Good. If the skill is humanly possible, let the human learn it. Otherwise don’t allow it. Easy stance to take.
An eternity ago, I got really good at manually strafe-hopping in Team Fortress Classic. I got banned from a few pubs for “scripting” anyway.
I don’t like banning users because of the devices they use or the technical knowledge they have. I feel like the onus should be on the development team to make hardware or software macros impossible or unnecessary. Like, maybe the switch from left to right has a random interval that would instantly nerf a script. Or maybe the apex of a player’s jump is also a little variable or random - or deeply tied to their momentum in a weird way.
Barely noticeable changes for natural players, kryptonite to script kiddies and Mad Katz Turbo Mode, but still accessible to people with disabilities who legitimately need macros or weird hardware because they only have 2 fingers or whatever.
I feel like the onus should be on the development team to make hardware or software macros impossible or unnecessary.
This is what they are doing.
They like the mechanic of jump tossing, which was previously often done with macros, so they’re altering the game to make it easier to do, making macros unnecessary.
They do not like … augmented strafing, as they feel it gives an unfair advantage to those with more expensive kit, so they are implementing server side detection methods to make it impossible.
It’s not automation though. It’s just changing the way A and D interact. Like, it’s not sending any extra commands, if anything it’s sending fewer commands.
Edit: the main thing I’m concerned about is the “snap tap”/super wiggle thing. Macros are kinda w/e, but A and D zeroing each other out is an artificial limitation which was likely the result of wanting to support controllers/analog input, and not a design choice to increase player skill. If the rules of the game allow someone to get a significant advantage simply by changing the way A or D are registered then maybe it’s a problem with the games rules and not the hardware. Consider adding momentum, bullet spread when moving, or some other mechanic that negates or diminishes the power of the wiggle (or alternatively just git gud skrub).
The title is more general, and not incorrect.
In CS2, Valve is going to be banning Snap Tap / Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions in addition to any kind of bind that allows one key to execute multiple game inputs, like jump throws, which is automation, or a macro.
While the exact definition of ‘automation’ can be argued to death, its clear (to many players and also Valve) that having a specific fancy keyboard that compensates for a players low dexterity to allow them to perform as if they have much higher dexterity constitutes cheating in a game where a whole lot of the trained skill … is dexterity.
It doesn’t require a fancy keyboard though. If anything, that’s how keyboards usually work, it takes conscious effort to stop them from working that way. Personally I had to learn how to program character controllers so they wouldn’t function like snap tap.
Even so though, I’m 90% sure you could use a macro to do the same exact thing so long as you have a keyboard with n-key rollover (afaik most keyboards have it nowadays)
Ive outlined something at least 90% accurate to how this works in another post I just made.
We are talking about the keyboard itself intelligently adjusting its sensitivity thresholds for keys conditionally, and also intelligently cancelling keyboard input signals, all according to software/hardware on the keyboard itself.
Its happening at a lower level than the program receiving the inputs from the keyboard.
The differences are in 10s of ms, but this becomes a huge advantage of artificially granted, reduced reaction time in extremely fast paced twitchy games.
Also, a macro usually refers to a situation where a key is bound to give the input of multiple inputs simultaneously (jump+grenade), or, a set, timed recording of specific key presses, all initiated by pushing one specific key.
Sure, you could make a macro for strafe left then right then left then right for 3 seconds… but this keyboard tech makes it so you can have a faster reaction time and have the ability to do the equivalent of making up such a ‘dodge dance’ on the fly, customized to your exact situation at the time.
Chained command macros really only make sense in MMOs or fighting games, they don’t usually make much sense in FPSs.
The article doesn’t explain it, but it sounds like the keyboards are detecting a transition from A to D and making it happen faster, instead of having a momentary dead zone while both are pressed. That’s definitely getting an advantage from something out-of-game, which is cheating.
So, keys on a board normally have a specific travel distance (depending on switch type) that they must be pressed to flip between ‘pressed’ and ‘not pressed’.
This tech uses fancy keyboards with fancy switches and fancy software (on the keyboard) to change the required travel distance of one key to register, dependant on the travel distance of another key, and then also alter the output state of the other key.
So, if normally you needed 80% travel to register a key… lets say it takes a player 100 ms to push D to 100% then another 100 ms to fully release D and fully push A to 100%, simultaneously.
Timeline:
0 to 80ms of nothing.
At 80ms, D is registered, strafing right
80 to 120ms, or 40ms of strafing right.
At 120ms, D is unregistered.
120ms to 180ms of no movement.
At 180ms, A is registered, strafing left.
180ms onward of left strafing.
An initial delay of 80ms, 60ms of nothing, then leftward movement after 180ms.
Thrown on fancy bullshit, and the software say, changes A to need only a 20% travel to register while D is past 80%, and this also cancels D once A gets past 20%.
Also, this software says that if no strafing inputs are being received, and then one is, that input only needs 20% to register.
New timeline:
0 to 20 ms of nothing.
At 20ms, D is registered, right strafing.
20 to 120 ms of right strafing.
At 120 ms, D is unregistered and A is registered, left strafing.
120ms onward of left strafing.
Now you have an initial 20ms delay, absolutely no non strafing time, and you get to left strafing after only 120ms.
So, you’ve now initially started moving 4x faster, totally eliminated your non strafing time, and gotten to your end desired strafe direction in 33% (60ms) faster than before.
This is a huge crutch in a fast paced twitchy competitive game.
I have seen videos of these keyboard being used with floating/flying characters in OW2 and it basically allows you to jitter your character 2 meters to the right and left almost instantly, such that it looks like you are fighting against someone with movement hacks. Nearly impossible to hit someone doing this… without an aimbot, lol.
While being able to do this from outside the game is definitely cheating, I’d personally say that being able to decide what happens with conflicting inputs should be an option in any game where that matters.
Whenever I start pressing A while I’m still holding D it should be obvious that I now intend to go left, so the game should interpret it that way.
Yes, but the game doesn’t necessarily even see those inputs. What a keyboard transmits, and how the OS handles it, is a complicated process with a bunch of legacy handling code. Often, if you’re pressing more than one key, the keyboard might send only one of them.
I remember in one game I used to play, I would hold W to go forward, and shift to boost, but if I wanted to turn left or right, only adding D would be recognized. Pressing A would do nothing at all, no turning left.
This reminds me, in Just Cause 2 there was this funny motorboat, MTA Powerrun 77, and a mod for more speed and durability. But the speed was too fast, can’t steer if you fly most of the time. So i mapped scroll wheel to mouse button 5 via Autohotkey, was quite comfortable.
Oh, and a similiar mod for a car, had the same issues; can’t drive if you fly after every little bump.
