Identifying a hacker/aim-bot user.

[Taboo]

Figure I may as well go ahead since understandably everyone is complaining about the hilarious abundance of hackers and aim-botters. That's just what happens when you make a nice little indie game from scratch, everyone else does their best to duck it up as badly as possible.

So anyway, from Hooch's original post over on MPGH, here's a basic list of the capabilities of the aim-bot he created (Actually, as you'll see, it goes way beyond just being an aim-bot, but whatever). His is basically the most common (read: pretty much all of my fellows are 12 year olds too lazy/stupid to develop their own), so it should be pretty much universal. Accompanying each "feature" is my own brief explanation

• No Spread All shots have (get this) more than 100% accuracy, I believe the value is somewhere in the thousands. Fortunately, this makes it really easy for the anti-aim-bot script to find the culprit.
• No Recoil In addition to the above, there's no screen shaking so aiming is constant (Implying the hacker is even really aiming, HAHA).
• Radar Hack Enemies are displayed on the map like previous versions. Probably one of the easier to use parts.
• Map Hack You know, I'll be honest, I haven't figured out what this refers to. I can't find anything like a map editor when in use, so I'm assuming it's a redundant restating of the above. +1 to "Hooch isn't really all that smart."
• 8 bullets per shot Yes, every shot is actually 8 bullets condensed into what looks like one shot. This is how it achieves such high damage to players and blocks.
• Visibility check The bot doesn't try shooting through walls (though you can totally tear through one anyway with the SMG if you feel like it). This also displays the name of your enemy target if you aim on them, and this does go through walls.
• Aimbot The core of it, this is activated by holding down a key. It tends to suddenly do 180 degree turns, so it's really easy to notice. It's also really disorienting to the user. If you catch a hacker while he's releasing the aim-bot to try and move, that's the ideal time to take your shot.
• Grenade explosion time A timer is displayed when you use a grenade counting down the time to its detonation.

Of interesting note is this little side comment towards the bottom of Hooch's post:

Thank me and I'll consider releasing my "private" version with ESP and some nice features linke "insta map destructor" or "server chrasher".

Wow, that sounds great! I'm glad you're so gracious!
I've yet to hear of this thing getting out, and really even its actual existence is pretty dubious, but it's nonetheless pretty concerning and worth keeping an eye out.

Discuss, I guess.

[ReubenMcHawk]

First off, "map hack" and "radar hack" could technically refer to two different things, what with the map and radar being two different things and all.

Second, yes, Hooch got a lot of help, but calling him stupid is a bit unneeded, especially when you have yet to prove yourself much smarter than him.

And "grenade explosion time" is basically undetectable, and isn't really as much of a hack as a handy utility.

Regarding the "server chrasher" and stuff, I doubt any of that exists. This is a small community, we would have seen some kind of "OMG ALL OF MAP GONE IN 1 SECOND" post around here.

Back to the main topic though, how to identify an aimbotter? Well, just check the kill-feed, or use /ratio if you can.

[WhyDee]

do u sell chiit ? ^^

[Tai]

Second, yes, Hooch got a lot of help, but calling him stupid is a bit unneeded, especially when you have yet to prove yourself much smarter than him.

And "grenade explosion time" is basically undetectable, and isn't really as much of a hack as a handy utility.

Leave it to Reuben to sympathize with the players purposefully trying to ruin the game while sucking back cheap cigarette smoke under a stiff trench coat because he "DONE SEEN THINGS, MAN".

Sorry, what were we talking about?

[Gorman]

Let me start off by saying 2 things;
- Leave finding aimbots to the server admins and staff
- Leave technical discussion on how to stop aimbots to the pyspades guys (aka mat^2)

From scratch = gamifying someone else's engine? Sorry but I chuckled a little.

Anyway, 0 spread = 100% accuracy, no idea what you mean by +1000%...
Sadly this does not help in the slightest to find aimbots.

"Screen shaking" is a bit of a weird way to describe it, but yes, it sets the Vrecoil and Hrecoil values for all weapons to 0.

Radar is the little map in the top right. Map is the map that comes up when you hit M (by default).

The name display is a separate function (for example on my bot it displays the user's score, if they are dead or alive, their map coord, and their weapon) to visiblity. Not sure about the disorientation, but I can imagine for some it could be annoying. Some more sophisticated bots will flick to a player and shoot then flick back to the original facing to eliminate this. In that case it is very unlikely that you will even see them take the shot.

Hooch really does have an ESP (under l_m's guidance), and insta map destruction should not be possible easily (it will require strategic teleportations to remain within range, and some time too), unless it uses a more advanced method than I can think of. Perhaps he refers to a feature for a previous version that he never tested with 1.7

Just FYI; there are quite a few features that have not been noted 'in the wild', for example things as simple as 'change weapons any time' or 'no-clip' and 'flying' are not that common.


@Tai: You will find that actually Hooch made his bot as a learning experience, it is the first hack he has ever made, and he was obviously just eager to share - as anyone would be. There is no need to spam or flame either him or Reuben. Neither of them have sinister intentions.

[ReubenMcHawk]

Second, yes, Hooch got a lot of help, but calling him stupid is a bit unneeded, especially when you have yet to prove yourself much smarter than him.

And "grenade explosion time" is basically undetectable, and isn't really as much of a hack as a handy utility.

Leave it to Reuben to sympathize with the players purposefully trying to ruin the game while sucking back cheap cigarette smoke under a stiff trench coat because he "DONE SEEN THINGS, MAN".

Sorry, what were we talking about?

You mean leave it to me to not only try to respect Hooch slightly, but also not join in with the "hey guys lets call him an idiot" circlejerk, which mostly consists of people who don't know half as much as he does?

And what's the grenade detection part doing in there? It literally gives you NO advantage, at all.

[CraftDinur]

One very useful pyspades command is the /weapon command.
It is by default in every pyspades server and can be used by both admins and players.
Before you votekick someone for having a high KDR and getting lots of headshots, use the script first to determine if they're using an SMG or a rifle.
Although this doesn't prove that it's an aimbotter, it gives you a general idea of whether or not the guy is playing legit or not.
Then it's up to you and your common sense (if you have any) to actually figure out if he's cheating or not.

[mikuli]

Okay, two things, before stuff here gets really bad

1) Thread title: "Identifying a hacker/aim-bot user."

2) The rules.

A friendly nudge to steer the thread back into course.

[TheGrandmaster]

Yeah, argument in here went way beyond what was needed/appropriate. I've deleted some posts.
To all of you:
Why argue forum matters here? This is not the place or the time.
Back on topic or warnings going out.

[IrishElf]

As expected, the twenty thousandth aim bot thread derailed like almost all the others.

Anyways, detecting the people using them is incredibly simple once you've played against them more than once. It's also helpful to have played on a server against some of the upper elite [such as mikuli/tank/yoba] before. Since you'll have an idea of just what IS truly possible and what isn't.

[Gorman]

Anyways, detecting the people using them is incredibly simple once you've played against them more than once. It's also helpful to have played on a server against some of the upper elite [such as mikuli/tank/yoba] before. Since you'll have an idea of just what IS truly possible and what isn't.

How? Is it just because you don't class them as "upper elite" that is such a tell that they are botters and not just good shooters? Is it because some deuce votekicked them before for aimbotting?

By the way every time I play against yoba he seems mediocre... Maybe remove him from this list before people think 3 KDR and 40 kills/minute is elite tier...

[IrishElf]

How? Is it just because you don't class them as "upper elite" that is such a tell that they are botters and not just good shooters? Is it because some deuce votekicked them before for aimbotting?

You missed my point, what I was trying to say is once you've seen the very upper tier then anything above that should be suspicious.

[mikuli]

By the way every time I play against yoba he seems mediocre... Maybe remove him from this list before people think 3 KDR and 40 kills/minute is elite tier...

I'd like to see you do 40 kills / minute. I know I cant, apart from doing it in a special environment. But yeah, sometimes Y.O.B.A drinks a little too much when he plays. When I usually spot him in Goon Haven, he's sporting a ratio around 15 while rushing.

[Gorman]

lol I meant hour. 40 per minute is possible on a server like GH where there are so many players. But not every minute for an hour...


Anyway I guess I keep catching him on off days then, or perhaps seeing the 'upper elite of @' has raised my standard too high.

[thedoctor1212]

I have come across a situation where I had an angel snuck up on some greens opened fire on him until I ran out of ammo hit him nearly every shot and he just turned around and decorated the walls with my brains.

If that is not a hack I aint know what is, my question is, how do I identify this from long distance?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Oh and if anyone else has experienced this I would be interested to know.