Cheater?

[Crunchie]

Was playing through the game and I saw that most if not all the best times are from a guy called ??BQB and they are all withing 5 - 30 seconds... That has to be cheating right when on some levels 3 minutes is the set time and this guy has 9.97 seconds. If this is cheating then how has no one noticed.

[EELuminatus]

Thanks for telling!
Since the leaderboards need to be cleaned up manually, we're only doing it every now and then, but I guess it's about time, again. I hope I can also implement some better cheat protection, but that's admittedly not considered a high priority change - most speedrunners can easily tell fake entries from realistic results, so they don't care too much, as far as I know... but of course it would be much nicer to keep these leaderboards clean.

[Evil Tendencies]

Originally posted by EELuminatus:

Thanks for telling!
Since the leaderboards need to be cleaned up manually, we're only doing it every now and then, but I guess it's about time, again. I hope I can also implement some better cheat protection, but that's admittedly not considered a high priority change - most speedrunners can easily tell fake entries from realistic results, so they don't care too much, as far as I know... but of course it would be much nicer to keep these leaderboards clean.

Well, admittedly, what I am about to write comes from personal experience which only goes so far, but I have never in all of my years of gaming (going all the way back to when asteroid shooter was considered the best game around) encountered a video game with a clean leader board. Whether it be a big triple AAA title or a small indie developer, cheaters always find a way to destroy any semblance of competition.

The closest title I can think of that had legit leader board entries was Nation Red, in which for a short while, I took the number one spot. But by then the game was lucky to surpass a hundred players at any given time, and still, someone quickly came along who doubled my score which, while I guess I can't be certain, I am inclined to say would be impossible to do legit given the games mechanics. That's not me thinking I'm just 'that gud' but I do believe there's a certain point in that game where the zombie bosses just come in such numerous amounts with such an absurd amount of health and damage that they are impossible to handle. There's actual math to figure out when that precise point is. No amount of skill or luck will enable you to dodge their attacks or withstand them. I and a small amount of other players got very close to that cut off point and I don't think it a coincidence that the 'top tier players" who surpassed us were systematically removed from time to time.

In my experience true leader board entries are crawl fest, in which one person is beating the other only by a small margin and it often goes back and forth, sometimes there is a huge gap, but this is rare (I was never bested in killing floor but that game is coop to be fair)

As for the other leader board in the same game, there was an exploit that I figured out on my own, and the players managed to convince the dev of a made up lie of how they 'legitimately' attained a score that they didn't. I never said anything, which I guess might make me just as bad? But I have the screenshots to prove it. So you've got hackers who don't give a rats behind, and legit players who are only legit because they're afraid of consequences and will actively look for even the smallest exploits then you got a small margin of players who just want to legitimately compete.

All in all, I have found leader boards to be a waste of time in every game I've encountered. There's all sorts of underhanded things that go on between those at the top who are usually apart of clans or small conniving groups. I ran across a clan game in battle field (I believe? It was a long time ago) where both teams went medic and kept killing and reviving each other for points and even as I type one of my friends is trying to coerce me into voting for his team on a website so he can win a competition I didn't even witness to properly judge on. I could go on, but all in all the sentiment doesn't change, you'd be better suited to focus on other elements and not even given this "low priority " IMO and next time scrap it all together. Then again what do I know? Competing with friends can be fun if you ignore the global leader board I suppose. Just don't let it consume your time or resources.

[Mouflon_TA]

Amen to that. Leader boards are fun, when you can check your score versus your friends. But on global scale it's unmanagable, so you better spend your limited resources on other aspects of this awesome game.
Also, as achievement hunter - bless you for not making any achievements related to leader board, and for making all of them achieveble in single player. It's small gesture, but I'm sure many people appreciate it.

[GunShooter]

make sure to watch replays before claiming cheat. I've met some very suspect economy+army sizes early game but watching the replay makes their actual capacity seem plausible if they are min-maxing.

Someone who plans out their build order can look like cheating. I haven't found a clear cheater yet.

[Crunchie]

Originally posted by GunShooter:

make sure to watch replays before claiming cheat. I've met some very suspect economy+army sizes early game but watching the replay makes their actual capacity seem plausible if they are min-maxing.

Someone who plans out their build order can look like cheating. I haven't found a clear cheater yet.

The guy had beat a mission with a set time of around 3 minutes in less than 10 seconds, so I'm sure his build has nothing to do with it since this was in the campaign.

[+SlightlyDangerous+]

@EELuminatus, Just playing again for the first time in a long time and it seems like the ??BQB player is still at the top of all the leaderboards with some pretty farfetched wins. for example, they have 9.97 seconds on the level "46 Southside Dock" which is a timed level that ALWAYS takes 3 minutes to win. Seems pretty lame that they're still listed on pretty much every level with score that's clearly a cheat.

[Brotha]

Originally posted by GunShooter:

make sure to watch replays before claiming cheat. I've met some very suspect economy+army sizes early game but watching the replay makes their actual capacity seem plausible if they are min-maxing.

Someone who plans out their build order can look like cheating. I haven't found a clear cheater yet.

says the guys that has been banned

[sskendall]

Originally posted by EELuminatus:

Thanks for telling!
Since the leaderboards need to be cleaned up manually, we're only doing it every now and then, but I guess it's about time, again. I hope I can also implement some better cheat protection, but that's admittedly not considered a high priority change - most speedrunners can easily tell fake entries from realistic results, so they don't care too much, as far as I know... but of course it would be much nicer to keep these leaderboards clean.

The same cheat still has scores up