Trash.ca
Spectacularly Lethal Soldier
I've noticed that when potential admins are considered the questions asked are usually hypothetical scenarios that test their understanding of the rules and as a way of testing their potential admin abuse but one thing i never see is testing them on how they identify cheaters. In my humble opinion, a large portion of the tf2 players i encounter on skial have no idea what cheats look like or what they should be looking for. Most are not aware of spectator delay or gauge a suspected cheater purely on their aim. What im trying to say is that the methods some people (and some admins) use to identify a cheater could be improved. I've been banned by new admins 2 times now which prompted me to make this. Im not hating or anything, i just think it would be great to increase awareness on identifying cheaters. I dont expect every new admin to be able to do their job properly but being banned twice made me realise you guys dont even try to help these guys when it comes to sniffing out cheaters so heres some info that i think new admins (or just players really) would find useful:
One thing im sure all admins are capable of doing is identifying blatant cheaters. Im talking about the ones that do 360s and crank out headshot after headshot. These are bad cheaters and it doesnt take any thinking to ban them. Something i notice is that people often mix up the terms associated with cheats or use different definitions, for consistency i'll just define what i consider a few terms to be :
Aimkey: When held down the aimbot is active, when not held aimbot is inactive and the user aims manually.
Triggerbot: Does not affect your crosshair movement, only fires when the player puts the xhair over an enemy. Some people think it triggers their aim to flick however this is not true afaik.
Silent Aim: This is what most people are referring to when they think of aimlocking. Here's where it gets interesting, in source games the field of view to which these cheats can cause your aim to flick to a target can be configured. A poorly configured one may use a large FOV which would cause blatantly inconsistent flicks to hit consistently. A properly configured low FOV aimbot however is much more difficult to see in spectator, and in my opinion 100% impossible to spot. Because the aimlock only triggers when your xhair is only a few degrees away from the enemy and when your aimkey is held down, the flicks look really natural in spectator. I've even defended a silent aim user because i was unaware of them using it, thats how hard it is to know. This is also the type of cheats csgo pros use which some supposedly pay upwards of $100k to code so it can bypass custom LAN anticheat. Scouts/heavies usually use a higher fov aimbot than snipers.
I thought i'd list a few ways you can identify a cheater OTHER THAN their aim:
1) Look at their movement, if they look like they're moving on a controller or cant strafe properly or show any signs of movement of an experienced player but their aim is god tier then theres a higher chance they might be cheating.
2) Look at their xhair placement. Tf2 classes have varying heights so someone with a wallhack would place their xhair at an angle at different heights based on what class is going to peek. For example, i have a general height where i place my xhair and i adjust based on what class is peeking me because i have no idea whats going to peek (unless ik im fighting a sniper or a player keeps doing the same thing) however someone with wallhacks might have a higher xhair placement when a sniper is peeking but a lower xhair placement when a scout is going to peek or an engineer.
3)Look at how they kill other players from the dead player's perspective. This might sound silly but (especially during sniper 1v1s) you just know when an enemy sniper is cheating. The way they peek and their time to kill looks normal but it feels off. This is something that can only be gained from gamesense and playing but its definitely a real thing and experienced snipers ( like soo) would agree that it exists. Heres an example : https://www.skial.com/threads/vertillex-aimbot-toggling.69261/
I never caught him when i spec'd him (didnt know about !spec at the time) however i knew he was cheating because he felt off from my POV and it turns out he got VAC banned a few days later. This might be hard to determine from a demo but if the suspect is still on maybe its wise to try and fight them to get a general idea what you think about their deathmatch skills.
4)Other than private profiles or level 0 ones, a suspect with edgy names or people trying hard to bait a response out of others are probably cheating. They do it to get a reaction out of you.Definitely not nearly a determining factor but all of these things are worth considering.
Enough with the wall of text, lets go on to some visual examples:
1)Spectator delay can look pretty weird but its just something you have to deal with. Here's a clip of a demo recorded on LAN showcasing how stupid it can look.
Fast flicks are properly recorded on the suspect's POV,on their end the flick looks normal while in spectator it looks like their aim hasnt moved:
2)Heres a poorly censored in post demonstrating how the wallhack XHAIR thing would look (Note: the guy in the clip WAS NOT cheating this is just an example of how it COULD look) Notice how they change xhair height based on what class was peeking.
3) heres some vids demonstrating silent aim in csgo however the same concept applies to tf2:
Bit longer video but imho its a great vid to watch if you're interested in this type of stuff:
4) Its important to keep in mind that tf2 is a very chaotic game and despite some stuff looking incredibly shady it can be boiled down to luck in the heat of the moment. For example look at how i accidentally headshot this cloaked spy while aiming for the other one:
That would look shady in spectator, it would look like my xhair was noway near that guy yet a cloak spy dies however when reviewing my pov you can clearly see it looks normal. Im only showing you this to emphasis how different stuff can look from spectator.
Keep in mind sound is also a great factor in tf2 and i personally think some of you guys overlook the info sound can provide. Here's an extreme example that was obviously lucky but the point im trying to make is keep your wits about you when watching demos. This looks blatant but with some paid attention it can be explained:
So whats the point of this long post?
TL;DR:
I personally think that in admin applications some questions should be geared towards the admin's ability to identify cheaters. Doesnt sound like a huge issue right? It really isnt but some form of evaluation about their overall knowledge on how cheats look would be nice. Nothing major, maybe just being able to understand spectator delay and just how cheats look. Provided some info so it doesnt look like im just flaming but i think you guys would find it useful. Keep in mind i can assume you guys arent helping the new admins because ive been hammer'd twice by newer ones however i know this is not true but it can happen to any other decent player that might sour their taste of skial.
One thing im sure all admins are capable of doing is identifying blatant cheaters. Im talking about the ones that do 360s and crank out headshot after headshot. These are bad cheaters and it doesnt take any thinking to ban them. Something i notice is that people often mix up the terms associated with cheats or use different definitions, for consistency i'll just define what i consider a few terms to be :
Aimkey: When held down the aimbot is active, when not held aimbot is inactive and the user aims manually.
Triggerbot: Does not affect your crosshair movement, only fires when the player puts the xhair over an enemy. Some people think it triggers their aim to flick however this is not true afaik.
Silent Aim: This is what most people are referring to when they think of aimlocking. Here's where it gets interesting, in source games the field of view to which these cheats can cause your aim to flick to a target can be configured. A poorly configured one may use a large FOV which would cause blatantly inconsistent flicks to hit consistently. A properly configured low FOV aimbot however is much more difficult to see in spectator, and in my opinion 100% impossible to spot. Because the aimlock only triggers when your xhair is only a few degrees away from the enemy and when your aimkey is held down, the flicks look really natural in spectator. I've even defended a silent aim user because i was unaware of them using it, thats how hard it is to know. This is also the type of cheats csgo pros use which some supposedly pay upwards of $100k to code so it can bypass custom LAN anticheat. Scouts/heavies usually use a higher fov aimbot than snipers.
I thought i'd list a few ways you can identify a cheater OTHER THAN their aim:
1) Look at their movement, if they look like they're moving on a controller or cant strafe properly or show any signs of movement of an experienced player but their aim is god tier then theres a higher chance they might be cheating.
2) Look at their xhair placement. Tf2 classes have varying heights so someone with a wallhack would place their xhair at an angle at different heights based on what class is going to peek. For example, i have a general height where i place my xhair and i adjust based on what class is peeking me because i have no idea whats going to peek (unless ik im fighting a sniper or a player keeps doing the same thing) however someone with wallhacks might have a higher xhair placement when a sniper is peeking but a lower xhair placement when a scout is going to peek or an engineer.
3)Look at how they kill other players from the dead player's perspective. This might sound silly but (especially during sniper 1v1s) you just know when an enemy sniper is cheating. The way they peek and their time to kill looks normal but it feels off. This is something that can only be gained from gamesense and playing but its definitely a real thing and experienced snipers ( like soo) would agree that it exists. Heres an example : https://www.skial.com/threads/vertillex-aimbot-toggling.69261/
I never caught him when i spec'd him (didnt know about !spec at the time) however i knew he was cheating because he felt off from my POV and it turns out he got VAC banned a few days later. This might be hard to determine from a demo but if the suspect is still on maybe its wise to try and fight them to get a general idea what you think about their deathmatch skills.
4)Other than private profiles or level 0 ones, a suspect with edgy names or people trying hard to bait a response out of others are probably cheating. They do it to get a reaction out of you.Definitely not nearly a determining factor but all of these things are worth considering.
Enough with the wall of text, lets go on to some visual examples:
1)Spectator delay can look pretty weird but its just something you have to deal with. Here's a clip of a demo recorded on LAN showcasing how stupid it can look.
Fast flicks are properly recorded on the suspect's POV,on their end the flick looks normal while in spectator it looks like their aim hasnt moved:
2)Heres a poorly censored in post demonstrating how the wallhack XHAIR thing would look (Note: the guy in the clip WAS NOT cheating this is just an example of how it COULD look) Notice how they change xhair height based on what class was peeking.
3) heres some vids demonstrating silent aim in csgo however the same concept applies to tf2:
Bit longer video but imho its a great vid to watch if you're interested in this type of stuff:
4) Its important to keep in mind that tf2 is a very chaotic game and despite some stuff looking incredibly shady it can be boiled down to luck in the heat of the moment. For example look at how i accidentally headshot this cloaked spy while aiming for the other one:
That would look shady in spectator, it would look like my xhair was noway near that guy yet a cloak spy dies however when reviewing my pov you can clearly see it looks normal. Im only showing you this to emphasis how different stuff can look from spectator.
Keep in mind sound is also a great factor in tf2 and i personally think some of you guys overlook the info sound can provide. Here's an extreme example that was obviously lucky but the point im trying to make is keep your wits about you when watching demos. This looks blatant but with some paid attention it can be explained:
So whats the point of this long post?
TL;DR:
I personally think that in admin applications some questions should be geared towards the admin's ability to identify cheaters. Doesnt sound like a huge issue right? It really isnt but some form of evaluation about their overall knowledge on how cheats look would be nice. Nothing major, maybe just being able to understand spectator delay and just how cheats look. Provided some info so it doesnt look like im just flaming but i think you guys would find it useful. Keep in mind i can assume you guys arent helping the new admins because ive been hammer'd twice by newer ones however i know this is not true but it can happen to any other decent player that might sour their taste of skial.
