Since there appears to be a constant stream of threads from new or new-ish players calling cheaters left and right, which usually degenerate into a flame between experienced and newer players arguing about what is proof of cheating and what is not, in the hope of saving everyone’s time, here’s a summary of the most common arguments brought up as “proofs” by people who accuse cheaters, along with the possible legit explanation(s) for each one.
Mandatory disclaimer before we start:
- IF YOU NOTICE SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, REPORT IT IN GAME THROUGH THE DEDICATED REPORT FUNCTION by right-clicking on a player’s name in the list. The forum is NOT the right place to report suspect cheating.
- THE GAME IS SERVER SIDED. This basically means that any input coming from a player’s device is processed by the server acting as a “referee”. All calculations about movement, ballistic, collisions and such happen on the server. This prevents client-side manipulations, at the cost of occasional desync episodes, which cause apparently weird stuff to happen.
- BUGS HAPPEN, too. Weird/unfair stuff happens on a daily basis, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s intended.
Now, on we go.
"No way that guy can have so many kills / so high score!"
Short answer: yes he can. It’s usually someone who knows to exploit at best tanks and planes, which are very powerful.
A moderately skilled bomber player will reliably score 10-20+ kills per bomb run, and current mechanics allow him to do so roughly once per minute if nobody stops him.
A skilled tanker will blow up waves after waves of enemy soldiers with HE, while also racking up extreme amounts of assists (each one of his own crew members earns an assist for every kill he scores).
Also, players aggressively fighting for cap points are rewarded with extra score.
"That guy was immortal!"
Freshly spawned soldiers (at a fixed spawn) are invulnerable for a short time, OR until running out of the spawn. It’s a measure to discourage spawn campers.
"So, how come I was killed just as I spawned there?"
The aforementioned invulnerability does NOT apply to troops spawning at a rally point.
"He shot me through a wall!"
Some walls and obstacles can be pierced by bullets and shells. Don’t expect thin wooden panels to stop incoming fire, in example.
"No way he could noscope OHK me that fast!
Leaving skill or luck aside, this can happen because:
- Bots inevitably DO use aimbots (duh); their AI tries to replicate human players’ perception and shooting, but it’s unfortunately quite inconsistent. Sometimes they’ll be unaware of someone bunny hopping among the squad stabbing everyone, other times they’ll spot and instakill people at 100m through thick bushes. So they are responsible for most of the “superhuman” shots in game.
- Console players reportedly do have an aim assist, allowing their crosshair to snap on enemies if close enough when using the sights. This is intended to help them against mouse aim, supposedly better than analog controllers.
"He knew I was there, he must have seen me through walls/smoke/vegetation!"
Are you REALLY sure that:
- It wasn’t a bot who pulled an AI stunt (see previous point)?
- He didn’t HEAR you coming?
- You didn’t pop out of a very predictable point?
- Your position wasn’t marked (“v” key) by someone?
"We shot each other, but my bullets did no damage and I died!
This is typically a ping issue. Connection quality affects the sync speed between server and client; in situations where things happen almost simultaneously, a better connesson holds the advantage because it can successfully interact with the server faster.
Case in point, you may think you managed to fire at the guy before he killed you, and actually see your gun firing on your screen, but if the server receives the input of your shots milliseconds AFTER it registered the bullets of the other guy killing you, it will disregard said input and “undo” your shots.
"I saw a guy kill a tank with a rifle / melee / hand grenade!
Tanks explode when the whole crew is dead, regardless if said crew is inside or outside. It is not so rare for tankers to be attacked and killed while outside repairing the tank or doing something else; plus commanders / gunners exposing themselves out of their hatch can easily be gunned down. In this case the kill feed may show apparently strange things.
Also, both grenades and TNT share the same grenade-shaped icon when thrown; if you see said icon next to a tank and it blows up, it was 99% a TNT. Hand grenades MAY, OCCASIONALLY, score kills on light tanks, but that happens so rarely that it’s probably a bug.
"That tank shot me while its turret was facing the other side!"
Known (and annoying) visual bug. Should be fixed with 2021-08-04 update.
"Someone hacked my controls and messed up my inputs!"
If mid-match your inputs go crazy and you find yourself stuck looking straight up/down, turning around endlessly or such nonsense stuff, that’s not hackers, that’s Enlisted currently having “sub-optimal” (to put it mildly) controller / joystick support. Make sure you unplug any input device you’re not using to play and/or delete control bindings related to unused devices, particularly control axis.
ALL OF THE ABOVE SAID, it is not impossible that you may have actually met cheaters; the above explanation is merely a try to inform newer users in order to reduce claims about what in the end turn out to be “false positives” due to legit ot at least explainable game mechanics.
I may have forgotten some other frequently mentioned “proof” of cheating, feel free to contribute, I will edit the OP if needed.
oh no i am a cheater i didn’t know it
