- slander and libel - strats - cheaters - t2net - tnet recordings -
That's right, cheaters are out there. How do you tell when someone is cheating? Scumming gets more and more prolific these days, thanks to the idiots out there who are so useless at tnet they have to write/use trainers in order to win. spindizzy has written the following notes on this subject, because I made him (: Just a little note I thought I would put in here though:
***Watch fields*** This has just got to be said again and again because some people just -don't- get it. Watch fields, watch fields, watch fields dammit! You can't accuse someone of cheating if you're not keeping an eye on their field. It doesn't mean someone's scumming blocks if they dump 18 a's on you, especially if they just landed a tetris with multiple a's in the field. Which you won't know unless you keep track of what your opponents are doing. Ok, that's my piece, now read -
spindizzy's Guide to Busting TetriNET Cheaters (or: How To Know If Someone Is Cheating In TetriNET)
I found that a lot of the cheating guides on the net were out of date, so I decided to write a new one.
1v1, ladder:
Most of the people who cheat on the ladder use the TENirTET trainer. It's a combo cheat which can give you all the types of cheats listed. These cheaters are generally reasonably skilled, thus, they can disguise their cheats fairly well.
Basically, there are four different types of cheats available:
1: Simple specials hack.
Gives cheater an unusual amount of good specs, like 50% switches, etc. Very easy to spot if you just watch their fields. Can be busted by setting the % of the "good" specs to 0%. Obviously, when playing on publics, this isn't an option. Still, it's easy to see.
2. Stick cheat.
Gives the cheater the right block at the right time (usually the stick in pure games, but not just that). Easy to see if an unskilled player uses enourmous amounts of sticks. Nearly impossible to catch if a skilled player uses it. However, if you notice the suspect getting sticks at exactly the right times, and only getting the blocks he wants, never leaving any holes in his field, you may have a case. Try setting the stick % low for one game (like 5%) and see if he still can play the same. DON'T set stick % to 0%. Experienced cheaters will wait for the first stick so they make sure that there are sticks in the game and you are not trying to bust them. However, most people can still be busted making sticks in 0% stick game.
3. Unlimited specs.
Easy to see if you keep tracks of the blocks the player gets. This cheat gives the player an unlimited amount of the specs he's gained (he can keep them in the slot until he chooses to discard). And no, just because your opponent added you ten straight lines so you died, that doesn't mean he cheats. He might just have got a great number of specs by doing a tetris with adds in it. If someone keeps using one spec, like quake, without ever using other blocks but never running out of quakes, this is an indication. The best way to track the number of specs the other players have is to watch the number of lines added to all from the players. So, if you see someone clearing a switch while making two lines added, he's got three switches. This takes a while getting used to, but it will help your playing in specials very much.
4. Any specs.
Cheater gets any spec he wants. No real 100% way of knowing that your opponent uses this cheat. Lag can cause you not to see him getting the switch etc.. However, if you are certain that he didn't get the spec, (no lag etc) I suggest you set the strong specs (S, N and G, S being a particular favorite with this type of cheater) to 0% and see what happens.
5. Speed cheat.
Also referred to as TClone. Reduces delay between blocks. If your opponent uses the TClone cheat, he can't add 4 lines. It adds 3 lines instead. So, this is really obvious. If anyone adds 3 lines to all (don't mistake this for addlines gotten from the "a" block) he cheats. Also, Tclone causes lines added to the cheater to be messed up (many holes in them), you can look for that. Tclone, however, isn't used much anymore. Most people use the TENirTET cheat, which is far easier to come by and can produce the same result without messing your field or added lines up. You should know that just because someone moves a lot faster than you, he's not necessarily cheating. Skilled players are accused of cheating all the time for this and other reasons. Try holding down the drop key when playing. Notice how fast the pieces drop. This is the maximum speed you can play at in Tetrinet. Some players are that fast. But if you find someone working at twice that speed... well... (should also be noted that this takes a fair amount of skill)
(note from gimp - TClone isn't the only program out there that allows increased speed, and there are many versions of TClone around, some of which do not have the above quirks in them. You might notice, however, that when people clear lines with TClone, you can see the piece actually fill up the hole that it drops into for a splitsecond before the lines are cleared. Tnet clears them without letting you see the holes get filled by the block dropped. There are versions of TClone that do not have this function, but it's something to look out for at any rate. (The 'improved' versions make it much harder to spot TClone, thanks so much Bluecoder :p))
About the different cheats:
Tclone
Written by BlueCoder
This is a different Tetrinet program that runs at a higher speed than the original (less delays). It was not originally conceived as a cheat, ironically, it was meant to eliminate cheating when run as server. Quote,
"There never was any released version. Only thousands of incrimental builds. ... The version which actually has floated around was patch hacked and also appears to have been infected with a virus or trojan."
In these later builds of tclone, you can use it to "paint" blocks on the screen (see screen captures on the junk page), switch at will, get any blocks, etc. However, the main bugs of this program are pointed out above: 3 lines added, lines added to the tcloner's field with more than one hole and the quirk in clearing lines. Don't forget that some versions don't have these problems, though.
TENirTET 1 and 2 (AKA "Magic Sticks")
Written by HardCORE
This is a genuine cheat written to be run together with TetriNET 1.13. It can give you any blocks you want, modify specs % and reduce block delays. This is an extremely powerful cheat because it has no obvious bugs. It is mostly used in pure ladder matches (and very much so, I may add...)
The one bug we have been able to find is that it sometimes fucks up the specs so that the cheater only gets one type. (like, all C, all O, etc.) To provoke this bug, you can try changing settings from pure to specials during game. This MIGHT provoke the bug. Playing with specials on from the start is ABSOLUTELY USELESS. TENirTET was written to be used with specials. Just because someone gets OK specials when playing, that doesn't mean he isn't using the cheat.
Public Servers:
It should be noted that most (if not all) of the people who cheat on public servers suck, are slow, are seriously lame players. Thus, they can't disguise their cheats, and most of the times they do not bother. They use twenty adds on each players, nuke themselves ten times, quake the other players until there is nothing left on their fields and use so many specs that they flood themselves out of the server. Call an admin and have them banned or go somewhere else, this is the only way of dealing with them. Don't try to talk to them (generally, they don't understand English, or any other language).
Cheating on the TetriNET Ladders:
Cheating is rampant on the ladders these days. Generally, this isn't the place to go for a fair game. We've done some research that have led us to believe that more than 50% of the active players are actually cheating. You need to know who the players are in order to know who you can play.
When the different cheats for specials came out, people started playing pure on the ladder. When the magic sticks came around, some people tried starting playing pure ladder without any sticks. After this, the magic stick cheat was found to be capable of producing any blocks (T, L, Z, Box or Stick) at will, allowing the cheaters to trash the honest and good players completely. So, how can you deal with these cheats? We in clan Hellfire recommend setting stick level very high, with Z and boxes reduced. (Example: Sticks 25-30%, Z 8-10%.) This makes for easy building of your field, and gives (in most cases) enough sticks for everyone. Cheating will still give the cheaters a very significant advantage when playing. This means you will have to be immensely much better than the cheaters to be able to win them consistently. However, this is often not so hard, since most cheaters suck ;).
Also, remember, TetriNET is a game of skill and luck. Just because your opponent has got more luck, that doesn't mean he cheats.
spindizzy/HELLFIRE, 11/99
edited minutely and htmlised badly by gimp
html renovated by ekn, 10 Feb 2001
Further note - This isn't so much a problem these days, since most if not all multi-channel servers bar this particular form of vileness. However, and this applies most to the server built into tnet, if you come across someone you think is cheating, watch to see if someone's "speaking" just before cheaty events happen - a blank line before a suspicious event is usually a dead giveaway as to who the cheater is, although more savvy scummers may disguise this by incorporating the cheat code <invisible to your eyes> into a line of text.
And finally, if you want a cheat free game, try #plibble on IRC.
