How bad is the hacking in this game?

[klesh 2423]

Hello,

So I've stumbled upon this game/mod and I am very much interested in it. I currently play Iron Front: Liberation 1944 (which uses the Arma engine) but I don't have the various titles required for playing Day Z. So I go about learning a bit about this game, watch a bunch of YouTube videos and come away with the impression that the game is rife with hackers.

This wouldn't be such a huge deal, except for the fact that this is a game with one life and scarce weapons and not a quckmatch-FPS-spaz-type game. The idea of trying to survive for a few hours and kit myself out etc, only to be turned into a bunny and exploded by hackers does not seem appealing to me.

I have also read that this game/mod is being made into a more of a full title in cooperation with BI; are they looking to solve the hacking issues through some new anti-cheating technology? Does it make sense to wait until something like that project is available before I bother trying with the game in its current form? Obviously lots of people are playing this game, so it has got to be good. Maybe there is a disproportionate amount of information out there about the hacking, and it isn't nearly as bad as it looks? Perhaps I have missed the opportunity to get involved with this game in its "glory days", before it became infested? I would like to get involved, but I'm quite aprehensive. I do not play alot of multiplayer games, and the ones that I do aren't particularly popular, so I don't have much experience with, or tolerance of hacking.

I ask you players to give me an honest take on the hacking issue in this game. Is it as bad as it appears from the outside looking in?

Thanks!

[terex 322]

It might be common on normal hive high populated servers.. I haven't been able to play on that for a bit now though. The hacking isn't as common on some private hives.

Edited September 27, 2012 by terrex

[Titanic3 16]

There's bad, Nexon bad, Counter Strike bad, and then there's DayZ bad.

[klesh 2423]

I haven't played any of those games, but I'll presume you mean its quite bad indeed. :(

How does one, who is just a lone guy playing this game, get invited or become a user of private hives? One just has to slog it out until they are invited to a private server by a friendly player?

Thank you for your posts, I've given you both my beans, whatever that means, lol. :beans: :thumbsup:

[Bat (DayZ) 230]

2 things : yeah you missed the glory days (may-june 2012)

and yes DayZ is now in a dark age, full of hackers that kill entire servers pressing a single button.

You don't want to start your journey in dayz in those conditions, wait for standalone. Would be a major waste of money to buy arma 2 only for this mod. Also don't look for tips other than basic controls for the game, try to immerse yourself and discover the world on your own, far more rewarding.

[KennyNZ 121]

With the standalone due to be out (beta at least) by the end of the year, I would probably wait. While I don't think the money you spend would be a waste as such, if you don't know where to look, and sometimes even if you do, you will find quite a lot of hacking. Most people are resorting to private servers to try to get away from the hackers.

It is definitely an amazing game though, and was amazing up until about July, but since then hackers have been fairly common. It's being made standalone mainly because while the arma 2 engine made dayz what it is today, it does have limitations that are holding the game back.

PS. Definitely buy the standalone, it doesn't matter how much it is, I would pay more $100 for it if I had to.

Edited September 27, 2012 by KennyNZ

[Sgt.Asshat 607]

Its not as bad as people make out.

[The2ndLink 156]

High population hive servers - very bad

Low - medium population hive servers - ok (played for months without being killed by a hacker)

Private hive - good (find one with an active admin, best with a registration and you won't have any bigger problems)

[R.J. 70]

Its not as bad as people make out.

I doubt that. I've never played a game in which hacking was so rampant. Even Counter Strike had its handful of players cheating, but this is ridiculous. Not only does a player have to deal with death by teleportation, falling from the sky, or left out in the middle of the ocean, but the server becomes ruined once the vehicles are placed in mystical locations never to spawn again even on a restart. The only luck I've had without being scripterized, is playing on servers in which the player count was in the single digits.

If Arma had the ability to stream to Pbbans or the ability to check a players history for prior violations or global bans, it would at least give you some tools to combat it or further investigate a player.

Alas, it's an Alpha....

[klesh 2423]

Thanks for your honest opinions guys.

I think perhaps waiting and trying the standalone might be the best idea for me. I've had enough frustration lately with the horrible debacle that Iron Front has become, that my blood pressure might not be able to handle another Arma-based bad experience. I kind of had the feeling I missed out on this mod in its hayday, I can't imagine it would be this popular if the hackers were here from the start.

Did Arma without DayZ have this much difficulty with hackers, or is it simply the popularity of the DayZ mod that has brought them out of the woodwork? I hope they do something with the standalone version to combat this; the game itself looks like quite a unique experience and absolute blast. I think I'll save my hard-earned money for now I suppose.

[GenTronSeven 3]

Hacking seems to be pretty rampant. The first time that I got an AS50, I was sniping people in Elektro and doing quite well.

I had a lot of gear because I had been sticking to empty servers like a coward.

Apparently, one of the people I killed was a closet hacker, because right after I shot him, he teleported me to the beach and gunned me down.

I guess that in a way, I deserved it for camping the fire house, but I wish I would have died legitimately.

That being said, I think the game is still worth it. The only thing you lose is gear, and the game is much more fun before you have all of the gear.

Edited September 27, 2012 by GenTronSeven

[kalv 1]

Wow.... the hacking is that bad? I just learned about this game today and was looking forward to playing it, but all this hacking is just a turn off. I think I will just wait till it gets more stable.

[mitor 176]

Well, I have been playing Dayz for about one month more or less. Cheaters (From now on I´m gonna use the term "cheater" instead of "hacker", if you don´t mind.) are...A minor problem. I think I haven´t been killed by a CONFIRMED cheater.

I have been killed, yes. Snipers have killed me legitimately(The weapons might have been scripted into the game, I´ll never know that.). I´ve been killed from unknown locations, All times I´ve been killed they shot first or they did it better. My experience has not been truncated by a cheater.

For me, bugs and limitations of the ARMA 2 engine are the worst parts of Dayz.

But, remember, this is just an experience. And I also must say that I usually play in servers that are not too populated. Sometimes with 1-5 people, and when I really want to enjoy Dayz a maximum of 20.

So... If the money is not a problem, I don´t think you should wait till the standalone. Dayz is great. And you can always try ARMA 2, which is also a great game.

Edit: I´m spanish, so I play in european servers. US servers seem to be more "cheated"

Edited September 27, 2012 by Mitor

[kryvian 123]

It's like this:

US servers are hacked day in day out. if there's one player on a server, a hacker will eventually come in to troll/kill him (no one dare deny since this has happened to me).

on european and other servers it isn't as bad, almost non existent actually. but yeah, like a post said, if it's a high population server odds are a hacker will drop by to insta kill all.

my advice is to find a private hive server that's well monitored. I'm on http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/75927-dayz-byrgesen-gaming-community-blisshive-forums-3-servers-2xchernaruslingor-true-hardcore-settings-password/

no bug abuse, no ghosting, if hacking happens the hacker will be banned within the hour (max) and the server rolled to a time before all of the hacker's damage. was done.

[mitor 176]

US servers are hacked day in day out. if there's one player on a server, a hacker will eventually come in to troll/kill him (no one dare deny since this has happened to me).

on european and other servers it isn't as bad, almost non existent actually. but yeah, like a post said, if it's a high population server odds are a hacker will drop by to insta kill all.

(...)

I didn´t know that about US Servers, I must say I´m spanish, so I play in european servers. I add it to my post above.

[Prototape 3]

I've only encountered two hackers the whole time I've played this game. You just have to find the right server, the flip side is that I play on a low-pop server, so I don't have as much of the human element as I'd like. But it's not too bad. I would recommend that you just wait for the standalone game to come out if you don't have a lot of money to throw around. But if you have a steady income with money to spare, go ahead and buy it. Even with the occasional hacker, it's a fun game.

[klesh 2423]

Interesting opinions and differing experiences here folks, thank you all. This is better than trying to glean info about the situation from watching videos online.

I'm in the States, so I would most likely be playing on UA servers.

BTW, beans for everyone in the thread. I presume this is this forum's version of reputation?

[WargameKlok 166]

Hello,

. The idea of trying to survive for a few hours and kit myself out etc, only to be turned into a bunny and exploded by hackers does not seem appealing to me.

Then you might wanna give this one a pass. If you change your mind about being exploded by hackers then jump on in and give it a try

[Jambor 5]

Just got killed by nothing after gathering up stuff for 8 hours to take a hiking tripp. Same guy killed everyone one server. And yesterday a hacker/cheater just nukes the town I was in. What is the point of battleeye or any anti cheat if it DOES NOT WORK?!. Either you pay hackers by empoloying them or get smarter people to make the anticheats, because it sure isnt working now as it is......

[INickeragua 121]

some damn hacker killed me and my friend about 40 mins ago. Hackers in this game are annoying like you cannot believe!

[Maj. Osborn 44]

some damn hacker killed me and my friend about 40 mins ago. Hackers in this game are annoying like you cannot believe!

I no i was there!!! >:(

[TheWatchman 4]

It's like this:

US servers are hacked day in day out. if there's one player on a server, a hacker will eventually come in to troll/kill him (no one dare deny since this has happened to me).

on european and other servers it isn't as bad, almost non existent actually. but yeah, like a post said, if it's a high population server odds are a hacker will drop by to insta kill all.

my advice is to find a private hive server that's well monitored. I'm on http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/75927-dayz-byrgesen-gaming-community-blisshive-forums-3-servers-2xchernaruslingor-true-hardcore-settings-password/

no bug abuse, no ghosting, if hacking happens the hacker will be banned within the hour (max) and the server rolled to a time before all of the hacker's damage. was done.

My friends and I are stateside but find ourselves on eu servers frequently. There's been a script encounter every night since we started playing a week ago. Not always malevolent scripters but script kiddies never the less. Deutschland servers for the most part it seems.

[Jambor 5]

Especially when you really have to work for your gear for and its perma death and lose all your stuff. And all they do is go into a server hit a button and everyone dies.

[Slickback (DayZ) 21]

No it's bad don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even on medium pop servers hackers are rampant, although maybe not as obvious compared to larger pop servers. One of the more subtle, but still devastating consequences of hackers that gets overlooked is the camps they create. On almost every 15-40+ pop server hackers create camps that 99% of the time have multiple vehicles stolen from other players. It's not limited to one camp per server either. I've seen 3 camps on the same server that each had their own squad of vehicles; as a result, no more vehicles were left on the map for legit players to find.

Don't feel like explaining much more, but if you want the truth message me.

P.S. Don't ask how I know things :)

[Venzire 76]

Find a decent public HIVE home server or go to a private HIVE server. E.G. SurviveDayZ.com