AOE-II DE How to report cheaters

It looks like they are getting paid to harm the game so people leave AOE 2 and go on AOE 4, sad..

If you honestly believe in these conspiracy theories you are neglecting the fact that cheating was always possible in the past two years with a variety of exploits. And has been actively used. There is no reason to believe in these tinfoil hat theories other than a lack of understanding what's the problem. So let me explain.

The multiplayer part of the engine lacks input validation, so people are able to send their own commands in the name of another player. And it's easy to automate/script. As far as I'm up-to-date the devs are working to fix it and people should stick to reporting the people within the following web form or send an email. These ways of communication should supplement in-game reporting.

Reports can be done either via

Submit a request – Age of Empires Support

support.ageofempires.com

or by sending an Email with the replay to: aoesupport@microsoft.com

and via in-game reporting as that provides important data that the customer service team needs as well.

 

[doacid]

Microsoft is a conspiracy mastermind.

For over 20 years they've been trying to destroy aoe2 while simultaneously spending millions in it through the release of aoe2 HD and aoe2 DE.

Since the release of DE they've been coming up with new strategies to hurt aoe2 even more. Such as pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into tournaments. Only God knows which spurious intentions they have with this, we still haven't found out why.

They also deployed clones of Bill Gates on each player's house. When a player even thinks of playing in Voobly or god forbid, create a lobby in DE, these clones will aim at you with a shotgun and force you to play matchmaking in maps you don't like.

Little by little they're killing the will and soul of every true fan. Nowadays every pro player is paid by them (Nili, wink wink) and are helping in keeping fans in this torture ridden limbo.

Microsoft I will never forgive you, especially for cloning Mr. Gates. The ****er is everyday forcing me to play Team Islands and I can't take it anymore.

 

[ProudObuch]

If you honestly believe in these conspiracy theories you are neglecting the fact that cheating was always possible in the past two years with a variety of exploits. And has been actively used. There is no reason to believe in these tinfoil hat theories other than a lack of understanding what's the problem. So let me explain.

The multiplayer part of the engine lacks input validation, so people are able to send their own commands in the name of another player. And it's easy to automate/script. As far as I'm up-to-date the devs are working to fix it and people should stick to reporting the people within the following web form or send an email. These ways of communication are higher priority than in-game reporting.

A few questions. Why did it start now, when they exploit was known months ago, why do they start just now with fixing it. Why did some of the accounts used had weird usernames (pls go to aoe4) What makes you think that they dont do it on purpose to make the second game less appealing? aoe4 costs 3 times as much as aoe2 and its popularity already peaked. aoe4 is the cashcow now. All companies do this with planned obselescense, why should gaming industry be any diffrent?

 

A few questions. Why did it start now, when they exploit was known months ago, why do they start just now with fixing it.

They probably didn't start now, but are continuously working on it. A developer in SE discord even stated that the fix could break various community made tools and that they will try to inform the community beforehand.

Why did some of the accounts used had weird usernames (pls go to aoe4)?

Because people cheating tend to be mostly idiots trying to annoy other people or get an advantage over other that they can't get by playing normally?

What makes you think that they dont do it on purpose to make the second game less appealing?

Oh, they might do that on purpose. Trying to annoy people, make them have less fun. But it's not some huge conspiracy, that's just the lazy way of thinking of it. Which is often the problem with these tinfoil hat theories. People believe in the first easy solution to something more complex - which they might not fully understand.

 

[UnknownPlayer]

How do I know if someone is cheating?

 

[MaSmOrRa]

How do I know if someone is cheating?

Use the old, well-known maxim: if you beat your opponent he is a noob, if he beats you he's a cheater.

 

How do I know if someone is cheating?

Sometimes it's obvious, e.g. by spiking resources in the statistics or by getting units deleted. I think in these obvious cases it's good to report. If there is a cheater using an exploit carefully, it can't really be detected by just watching the game and you would need to parse the recorded game file and look for unusual activity. I know that @HappyLeaves has something running like that, unfortunately aoe2recs (where uploading a recorded game file to let it be scanned) is closing towards the end of the year.

 

[GmanStreams]

How do I know if someone is cheating?

Sounds like you got it rough my man. Hope this link can help u:

10 Signs Your Spouse Is Cheating

You think they're cheating. But how can you know for sure?

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[Influenza]

Sometimes it's obvious, e.g. by spiking resources in the statistics or by getting units deleted. I think in these obvious cases it's good to report. If there is a cheater using an exploit carefully, it can't really be detected by just watching the game and you would need to parse the recorded game file and look for unusual activity. I know that @HappyLeaves has something running like that, unfortunately aoe2recs (where uploading a recorded game file to let it be scanned) is closing towards the end of the year.

Is aoe2recs already closed down? I tried accessing it recently and it says 502 bad gateway

 

Is aoe2recs already closed down? I tried accessing it recently and it says 502 bad gateway

Could be, may not come up again then.