Is hacking currently a major problem in PVP?

[teclado]

No, not a problem. I don't think that I've ever seen a hack. I've seen tons of bugs, and uses of various legitimate mechanics that I didn't understand at the time. I've seen players go invisible (including myself...not a hacker, promise!!), players seem to slingshot across the map (LAGGGG).

 

"Hacking" is probably sometimes loosely defined, and can mean exploits, win trading, queue synchronizing, premades. I'm betting that your buddies are really talking about those things.

Edited August 25, 2014 by teclado

[Alericus]

There is a particular program being used at the moment to "hack"... Called "cheat eng... Something something (I won't name it fully)... But just do a google search with swtor and cheat in it and you will probably see it on the first page

 

I know most people are above board and don't use this... But it is out there and it is being used...

 

There are also a lot of false accusations of hacking... Like many have said, this is because most people don't understand the other classes and abilities as well as the built in game bugs and open exploits

 

Most people just get out played or come across a particularly good premade and think they must be hacking to be able to win so convincingly

 

I only pvp on all my 18 toons in normal and ranked... I have a lot of time on my hands and do about 4 hours a day... I have seen it all, hacks, exploits, bugs... Yes they are there... Yes it is annoying when you come across it...

 

If you think it's fishy, ask someone in the match... If multiple people think it's something wrong then get the name, guild, class, server, WZ, time and a description of the issue together... Then report it to Bio (although don't hold your breath...)

 

Usually the people who do hack aren't very good players anyway or are just doing it to troll people... Feel sorry for them as they have issues... Feel happy when you smash them anyway:p

 

 

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Agreed 'cept I disagree you need permission from your group about submitting a report. Bioware has publically said they have and will ban users for using exploits and "hacks". and welcome all reports. .there is no such thing as a "open" hack.that implies it is okay to use without response..there is no exploit that is allowable by Bioware...read your EULA if you question me and we all agreed to it.

 

For most users there is no concern but as we all know there are credits sellers in this game..have you never wondered how they "gather" those credits? So report away if anything Bioware will close the ticket but if you see something valid it just confirms what they probably already know.

 

Anyone who plays this game that thinks we are all alone in our little warzones, without anyone monitoring must think the computer really is a blinking smart box and has no true understanding of computers networks or software. A lot of comments on these forums prove that time and time again.

 

So if you suspect submit a ticket with as much detail as you can all aspects of your match, names of players, time/date and server match was on. pictures , video as well as any details..direct to Bioware..do not call out players or guilds or teams on the forums that is definitely considered a no no but tickets are fine!

 

Is hacking a major problem in PvP? It isn't as long as good honest players do what they must. It becomes a problem when you feel you can only submit a ticket if some anonymous player on these forums or on your teams says you can submit a ticket. Bioware has warned players, banned players and used information to review game performance, close exploits and has in the past stopped win trading situations. This does take time and even if it is just a game mechanic malfunction you've still helping the dev team.

[BarrinMarshall]

Everyone here is for the most part being laughably naïve.... YES, there are hacks, cheats and exploits in SWTOR and YES some persons do use them in warzones FOR ABSOLUTE SURE. How much you personally will encounter these people is really dependent on your server..... On Harbinger for example there have been notorious hackers in PVP to the point it was something of a joke on the IMP side..... oh look, the Pub hack squad is here and so forth.

 

It's not as rampant as the bads make it out to be but don't believe for a second it's as "Rare" as the people here are telling you it is.

 

P.S. there's Imps that hack on Harbinger as well... got in a voidstar match where within 2 seconds of the doors coming down there were bombs placed on BOTH doors and we won the match... I benefitted from the hack/exploit and quit PVP'ing for a week I was so disgusted so yeah it happens all around.

[Xeraz]

I have to agree with the general sentiment here. Hacks are very rare in this game, almost non-existent.

 

Most accusations of hacks are actually based in a lack of understanding of class abilities.

 

<snip>

 

Just, no.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Xeraz

[Ramtar]

I seen the clipping of the tree in Novare Coast where the player was inflicting damage but I couldn't target them. Took some very cool screen shots that I emailed to Customer Service.

[nkarabats]

I was accused of hacking because a player couldn't kill me. I was on my sorc and had 2 healers healing me plus my self heal and bubble. He reported me. I found it funny.

 

But yeah I have seen some strange stuff mostly exploits that players use. Once someone capped all 3 turrets before the game even started. I have also seen players not be able to get targeted....this mostly in GSF. I tend to watch if they get killed by someone or at lest take damage to make sure its not just lag.

 

I think speed hacks are the most common and if used correctly then its hard to tell.

[Icykill_]

Agreed 'cept I disagree you need permission from your group about submitting a report. Bioware has publically said they have and will ban users for using exploits and "hacks". and welcome all reports. .there is no such thing as a "open" hack.that implies it is okay to use without response..there is no exploit that is allowable by Bioware...read your EULA if you question me and we all agreed to it.

 

You misunderstand my meaning about "permission" (my fault, I was tired when I typed it)... You don't need permission to report... My comment and intent was to say... If you aren't sure it's a hack... But think it is fishy... Then ask your fellow team mates if they see it too... If they don't then it could just be you or an ability you don't understand... Usually someone will confirm either way... But if your still not sure, report it.

 

So if you suspect submit a ticket with as much detail as you can all aspects of your match, names of players, time/date and server match was on. pictures , video as well as any details..direct to Bioware..do not call out players or guilds or teams on the forums that is definitely considered a no no but tickets are fine!

 

Everything, except the pictures and video... Bio don't accept them as evidence and have said don't bother

 

Is hacking a major problem in PvP? It isn't as long as good honest players do what they must. It becomes a problem when you feel you can only submit a ticket if some anonymous player on these forums or on your teams says you can submit a ticket. Bioware has warned players, banned players and used information to review game performance, close exploits and has in the past stopped win trading situations. This does take time and even if it is just a game mechanic malfunction you've still helping the dev team.

 

Unfortunately the actual programmers of said "hack" program/s are usually one step ahead of the Devs... Especially as they can try them out and find work arounds on PTS...

Bio do sometimes get ahead and close off these holes, but that usually only lasts for a week at most... Most of these programmers aren't even gamers, they do this to improve their hacking/programming skills... Mostly so they can get jobs as security experts in the IT industry, wether it's at somewhere like Symantec, gaming developers or system admins

How do I know this? I am an IT systems admin manager. I employ people with such skills. While I completely disagree with the methods to obtain them. There really is no legitimate way for them to get this knowledge because institutional training pales in comparison to real life experience.

 

Bio also don't instil confidence because they never "seem" to take action against "known" hackers. You get a "soft canned" email response from them, I know this is pretty much all they can tell you on a specific case, but an answer containing the words... "If they are found to be in breach of the EULA, they will be banned"... Would help... And it would be nice if they occasionally made a public statement saying they are aware of problems and they are looking into each case and taking action ... 12-18months ago they even posted a warning on the login screen reminding people of the EULA and what would happen to players breaking it... Even this would give them some credibility... Also the deterrent isn't a deterrent... A one week ban is pointless... 1st offence should be the only warning with a month's ban... After that it should be permanent, this doesn't happen. I know of at least one person who has been banned 3 times on the same account... But we all know free to play people can just create another account, which is the biggest problem with that game model

 

Lastly, a vast majority of the community do the right thing... Those that do the wrong thing, ruin it for everyone else... Even if they are a small majority, they seem to be playing a lot at the moment...

There will always be these people, there really is nothing we can do... Even Blizzard (WoW), who have been the biggest MMO for over 10 years, acknowledge this is an ongoing problem they need to constantly keep an eye on... But at least they are pay to play, so they attract less of these people... They also update their community and make information public to let them and the industry know problems are being addressed

http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/21/5739874/blizzard-sues-starcraft-2-hackers

Now if a large company like Blizzard, with their massive financial resources are having issues... You can bet that a small, underfunded company like Bio are having the same problems

People saying hacks don't exist, either can't identify them or in some cases are misleading others to cover their own tracks (I know this is a small majority, but it does happen)

 

Anyway if you would like to see more links to Blizzards problems and responses let me know and I will post. Either that or google it yourself

 

 

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[Icykill_]

I was accused of hacking because a player couldn't kill me. I was on my sorc and had 2 healers healing me plus my self heal and bubble. He reported me. I found it funny.

 

But yeah I have seen some strange stuff mostly exploits that players use. Once someone capped all 3 turrets before the game even started. I have also seen players not be able to get targeted....this mostly in GSF. I tend to watch if they get killed by someone or at lest take damage to make sure its not just lag.

 

I think speed hacks are the most common and if used correctly then its hard to tell.

 

All true... Especially people not knowing you were being healed... LMAO...

 

I have seen all the same strange things you mentioned, except the untargetable players are in normal pvp for me...

 

To be honest, I rarely see the speed hack, last time was about 5 months ago... The speed runs you will usually see are good Mara/Sent's popping their group speed run while a Sorc/Sin or Sage/shadow pop their speed run... This can nearly double the Sorc/sage/Sin/shadow speed run... Which is funny when it happens to you because all of a sudden you have to adjust to the extra speed, but is quite useful to cap nodes or run around opponents like the flash

 

 

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[nkarabats]

yeah in Hypergate ill sit in the tunnel get the speed boost and hit mine and get to the pylon even before its ready to cap. Got reported on that also.

[Icykill_]

yeah in Hypergate ill sit in the tunnel get the speed boost and hit mine and get to the pylon even before its ready to cap. Got reported on that also.

 

LOL.... Another example of people not understanding the mechanics and abilities in the game

One of the reasons I suggest people ask others before reporting something they see as fishy

 

 

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[jediharrsion]

my response is both yes and no. its very rare but when you do run into something that could be viewed as a "hack" it always seems to be a spur of the moment thing and by the time the match is finished you have no proof and you will never likely see anything legitimate again. best thing to do is try to have some kind of recorder active so you can catch it (if you run across it again). other then that there really is no way to prove if "hacking" is legitimate.

[Liquor]

It's client side code. There isn't much BW can do. BW can detect it but it isn't on their radar to fix. It's a small number it's not worth the time, effort, and money.

 

Stream all gameplay and save clips for reporting. Yes I have a lot of clips from Shadowlands. Is it a problem? Nope. They still suck *** in the WZ and their cheats don't make it a guaranteed win.

 

It's a small number of players and all they do is give their guilds a bad name. Even turning down the speed hack so it's not near as noticeable it still is seen more often than you think. Predation and force speed have active buff icons. The speed hack does not.

 

If you suspect something is strange or there is a weird feeling in this WZ you may be correct. Take a video and watch it. What is active buff wise or debuff. Review it before making accusations.

 

Keep that print screen macro active. It really doesn't work. You're still a bad with crutches.

Edited August 27, 2014 by Liquor

[Elusive_Thing]

nope, that's not a hack, a bug is a better name. I've been part of a 5v4 where my name didn't show up on the board. I didn't hack or anything, it just happened. My only guess is that people actually simultaneously queue in regards to how the timers calculate who is up next. In other words, extremely rare, but it can happen.

Indeed, it's a weird bug. I once got into an arena that was 5 vs. 3 to my team's disadvantage and both teams were Imperials, so logically it should've been 4 vs. 4 (though seen 2 vs. 4 happen several times as well, but that is just bad matchmaking). Hilariously enough, we did win that match.

[luxforlife]

Everyone here is for the most part being laughably naïve.... YES, there are hacks, cheats and exploits in SWTOR and YES some persons do use them in warzones FOR ABSOLUTE SURE. How much you personally will encounter these people is really dependent on your server..... On Harbinger for example there have been notorious hackers in PVP to the point it was something of a joke on the IMP side..... oh look, the Pub hack squad is here and so forth.

 

It's not as rampant as the bads make it out to be but don't believe for a second it's as "Rare" as the people here are telling you it is.

 

P.S. there's Imps that hack on Harbinger as well... got in a voidstar match where within 2 seconds of the doors coming down there were bombs placed on BOTH doors and we won the match... I benefitted from the hack/exploit and quit PVP'ing for a week I was so disgusted so yeah it happens all around.

 

I believe that instance with Voidstar you're talking about is an exploit. There was a whole thread about it a couple of weeks back where some dude carefully planted a Phase Walk and was able to cap in 2 seconds somehow. He admitted to doing it but the thread was hidden because he ended up just being a target for everyone's frustrations.

[emeraldon]

There is no hacking in swtor. Theres a lot of win trading though if thats what they are talking about.

 

Only bads blame hacking.

 

On the contrary - the chest farmers, especially on Makeb, use speedhacks. Not only speedhacks, but they are permanently untagged for PvP (even though they are on a pvp server, in a clear PvP-flagged zone.)

[PloGreen]

I have several guildies who have basically stopped playing PVP because they feel that hacking is a major problem in the game. For the record, these are all very good players (better than me!). However, I play a fair amount of unranked PVP, and I have not seen anything that I could confidently identify as hacking going on.

 

Does the PVP player base over all feel that hacking is currently a big problem? If so, is it primarily confined to certain game types (e.g., ranked?) over others?

 

No not really. I don't think its a major problem at all. I think most instances of "hacking" are explained by client server problems, and people not understanding game mechanics.

 

Hacks are rare.

[Anyakaschala]

I have several guildies who have basically stopped playing PVP because they feel that hacking is a major problem in the game. For the record, these are all very good players (better than me!). However, I play a fair amount of unranked PVP, and I have not seen anything that I could confidently identify as hacking going on.

 

Does the PVP player base over all feel that hacking is currently a big problem? If so, is it primarily confined to certain game types (e.g., ranked?) over others?

 

as a suggestion, if they are subs, if they have an issue or a question about whether or not someone is hacking, then bring the concern here. I would suggest this for 2 reasons:

 

1) find out whether or not it's a hack or a class mechanic

2) read a little bit and give yourself a chance to learn something, not only about the mechanics of the wz's themselves and advanced tips and strats, as well as class mechanics and counters.

[Highallday]

Hacking used to be a issue, I think maybe back 1.4 or so is the only time I've ever seen any hacking. Only saw one though. Never had a real issue with it. I think people just have a hard time accepting losing.

[Icykill_]

It's client side code. There isn't much BW can do. BW can detect it but it isn't on their radar to fix. It's a small number it's not worth the time, effort, and money.

 

Stream all gameplay and save clips for reporting. Yes I have a lot of clips from Shadowlands. Is it a problem? Nope. They still suck *** in the WZ and their cheats don't make it a guaranteed win.

 

It's a small number of players and all they do is give their guilds a bad name. Even turning down the speed hack so it's not near as noticeable it still is seen more often than you think. Predation and force speed have active buff icons. The speed hack does not.

 

If you suspect something is strange or there is a weird feeling in this WZ you may be correct. Take a video and watch it. What is active buff wise or debuff. Review it before making accusations.

 

Keep that print screen macro active. It really doesn't work. You're still a bad with crutches.

 

Yes you're right about the client side... All the "hacks" are done through the client...

But it will effect other people as the server tries to adjust and keep up with the changed stats/abilities... This can cause lag for others not hacking the client... It can even affect people on your own team... Which is why it is detrimental to hack at all... Unless most of your team are doing it... Hence you will notice it more when a premade is doing it... When it is a single player you can and should still beat that player 1v1 if you're any good... Most hackers can't play properly because they rely too much on them

 

I also know many people from good pvp guilds... Some of their guilds have gotten bad names because of a few hackers there... Unfortunately once that name sticks it is hard to get rid of it... A lot of them have left and formed different guilds and boot people even if they suspect hackers... I left a guild that got a reputation for it... But the bad rep followed because my name was associated with it... I ended up changing my character names... I'm in a good guild now and we have no issues of people accusing us... If you join a guild and you hear them chat about it on a voice client or you suspect it... I would suggest leaving it ASAP

 

Don't bother videoing or doing screen shots to submit to Bio... They have said they do not accept them as proof of hacking... Which seems strange to me

Only do it if you are interested in posting proof on You Tube or something... Because running those program's can sometimes cause you lag in pvp and you may see rubber banding and teleports even though no one is hacking

 

 

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[Zoom_VI]

Yes you're right about the client side... All the "hacks" are done through the client...

But it will effect other people as the server tries to adjust and keep up with the changed stats/abilities...

wat, every server I have seen in a multiplayer game is set up so if the abilities/actions the client want performed do not match what the server sees, the server either rejects to action or straight up drops the player. I see no reason why SWTOR wouldn't be the same.

 

Don't bother videoing or doing screen shots to submit to Bio... They have said they do not accept them as proof of hacking... Which seems strange to me

 

uh, I'm pretty sure they have said that they do take those as evidence, not the opposite.

[Darth__Reaver]

I seem speed hacking once. Now ill admit be4 I seen it i didnt understand exactly what harking look like ATM. However once you see some one fly over pylons and phase thu walls and laughing about in gen chat while the whole team he is on refuses to play with a hacker. Then I understood what it was.

[Nightkin]

Yes you're right about the client side... All the "hacks" are done through the client...

But it will effect other people as the server tries to adjust and keep up with the changed stats/abilities... This can cause lag for others not hacking the client... It can even affect people on your own team... Which is why it is detrimental to hack at all... Unless most of your team are doing it... Hence you will notice it more when a premade is doing it... When it is a single player you can and should still beat that player 1v1 if you're any good... Most hackers can't play properly because they rely too much on them

 

I also know many people from good pvp guilds... Some of their guilds have gotten bad names because of a few hackers there... Unfortunately once that name sticks it is hard to get rid of it... A lot of them have left and formed different guilds and boot people even if they suspect hackers... I left a guild that got a reputation for it... But the bad rep followed because my name was associated with it... I ended up changing my character names... I'm in a good guild now and we have no issues of people accusing us... If you join a guild and you hear them chat about it on a voice client or you suspect it... I would suggest leaving it ASAP

 

Don't bother videoing or doing screen shots to submit to Bio... They have said they do not accept them as proof of hacking... Which seems strange to me

Only do it if you are interested in posting proof on You Tube or something... Because running those program's can sometimes cause you lag in pvp and you may see rubber banding and teleports even though no one is hacking

 

 

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Is it just me or is this all hearsay and some friend of a friend once told me it works like this and now i assume 10 million things as fact! /facepalm

[Icykill_]

wat, every server I have seen in a multiplayer game is set up so if the abilities/actions the client want performed do not match what the server sees, the server either rejects to action or straight up drops the player. I see no reason why SWTOR wouldn't be the same.

 

Do some research... You can only adjust the client side... Otherwise you would be hacking the server direct and would definately be detected... Besides being extremely difficult to do for anyone who is not a professional hacker... And I believe hacking into any corporate server in the USA is a federal offence.

 

There are many hack sites that explain how the client hack works... Look them up if you don't believe me

 

uh, I'm pretty sure they have said that they do take those as evidence, not the opposite.

 

I have an email from Bio stating they cannot accept video or screen shots as evidence... I know many others do too

 

 

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[Icykill_]

Is it just me or is this all hearsay and some friend of a friend once told me it works like this and now i assume 10 million things as fact! /facepalm

 

Read my other posts... I know how this works... I work in the IT industry too... I have people who work for me who know how to write the program's

Research it if you don't believe me... There is plenty of evidence

Other than doing it myself, I cannot say it's from personal experience... That would be extremely stupid

If you want "proof" go ahead and try it yourself... But I wouldn't recommend it

 

 

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[Zoom_VI]

Do some research... You can only adjust the client side... Otherwise you would be hacking the server direct and would definately be detected... Besides being extremely difficult to do for anyone who is not a professional hacker... And I believe hacking into any corporate server in the USA is a federal offence.

 

There are many hack sites that explain how the client hack works... Look them up if you don't believe me

 

Reading is hard. You can't adjust the client because sever holds all the cards, if you client has been modified, particularly when it comes to abilities, the server will realize that your client is different and reject whatever you are trying to do.

 

Seriously this isn't 1999, online games don't blindly trust the clients.