quick question about "auto-cloaking"

[mij]

hi guys. i first asked this in ?help, and even though there were several mods on, i think they were all too busy to help me. i didn't see a help sub-board, so i'm posting here.

 

today i got degranted money for "autocloaking". could someone please clearly explain what it is, so that i can avoid doing it again? also i wouldn't mind an explanation of why this is illegal. i was especially confused since no rule about any sort of cloaking is listed in f1 nor on forums.

 

cheers!

Edited December 16, 2007 by mij

[James1293]

"Autocloaking", as far as I know, refers to the use of a program that turns your cloak back on as soon as you are done shooting, therefore keeping your cloak on almost all the time (without you having to press the cloak button manually after each shot.)

 

I'm not staff though, so i can't help you past that.

Edited December 16, 2007 by James1293

[mij]

ahhh i see.

 

i'll wait for an official staff reply on this of course, but if james is right, then could i have my money back? because i've never even heard of such a program (especially since pressing the cloak button is not particularly difficult for the able bodied person...), much less was using it.

[Sharpflame]

The rule that it falls into is "No use of 3rd party utilities". If you were !@#$%^&*umed to be using it, you were probably cloaking in-between bullet shots of Disruptor or something. Which you shouldn't be able to do without a program to do it for you.

[mij]

ok thanks, that clears it up. i assume then (well first i'm !@#$%^&*uming that rare was the one who degranted me money, even though i was not told that specifically in the degrant message, nor in any reply through ?help. please excuse me if my !@#$%^&*umption is wrong) that rare thought i was using a 3rd party utility, apparently this "autocloaker" program. however. i !@#$%^&*ure you it was very easy to do manually by just constantly rocking back and forth between two keys: the cloak key and the shoot bullets key.

 

either way, to clarify and reiterate, i was most definitely not using any 3rd party program.

[Suicide_Run]

The rule that it falls into is "No use of 3rd party utilities". If you were !@#$%^&*umed to be using it, you were probably cloaking in-between bullet shots of Disruptor or something. Which you shouldn't be able to do without a program to do it for you.

You "could" do it but the speed that you shoot wouldn't be as fast since it will require u to have 2 fingers...one on shoot and one on cloak and you will have alternate pretty dam fast =/ But then again, thats basically screwing around with staff and u might get slapped for it =/

Edited December 16, 2007 by Suicide_Run

[mij]

(random tangent)

well i just tested it again in a random base where no one was (while everyone was in events, actually). i can alternate quickly enough with little effort to flash faster than the cooldown rate for pulse laser on a spider. i think the only one that would be difficult is shredder.

 

first of all it boggles the mind that someone would actually create a program like that. i have no clue about programming at all, but it sounds difficult, at least more difficult than pressing one single key to achieve the same purpose. i don't see why a program would be made since if:

 

1. cloak is used as cloak is normally used, then pressing the cloak button is NOT HARD, esp when one considers the amount of keys that must be spammed when rushing a base. hardly think players in hs are incapable of pressing one single key.

 

2. cloak is flashed on and off nonstop. it offers no advantage to the player, and in fact makes energy recharge slightly slower.

(end random tangent)

 

that said, yeah i definitely got slapped for it, so to speak. apparently hs staff also has a habit of silencing players without informing them of such. when i asked rare why i was silenced, s/he replied "i don't remember". i have no clue whether this was a joke or not, but either way it doesn't seem to be very staff-like behavior.

 

i guess my issue is that in fact, multiple players asked what "autocloaking" was in pubchat, with no response as far as i know. i think if staff can take the time out to send *arenas about rules, they should certainly also take time to explain them to the players. it should not be an !@#$%^&*umption that players are aware of the names of each cheat program created for ss (esp since this one in particular may be EASILY mimicked without a 3rd party program, as opposed to others that give you infinite reps for example.)

 

i also don't appreciate snarky comments like "oh sorry, i don't remember why i silenced you 15 minutes ago", but i guess that's a more minor issue.

[Dr Brain]

I could make a keyboard macro to do it much more easily than that. I use my Logitech G15 keyboard to map all the FTL commands onto reasonable keys. I can press the G6 for ?id 6, for example. It'd be a cinch to add "Fire Gun, Cloak" to G19, which I could then spam instead of Ctrl. It'd take something like 5 seconds to set up in game.

 

I've always been slightly torn on the issue of autocloakers: it makes very little difference if they use it, but on the other hand, someone that's going to use an autocloaker is much much more likely to move on to other 3rd party programs that ARE bad.

[Matrim Cauthon]

lol yeah its very ez to flash with cloak while shooting, and i got banned for it, and then a few seconds later another mod unbanned me. And i find it easier if cloak is set as home, all you need is 2 hands and 3 fingers and alot of practice. 1. start gunning and hold it 2. press your key to move forwards and home(cloak) and hold them down. With practive, you can chance direction and keep this process going within less than a second.

[got bounty?]

Whimsical.

 

Might as well start bringing the axe down for 'Auto-Antiwarp' and 'Auto-xRadar' users. I think I saw a couple players using those too.

 

People who use 'auto-cloak' are obviously not as stupid as staff deems them to be. No one uses that program anymore. Seriously. All players who used to use 'Auto-Cloak' [Mostly Safe-Laming Purposes] don't use it anymore. It was a joke: Flashing like Christmas lights during the middle of summer. It was created by a friend of mine who was new to the zone at the time. It was given to two other players. While he was away, one friend who had recieved this program gave it to a 'vet' member, where it was contained in that population.

 

Amusing, until staff took it very personally. Honestly, Long-Term Ban/ Fine on Money or Exp/ Getting Account reset isn't a risk sensible players are willing to take. Common Sense.

 

What do you know, now it is Christmas time. However these days, players getting fined for this past legendary program is the real joke.

 

This issue is stupid, being:

1) Consider the amount of new players in this zone, few know about the 'auto-cloak' mishap or the program itself.

2) There are alternate versions of 'Auto-Cloak', made by a ex-ss player, who no longer plays. These newer versions, have options, in which you can set cloak-delay and buttons, where this program will not cloak when this 'x' button is pressed.

3) There is no official way to regulate this program, and it is impossible to delever sentences in uniform.

 

As in the rules, we, the players, are at the full discretion of moderators.

Edited December 16, 2007 by got bounty?

[FireFox13]

I like to think of it as being a Klingon warship gone mad.

 

Doesn't bother me any...of course, not much does bother me...I just shoot the flashy.

 

O.o

Edited December 16, 2007 by FireFox13

[James1293]

You "could" do it but the speed that you shoot wouldn't be as fast since it will require u to have 2 fingers...one on shoot and one on cloak and you will have alternate pretty fast =/

One could hypothetically set the cloak button right next to the shoot button (i had it that way for a little while, but it got annoying... too much for my left hand and using too many letter keys )

 

but this topic is gonna be dead/closed soon anyway, so i thought i'd give my 2 cents.

[tcsoccerman]

Well, i'm sure this was thought of before but here may be a way to tell if someone is autocloaking or just fast with pressing buttons.

 

I'm not sure, but autocloak will probably ALWAYS immediately cloak after EVERY shot. Therefore you could watch the suspicious player, and if after one shot he does not immediately go back to cloak you know he doesn't have autocloak.

[Dr Brain]

tcsoccerman, not every instance in time gets put into a packet and forwarded to the server. Especially with something like shredder, you'll miss the majority of the packets between shots, and only see intermittent flashes.

 

Oh, and it's ASSS, not ASSS

[Russky]

lol that is lame people will eat a lot with shredder then

[Matrim Cauthon]

Might as well start bringing the axe down for 'Auto-Antiwarp' and 'Auto-xRadar' users.

 

what about auto-stealth and auto-bots?

[TMRY]

Auto-stealth would be undetectable, and pretty useless due to the fact that you do not become un-stealthed when firing.

[Suicide_Run]

Well James, all my items, bullets and bombs buttons are on the left side of the keyboard except antiwarp and movement keys. Once you get used to using this layout, you will find it pretty good since if you play CS and others. You usually use ur left hand alot anyways =p.

 

Btw, if you want to type using the letter you set as shoot/bomb/etc, you can easily just put a space before it or a ".".

 

Auto-Stealth/AW/Xrdar is pretty useless since those naturally dont turn off or if your too lazy to do AW after you die.

[Matrim Cauthon]

auto-xradar is useful, it turns itself on every once in a while so you can check for cloaks, but not slow recharge much. Its for lazy people(not saying i use it)

[11___________]

this could be fixed if people used xradar. i only use it to take out people that annoy me or spiders.

[»Ceiu]

what about auto-stealth and auto-bots?

 

Autobots are countered by using Decepticons.

[FireFox13]

what about auto-stealth and auto-bots?

 

Autobots are countered by using Decepticons.

 

I thought about saying that, but decided against it....mostly due to laziness.

 

Of course, you need 2x more Decepticons than what there are Autobots if you wish to win.