How do you guys deal with hackers on FFA ladder?

[Sinae]

Hello guys,

I have played FFA for quite a while now even though I never played in FML, always focusing on Northern ladder considering that I don’t have the sufficient level for your league . From the good old days I encountered maphackers from time to time. However now that I have been back (after being inactive for more than 3 years) it is just so crazy . For instance, for each game I played last week-end I met at least one or two hackers in 5 out of my 7 games. Maybe it’s just bad luck? I hope it is.

I was wondering what you guys do in this kind of situation. What do you do when you meet a hacker on ladder?

Personally I 95% of the time loose my temper and just suicide the ‘poor’ bastard , which is as you guys know not the right behaviour to be successful in FFA. Most of the time I eventually get rid of him but then I got taken out quickly and relatively easily by the other(s) player(s). Either because he/they have hoarded a ton of gold or because he/they just had the right counter army to mine (having time to scout and adapt while I was focusing on the hacker).

Maybe I need to understand them better  :icon_question:because right now I just don’t get it why a player would cheat on a game that is more than 10 years old. (Actually I have no clue either for those who cheat in new games but this is not the point). If you could give me some reason or some satisfaction they can get from hacking please do tell me . Maybe if I understand them better I will be able to keep my calm and stay focus on the solution to win the entire game, and not just taking out the hacker.

Any tip on how to handle maphackers would be also welcome.

Sorry for my English, might be far from perfect.

Sinae

[SteppinRazor]

You really cant take ladder that serious anymore. 

EDIT:  I find that most hackers are bad (not that I'm good or anything, but they are usually worse than me) so that is sometimes an advantage.  I havn't done ladder in ages, and if I ever do again I owuld just play orc or human so you can lamer them back.  Ntropy always posts great games at ffareplays of him beating hackers with mass tanks and mass TP abuse, which is funny to hear hackers complain about laming and whatnot

[FML|Mage]

First off all say excellent job on the English!  As a native English speaker, I am amazed at how well most of FML speaks English as a second language.  I know it's not easy.

As for hackers.  The sad truth is that there is no good reason.  As you pointed out, it makes no sense and yet they continue to do it.  I could go into some deep psychological reasons, but I'll refrain.

I would highly recommend that you play FML games on the bots.  They're much easier to find, and a lot of fun.  In addition, we ban hackers.  As soon as you find one, you just email the replay to Ugri (the email is provided by the bot) and he'll go ahead and ban the player!

Let us know if you have any more questions about it, and don't be afraid to play with us.  I'm terrible at the game and I still play (though I'll admit, not win often)!

[Ugri2]

Bot is becoming so huge now that I intend to create a dedicated section of ffamasters.net to it (if Worpex agrees).

players could name the hackers they met, we would check them and ban them.

I put on a team of reliable players like Sinae to control hacking activities. There is at the moment 36 admins who can control games (half are FML, half are regular bot user). I trust that we can manage to clean our bot from hacking as much as possible.

However as I fear some could abuse the !ban command, I dont really dare yet to let these 36 admins ban people.

- I have been reported case of non existent hacking or not really obvious... I want to be sure no player will be banned at the first cj.

I will put guidelines on bot management to insure games starts properly and some rules on when to ban hackers and how to.

[Persuade]

It can be frustrating playing Renaud, especially when he is allowed to play in this league while everyone knows what he is an infamous hacker.

I find the best way to beat him is to play Orc and just be aggressive.  He'll mess up sooner or later, and that's when you capitalize on him.  He's recently started using faeries so he's not that much of a threat as he used to be, but once he decides he wants to win a game or two, he'll be back, and more ferocious than ever.

As to why he does it? Who knows, maybe there's nothing else to do in Canada except maphack.  Or maybe he's just a habitual hacker, and it's a subconscious phase he hasn't been able to properly subdue yet.

[KaJetan]

id like to give my two cents in this bc im one of the only current FML players playing alot of ladder atm (rank 2 northern). people need to get over the fact people can see you. i play as human and scan all the time scout early and know where people are located on the map. easy ways to catch people is getting Creep jacked over and over or cross map hit. hackers rely on site to much i find and dont know how to macro at all. what i mean by this is limit there resourse and dont be afraid to call some one out. its ok to back off and try to get other to see the hacker for who he is so you can team him of if u can handle him solo him. if solo isnt going well peace back off. DONT get emotional. i do (mostly i threaten to get people to back off and bye me time bc im fucked )  but i play for the win also. im able to collect myself and calm down. but see if you can get the hacker to hit others with the CJ. u can always team him. its a balance of scouting and knowing what they will try to do. i NEVER used to get tower now i biuld like 10 arcans upfront so A) i can scan like crazy and B) they r awsome vs heros. i know has army who might hit me and with what and i counter them. EVERYTHING can be counterd. late game hackers dont really matter and i say this bc they r dumb and slip up in a hour game and ill team him to death. its early game u just need to be carfule.

[Ugri2]

that works... when you play human!

[Sinae]

Thank you all for your answers

@SteppinRazor: this is a sad sad statement ladder was the root of everything :( I agree Ntropy's replays helped me a lot to deal with them, especially with human

@Mage: yes I actually play quite a lot with your bot, entertaining and good to meet some of you guys in game ^^

@Ugri: I do agree, the bot is becoming important as more and more players are coming. Besides I have noticed that the level of the FML bot is increasing. At the beginning a lot of players didnot have a good insight about FFA (actually no FFA sense at all ^^) but now more and more players I meet are regular players on the bot. I think you really found something here. Bien joué 

@Persuade: I think I met Renaud in one of my game he seemed as a good fellow. I have never been to Canada, though a ton of times in the US. Some people in Europe that have traveled in North America say that Canada is just a better version of the US (don't know what you think about that  ).

@Sparkle: Thanks again Sparkle (& congrats on your ranking, hope you will make it to top 1) I already spoke to you about it and once again you give me some good advices that I will try to apply in my next ladder games. You seem very confident about how you handle maphackers in your games so if you have examples of replays where you handle well the way you say it it would be great if you could post them somewhere (in ffareplays as Ntropy does for instance)

Thanks again anyway. Have fun!

[Lightweight]

High search times, at least 1-2 hackers in each game. Where is the fun in playing bnet ffa ladder. FFA could be the most interesting gametype, but the whole fun is taken apart by maphack. FFA lives from the lack of information people have and how much efford you put into scouting to get an advantage.

Once you played 3-4 hour games vs people that survived this long only because of their maphack and then you lose in the end only because of maphack abuse, you will never play it again. Before i stopped playing ladder my frustration about all this bullshit was so high that it was not worth the little fun you have while playing. From my experience 1/50 games is a good one which doesn't mean that there was no hackers.

The most annoying thing is that if the hacker notices that he starts losing, he will  start absusing his maphack even harder. Forget bnet ladder. Play on the fml bot. We can ban hackers and mute idiots = more fun.

Still, don't ban people due to your suspicion ingame, watch the replay and then decide. By the way, i am a known hacker on Northrend rt. They just don't notice that i invest around 400 gold every game to scout mains/expos with the lab to know where to go and what units to make.

[Ugri2]

LW is right 100%, give up on the ladder, play the bot.

Also for banning, When it is obvious you can ban the hacker and just send me the replay. lickmylollipop was very obvious.

I have to find a balance in avoiding mass undeserved ban and mass hackers on the bot, I am not sure how to procede exactly.

I would say if you obs a game and see a hacker ban him, send me replay.
If you play the game it is better to wait for banning.