I seem to see this now about every third or fourth match, and it is beyond old. I know others have seen the same thing.

Ships (usually bombers) that simply can't fly in a smooth line; instead they "jump" through space at short intervals that make them nearly impossible to hit with blasters unless you are right behind them, and make missile lock-on more difficult because of the second-check mechanic that ensures the target is still in your firing arc when you fire.

It is a very lag-like effect, but PLEASE DON'T TELL ME IT IS TRUE LAG.

Here's why:

1) It is generally not a temporary effect. Players I see doing this do it all match, every match.

2) Anyone with that bad of a connection would have an impossible time doing anything in the entire game besides flying a bomber in GSF.

3) The fact that it is almost entirely bombers, the only ship that could possibly play halfway effectively with such a thing happening, is highly suspicious.

4) The "jumping" occurs at precise, regular, consistent intervals, such as two jumps per second. True lag does not happen that way.

While these pilots are not generally that effective, they can still be a major nuisance in holding or putting pressure on a satellite in Domination. I report them every time I see them and I hope other players do as well. Fix this!! It's been going on since bombers got introduced in 2.6.

I've seen this on several different types of ships and it has been happening well before bombers were introduced. It may just be that the people that do it on your server primarily use bombers. In any case, I suspect that this is a desired effect and done on purpose to give these players an advantage.

I don't know if it's necessarily a hack, but it should be treated as such and reported. I have personally reported and encouraged others to report these players, but routinely see them continue to play with apparently no repurcussions.

Oddly enough, I hardly ever see these players actually do well; I commonly see them with less kills/assists than deaths and minimal objective scores, leaving me to wonder what the heck the point is. I always focus on taking these losers out of the match as soon as possible just on principle.

I've seen this on several different types of ships and it has been happening well before bombers were introduced. It may just be that the people that do it on your server primarily use bombers. In any case, I suspect that this is a desired effect and done on purpose to give these players an advantage.

 

I don't know if it's necessarily a hack, but it should be treated as such and reported. I have personally reported and encouraged others to report these players, but routinely see them continue to play with apparently no repurcussions.

 

Oddly enough, I hardly ever see these players actually do well; I commonly see them with less kills/assists than deaths and minimal objective scores, leaving me to wonder what the heck the point is. I always focus on taking these losers out of the match as soon as possible just on principle.

It's probably lag...

Edit: I realize that my response had no backing to support my theory, so I'll go a bit more in depth. If they aren't doing well, it probably isn't a hack b/c hacks are used to give an advantage, not to debilitate one's abilities. If they were getting like X amount of kills beyond what the best player in that game is getting, then ya, but since that's not the case, I'd assume lag. Spikes can happen

It's probably lag...

 

Edit: I realize that my response had no backing to support my theory, so I'll go a bit more in depth. If they aren't doing well, it probably isn't a hack b/c hacks are used to give an advantage, not to debilitate one's abilities. If they were getting like X amount of kills beyond what the best player in that game is getting, then ya, but since that's not the case, I'd assume lag. Spikes can happen

I suppose it's possible, and I admit I really don't know much about lag in general. But to be clear, it's not something that gets better or worse during the match, it's constant throughout and I see it happening with the same players from match to match. It seems improbable that a connection can be consistently just good enough to stay in the match without lagging out. As for skill level, maybe they'd be even worse without it, who knows. I still believe it's intentional.

I suppose it's possible, and I admit I really don't know much about lag in general. But to be clear, it's not something that gets better or worse during the match, it's constant throughout and I see it happening with the same players from match to match. It seems improbable that a connection can be consistently just good enough to stay in the match without lagging out. As for skill level, maybe they'd be even worse without it, who knows. I still believe it's intentional.

Lag can very easily stay bad over the course of an entire match if one is sharing a connection (say, at a hotel or starbucks). And the way GSF is designed, when someone is lagging, they teleport around the map and are flat out immune to damage and locks.

Again, before you assume people are cheating without any evidence whatsoever, ask yourself why someone would go to all the effort of hacking the game (and that's not easy) to put themselves at such a huge disadvantage.

I don't think it's lag, I know of 2 pilots on my server who are famous for using this "skill" the only time I have seen people rage in GSF was against one of these 2.

While they have someone on their six they suddenly "port around" without a reticle, yet when they turn to face you they move and fire perfectly fine.

This is done in such a way that it can't be lag, or if it is it's self induced.

Its lag, whether its self induced or not I can't say.

It is very convenient for a bomber to have, given that their primary weapons do not need to be aimed. Thats probably why they will stand out more then when other ships start "lagging". Very much in favor of devs doing something about it as well.

Two primary possibilities. One is lag of some sort. Though if it is lag, I wouldn't worry about it too much, because while lagging their abilty to hit targets will be greatly reduced (though that's much less of a disadvantage for bombers because they let the server do most of their targeting) and their ability to avoid damage by any means other than 'jumping' also approaches zero.

The other way to achieve a similar effect is to just intermittently hit boost.

The way to tell the difference is by the behavior of the target lead reticle. If it's zooming back and forth in their direction of travel, then it's boosting, if the reticle lead is staying a fixed distance from the ship (or at least not moving around much relative to the ship) then it's lag, though there's no way for you to tell if it's natural or deliberately induced.

I expect it is self-induced lag. We've got a few guys on my server who only do it when someone is shooting at them, too. Once in a while they screw up and hop right into an obstacle, but not often enough.

yeah in a match I was in yesterday every time I got on this one bomber's six he would suddenly start jumping and as soon as he was clear he'd begin flying like normal again.