Reconnecting

[loial21]

I noticed alot of the q2 servers would use server scripts to auto-reconnect players for bot protection. Could this help in this mod?

[jitspoe]

I'm pretty sure most q2 bots have reconnect protection in them anyway, so I doubt it would make any difference.  It would just be an annoyance for legit players.

[XtremeBain]

It's to trick 8 year old ratbots and zbots (and other proxy-based cheats) into reconnecting to themselves.
The operation of these proxy-based bots works something like this:
-You load up an external stand-alone program.  The program can make sense of the network traffic between client and server, and can change the behavior of your client through the same information protocol.
-You instruct the bot(or external program) that you will be connecting to GT Pub1(just as an example, this isn't a walkthrough kiddies) at 69.93.11.66:27911
-Once the bot is activated, it will listen on a port located locally on your system.  27911 for an example.  Some 'leet' cheats will even auto-copy it to your clipboard.
-You fire up your Quake2 client and use a command like 'connect localhost:27911'
-At this point the bot program recognizes the connection attempt and initiates a connect to your server of choice.  The bot is acting as the middle-man in your connection to the server and does neat stuff by auto-adjusting your view so it acts like an aimbot.

The idea behind the protection is that the middle-man will pass on the reconnect command to your actual Q2 client.  If you reconnect within your Q2 client, you'll reconnect to the localhost:27911 server and you'll either be stuck in an endless loop, or the protection will detect that you're not reconnecting properly and ban you.

Probably 5 years or more ago these bots have been hacked/patched by clever programs to evade this method of prevention/detection.  I don't even know why VQ2 servers still use this, as it's pretty useless.  PB2 which doesn't have an -- apparent -- aimbot problem and I wouldn't see the necessary to use this protection.  Because like jitspoe mentioned, it would just only be a nuisance.

[loial21]

Thanks, Can you define 'apparent' for us? I can understand why they are not as 'effective' becuase of the choatic nature of ball flight but still they can at least auto-aim, correct?

 I also read that a small degeree of FOV is a good indication of someone hiding / using an aim bot, ratbot, zbot, zorbot etc... True?

[XtremeBain]

Apparent means that there could be an PB2 aimbot pandemic, but I haven't heard of any complaints and aimbots have been dismissed for years as simply ineffective.  It's not so much the spread ball flight that causes the problem.  Aimbots still work great with recoiled guns in games like CS.  The biggest problem is that the ball travels much much slower than a bullet does.  I haven't done any testing, but I imagine that it would be quite difficult to hit anyone with an aimbot unless they were standing still.

In terms of FOV, there's typically an aimbot FOV that is adjustable with the aimbot.  This determines how many degrees on the horizontal and vertical axis that the bot will scan and automatically aim.  360 in both axis would auto-aim at everything within line of site to your player.  This is usually a dead give away so cheaters tone it down.  Someone that wants to really high their aimbot will use like a 5 or 10 degree bot FOV in each axis so that they are still doing much of the aiming, but the bot will 'lock on' to the target.
I don't see how actual viewing FOV would indicate someone was hiding an aimbot unless they're using one of those old colour-scan aimbots that move your pointer towards a certain colour.

[loial21]

Thanks Bain, for clearing some of that up.  Anyone feel free to anwser.

Someone that wants to really high their aimbot will use like a 5 or 10 degree bot FOV in each axis so that they are still doing much of the aiming, but the bot will 'lock on' to the target.

This is what I was pointing at more or less. Locking on target and auto-fire. I am sure these would help rather than hinder to some degree right?  Just curious

[jitspoe]

I haven't tried it, but I would think it would hinder, since you need to lead your target most of the time to hit it.  Moving the crosshair directly onto the target would cause you to miss.

[loial21]

So how do the acebots shoot? They still manage to hit this elephant fairly better than an above average player. Would you mind trying it? You dont have enough things to do as it is. 

Thanks u2

-L

[Eiii]

They lead.

[loial21]

So there is no way someone can use the AI from acebots?

[XtremeBain]

If someone used the AI from an acebot and incorporated it into their aimbot, they'd be smart enough not to have it fail to the reconnect protection, since it would not be an aimbot built in the DP Client rather then a proxy-based external aimbot

[loial21]

Using the AI from an acebot, regarding 'Aim'. The 'acebots' in WOD (named decoys) were extremely sucky. The acebots here are so much more accurate.

I know this answer but I will throw it out there for someone to chew on and spit back an honest responce to my question and to perhaps shut me up.

Forget reconnecting. Can these 'acebot's' AI for aiming be used directly by the client by any means for cheating purposes in DP?

Um i guess I am getting off topic here.  Sorry. Reconnecting is not fun.

[SkateR]

Do people even use aimbots in this game? Ive got a demo of one guy from a little while ago. Thats the only time Ive seen one though.

[XtremeBain]

Yeah it probably can, after they've coded up the rest of their aimbot for scratch.  And once that's done, the acebot AI would be the least of your concerns.

[beowulf]

There are some pretty sophisticated aimbots for quake 3. I have seen an aimbot where the fov was set to 1 - 5 or something, and then all the user had to do was pass his crosshair over the intended enemy and it whould automaticly "lock-on" to target and actually lead depending on what weapon your using, and only lock on to enemies. I'm not sure if such an aimbot exists for quake 2 however.
 I have also seen "fire bots," basicly what they do is they automaticly fire your weapon when your crosshair passes over an enemy, this makes it hard to detect and people running around with railguns making insane shots, but without much evidence that they are hacking; however, I doubt such bots whould prove usefull in dp.

edit: Reconnecting was pretty much nothing more than a nuisance back in my q2 playing days.

[loial21]

I'm not sure if such an aimbot exists for quake 2 however

. There is for the rocket launcher and the bazooka in q2 wod. They even coded the rocket to allow a player to guide it with laser sighting after it was fired. Yes reconnecting was not fun.