Speed-Hacks: Growing Issue

[Shwheelz 1]

Lotus Clan servers are my favorite to play on. They offer a moderately competitive environment with few people bugging others about trading. Recently, however, speed-hackers have been dominating the LC servers. There is no end to the hacking. Today I was running out of the enemy base, winning capture in hand on a game tied 2-2. Sure enough, speed-hacking Spy comes out of nowhere and guts me. I spawn again, sticky-jump over to the enemy base, fight my way through three opponents, and look this spy in the eye as I picked up the Intelligence a second time. I run toward him, Eyelander in hand. He runs at me. We are face-to-face, eyes locked, ready to clash sword to knife.... and he backstabbed me. Just like that. Not a facestab; he managed to get behind me (this time I saw the speed hack explicitly.) To make a long story short, I touched the intel twice more, but to no avail. The enemy team's scout made his way through our base and got the winning capture for the other team.

Lotus Clan, this cannot go on. One can not anticipate the use of these hacks and therefore cannot catch everything on a demo video that must be initiated in advance. Lotus Clan, you will lose players if this problem cannot be taken care of, whether it's the implementation of "Official Replays" or constant moderation, stricter action must take place against these people that ruin the game for players like me. I run into a speed-hacker at least once out of every three times I play on a Lotus server. This is unacceptable

[Barbaro 466]

I barely see any Administrators on the servers I play on. Perhaps their recruitment and privilege system is turning into an Eternal Reward into the back.

I'd agree with you on the part about the hacks, I don't seem them often but when I do, its impossible to continue playing without having the point and fun ruined by a Heavy with a wallhack.

I wonder if its due to impart of the SV settings, if enough thought it given, its no doubt likely that someone will create a hack that will make this effectively useless.

Edit: Found this.

We have 27 servers on 3 games, we cant have someone camping the servers at all times. Thats why we depend on server locals who care about their server, like you. If you report them and have proof we'll take care of it. Just sucks how some people are too lazy and would rather watch the servers get fucked.

*Cough*

[Nano 7,892]

This isn't a Lotus problem. This is a TF2 problem. If speedhacks only applied to Lotus then maybe you'd have a point, but they don't. Lotus has similar or better handling of hackers than all of their compeition. There is nobody out there who you could compare to Lotus who does a better job of policing all the servers.

Is it annoying? Yes.

Are regular players given the ability to vote to ban offenders immediately? Yes.

Lotus gets on average between 1-3 ban requests in an average day through the forums. That is for something like 88 consecutive games playing for 24 hours. They have numerous plugins blocking hacks that Valve is too lazy to fix (even though they know about them.) They are being both proactive and reactive to hackers and I'm not sure what else they can do that would be within reason.

The other bad option often thrown around is to increase the number of admins on servers. Reality check. Most people who want to admin are looking for power (which they inevitably end up abusing) and are not looking out for the best interests of Lotus.

@OP you mention stricter action taken? You realize it is a permanent ban from all lotus servers for the first time someone is caught hacking right?

[+Cactus 4,948]

It is useful to note that, between the 3 games run on Lotus servers, there are over 100 servers. I am not privvy to the current number of admins, but it is certainly far less than 100 (maybe 10?). It is simply not possible to have admins on all servers in a community as large as Lotus.

Lotus relies on its regulars to report hacking. This can be done via the forum (in the bans section) or by adding an admin to your friends list and messaging them if/when you encounter an issue. This lets them assess the situation more quickly and take action. Failing this, as ProLoser said, there is also votekick/voteban.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Cactus

[Kuroboom 0]

Voteban doesn't always work, i.e. when the team the hacker is on is winning.

This was a long time ago, but I was playing payload and there was an aimbotting Heavy. He would consistently snipe me with his minigun from across the map and to make it worse, he had a medic on his team faithfully protecting him. I confronted the medic about it and he didn't give a shit. It didn't matter to him or the rest of his team that the Heavy was cheating--they were winning. That's why most votes to bring balance (votescramble) will typically fail along team lines. The winning team doesn't care about fair play, they only care about winning.

There's always replays, but you have to use the console commands to do so on Lotus servers, if I'm not mistaken. I've never used them, so I'd have to look up how to do that.

Still, the main complaint I'm getting is that there aren't enough police patrolling the streets. I understand this isn't feasible with Lotus' numbers and whatnot, but people usually want justice to be swift and merciless.

[Nano 7,892]

Voteban doesn't always work, i.e. when the team the hacker is on is winning.

This was a long time ago, but I was playing payload and there was an aimbotting Heavy. He would consistently snipe me with his minigun from across the map and to make it worse, he had a medic on his team faithfully protecting him. I confronted the medic about it and he didn't give a shit. It didn't matter to him or the rest of his team that the Heavy was cheating--they were winning. That's why most votes to bring balance (votescramble) will typically fail along team lines. The winning team doesn't care about fair play, they only care about winning.

There's always replays, but you have to use the console commands to do so on Lotus servers, if I'm not mistaken. I've never used them, so I'd have to look up how to do that.

Still, the main complaint I'm getting is that there aren't enough police patrolling the streets. I understand this isn't feasible with Lotus' numbers and whatnot, but people usually want justice to be swift and merciless.

If you are looking for an easy way to record a demo, try seads (http://code.google.com/p/seads/). You can start and stop a demo with the press of a button (no console required). It will even automatically name files as you go. Whenever I see something weird I just hit the button and keep playing. Doesn't interrupt my gameplay at all. The files are tiny (something like 1MB/min so there is no space issue like there is with fraps.

[+Cactus 4,948]

If you are looking for an easy way to record a demo, try seads (http://code.google.com/p/seads/). You can start and stop a demo with the press of a button (no console required). It will even automatically name files as you go. Whenever I see something weird I just hit the button and keep playing. Doesn't interrupt my gameplay at all. The files are tiny (something like 1MB/min so there is no space issue like there is with fraps.

Or open console, type "record demoname" and then "status" and then "stop" when the demo is done. Three easy commands.

Voteban doesn't always work, i.e. when the team the hacker is on is winning.

There's always replays, but you have to use the console commands to do so on Lotus servers, if I'm not mistaken. I've never used them, so I'd have to look up how to do that.

Still, the main complaint I'm getting is that there aren't enough police patrolling the streets. I understand this isn't feasible with Lotus' numbers and whatnot, but people usually want justice to be swift and merciless.

As I said - a great way to deal with this is to add an admin and request their help.

[pockets 1,841]

Admin List

http://forums.gaming...271-admin-list/

It wouldn't hurt to add all the staff members to your friends list (Mana included). They are more likely to take swift action against blatant hackers.

[Barbaro 466]

Admin List

http://forums.gaming...271-admin-list/

It wouldn't hurt to add all the staff members to your friends list (Mana included). They are more likely to take swift action against blatant hackers.

I never see any of them when I'm online. *Central USA, mornings and variable* Also, Steam Community is down, that list is effectively null.

Again, I'm in Central, Global Admins are too wide in the area they have to monitor.

Or open console, type "record demoname" and then "status" and then "stop" when the demo is done. Three easy commands.

As I said - a great way to deal with this is to add an admin and request their help.

You posted the means of recording a demo when its already been made useless with Pro's tips.

If you are looking for an easy way to record a demo, try seads (http://code.google.com/p/seads/). You can start and stop a demo with the press of a button (no console required). It will even automatically name files as you go. Whenever I see something weird I just hit the button and keep playing. Doesn't interrupt my gameplay at all. The files are tiny (something like 1MB/min so there is no space issue like there is with fraps.

The problem is that once someone starts recording, careful hackers will stop using it. There are several who will 'get the point' when someone is watching them, then there are those with Ghost Profiles that take a 'One Night Stand' who won't care if anyone is trying to stop them, they'll keep using it till they are banned, then move onto a different account, using a different cheat with sv *There's a way around SourceBans.* etc, etc. Point being, while they can be removed both swiftly and quickly or slow-mo, the damage that they cause, however, can NOT be recovered.

If the servers appear that no one is watching or such, this sort of behavior WILL continue. A presence, and not in the form of Administrators is needed, perhaps a community tag showing that there are people that are connected to Lotus?

Voteban doesn't always work, i.e. when the team the hacker is on is winning.

This was a long time ago, but I was playing payload and there was an aimbotting Heavy. He would consistently snipe me with his minigun from across the map and to make it worse, he had a medic on his team faithfully protecting him. I confronted the medic about it and he didn't give a shit. It didn't matter to him or the rest of his team that the Heavy was cheating--they were winning. That's why most votes to bring balance (votescramble) will typically fail along team lines. The winning team doesn't care about fair play, they only care about winning.

There's always replays, but you have to use the console commands to do so on Lotus servers, if I'm not mistaken. I've never used them, so I'd have to look up how to do that.

Still, the main complaint I'm getting is that there aren't enough police patrolling the streets. I understand this isn't feasible with Lotus' numbers and whatnot, but people usually want justice to be swift and merciless.

That event doesn't sound like it was a long time ago, it happened on a Stocks server in Texas, Heavy with a Medic, aimbot. Turns a 180 when a Spy or not, even though he's mowing down the enemy.

That shit pisses me off to no ends, and makes me not want to play on that server for a while.

Point being, we can all agree on more admins being a bad idea. However the thought of keeping it short IS a bad idea!

You don't need to give more privileges, recruit more, etc, no you are not seeing the point. The point is that you want to DISCOURAGE the use of cheats. Why waste time trying out people for privileges when you can simply make it known that the servers ARE being watched? While the admins listed on the page might not mind being called for every hacker, idiot, etc on the server, they are no doubt volunteers and shouldn't be depended on too much. We all have lives.

I think less than 1/3rd of the current active players on the TF2 Lotus servers actually come on here to post on the forums. Since most people care more about having fun and not this 'serious business', it should send a clear message that something is wrong.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Ajju

[+Cactus 4,948]

You posted the means of recording a demo when its already been made useless with Pro's tips.

I posted the normal (and still pretty easy) way of recording demos, adding the fact that you need a status command for the demo to be considered valid for banning purposes. Even if you used Pro's program, you still need to go to console and do status. This way is easier for people who are not constantly on the prowl for cheaters to do a 1-off demo if need be without setting up an external program to do so.

A presence, and not in the form of Administrators is needed, perhaps a community tag showing that there are people that are connected to Lotus?

You mean like L-r? There are more recruits than there are admins. You're pretty active here, why not join Lotus and wear the tag?

[Nano 7,892]

Even if you used Pro's program, you still need to go to console and do status.

Thanks for pointing that out Cactus

[Barbaro 466]

I posted the normal (and still pretty easy) way of recording demos, adding the fact that you need a status command for the demo to be considered valid for banning purposes. Even if you used Pro's program, you still need to go to console and do status. This way is easier for people who are not constantly on the prowl for cheaters to do a 1-off demo if need be without setting up an external program to do so.

You mean like L-r? There are more recruits than there are admins. You're pretty active here, why not join Lotus and wear the tag?

Because I'm not allowed to.

Thanks for pointing that out Cactus

Apologies to Pro. Statement withdrawn!

That still doesn't ignore the fact that as far as I'm aware (And quite a few people on mah Friend's list), I haven't seen any administration or the presence of being watched. I'd love to help out but I don't see that opportunity happening anytime soon. Luckily I've gotten some dosh so now I have SOME form of starting things but when you have numbnuts from across the planet who speak something that I can't ever hope to understand, the Voting system crashes, burns, and sits there like a defiled Gummy Bear.

[Mana 3,867]

Which servers are these speedhackers frequenting? Some of our servers have a plugin which is supposed to stop such things.

But not all of them.

It be helpful to know if this plugin is working or if it's simply not loaded on affected servers.

[sneefa 1]

any updates on the admin apps?

[Barbaro 466]

Which servers are these speedhackers frequenting? Some of our servers have a plugin which is supposed to stop such things.

But not all of them.

It be helpful to know if this plugin is working or if it's simply not loaded on affected servers.

I will make a list of where its happening, but it happens most often on Stock Servers and more often in Payload maps, where it can be difficult to detect, but some of us know the signs.

[Vaginal Hubris 2,659]

A presence, and not in the form of Administrators is needed, perhaps a community tag showing that there are people that are connected to Lotus?

I guess it just depends on where you are playing. A lot of L and L-r play on East Coast servers, but I mostly play on the Chicago Stock Map server. I also have played on the Texas servers from time to time. It also could be there is a presence when you aren't there, but I do see your point.

[HeadSh0tBrent 2,156]

Any admins have a dark dark lightly green. You can tell it apart from a donor.

[DEATH STRIKE 573]

I am on almost everyday( East Coast 2 Fort). If you need me just ask someone on the server to contact me There is always someone on my Friends List playing. I will responed if I am not at work.

[Alex Soulbane 13]

I have not seen this (yet). I'm on almost every day, mainly 'round the 24/7 dustbowl servers, and really haven't experienced this.

Maybe I just haven't noticedd, but I'll look out for it. Can't do too much as a recruit, but I'll report anyone who seems to be hacking ^^

[Willerms 1,794]

Cocaine