Welcome to my investigation into aimbots. As many of you know, Aimbots for UT do exist. For those of you that don't know what one is, it is a Console Hack that a player can run that will automatically track targets to improve aim. 99% of the UT community has no idea how aimbots really work and there are plenty of paranoid users out there that are quick to accuse good players of cheating because they have heard of such aimbots. In this section I will try to explain aimbots a little better and hopefully be able to lower the amount of confusion that is ruining the online community.
First of all I want to say that I am by no mean a 100% expert but I do have Unreal Engine Programming/Network Architecture knowledge and many aspects of the aimbot are obvious to a knowledgeable person but the average player may not notice these or understand completely.
How aimbots work
Aimbots work by taking control of your mouse when activated. When an enemy comes into view the crosshairs are automatically moved to lock onto the enemy. Aimbots are usually made to lock onto the closest enemy player, The aimbot user usually has no control over what the aimbot locks onto. Since the aimbot takes over the mouse an aimbot user will have a hard time moving around and depending on the map can accidentally kill themselves by falling off a ledge or into a trap because they can't control their movement with the aimbot on if it is locked onto an enemy player. There is a misconception that a person can run one way and shoot a different way. If you get shot by someone looking the other direction then check their ping or yours. It is most likely lag that is causing the problem.
Ping Kills Aimbots
Aimbots can't compensate for ping delays unless your ping is extremely low, Like 20 or something. The way things in UT work is the client request from the server to fire a weapon. The server then replies and says yes/no depending on refire rate, ammo, etc. When you make a fire request the info has to be sent to the server and the server handles it and sends you back the result in the form of the graphics you see on the screen. All this takes time. Aimbots lock directly on targets when you play. As I'm sure most of you know by playing that you have to lead targets in order to hit them if you are firing at a player from an angle, Most evident is when trying to hit a moving player from the side. Aimbots can't lead targets because they lock onto the other player directly so when an aimbot user fires the hit is always behind the intended target and the aimbot user will always miss. The only time an aimbot will work is if the enemy player is moving almost directly toward or away from the aimbot user or standing still.
Conclusion
In conclusion just remember some of the major things like ping delay before you accuse people of using an aimbot. In my experience it is the aimbot scare that is ruining the game and not the actual aimbot users. I consider myself a really good player and I've seen people time and time again make themselves look stupid by accusing me or other players of using aimbots. Be sure to check other possibilities before drawing your conclusion. I remember when I first started playing UT I remember saying things like: "How can that person possible be able to aim that good" or "How can that person be so quick" It is easy to not understand when you can't do it but over time when I got better I realized that it was possible because I became one of those players I used to think might possibly be cheating. I've even hear people say that it is impossible for someone to adjust their crosshairs that fast and hit something and I'm here to say that it is. Especially if the person has played a lot, has fast reflexes and a bad ass computer. I have a 22" monitor and I can hit far away target better than someone with a 15" monitor. That is something to consider. I also will turn all my detail settings to low to make things easier to see. Instead of saying that that's impossible you need to rethink what you are talking about.
So I thank you, my young padewon apprentice for listening to my huge investigation into Aimbots,
Drive safely,
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Halo^