[Dave]

Noticed Orangepeel & EvilOwl mention this on another thread.

Is this the same as PS online stuff ? I've played some of the car racing games a few years back online & seen the kids play footy on XBOX live.

[orangepeel]

sort of...

for one thing we don't play 5v5 CTF in the livingroom, members of clans can come from all over the world. In reality though they tend to come from the same rough geographical area due to technical limitations of the internet. and when they play organised, the play against similarly geographically based clans.

we where talking about fps games tho (first person shooter) - where you run around various maps in different settings, from ww2 through to future spaceships or planets, and shoot pretty much anything that moves.

In the games we where talking about there is different mode of play: -
FFA - Free For All - make anything with a pulse not have a pulse.
TDM - Team Death Match - same as FFA except you are in two teams. Don't kill your own team tho.
CTF - Capture The Flag - Two teams each with their own base and a flag to protect. You don't get team points for the killing of others, just the capture of flags. You tend to play in specific roles in this game type. i.e. attack / midfield and defense.

There are other game types which tend to be specific to the individual games. For example - Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (which is free btw if you want to play it) involved breaking into a defended base and gaining a flag. Each map you swap teams to attack or defend the base.


Sega tried Dreamcast gamers vs PC gamers in Quake 3 Arena for a little while. PC gamers stopped playing them because it was seriously unfair. It was just too boring.

1st rule of an MP (multi-player) FPS game is NEVER stand still. If u do, u die. With console controllers you can't aim and move at the same time, at least not with any degree of success.

Consoles blow for FPS games, the controllers just are not good enough for the sort of movement required. The problem with pc's as a gaming platform is 1) the expense 2) the degree needed to set the buggers up for optimum performance

PC players have the joys of a mouse and keyboards with 102 buttons to choose from. With that sort of flexibility you'll destroy the vast majority of player using a gamepad (there are always exceptions though).


About the only criticism I will lay on a PC as a gaming platform is it's no good for the "mates around the TV" session of footie or some beat em up... This is where console excel. However there is lots of money in internet mp gaming, hence the advent of xbox live etc.

[Steve]

I used to play a great deal of UT online and at Lan parties. Capture the flag/instagib used to be hours of mindless fun but then it started to get very silly with cheaters using aimbots, I appreciate a skilled player when I see one but the people that just camped using aimbots ruined it for me. It's been a very long time since I had a game loaded on the PC now.

[Dave]

Thanks for detailed reply OP. Sounds quite addictive....better keep away from that . Must admit I had few fun evenings with mates round, some beer & 4 up screen on Nintendo Golden Eye. Not the same when you can see everyone elses screens though.

Always thought it would be good if you could load your own face onto your character, so you could indetify each other.

[MickB]

I played the ball & bat with spinny controls years ago. Does that count

[orangepeel]

Originally Posted by Steve

I used to play a great deal of UT online and at Lan parties. Capture the flag/instagib used to be hours of mindless fun but then it started to get very silly with cheaters using aimbots, I appreciate a skilled player when I see one but the people that just camped using aimbots ruined it for me. It's been a very long time since I had a game loaded on the PC now.

yep - sadly it's not much better in some games today.
We do have anti-cheat tools these days but occasionally they still they get round them.

Anti-cheat works a bit like Anti-Virus. IE we can't catch cheaters until they cheat. Bit of a bugger really. Also we only protect our servers so a cheater can cheat away on one server for months but step on one of ours and if caught is banned on all of ours.

However the problem with cheating isn't actually as bad as some people think. It's easy to get maulled by a skilled player and assume he's a cheat. And unfortunately there are a LOT of skilled players. Especially on a mature game.
EvilOwl maybe hasn't played SOF2 since he left but if you're a complete novice and you jumped into a game against him I think you'd probably struggle to kill him unless he started feeling sorry for you and gave you a chance


PunksBusted Membership

This page shows a rough ratio of players to cheaters. A guid is a player. It's a unique ID based on the CD key which came with the game. In theory it should only ID one player. Exceptions are Americas Army and Enemy Territory - These are free games and u get a different GUID each time you install them.

If we look at the stats at the bottom, we have a database of 5 million "players" of which only 35,000 have been caught cheating. This is a tiny number out of the total.

However that's only the games we carry. Games like UT have no anti cheat worth talking about so we can't have stats on those - nor do we support them.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by orangepeel

However the problem with cheating isn't actually as bad as some people think. It's easy to get maulled by a skilled player and assume he's a cheat. And unfortunately there are a LOT of skilled players. Especially on a mature game.
EvilOwl maybe hasn't played SOF2 since he left but if you're a complete novice and you jumped into a game against him I think you'd probably struggle to kill him unless he started feeling sorry for you and gave you a chance

I fully accept that, and it is why I included the comment about being beaten by a skilled player.

I played UT religiously for a good 18 months online and also received calls of cheating by the less experienced players, so I know the feeling from above and below. Many times I would give the cheats benefit of the doubt but the type of cheaters I refer too also didn't move around and 'play' the game. This would obviously show them to be inexperienced, and as I am sure you are aware, experienced players 'patterns' of movements and game play style is completely different to someone that just joins in a game and has not taken time to learn the skill needed. As you lean the game (especially play online) you develop a different way of moving around the maps and this is obvious and very different in an experienced and an inexperienced player. An inexperienced player with a 100% headshot hit rate in a UT instagib match has to be cheating

As you say it’s an old game now and had a missive following when I used to play it (it probably still does) however unlike on your servers, it was very poorly moderated and cheats were rife. That ruined it for me

[orangepeel]

Yeah I completely agree. That's why I don't buy any game that doesn't come with anti-cheat, specifically PunkBuster anti-cheat.

I don't particularly rate VAC (Valve Anti Cheat - used in Half Life and Counter Strike). And all the custom AC packages for individual games tend to lack the resources to keep up to date against a determined collection of cheat coders.

[Hoo Haa]

You've completely lost me with all the jargon . LOL.

[Dave]

Cheers OrangePeel. Sounds like this kind of hobby takes up a lot of time

[orangepeel]

yeah. tbh in the summer I'm not too interested, but it's great in those long winter nights

I will say this tho. Got my cam in february, haven't played a game since

[Dave]

Originally Posted by orangepeel

I will say this tho. Got my cam in february, haven't played a game since

Excellent Sounds like you've taken a fair few shots then . If they are anything like this one, you should chuck some more up in the gallery for others to see :-



As one others mentioned, did that person end up getting soaked ?