Cheaters in Diablo 2?

[Ebon]

Well I confess I'm an owner of a pirated copy of Diablo 2:LOD, but I intend to buy the original copy as soon as I have the money.

What I'm asking: are there cheaters playing in battle.net? If answer is yes, don't worry, cause I'll still buy it, since the new, post 1.07, patches promise lots of new stuff. Not to mention that I might find legit channels.

[adeyke]

Well I confess I'm an owner of a pirated copy of Diablo 2:LOD, but I intend to buy the original copy as soon as I have the money.

What I'm asking: are there cheaters playing in battle.net? If answer is yes, don't worry, cause I'll still buy it, since the new, post 1.07, patches promise lots of new stuff. Not to mention that I might find legit channels.
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There are lots, and lots, and lots of cheaters.

[hakai_no_tenshi]

To expand on what adeyke said, there are lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of cheaters

--T

[Munkay]

Eh I like it online. The last time I picked it up was this summer. The cheating wasn't too bad, the griefing was actually at a minimum (from what I saw when 1.10 first came out).

There are still players over at the amazon basin, a considerable enough group on USEast. If you can find it in the bargain bin, I say it's worth the buy.

But we warned, as the other posters have expressed very different opinions, your mileage may vary.

Cheers,

Munk

[whathuh]

Well I confess I'm an owner of a pirated copy of Diablo 2:LOD, but I intend to buy the original copy as soon as I have the money.

What I'm asking: are there cheaters playing in battle.net? If answer is yes, don't worry, cause I'll still buy it, since the new, post 1.07, patches promise lots of new stuff. Not to mention that I might find legit channels.
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Obviously, yes there are lots of cheaters, as we have heard from adeyke and T, but for the most part, you just have to live with it if you want the true battle.net experience. Now, the true battle.net experience is far from how the game was intended to be played; it was probably intended to be a place where people can just play the game without any knowledge of how the game works and the occasional duel, as well as pker. Of course, that scenario is impossible, as the legit players for the most part know a whole lot more than blizzard intended them to know, mostly because the majority of them are found on the AB (see munkay's post, he posted as I started this) and well, here.

Good luck on your expedition to find legit players, they are out there. I've played numerous baal runs, and from the looks of it, about 1 in 16 players don't have the most popular hack, maphack. Of course, they could be lying because they don't want to run through the worldstone keep. Lazy bastards...

Anyways, as far as major hacking goes, like duping, it is fairly uncommon, but the items last for quite a while (and thus are VERY common among zod runes etc...). Just don't trade for your high level stuff. Might be better not to trade at all.

Botting is another fairly common problem, but due to the lovely actions of njaguar and other bot makers, it now costs money to buy these things, and of course, now blizzard has no problem with it now. Shoot, they might even be getting some of the profit. There are some free bots, but these are difficult to setup, like all bots, and usually end up with the user getting caught or hacked themselves.

Thats the 3 major forms of cheating you can expect. The latter 2 are highly frowned upon, generally detectable, and rather rare. Maphack is like a roach infestation. Its everywhere...

[Hjuki]

There are still players over at the amazon basin, a considerable enough group on USEast.[right][snapback]73118[/snapback][/right]

i'm afraid Ebon's admission of guilt in using a pirated copy of Lord of Destruction would not be looked upon favorably at the amazon basin.

frankly, i'm supprised this thread has gone thus far without further chastisement here by the lurkers.

Ebon should purchase an actual retail copy of the game.
it's not too much to ask, it is no more than is expected of everyone else.
and to play in any amazon basin game that i will be a part of - it is absolutely manditory.

[Munkay]

i'm afraid Ebon's admission of guilt in using a pirated copy of Lord of Destruction would not be looked upon favorably at the amazon basin.

frankly, i'm supprised this thread has gone thus far without further chastisement here by the lurkers.

Perhaps I'm being presumptuous, but I believe he's saying he will buy LoD, and is asking about playing online since currently he can't log on bnet with the pirated version.

I may be wrong, in which case I feel your post is warranted Hjuki.

Ebon appears to be a decent lurkerlounge poster in every other way. Diablo II is far from a new game, and subsequently copies of it float around. I'd be lieing if I said I've never borrowed from friends older games they no longer play anymore. I think anyone would agree Diablo II is a dominantly multiplayer game, especially with the newest patches in single player (which severely damaged single player play IMHO). If he can't play online, then well, he's missing the thrust of the game.

And I don't see a problem inquiring about it to a diablo 2 community, especially with his stated intent of buying the game.

Not trying to sway your opinion, or anyone elses. Rather wanted to explain why I, one of the people who replied already, didn't get up an arms over it.

Cheers,

Munk

[SetBuilder]

i'm afraid Ebon's admission of guilt in using a pirated copy of Lord of Destruction would not be looked upon favorably at the amazon basin.

frankly, i'm supprised this thread has gone thus far without further chastisement here by the lurkers.

Ebon should purchase an actual retail copy of the game.
it's not too much to ask, it is no more than is expected of everyone else.
and to play in any amazon basin game that i will be a part of - it is absolutely manditory.
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I own the game. In fact, I own three copies of standard, and two of the expansion. I have it loaded on five computers. I have a couple of burned copies. I have it cracked on my notebook, because it's really not beneficial to run the game on the notebook with the cd-check, and the cd-rom takes more power away from the battery.

Now, just because I have the game cracked, does that mean I'm "cheating" or "not legit"? Especially when I can play the cracked version on B.Net (because it's a valid CD Key)?

By your standards? Sounds like a yes.

Dude owns D2. Has started playing LoD. Is planning to buy it. Wants to know if it's good to play on B.Net (more than likely to help in his purchasing decision). Where's the problem? Answer is that it is good to play on B.Net, yet like other games, there are a large number of cheaters. Easy answer, no need for the rudeness.

**Note, not meaning to be a dick, but this all seemed pretty cut an dry until that point***

Ebon, so you know, there are a lot of cheaters, but they are still by far the minority (for cheats that count). However, like with any game, the only way to play multi without cheaters is to set up a LAN, and that's usually not the best method. The game is well worth the cost to be able to play on B.Net. Adds another dimension to the game, and there's a lot you can't do in single/lan play that you can on Realms. Good luck with your playing.

**Edit: As a note, I won't use mods on D2, so Smoketest's response to my post will probably be better for you than mine. Also, I don't play b.net, as I have a LAN, and no lack of willing players. Also, rather than the battle chest, you can get just the expansion from walmart or fred myers for like either $19.99 or $9.99. Cheap cheap.

[Smoketest]

The game is well worth the cost to be able to play on B.Net. Adds another dimension to the game, and there's a lot you can't do in single/lan play that you can on Realms. Good luck with your playing.
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The only thing you can get on realms that doesn't come in Nobbie's mod is interaction with other human players. You can play (if your papers are in order) with AB folks, or LL folks, or you can spend time (years for me) making friends with other decent folks. (Many of my friends are moving on to other games and only visit b.net to chat now.) That's something else to consider: you're getting into this game late in its life, so there will be fewer folks on b.net to play with, compared to years ago when the game was new, or even compared to the first ladder season of the current patch (1.10).

Yes, there are a lot of cheaters online, and many people love nothing more than to prey on others. Sadly, many inexperienced players get taken for a ride in more way than one. Accounts get hacked, duped items knowingly/unknowingly obtained in trade disappear unexpectedly, scammers try to trick you out of items, passwords, and anything else you might have, etc. While I've never been a victim, many folks have. So go into B.net's population with your guard up, and don't quickly believe what people tell you. (Often if you ask a question you will get as many different answers as there are people responding.)

I hope you follow through with obtaining a legal copy of the game. (The battlechest collection is quite affordable.) What you have now is stolen property.

If all you care about is having Ladder bonuses in your game, I recommend downloading Nobbie's mod and playing offline singleplayer. All the fun, without the headaches.

[lfd]

there are a lot of cheaters, but they are still by far the minority (for cheats that count)[right][snapback]73257[/snapback][/right]

I'm not sure what your definition of a "cheat that counts" is, but I think you'll find most people here consider m*ph*ck to be one of the most insidious. And there's a _huge_ majority of people using that if you stray outside of the basin.

[SetBuilder]

I'm not sure what your definition of a "cheat that counts" is, but I think you'll find most people here consider m*ph*ck to be one of the most insidious.  And there's a _huge_ majority of people using that if you stray outside of the basin.
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I don't know enough about the various cheats to know, honestly. Only cheats that ever really bothered me were item drop and pker cheats. What does maphack do?

[Ebon]

I get the point. But even if there are lots of cheaters, I don't care that much, I might be lucky some time and meet "life-time friends" and stay alone. Yep, it did happen in several Diablo 1 games. I might even start private games.

What Blizzard should really do is add a "Kick" poll option in the game.

So don't worry, I'll buy it maybe this weekend, I'm not a jerk. ;)

[whathuh]

I don't know enough about the various cheats to know, honestly. Only cheats that ever really bothered me were item drop and pker cheats. What does maphack do?
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hacks your map.

I think I should elaborate a bit more. The most common maphacks are free (one costs money but is widely cracked now, haha sucker). Recent advances allow maphacks to change the color of items on the ground (the name is green for flawless gems) or completely hidden so they don't even show up. In many cases, these are used to block out flawed gems and arrows and cracked sashes. Other features include full screen light radius, and monsters, missiles, corpses, and chests on the automap, in fully customizeable colors as well. Immunities can be detected on the automap, as well as the perfect sniping tool which allows you to scroll across the screen to see the familiar black wall.

Fact of the matter is, this is a lot of stuff and maphack has even more. But ALL of it actually takes away from the game. What fun is it if you can see the monsters before they attack you? Or if you know that will o wisps are guarding the frozen river or the worldstone keep? Is it really that obvious to see a unique hydra bow laying on the ground surrounded by thousands of gold pieces, hundreds of mediocre polearms and shields? If you know that there is a conviction msle cold enchanted boss ahead of you, then the boss should ALSO know where you are, and be able to prepare accordingly. Of course, this is not the case. It all detracts from the way the game was originally intended to be played.

Some cheating I find understandable, but most ruins the game. Maphack ruined d2 for me, and I'm proud to say that. Well it was a bit more than just maphack, but the principal is the same. A note on starcraft's hacks. The map hacks (notice the space) allow minerals to be placed over and over again over the same spot, allowing "money maps." These maps suck. They detract from the way the game is MEANT to be played. But for rpgs on sc, the map hacks allow more depth, and allow much more to come out of the game. If it weren't for these ums maps, I think starcraft would simply become another nox.

[SetBuilder]

hacks your map.

I think I should elaborate a bit more.  The most common maphacks are free (one costs money but is widely cracked now, haha sucker).  Recent advances allow maphacks to change the color of items on the ground (the name is green for flawless gems) or completely hidden so they don't even show up.  In many cases, these are used to block out flawed gems and arrows and cracked sashes.  Other features include full screen light radius, and monsters, missiles, corpses, and chests on the automap, in fully customizeable colors as well.  Immunities can be detected on the automap, as well as the perfect sniping tool which allows you to scroll across the screen to see the familiar black wall.

Fact of the matter is, this is a lot of stuff and maphack has even more.  But ALL of it actually takes away from the game.  What fun is it if you can see the monsters before they attack you?  Or if you know that will o wisps are guarding the frozen river or the worldstone keep?  Is it really that obvious to see a unique hydra bow laying on the ground surrounded by thousands of gold pieces, hundreds of mediocre polearms and shields?  If you know that there is a conviction msle cold enchanted boss ahead of you, then the boss should ALSO know where you are, and be able to prepare accordingly.  Of course, this is not the case.  It all detracts from the way the game was originally intended to be played.

Some cheating I find understandable, but most ruins the game.  Maphack ruined d2 for me, and I'm proud to say that.  Well it was a bit more than just maphack, but the principal is the same.  A note on starcraft's hacks.  The map hacks (notice the space) allow minerals to be placed over and over again over the same spot, allowing "money maps."  These maps suck.  They detract from the way the game is MEANT to be played.  But for rpgs on sc, the map hacks allow more depth, and allow much more to come out of the game.  If it weren't for these ums maps, I think starcraft would simply become another nox.
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Interesting take. I was PMed the definition of it already, but you've expanded a bit. Honestly, I don't know that I'd even be too bothered. 'Course, if I was, I'd just drop, and go back to playing LAN, so I'm probably not the best to ask.

[Ebon]

Now I have original D2:LOD. No need to get noisy. Should my connection work well, you may see me on b.net. :rolleyes:

[Zingydex]

If you know that there is a conviction msle cold enchanted boss ahead of you, then the boss should ALSO know where you are, and be able to prepare accordingly.  [right][snapback]73330[/snapback][/right]

I don't support cheating by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks to the overtweaked AI and sight range of monsters in 1.10, generally speaking that boss detects you LONG before you'd see him onscreen. I think the hacker's actions in this instance are closer to leveling that playing field than getting any major advantage. It's still a cheat, but the point is there.

[ShadowHM]

I don't support cheating by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks to the overtweaked AI and sight range of monsters in 1.10, generally speaking that boss detects you LONG before you'd see him onscreen.  I think the hacker's actions in this instance are closer to leveling that playing field than getting any major advantage.  It's still a cheat, but the point is there.
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And this is relevant because ??

Isn't this supposed to be a story line of heroes out facing evil? Is the playing field supposed to be level? The victory is sweeter if you face opponents that have an edge on you and you defeat them anyway, no?

[bigeyedbug]

I don't support cheating by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks to the overtweaked AI and sight range of monsters in 1.10, generally speaking that boss detects you LONG before you'd see him onscreen.  I think the hacker's actions in this instance are closer to leveling that playing field than getting any major advantage.  It's still a cheat, but the point is there.
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Yeah, the monsters generally, and the bosses particularly, have ALL the advantages in D2. Thank god for the hackers and their valiant efforts to make this game feasible to play. :rolleyes:

[whathuh]

Yeah, the monsters generally, and the bosses particularly, have ALL  the advantages in D2.  Thank god for the hackers and their valiant efforts to make this game feasible to play. :rolleyes:
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Don't diss all the hackers though. Mods are cheats, but lots of them are very worthwhile if the basic game gets repetetive and boring. In my opinion, diablo 2 is made astronomically easier by maphack. I almost wish blizzard would just implement its own maphack (the stuff is there already, and we know that while beta-testing 1.1, blizzard WAS using a maphack) as a difficulty meter. Play on easy for the full maphack experience. Normal for the regular play that is maphack free, but exactly like the normal game. Then hard, for a maphackless, double life, double damage frenzy. They should make this one hardcore only, and make a special ladder for it. Improved AI would help too. It might even be fun to have a mod like that.

[Brother Laz]

...double life and double damage don't make it harder, they just mean you have to shoot 2 windforce arrows instead of 1 and will get killed in one hit constantly...

There is much much much more to difficulty than 'double life and double damage'.

Faster attack rates? More aggressive chase AI on ranged monsters? Faster moving melee monsters? No knockback on ranged weapons? Serious rethinking of life steal and removal of rejuv potions? Making armor mean something to reduce the advantage of ranged characters? Preventing minion characters from chain-summoning tanks? Nerfing overpowered hirelings that tank endlessly and slow down everything on the screen? Increasing awareness radius of ranged monsters? Redoing item drop rates so there is a middle way between crap and uber? Reducing cold chill to 25% or 33%? Yep.

You hurt my modmaking heart! :aww: