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How Cheaters Cheat at Halo 2
An anonymous reader writes "Built on a network that automatically bans gamers that have modified their Xbox, Xbox Live should be nearly cheat-proof. However, it's not, as anyone playing Halo 2 online already knows. How do cheaters on Xbox Live manage to artificially boost their rankings? What is Bridging? What is Standby? This article takes a look at what exactly is done when a cheater cheats, and what exactly Bungie is doing about it. It includes videos and some very funny letters from 13-year-olds that have been baned from matchmaking on Live and are desperately trying to worm their way back onto the system."
By being better than me. It's the only possible explanation. The bastards.
... just make this game not fun.
Or is that the substandard gameplay or horrible control scheme?
From reading TFA, it seems like all these problems are caused by people who host games themselves. Like, duh?
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
I don't play Halo very much, but wouldn't a true hardware bridge modifying the packets going across the wire be the best way not to get caught? The techniques described in the article seem rather amatuer. I would imagine you could do things like modify bullet trajectory to always kill your opponent. Maybe that'll be a project for me this weekend ;)
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
The real question is, who gives a shit?
I was wondering what all those terms meant!
U R BANED!!!!!
I remember a few months back me and my friends were playing CTF on Relic. We were up against some cheaters who got a flying warthog (the jeep for, for those who don't play). Well, there's nothing like the thrill of grabbing the flag, turning around and seeing a flying warthog right behind you. We ended up tying that game, and let me tell you, that was better than any win would be against non-cheaters.
(That of coarse isn't the norm. Getting "stand-by"'ed as they call it really sucks, and some cheaters make it so you spawn in the air and die instantally.)
And this is why having tabs can suck sometimes. This was supposed to be attached to This article but I'd accidentally clicked the tab.
:-)
Really, I'm not that stupidly offtopic in most cases
If I cut off my internet or slow it down (I know that is possible) then how the fuck does that affect everyone else in the game?
This could only work if you happen to host the game. In PC multiplayer game the guy hosting it offcourse always has the least lag but surely anyone hosting a game that routinely drops out would very quickly be ranked down?
Anyway you pay for x-box live but still got to host your own games? Surely for the money MS should be hosting the games so everyone plays on a level playing field?
So my question is this. A does this only work for the guy hosting the game, B why does bungie not host the game for you C why doesn't bungie drop people who host games on a connection that drops out?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"...letters from 13-year-olds that have been baned" Ah, the irony!
What these cheaters done understand is that the ranking is there to place you against players of even skill. by ranking up, they get placed against players of better skill. at that point they have to cheat keep the rank.
I was a average player. I could school all my real life friends, but they didn't have halo. I reached a rank where the matches were even and it was fun. I got a little better by getting the shotgun and hiding in the corner. It worked every time, until I moved up a rank. It never worked in that bracket, the players were better and knew the trick. I was at the loosing end even when i played like normal and eventualy droped back down to where I belonged.
They have it all wrong, they should drop rank to clean up on the less skiled players. Atleast they run in a circle and you dont have to risk the banhammer.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
The article sums itself up by saying that they don't understand why people would cheat and artificially inflate their rating.
Duh! To be at the top!
How many times do you see on gaming forums some clown posting "FIRST!" or "First Page!", like it matters. Just about every Blizzard post on their forums has that stupidity going on, and you even see it happening on non-competition sites like the forums for Order of the Stick webcomic.
It's all about having bragging rights, or as I like to call it, "showing off the size of your e-penis".
It's almost homo-erotic at this point. (Not that there is anything wrong with being gay, btw.) Before the computer game evolution, guys usually tried to have bragging rights in some sport, and a lot of the hot "cheerleader" type chicks dug the guy with the letterman jacket. The guys tended to get buff, be athletic, and do something worthy of praise. (They also tended to be morons, but that's besides the point.) They competed with each other to gain the attention of women, mostly.
Now, we have the same behavior going on, but with computer gamers. They have to be the best, be the coolest, etc. Except, there aren't a lot of chicks out there that will drool all over them. What they get is other guys wishing to be like them, instead of chicks wanting to be with them. There isn't a big call from girls to date the guy with a high Halo2 ranking, but the H.S. quarterback still gets a hot chick more often than not.
I don't know about you, but when I was in H.S. or college, I didn't want the adulation of other guys. I wanted to be noticed by chicks. But hey, that was just me.
The linked article only talks about bridging+standby, which is one of the oldest and easiest to execute forms of cheating. It's also rather lacking on the technical side. Here's a quick rundown of what I know:
=== Network manipulation ===
Bridging One player on a team sets up their router/firewall so that their xbox can only communicate with bungie, XboxLive, and a specific other player on the team. This results in that other player being selected as the game server for every match.
Standby The bridged host can interrupt network traffic to some or all players in the game. Because they're the server, their game keeps running for several seconds while everyone else gets the "standby, reconnecting to game" screen.
Lagging Out The bridged host selectively manipulates network traffic to players in the game and observes the on-screen network quality indicator. After isolating the IP address of a player on the other team, they block network traffic to that player, causing them to "lag out" of the game. After reducing the other team to one or two players they're pretty much guaranteed a win.
Team Lagging Same as lagging out, but instead of blocking traffic, just increase network latency to players on the opposing team. Not as effective as other mechanisms but VERY hard for Bungie to spot.
=== Game manipulation ===
Mods The bridged host has map files are modified to give them an advantage. Examples:
spawnmods: player start points are modified to make the spawning player defenseless or unable to move.
weapon mods: auto-aim, rapid fire, increased damage, changed projectile type
other: vehicles where there shouldn't be, running faster than normal, jumping higher than normal
Superbouncing Makes it possible to reach extremely high areas in certain maps. Caused by a bug in the physics engine. === Ranking manipulation ===
Boosting a group of dishonest player teams with an otherwise-honest and/or unskilled player. The dishonest players carry the match, but the other player still gets the ranking benefit.
De-ranking A group of skilled players intentionally throws matches to decrease their rank. This results in matching against lesser skilled players, and is often used for boosting.
... that I'd like to sell to whoever at Bungie designed this ridiculous system. First rule of Network Club: DO NOT TRUST THE CLIENT. Second rule of Network Club: DO NOT LET UNTRUSTED USERS RUN SERVERS. Third rule of Network Club: if you disagree with the first two rules, don't feel bad... somebody has to make all those Happy Meals at McDonald's.
Talk about the non-story of the day...
What kinds of cheating is not technological? Stalking or harrassing a teammate instead of getting the token/bomb/flag, offering to tell opponents where teammates are in exchange for not being killed, teaching about the map (three players climbing a trail in a corner) in a public game instead of playing the game, quitting early so teammates quickly become outnumbered, screaming so nobody can hear useful information.
There is no such thing as "cheat proof." Cheaters, hackers and chip installers always find a way around anything. "Where theres a will, theres a way."
Talk later, Holmesey For free Domain names, PSP's & I-Pod's click
You know how often really good people are accused of using aimbots? Just reporting someone as cheater should not trigger anything but an investigation, which should have to prove guilt. If cheating cannot be proven, then no penalties (like being forced to play with other "cheaters") should be applied. "In dubio pro reo".
Same as lagging out, but instead of blocking traffic, just increase network latency to players on the opposing team. Not as effective as other mechanisms but VERY hard for Bungie to spot.
Yes, because calculating the average latency for the team the host is playing for (minus the host player, since he is unique) and comparing it with the average latency for the other team is really difficult and couldn't be automated at all. Throw in some correlation calculations and you could get a pretty darn good idea of any latency-boosting taking place.
I can see it now:
You're cornered, they have loads of BFG'sbig, frightful grammatics aimed at your sorry melon. What to do? What to do? Ooh, the temptation... You reach for it, just this once. Oh, of course! Should-would clauses are for sissies!
"I never end a sentence with a preposition, my mother told me not to," you shout. Suddenly, a piercing ray of in-game sunlight rips across the digital wasteland. Your opponents are mercilessly fried, no Fricasseed!
Days later, your account gets banned. You whine with the best of them, but to no avail. Your own incompetence incriminates you, as your seemingly victorious sentence is diagrammed, nay eviscerated before you.