Plausible Ways To Spot a cheater

[Lance]

The fact is that the cheats are enabled by the custom firmware, even if there are theoretical ways to accomplish it also. The problem, as usual, is the will to cheat. In practical terms in this case, disallowing the custom FW by coded file-locking and/or encryption would disallow the cheating done by the currently available method. Deal with that first. If another cheating method is later implemented despite its being more difficult and unlikely to occur than the one currently in use, then dealing with it can be attempted in its own time. The important thing is to stop the cheating now. It is useless to blame cheating on those who did nor foresee better how the weaknesses would be abused, but it is up to them to seek the cure and to implement it.

[phl0w]

I think the disussion is futile to the point that two fundamental principles seem to clash: The one being that a weapon is to be fired in the hands of people, rendering the object, i.e. the weapon, evil, while the other side (which I count myself to, and I think Jack either) makes people accountable for their acts, despite the opportunity.
Just because it's possible to do anything, doesn't necessarily mean that you're supposed to do so. The most important facet is that any possibility is needed, whether or not it results in good or evil acting, which results in our needing (is that even a proper gerund?) to concentrate our main focus on people choosing.

[zerojay]

As I said in the other cheater topic (maybe they should be merged?)...

Custom firmware doesn't have to be on the bad side of things. It's a tool... and as such, it can be used for good and evil.

There's nothing stopping someone from making a custom firmware module which blocks the use of standard cheating modules as well as verifying the underlying files used by Wipeout... hell, even recording a video of the session to memory stick while being played (which is already possible).

That would be the absolute best form of verification. Ghost ship + recorded video + verified good files/anti-cheat.

Just an idea.

[Lance]

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Most of the recent posts, including mine, should be in the other thread or in one devoted to discussing the philosophy of cheating and proper assignment of blame. This thread is supposed to be about how to spOt cheaters. Please now confine the discussion in this thread to its original subject. We've gone offtopic at least long enough.
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[CR4SH3D]

just wanted to check this for when i finally get a psp
IF you have something like pandora your running on your psp, and you play pulse online WITH the umd, it isnt going to mess about for other players is it?

[Lance]

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Is that question about something that might give the appearance of cheating?
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[Flashback Jack]

IF you have something like pandora your running on your psp, and you play pulse online WITH the umd, it isnt going to mess about for other players is it?

The answer is no. Pandora doesn't run unless you tell it to, does not remain resident in the PSP's memory, and is used for little aside from altering the EPROM in the battery.

- F

[CR4SH3D]

//lance
no i was just curious because id like to get a psp and get the most out of it, but the main reason would be to get pure and pulse and not cheat, i love wipeout way to much to bother doing that, i was just curious as to whether any form of "modded" psp would have a negative impact when playing online, sorry if it came across otherwise

//flashback jack
cheers for clearing that up

[infoxicated]

Okay, that's enough with the Custom Firmware talk.

Like Lance said, back on topic.

[mdhay]

Yeah, though I don't think there is a topic left anymore.

But I can't find any other ways that cheaters are behaving, but I'll keep editing the first post when I find 'em.

[Medusa]

I know that it's technically not cheating, but if someone racing online has a connection that's so slow that it is impossible to get a weapons lock on him, I consider that an unfair advantage. I had the misfortune of racing Nuit - I've read somewhere that he's not on CF but just has bad lag - well I don't care! It's flippin' aggravating watching his ship fly off the track into outer space and vanish, then have him 3 seconds behind, then suddenly appear 10 seconds ahead!!! Why go online if lag is that bad? It can't be any better racing on his end if it's just lag!!!! *ends rant*

Just had to get that out of my system.

[Sausehuhn]

Hm.
Maybe for him is just everything fine and he sees you laggy because of his own lag? I experienced that playing Xlink when my connection was laggy.

[Frances_Penfold]

I have no idea about Nuit or anybody else, but there are folks who purposely lag their online games to give themselves an advantage-- I think that's mostly for FPS games, however.

Otherwise, yeah, you probably look as bad on Nuit's game as he does on yours.

On balance, I have been fairly impressed with the smoothness of online play-- some folks do seem to have severe lag but that's the exception, at least so far, in my own experience.

[rdmx]

lag their online games to give themselves an advantage-- I think that's mostly for FPS games, however.

This can sometimes be seen in counter-strike. There are some console commands that determine how much data you send and recieve from the server. Some people make these as low as possible so no one can hit them. Although these people are subsequently banned as this is not allowed.

[Rapier Racer]

Heres a plausible way to spot a cheater, how about bringing that ban stick in here? 10 second advantage in a Feisar? Don't think so somehow thats just blatant.

[infoxicated]

It's being dealt with, Stephen - we cant just go charging in with quick fixes or banning people left right and center, so we'd rather take our time to work out ways of eliminating erronous times, then deal with cheaters.

[Rapier Racer]

Yeah sorry I think I need to stay off the site till you guys fix it, cos when you log in then see that, self control flies away down Moa Therma.

[Au_Xtr3me]

Why on earth would anyone go to all that effort to cheat when they are:

Soundly beaten by skillful players
Ganged up on in races
And labeled as pricks

seeing as all the record tables are shonked, perhaps on the US release, ALL the ranks are cleared and everyone is informed that they need to upload their profile. It should tidy things up and get rid of ridiculous 20 second venom times.

Some things may be latency issues mis associated with cheating.

Cheating comes in the form of
a: correctly associated impacts with weapons and no slow down
b: no apparent damage (eg not absorbing anything)
c: more speed boosts or barrel rolls than is possible in one lap (0-4)
d: consistent behaviour of the above

[realityhole]

just been reading through the posts, took quite a while
anyway, i was surprised at the custom firmware part, a friend has cfw and he's overclocked the psp, so this would make games LESS laggy i think, of course it could be annyoing waiting for the loading if someone on a cfw hadn't overclocked if they were running a pirated game. To be honest with my official psp i have had some issues too, i was shot as with rockets and they seemed to pass through (or maybe they wever VERY close, lol), and the psp kept crashing at connecting to universe, although it worked after I restarted my router. anway, lets stop talking about this (not sure if we are allowed too, sorry if were not but as there were other posts i assume we are), and discuss ways people with official psps might be cheating. By lagging their connection they would have an advantage...

[zargz]

hey there! I raced you yesterday

welcome here!

and don't forget - Never DC!