How to become a NS2 Cheater/Hacker
GhoulofGSG9
Join Date: 2013-03-31 Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
Join Date: 2013-03-31 Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
Either you die as "noob" or live long enough to become a 'hacker"
As lately more players started to accuse other of cheating again and after reading some of those accuses i realized there are still some misunderstandings about the NS2 gameplay leading to the believe that certain people cheat.
Warning: Wall of text incoming.
POSITIONING
The golden key to win a fight in NS2 is how you enter it. Simple called your positioning. As long as aliens are not in melee-range marines always are in favor of winning the fight. Therefor it’s important for aliens to close the distance to the marine as much as possible while marines want to keep aliens as far away as possible.
Basically you can only win a direct combat as alien if you are able to land the first bite before the marine even notice that he got hit.
That’s the very reason skulks have parasite. So they are able to follow the enemies movement and are able to create the needed opening.
SOUND
Many players don’t realize how sound driven NS2 is. A veteran is able to basically locate every enemy with sound alone. Competitive players even know every location on a map from which they are able to hear into the next room to locate every single enemy. This means if one of your teammates forgets to move silently you give away your position which means the enemies can adjust their position to their favor.
MINIMAP DETECTION
Many player do not realize that the minimap detection is not only working with the player’s line of view but 3D. This means if a marine walks directly below a skulk he will still see that skulk at his minimap. This means you have to directly attack or retreat as alien in that situation. Because otherwise the marine (who always has a look at his minimap) will turn around and shoot you. For new players this might look a lot like the player is using a aimbot but it’s only the minimap.
Also the map is overall always useful to track the enemies movement and to adjust your positioning to your favor.
CLOSE COMBAT
Once the alien has managed to catch up to the marine it should the goal to try to keep the distance as close as possible while the marine tries to use strafe jumps to get away. However i see a lot skulk players jumping away from the marine after landing the first bite instead of cycling around him. This just allows the marine to directly kill you while getting the next med-pack making it possible for one marine to kill 4-5 skulks alone.
AMMO MANAGEMENT
Every bullet can decide the end of a fight as marine. Therefore don’t “spray and pray”. Also avoid reloading in a direct combat situation instead if there is only one low enemy left switch to the pistol. As alien try to make the marine wasting as much of his ammo as possible before engaging.
HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Basically always have an eye on your health points (hp). Avoid to enter a fight with less than 50 % of your hp unless you are moving as team. As alien better retreat, recover and retry when you are alone. Otherwise you won’t be even able to close up to a marine.
As marine it is recommended to carry a welder with you for exactly this reason of maintaining the effective hit points of yourself and your teammates.
HUMAN REACTION TIME AND NETWORK LATENCY
Always have in mind that it will take you opponent about half a second to react to your engagement. So use that time wisely. Good positioning and map awareness allow you to maximize the gain of this half second.
AIM (Marine)
The better your aim is the higher is your damage output and as more aliens are you able to kill in a fight. With a bit training you should be able to get at least an accuracy of 15 %. After that you can boost your accuracy up to 20 % by good positioning and teamwork.
Accuracies beyond 20% are possible but require intensive training. Therefore most player with those kind of values are playing or have played either ns2 or a familiar shooter competitively.
CONCLUSION
Having all these factors in mind you might now understand why it’s often hard to decide if a person is cheating or not. Often players just master all the above factors to gain an advantage which looks like they would cheat. However sometimes people use cheats to make up for their lack of understanding these factors.
Basically to differ between cheaters and good players have a look how they exactly enter combat and also at their minimap.
As lately more players started to accuse other of cheating again and after reading some of those accuses i realized there are still some misunderstandings about the NS2 gameplay leading to the believe that certain people cheat.
Warning: Wall of text incoming.
POSITIONING
The golden key to win a fight in NS2 is how you enter it. Simple called your positioning. As long as aliens are not in melee-range marines always are in favor of winning the fight. Therefor it’s important for aliens to close the distance to the marine as much as possible while marines want to keep aliens as far away as possible.
Basically you can only win a direct combat as alien if you are able to land the first bite before the marine even notice that he got hit.
That’s the very reason skulks have parasite. So they are able to follow the enemies movement and are able to create the needed opening.
SOUND
Many players don’t realize how sound driven NS2 is. A veteran is able to basically locate every enemy with sound alone. Competitive players even know every location on a map from which they are able to hear into the next room to locate every single enemy. This means if one of your teammates forgets to move silently you give away your position which means the enemies can adjust their position to their favor.
MINIMAP DETECTION
Many player do not realize that the minimap detection is not only working with the player’s line of view but 3D. This means if a marine walks directly below a skulk he will still see that skulk at his minimap. This means you have to directly attack or retreat as alien in that situation. Because otherwise the marine (who always has a look at his minimap) will turn around and shoot you. For new players this might look a lot like the player is using a aimbot but it’s only the minimap.
Also the map is overall always useful to track the enemies movement and to adjust your positioning to your favor.
CLOSE COMBAT
Once the alien has managed to catch up to the marine it should the goal to try to keep the distance as close as possible while the marine tries to use strafe jumps to get away. However i see a lot skulk players jumping away from the marine after landing the first bite instead of cycling around him. This just allows the marine to directly kill you while getting the next med-pack making it possible for one marine to kill 4-5 skulks alone.
AMMO MANAGEMENT
Every bullet can decide the end of a fight as marine. Therefore don’t “spray and pray”. Also avoid reloading in a direct combat situation instead if there is only one low enemy left switch to the pistol. As alien try to make the marine wasting as much of his ammo as possible before engaging.
HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Basically always have an eye on your health points (hp). Avoid to enter a fight with less than 50 % of your hp unless you are moving as team. As alien better retreat, recover and retry when you are alone. Otherwise you won’t be even able to close up to a marine.
As marine it is recommended to carry a welder with you for exactly this reason of maintaining the effective hit points of yourself and your teammates.
HUMAN REACTION TIME AND NETWORK LATENCY
Always have in mind that it will take you opponent about half a second to react to your engagement. So use that time wisely. Good positioning and map awareness allow you to maximize the gain of this half second.
AIM (Marine)
The better your aim is the higher is your damage output and as more aliens are you able to kill in a fight. With a bit training you should be able to get at least an accuracy of 15 %. After that you can boost your accuracy up to 20 % by good positioning and teamwork.
Accuracies beyond 20% are possible but require intensive training. Therefore most player with those kind of values are playing or have played either ns2 or a familiar shooter competitively.
CONCLUSION
Having all these factors in mind you might now understand why it’s often hard to decide if a person is cheating or not. Often players just master all the above factors to gain an advantage which looks like they would cheat. However sometimes people use cheats to make up for their lack of understanding these factors.
Basically to differ between cheaters and good players have a look how they exactly enter combat and also at their minimap.
Comments
Aw ghoul, you just made every rookie become pr0 now
Must be that +5 agility leather belt
Pffffftt... More like boots of haste
wait... never-mind they don't have it most of the time.
+4 str +4 sta leather belt?
So you did fall for that bait. Great at least it works as intended
Ofc, there's still the issue with legit, skilled players killing pubs and somewhat contributing to the low pop issue, but it's been talked to death already with (afaik) no solution for the near future. In this case, I just recommend that the rest of the server, if the majority feels so, kindly ask said player to go somewhere else. It usually works at any rate. After all, vote kicking doesn't prevent the player from coming back.
Yea ns2's skill curve is a double edged sword. It's what makes the game unique, but also what makes it harder to get into. I'm working on a much more comprehensive set of tutorials to hopefully bridge that game a little better.
AIM (Marine)? I guess it only applies to marines? When you're a lerk or a fade, you really don't need to aim, or even as skulk... xD...
Well if you miss given bites, swipes snd gores.. You die
I'm guessing, twitch maneuvers vs tracking aim... but then again, them spikes are made for shootn
This literally cannot happen the way ns2 works. Yes, with the small delays inherent in ANY multiplayer game, you can get killed around a corner because on the other person's screen, you were still in their sights. But COMPLETELY through a wall, like... they never cross into the open? Not going to happen.
If what you claim is really really happening, get it on video for us. Use shadowplay.
But I've died a full second around a corner.
In that situation, you're already dead, you just haven't realized it yet. Especially if they've got or you've got some janky ping.
Also, 180s aren't difficult, especially if you're making too much noise. If they 180 you before you get that first bite in, and you have phantom, and they didn't spot you on the mini, command map, then that's an issue.
If you can see a marine, he can see you on his command map.
Nothing more
You can kill completely through walls, as some when a lifeform or marine can stick a body part through the wall, lets take ET hive on Tram, that "Fence" like wall you can kill skulks that stick to it, as there legs come through it, the vent in Logi that goes up over and under the doorway a marines head sticks out the top, there is other vents / walls on other maps this happens.
Off course you cant kill stuff on the other side off a wall, thats just silly, This however is a nice feature :P
That is one common way I have seen people think I shoot them through walls.
come to think of it, your butt also sticks out when "already around the corner". The four legged dinosaurs!
Also, Falls in Biodome. The glass in the room next to the RT is thin enough that a skulk's head pops right through it.