this. A variation on it is to sling one side in a 4v4 map (usually BF) draw their allies away, and then to attack the other side with the other player who's also been slung.

Those games, more than any other, I'm suspicious of, because I've run into that strategy with loads of halberds and castles packed with arbalasts with full range and armor upgrades, and somehow the enemy "slung" player bowls me over with fifty elite war elephants, which is a virtual impossibility given the time frame. And when you look at the map and find that he doesn't have the econ to support huge food and gold dependent units, then it's time to look at the replay. And even when I fight off two waves, the guy keeps coming with more elite war elephants, which is just nonsense. Which means that not only is he slung, but he's got some third party software that allows him to make castle units ultra fast, and elite war elephants take a lot of time and resources.

So, the point being that the player looks legit, and looks like a genius, but there may be something fishy going on there. I've had lots of those games, and am now wise to them

Anyway, yes, hacked games do happen, possibly not as often as we might think (given all the other trolling), but they happen often enough that they make the whole experience unpleasant. I don't know if any of my experiences or thoughts helped you, but there you go.

All the best.