Evolution and the fate of multiplayer

[ZoLoco 0]

Ok.. Been playing the multiplayer game, Evolution. All versions thats out there.

Enjoyed it actually for a while, climbing in ranks n such.

But after a while, some smart asses or admins or whatever spawned zombies, trucks and tanks and cars and.. yes, in the house we spawn after death, friendly units that kills you and if u kill them u loose points, flying planes without proper score or rank, running fast as a lighting.. You name it, seen alot of cheats and hacks or whatsitcalled...

Im wondering, are these hacksorcracksorwhatsitsname only limited to Evolution or can people do this on every multiplayer map thats created??

My future of playing Armed Assault is at stake here....

 

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

They can do it on any not just evolution. But they may target evolution servers more, I dunno.

[mattxr 9]

No they target beserk maps more than evo.

[mattxr 9]

I say Evolution is killing MP anyways.. Its played way too oftern on too many servers, we need more coop/ctf/cti so on maps to make MP even more fun again instead of evo evo evo

[squadleader 0]

I dont think they target specific maps. Berzerk maps holds more people, hence greater probability of someone cheating.

[Cannon Fodder 0]

To date I have never seen it in an Evolution server (you normally just get griefers - such as wounders and vehicle wasters) but I've seen them come into Bezerk games quite regularly. Their list of tricks are fairly uninspired - building masses of strange sandbag structures, dropping masses of bombs around themselves, teleporting, picking people up and dropping them (whole teams) so they die upon impact (even if you're in a vehicle, you will be ejected)... Imagine the whole teams have loaded up into choppers and are making their way to the first control points, and about a minute into the game EVERYONE is dumped out of their vehicle and dies? What is the point in even trying? Most people just left the server and the game was ruined. Which is exactly what they want.

[Rocco 0]

I say Evolution is killing MP anyways.. Its played way too oftern on too many servers, we need more coop/ctf/cti so on maps to make MP even more fun again instead of evo evo evo

your opinion, but obviously, evo is the most popular map out there, evo owns but needs a overhaul.

only thing i wish is that people would stop crying when someone edits the map for permission from original author, even though he doesnt care anymore.

[Dwarden 1125]

that change when new islands are out

[Spiggs 0]

To date I have never seen it in an Evolution server (you normally just get griefers - such as wounders and vehicle wasters)

building masses of strange sandbag structures, dropping masses of bombs around themselves, teleporting, picking people up and dropping them (whole teams) so they die upon impact

Hiya

I've just come from an Evo Server that was Cheat Hacked in exactly the way you describe in your Berserk Map.

Sadly I've seen it happen almost every day for the last couple of months or so on one server or another. More recently, on a bad night, it's hardly worth playing as they just jump from server to server screwing things up. .

I can play on a closed server with some mates but I like being able to dip into other established open servers to join in with others.

Personally I'm still enjoying the EVO map and its derivatives, but its horses for courses. No one forces anyone to play it and its popularity speaks for itself. I'm really glad that there are people out there putting in the effort, creating missions. Fair play to 'em!

I hope that BIS sort out the hacking with ARMA II by either making it more robust or giving admin tools to catch and ban the little sh1ts!

[Konig 0]

I've only been playing ArmA for several weeks and I was initially excited about the MP experience this game offers. Like all games though no matter how good they are it really depends on your fellow players to make them enjoyable.

To date I have experienced a mix bag of really helpful players, jerks and yes I too have seen the base destroying hack in evolution probably 6 out of the 30 times I've played!

One of the things that bugs me about evo is that you can spend a lot of time just waiiting around to get a lift to the action. I guess a lot of the guys who play this regular can get bored transporting people to and fro and would rather go on a bombing run but i see this as a weakness in the system. Let someone else have a go at being a pilot. We dont all have hours and hours to play this game each night and climb up the ranks to get these privileges!

You can spend an hour just trying to get up the ladder only to have the admin or whomever runs the map say lets start over and we all go back to the start - ok for them cause they have been on for hours already but if you only have one or two hours at a time you are building for nothing and the whole thing is a little dissapointing. Still I think its a great game with huge potential.

[ZoLoco 0]

Hmmmz. Ok so its mixed emotions and targeting with these spoilers..

I agree that Evolution is a good idea, and surely needs overhaul. Seen servers that have anti cheat/hack on but them too is attacked somewhat.

So its not only Evolution then that can be mocked, but all multiplayer maps can become targets. Sigh, the future looks grim of play MP...  

I gotta tell ya all, i miss OFP. No gamespy lobby and more closed games. Like Zeus, realism on and with TS. It was like i was back in the army. lol  

And why cheat and hack on Coop??... erhmm..    

[Doolittle 0]

It's interesting that Arma's turned out to be a totally Coop game and OFP was always strongly about team competition and leagues and all that.

[Cannon Fodder 0]

From my perspective the cheating is DEFINITELY getting worse. EVERY game I was in tonight for more than 20 minutes was subject to a hack attack. I've watched servers empty out, both Evolution and Bezerk, due to hacker's antics. They end the game completely for all concerned. Another thing - one of them actually used my in-game name and made it look as though I was cheating!! They adopted my identity, I don't know how, and cheats were coming up as though it was my fault! I could just about stand the horseplay, but sullying my name?! This has to end!

[urbanwarrior 0]

just thought i would add here. I haven't played arma online for ages, been messing in the editor and playing with a couple of friends in private server, but i decided a couple of days ago to get back online, well in the past 2 or 3 days i seen more cheating, hacking, TK'ng and general stupidity than i have seen in the last 10 years that i've had a PC. Armed assault at the minute is almost pointless in multiplayer, tonight i have changed server 7 times each and every one og them was hacked, the last one was the worst, the guy tk'd then wasted all the choppers, then spawned zombies then elevated everyone to 10,000 meters and dropped them only to cap it off with everyone having to ctrl alt del. Admins cant do anything to stop them at the minute becasue kicking them doesn't work and now they can even kick the admin. And as for them not targetting evo, half the maps i had to leave were evo. as someone else said, this is seriously pushing me and quite a few (neaarly all) of my mates away from this game. such a shame that a good game gets ruined by a bunch of losers who like to demonstrate that they not only have no girlfriends but also would rather sit all night and write code/hacks to ruin a game than actually have a life.

[The Susser 0]

I read on forums one of the hackers want to spoil the game so much BIS goes under. A small dev company competing with big business. makes you wonder if the hackers (wether they know it or not) are doing the deeds of rival company. rather sad to target an indie games company.

[LeftSkidLow 1]

I read on forums one of the hackers want to spoil the game so much BIS goes under. A small dev company competing with big business. makes you wonder if the hackers (wether they know it or not) are doing the deeds of rival company. rather sad to target an indie games company.

I've wondered that also, there is no way to know. I get frustrated with some bugs in ArmA but none that kept me from playing and enjoying the game, but the hacking got so bad and was basically expected that I just stopped playing for a while. I tried playing again tonight and its just as bad or worse, I don't understand it. I've done immature griefing and TKing in older games before when I was a bitter idiot. So, I usually know what their motivation is but, this ArmA crap I just can't figure out. I never would have gotten satisfaction out of crashing servers, which is what makes me wonder if it is a rival company or something like that as you said.

[King-Six 0]

i am starting to get sick of evolution too..it breaks you down.

i was playing on a server for 3 days. had 400+ points built up, and today after work i go to play and, boom! the server had crashed. now im left holding the bag.

this makes me feel like saying whats the point.

i might as well just go watch the street light at the end of my road.

[The Susser 0]

it's obvious the hackers are working for an agenda that most of them are oblivous to. Ignorant pawns doing the chores are a sinister enitity. Sounds paranoid? maybe, but business uses many tactics to beat the competition.

The hackers preach freedom but true freedom can only be achieved when people take it upon themselves to be responsible. They are no more than E-Thugs. they know what they do pisses people off. It's rude and due to the anonimity of the internet they flex this e-thuggery like chicken shit cowards hiding behind a video screen. Cliched victims of bullies would be my guess. rather pathetic beings unhappy with life inflicting what ever pain others have caused them and trying to consider fun by making people miserable.

Sorry english is not first language.

[Dwarden 1125]

I read on forums one of the hackers want to spoil the game so much BIS goes under.  A small dev company competing with big business.  makes you wonder if the hackers (wether they know it or not) are doing the deeds of rival company.  rather sad to target an indie games company.

*** this is not official statement ***

BIS can't go under as military sales keeps them afloat no matter what 'cheaters' do or wish to reach ...

and if cheaters try something beyond 'clientside' that it may happen that real military gets involved (just for fun like cheaters love to say) ...

*** end of non official statement **

[urbanwarrior 0]

Cant see BIS doing anything to help this as they already have our money and as dwarden said, they've got military sim contracts, why bother trying to fix a HUGE problem when it doesn't affect you anymore. Now queen gambit, thats a different story, who the hell is going to pay money to expand a game thats almost unuseable online. I'm almost looking forward to dragon rising coming out next year, maybe they can get it right.

[coderdfox 0]

Great KICK again! cause some little POS showed up and started tking every one, BIS FIX YOUR DAMN GAME. I was so excited to play multiplayer. the first few months were great, then the hacks came, and now the admins cant even tell who hacking. GREAT JOB

Whats the point of JIP if you need to lock out your server to play?

[guerilla -MCY- 0]

in ofp it was mostly cti and ctf which attracted those wannabe scripters, but this shield got lost for the coop players, have fun with them

[-Total- 0]

People must understand one important factor concerning cheating:

Cheating has become an almost accepted par tof gameplay. Most PC gamers are also console gamers (I'm not - think consoles blow). In the console market, cheat codes are part of the system. Tech Tv and G4 have entire programs dedicated to the cheat codes and how to use them. "Beating the system" just to get away with it is a mindset that many people of the newer generation have developed...and it's stretches beyond gaming as well.

Cheating will never go away. In fact, it will only get worse. People post advertisements of their cheats on youtube and such.

Unreal 1 was released in 1998. I played the multiplayer every night for over two years before the first aimbot was developed. Even after it started going around, the playing community could tell you - by name - the players who used it. There were that few. These days it's another matter entirely.

As far as MP in ArmA itself:

ArmA has the ability for an amazing array of multiplayer scenarios. I have been working all week with the Advance and Secure template released by 16AAB. I have been working around smaller team sizes of 5v5 as our server is only a 10 person server. The amount of teamwork, strategy, and coordination required to accomplish the task of taking 3 zones in a smaller area is extremely challenging when playing against REAL people. I have completed two maps around this ideal and am working on a third.

Unfortunately, I do not see any player vs player systems really working out well. While it's fun to take Evolution or any other player&AI-centric mod and just have a relaxing time playing semi-solo, it gets pretty redundant. In veteran's mode, Evolution is getting easy now. I can clear a town with one squad of AI and myself in a tank. Where's the coordinative teamwork and challenge in that when it becomes that easy?

Unless server owners start putting player vs player mods on their servers and then actually getting their people in them to draw attention to it, then ArmA will continually stay CoOp only.

[SeppSchrot 0]

Unless server owners start putting player vs player mods on their servers and then actually getting their people in them to draw attention to it, then ArmA will continually stay CoOp only.

I think you've answered that by yourself already.

My "clan" only starts the server when they want to play. Call us egoistic but why should we hassle with all that public player crowd which doesn't even say "Hi" when they join a server?

Other player-vs.-player servers run night&day but are password protected so you have at least to ask in Teamspeak or a forum.

From what I've heard, this seems to work well too.

So I conclude there are many such servers with such mods. It's just that noone wants random players onto them anymore. I can understand this.

The downside is you will never get these "huge battlefield" things which may be technically possible now. But if you ask me, this has always been an illusion anyway because people tend to misbehave more in a large crowd.

So it's not very ArmA specific, IMHO.

[-Total- 0]

Our server bounces between public and private. It's a 10 player server and, when going public, we will have people of less desirable traits join. Some hack, some are foul mouthed, and others have no concept of teamwork.

We tolerate those not hacking and kick those who are. The reason for tolerating the others is that it's a small price to pay for maybe getting player vs player going in the game.

I've competed in America's Army since it started in competition shortly after it's release. I competed in Tribes 2 and Battlefield Vietnam. It was Unreal Tournament, Battlefiel 1942, and Strasiege Tribes, and Unreal 1 before those.

Egotistical morons and cheaters existed in numbers in every one of those. A safe, cordial, and cheat free enviroment will not exist in online gaming for the reasons I posted above.

If the majority wants the game to grow, then suck it up and police servers ourselves as admins. You think punkbuster does a good job in America's Army? LOL!! The day a new patch is released, the updates to the undetectable hacks are ready for release. Quit relying on BIS to provide a miracle cure. Whatever they insitute on the software side, cheaters will find a work around. America's Army has encrypted almost every file of the game and the hackers still find it easy to get around.

Enforcement of fair play is up to the community of fair players.