Tip 28 - Cheating in TFC

URL: http://half-life.morat.net/tfc/guides/

FIRST. This is *NOT* a HOWTO-Cheat
Not not not. I will NOT be telling you how to cheat.
Cheating is lame. Only llamas cheat. Winners don't smoke llamas. Or something.

This is a guide to the current state of cheating in TFC as I know it. I don't cheat - so am probably behind the curve a bit.

This guide is intended as a WARNING - and especially to try and stem the tide of false accusations of cheating.

When someone 'beats you' in game - it probably means one of two things. They were better than you, or they got luckier than you.

When 'strange stuff' happens in game - it probably means one of two things. Your client glitched, or the server glitched.

Ok? It *probably* wasn't a cheat. This isn't counterstrike - cheating is pretty rare.

So now that's out of the way, what things CAN be done, and how do you go about spotting them?


Lets go with the big misconception first, shall we?

There is no cheat to make your weaponry do more damage - nor to be able to survive more damage.
These effects CAN be done through use of server settings.

First evilness is team / score balancing - which gives the losing side a massive advantage.
Secondly servers can edit skills.cfg (inside the pakfile) which sets all weapon damage etc.
And thirdly, a server with cheats enabled can give armour and health to anyone - but such a server can be easily crashed.

One final way exists to appear to take more damage than you should - which is to be lagged out. This means that client side prediction becomes innacurate, and a shot that you think hit may turn out to be a near miss.
Make sure of your kills and you'll be fine.


Right now for the things that really can go wrong.

1. He's moving at an incredible speed!

This has to be THE most blatant cheat ever. It sticks out like a sore thumb. HWGs moving like scous on speed. Its name is the 'win2k drivers cheat' even though it seems to be no longer confined to win2k.
If you see someone doing it who claims they can't stop it, then direct them to the planetfortress forum - it can be corrected, exploiting it is a cheat.

Now, some things to make absolutely sure of before accusing someone.
Are they actually a spy? Are they bunnyhopping / wallrunning? (some speed performance boost can be gained from these tactics) Has your client simply got confused as to which class they are? (They may LOOK like a HWG, but if they're firing a single nailgun, they're a scout)

2. He always hits! bot!

Be *very* careful of this accusation. Aimbots DO exist for halflife now, but they are actually pretty cruddy.
A person with a lot of skill may be offended if you accuse them of using an aimbot, and they are simply good.

Ways you can tell.

Occasionally firing at a corpse or someone else. AND HITTING. The aimbot isn't terribly good at telling one target from another, and wil simply fire at whatever they can.

Always uses hitscan weapons. Rockets and pipes are useless with the aimbot.

Is very easy to circle strafe against. The aimbot will lag behind the intended position - especially when it's firing nails. If they can ALWAYS hit when you are stopped or moving directly toward / away, but NEVER when moving across, then this is a clue. Not a very strong one, since normal aiming is harder then too :)

Total lack of other skills. If they always hit, but you still whoop them, because they can't dodge, or anticipate, or time grenades, then it may well be an aimbot.

But be careful. Oh, and ahahahahaha to the aimbot cheaters, the most common (better) ersion of the bot had a trojan in it :)


3. He can see through walls.

Various methods exist to do this.
Probably the worst is the voodoo doll hack - it puts spikes around everything, which stick through walls.
The colour of the spike shows what class they are, the width how far away, and the direction / motion shows which way they are facing / moving.

Almost certainly a few driver hacks to truly make walls transparent are in use too.

Signs that they are using this cheat are tricky - since a very good player can and will anticipate where you are.

However, here are a few.

If things become significantly easier for you when you start deliberately looking the wrong way when guarding an area - so that you only catch a glimpse of attackers in the corner of your eye, but are still able to react faster than them, and catch them by surprise.

Being conced / EMPed through the walls / floor is a hint, but by no means certain. If they do NOT conc / EMP when you are NOT there - then they may well be using the cheat. If they conc there whether or not you are there, they are either clever, or are taking a wild guess that you are likely to be there.

One other hint is that they can anticipate the impossible. If there are four possible doors out of your base, but the dot is always waiting for you at the one you choose, then they are either very fast, or are using this cheat and are very stupid.


4. He can fly.

It's called concjumping. Twit :)


5. He always knows that I'm a spy.

I am unaware of a cheat for this - they are probably very good, and you are acting a bit too obviously.

Or maybe they just fire at anyone who dares go near the flag, friend or foe....


6. While underwater he can tag me every time.

Some drivers are unable to fog the water, so it's crystal clear to them. This is borderline cheating - if their gfx card can fog the water without serious drop in framerate, then they ought to enable it.

Two more things for this - firstly, they might just be very good at guessing.
And secondly, if you hold your crosshairs over someone, even if they are fogged out, then their name appears, and they would know to shoot.

7. He can fire (sniper) from midair!

Yes, this is a cheat. If they fired only shortly before / after hitting the ground, then it is probably your client side prediction getting things wrong.


8. He teleports.

Again, there *is* a cheat for this, and it's one of those types of cheat which will cmoe and go.

It could also be caused by bad lag from them to the server. However, if their ping shows up low and smooth in the scores, then it's probably the cheat.


9. He can see behind him.

Type 'fov 270' into the console. Type 'fov 90' to reset it.

This is borderline cheating.

Also be aware that a HPW can turn rapidly on the spot, and so look around them, but their bad network connection would mean that you might not see it.


10. They just cannot be killed.

No cheat (other than sv_cheats, which is serverside) can do this.
Are they:
a. on your team
b. temporarily invulnerable (rock2)


11. They can just run past my sentries!

Sentry gun lock on time has increased as of TF1.5 - a good scout or medic can certainly evade a sentry.
Try shooting at them :)



Ok, that sums up all of them that I can think of right now.

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