Just to clarify for those that are curious, and for the "deniers" that claim everything's hunky dory. Lets Identify the differences and then argue.

Exploit:

1 - Small body fame exploit - when kneeling next to certain walls (i.e. Denova Bunkers) will cause you to be untargetable and invincible. All the while allowing the exploiter to cap a node or continue to dps (sniper class)

2 - Gate Crashing - when respawning in a WZ a toon can slip through a gate or door (voidstar) while the door timer is still up

3 - Stealth Capping - when a toon is able to cap a node (Alderaan, Denova, Voidstar) without breaking stealth

Hacks:

1 - Lag throttling - has several variations, when you are attacking a toon the game seems to glitch and a second later said toon is out of range. A toon can "queue up" multiple abilities simultaneously. Sometime just being near a toon that is throttling and neither of you are attacking each other your computer will glitch.

2 - Speed Hack - DO NOT CONFUSE WITH PASSIVE ABILITIES AND/OR PREDATION. Example: A Madness Sorc with passaive, consistent speed boost. These hacks can be "tuned" so that its only 10-20% of normal.

3 - Ability Spamming - ALSO DONT CONFUSE WITH PASSIVE COOLDOWN REDUCTIONS. Examples: Most common is the CC breakers. Classes have one CC that will break on damage, and one that won't. (Not including the stealthed CC). Some toons have the ability to break both of those without being damaged.

Allows a toon to "spam" abilities that are on cooldown. <<can be offensive or defensive abilities.

4 - Macros - As seen just today. In less than one second, I observed a Sorc spin a perfect 180 degrees, stop, knockback, and continue turning 180 degrees. All the while never stopped moving in the same direction. Skilled player? Possibly. However, he did this many times over the course of several matches. Each time perfect. Highly unlikely.

5 - Teleportation - ALSO DO NOT CONFUSE WITH ASSASSIN TELEPORT, or OPERATIVE/ASSASSIN IN COMBAT STEALTH + ROLL/FORCE SPEED - toon will drop through the floor only to reappear an extraordinary distance from that point. WIll usually be a class without stealth capabilities

L2P:

1 - Passive abilities of classes - Example: unremitting, post sorc bubble shield, speed boost on ability use, etc.

2 - Group Stealth

3 - Active abilities - See teleportation above, predation, force leap followed by zealous leap, etc.

All class abilities can be viewed on the internet, before crying HAX!!!, See if it's perhaps something that you didn't know about a certain class before rage quitting. I have to admit 90% of issues fall within this area.

However, Hacking and Exploitation is extraordinarily rampant in certain servers, and almost exclusive to unranked matches. Where if someone calls them out, they can't just berate the accuser and say L2P, or "my gears are better than yours". An argument that is largely irrelevant due to Bolster. If you are lucky enough to be on a server and have never seen or very rarely seen these things, please let me know I'll transfer.

Another observation I have made is that its a roughly 50/50 split between a random toon and an entire premade group of toons guilty of cheating. Back before 2.0 I have seen entire guilds disappear after several toons were banned for hacking. I personally know of 17 that have been banned from my reporting of these hacks and exploits over the last month. Some have returned after only getting a short ban.

I know its a ToS violation to start calling out people by name. Its it a violation to call out a guild? If not post that stuff up guys. If you spread the word, this will stop.

4 isnt a macro its a kiting technique. Kiting with strafe (q or e) then jump press backwards (s) and you'll be facing behind but still moving forward. Use ability. Go back to strafe as you land.

You fire the ability behind and never stop moving forward.

A keyboard turner called me a hacker for using my mouse to turn. Which makes your character turn quickly.

Only seen one hack that I know of forsure, some sin planted on voidstar acouple seconds after second round started.

A keyboard turner called me a hacker for using my mouse to turn. Which makes your character turn quickly.

 

Only seen one hack that I know of forsure, some sin planted on voidstar acouple seconds after second round started.

Yup, and the Ginger/Jingles or whatever guy (sorc), that openly admitted that he hacked - there was video evidence, too. It's quite crazy...

4 isnt a macro its a kiting technique. Kiting with strafe (q or e) then jump press backwards (s) and you'll be facing behind but still moving forward. Use ability. Go back to strafe as you land.

 

You fire the ability behind and never stop moving forward.

I use the same technique. This occurred almost instantaneous and was executed far too consistent to be skill

5 is use of a lag switch. Whereby you have a switch that is either homemade or bought from a manufacturer (yes, there are companies out there producing these and selling them online to give you "the edge" through exploiting, just google it) which when switched stops all outgoing data from the client but still allows the server to send all incoming data. The server won't kick these clients immediately in case it's genuine lag (imagine getting booted off the server instantly when you get some lag from your ISP, you wouldn't be happy right?) so lag switches can be used momentarily without the player getting kicked from the server or warzone.

So basically, you turn the switch on, your outgoing data to the server is stopped, but you are still receiving all the incoming data and can see all the players running about and using their abilities. On everyone else's screen the lag switcher will not be moving (but their character will probably be shaking erratically on the spot and/or be on their back as though they are dead) but when trying to attack them you'll be receiving a "cannot see target", "target out of range" message or your abilities just won't be firing. The server just isn't receiving any information from them momentarily and when the lag switch is turned back off and data from the client is sent again they'll just appear in their new position, after the server updates their new location. So this is why you see people warp about or teleport, when there is a break in communication from the client to the server and the server then updates their info when the connection is remade.

The only real problem is you can't detect whether it's genuine lag or use of a lag switch. If the warping about is highly convenient for them and when in their new position their abilities fire flawlessly, it's probably a switch. If it's happening randomly and is hindering the player more than helping them, it's probably genuine lag.

The times when you need to suspect people are situations like the ball handler in Huttball warping along every few seconds, while the opposite team has great difficult in trying to stay on them or get their abilities to fire. When this happens conveniently over fire or when jumping between levels, or the ball handler seems to momentarily pop up on the ground level then reappear on the higher levels, don't be afraid to report them or get your video evidence ready. I had a situation in a Civil War at the middle terminal earlier today, where the guy in question was being too obvious about his use of a lag switch. I'd leap onto him, get a bunch of "cannot see target" etc. messages and abilities not firing, then they would reappear on the level above me and start casting heals flawlessly (if they were genuinely lagging their abilities would not fire so smoothly). I would then move to their position or leap them again, and the same thing would happen, their character is sitting in the same position with me getting a ton of error messages and abilities not firing, then they would reappear a few seconds later on the other side of the area. All they were doing was every time I attacked them they would pop their lag switch on, Force speed to a new position, and turn the switch back off again. In those few seconds they used the switch the server cannot tell you the position of the character, and subsequently cannot process any of the abilities you are attempting to use on them. Keep in mind no other player was lagging about in the large fight at mid so it was definitely not my connection or the server, and either way I have 60 meg optical fiber and a system which runs SWTOR maxed out above 60 fps at all times, even in the most intense battles.

If you have ever lagged out momentarily, continued running and hit an invisible brick wall, this is how far away you can travel and "teleport" before the client prevents your character from moving any further away.

I'm afraid you have to accept that there are always going to people out there who don't have any morals and don't enjoy playing games without having an unfair advantage, and it's all down to the software developers implementing protection against these hacks and exploits, which isn't an easy task and sometimes impossible without completely rebuilding the game engine etc.

P.S. It would also make sense that lag switches allow you to queue up abilities so that on remaking a connection to the server they all fire at once, but it would probably be quite difficult to achieve without the client or server rejecting most of the abilities you are attempting to use while "lagged out".

4 isnt a macro its a kiting technique. Kiting with strafe (q or e) then jump press backwards (s) and you'll be facing behind but still moving forward. Use ability. Go back to strafe as you land.

 

You fire the ability behind and never stop moving forward.

i usually jump mouse turn force wave mouse turn back. In a good game it works every time, in a bad game i mess up most of them, but you certainly don't need a macro for that

5 - Teleportation - ALSO DO NOT CONFUSE WITH ASSASSIN TELEPORT, or OPERATIVE/ASSASSIN IN COMBAT STEALTH + ROLL/FORCE SPEED - toon will drop through the floor only to reappear an extraordinary distance from that point. WIll usually be a class without stealth capabilities

That could just be a glitch with characters falling through the floor of the map and being respawned somewhere else.

In particular this happens when a jugg/mara uses their jump ability, especially going from higher to lower terrain, and falls through the map.

Sometimes this respawns you somewhere else on the map, when it happens sometimes in Tatooine Canyon arena where you fall through the floor for a while then it respawns you in the spawn area with full health! Such a thing may look like a hack, I mean a jugg just disappears then reapperas out of nowhere with full health, but tis just a glitch.

I've been doing PvP for a long time and never seen any of these.

Wow are you lucky!

I've been doing PvP for a long time and never seen any of these.

This. ^ I occasionally hear these accounts, and I have not necessarily done heavy PvP for a long time, but I haven't seen any hacks in my experience. I already have a hard time as it is, last thing I need is for hackers

to fight me anyway!

I've been doing PvP for a long time and never seen any of these.

You sound really lucky, but maybe its not really luck.

http://www.stevebloom.com/index.php?page=single&id=001777-SB2

Thanks for this, I've never actually seen a hack before (one that I noticed anway) I mostly just presume it's lag, and most of the time it is for me (Australia). I knew someone in my old guild who had apparently used a hack and openly admitted it, so I know it's not all in the mind of some nubs crying hax.

Just out of curiosity, what were the servers where you noticed a large number of hacks being used?

You sound really lucky, but maybe its not really luck.

 

http://www.stevebloom.com/index.php?page=single&id=001777-SB2

Or maybe, many of us just know exactly what is going on and don't scream "hax!" at every turn?

Thanks for this, I've never actually seen a hack before (one that I noticed anway) I mostly just presume it's lag, and most of the time it is for me (Australia). I knew someone in my old guild who had apparently used a hack and openly admitted it, so I know it's not all in the mind of some nubs crying hax.

 

Just out of curiosity, what were the servers where you noticed a large number of hacks being used?

Shadowlands

Or maybe, many of us just know exactly what is going on and don't scream "hax!" at every turn?

If you really have that trouble you should bone up on the game. Then you wouldn't be confused.

If you really think there are no hacks in the game, at all, ever then I have some great beach front property to sell you in Arizona.

If you knew the difference and what to look for then you would know what was a hack or lag or some game mechanic you were not aware of.

Or maybe you hack and therefore come to the forums to deny that there are any hack in the game.

If you really have that trouble you should bone up on the game. Then you wouldn't be confused.

 

If you really think there are no hacks in the game, at all, ever then I have some great beach front property to sell you in Arizona.

 

If you knew the difference and what to look for then you would know what was a hack or lag or some game mechanic you were not aware of.

 

Or maybe you hack and therefore come to the forums to deny that there are any hack in the game.

Yep, I'm totally a hacker, you got me

Shadowlands

Can confirm. Shadowlands and we are seeing them more often every week more guilds are doing this. It's not random no-name players. It's guilds supporting this and sharing CE

I'll be honest other than gingers video and the odd exploit I've never seen any hacks in the game (European servers). I've always thought it's a bit weird anyone would actually need to hack in this game.

Not saying they don't exist I've just never witnessed hacking, at least not on European servers.

I've seen people shooting/leaping under the shields in the last room in void star (there was a gap). But that's since been fixed. That was an exploit though.

For the record, no one is saying hacking doesn't exist, its just a simple fact that it isnt all that common. 99% of the time when someone screams hacks, its usually because they don't know what the class abilities do or just don't know the general game mechanics.

Yes I agree people more often than not, people call hacks because they don't know the other class abilities... But it is also server specific... Some servers will see a lot more than others... I know Pot5 was bad... And Harbinger has gotten worse since a lot of those people have come across

They also seem to be mainly guild specific... Not saying everyone in those guilds is doing it... But maybe a few, which when running remades, make it look like the whole guild... This can give that guild a bad name... I know people in some of those guilds that I play ranked with and they don't hack, but get consistently accused of it just by association... I get accused of it if I'm with them

Also at certain times of the day you can see it more... This is usually when pop times are long due to low pvp population at those times of day, so you come up against the same hack guys each match... This can really highlight who they are, especially if you get a match or 2 between playing them and hacks don't happen... After awhile a pattern begins to form, especially if you pvp a lot and get to know who they are... When the "real" hacks only happen when playing said players/guilds... It becomes obvious to us "who" can spot the difference, who those people are...

Reporting them seem completely useless as Bio either do nothing or give them a one week ban

I have made a few posts on this thread too... So I won't repost everything... Feel free to have a read

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7659966#post7659966

.

"Sometimes this respawns you somewhere else on the map, when it happens sometimes in Tatooine Canyon arena where you fall through the floor for a while then it respawns you in the spawn area with full health! Such a thing may look like a hack, I mean a jugg just disappears then reapperas out of nowhere with full health, but tis just a glitch"

But it becomes an Exploit, when folks learn how to repeat it. WIFI is probably the culprit to many of the accidents. I had 1 red bar but still had access to a certain part of the map and good still use certain abilities. I just ran around spamming those abilities, hit my abilities that did not register and then went inside the bunker. I got the full bars and saw my opponents targeting tab disappear and heard my timed abilities go off. I have since switched to a wired connection, because the times this helped were about a 1 in 25 vs watching folks jump around that I could not target.

5 is use of a lag switch. Whereby you have a switch that is either homemade or bought from a manufacturer (yes, there are companies out there producing these and selling them online to give you "the edge" through exploiting, just google it) which when switched stops all outgoing data from the client but still allows the server to send all incoming data. The server won't kick these clients immediately in case it's genuine lag (imagine getting booted off the server instantly when you get some lag from your ISP, you wouldn't be happy right?) so lag switches can be used momentarily without the player getting kicked from the server or warzone.

 

So basically, you turn the switch on, your outgoing data to the server is stopped, but you are still receiving all the incoming data and can see all the players running about and using their abilities. On everyone else's screen the lag switcher will not be moving (but their character will probably be shaking erratically on the spot and/or be on their back as though they are dead) but when trying to attack them you'll be receiving a "cannot see target", "target out of range" message or your abilities just won't be firing. The server just isn't receiving any information from them momentarily and when the lag switch is turned back off and data from the client is sent again they'll just appear in their new position, after the server updates their new location. So this is why you see people warp about or teleport, when there is a break in communication from the client to the server and the server then updates their info when the connection is remade.

 

The only real problem is you can't detect whether it's genuine lag or use of a lag switch. If the warping about is highly convenient for them and when in their new position their abilities fire flawlessly, it's probably a switch. If it's happening randomly and is hindering the player more than helping them, it's probably genuine lag.

I saw exactly what you described in a recent warzone. I was playing on my gunslinger, and whenever I would target and start shooting a particular sniper on the enemy team, I would get the "target out of range" message, accompanied by their character appearing to be dead and warping all over the place. Then suddenly they would be 60+ meters away, and everything would go back to normal with their character no longer appearing to be dead. This happened multiple times against this particular sniper. Do I have to record it in order to report them?