And you thought 'cat-napping' was bad!

[ELH~Lancer]

Found this on the Mek Tek site.

"This is news I had never hoped to post. Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries has been hacked. A number of people (including a MekTek staff member) have seen jumping Nova Cats and Fafnirs. They also have the screen shots to prove it. Check in the Mechwarrior4/Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries forum under the "Jumping Nova Cats". I hope that the Dev Team can figure out a way to stop this."

[VEGETA]

Ok guys brab that AA guns on ypour meck. Lots of gass and rotery ac2's
there he is, a flying dick FIRE . BOOM

Well I don't think they have hacked the game fully, just the meck config files which are probaly a form of data file right. So the game itself has probaly not ben havked. Ans it take time to reverse engineare game that are rather big. But hey there may be a editor out there for the meck config files that alows u to do odd things. Can't wate to see if they can get a 200 ton dashi in here. U find a dashi that takes so much damage to kill its not funney, it well be a sad day

[Tach Deneva]

Been reading up on this on various forums. It's even worse than it first appeared. People can pretty much do whatever the heck they want with ANY mech.

I'm looking at a screencap of a Wolfhound in the Mech Lab. It has EVERY component from ECM to ADVANCED GYRO, moves 120.02 KPH, and has 54 heatsinks. Can't see the weapons loadout, but the Firepower bar is maxed out.

It's posted on the Dropship Command Mechwarrior 4 forum, the thread is 'Jumping Nova Cats the shocking truth!' There are various other screencaps of jumping Nova Cats and Fafnirs. The guy who posted the Wolfhound screencap says the hack (he found it via a Google search) will allow:

a) Heat Off
b) Add All Components
c) Unlimited Tonnage
d) Unlimited Jump Juice

At first it was believed to be a server-side hack, but some people are now saying that it is a user-side hack. If I understand this correctly, a user-side hack means that this could show up on any server anywhere at any time.

Check it out.

TD

[VEGETA]

It well be a client side hack. What hapens when u log inot the server and pick a meck is the data on your personalized meck is sent to the server. Now to cut down processing i well garentiee your data is just used, ands not checked with the basic layout ofthe server configerations. So basicaly its taking out the caps of tonnage. I have sene this before in other things. So hey expect a 80 kph dashi with as many weapons as u can fit with enough heat sinks to keep it cool

[BlackHawk*K]

wow this is interesting. a long time ago before BK and Mech packs and Mercs. i seen a jumping Daishi.... i only seen it once and the guy left the server soon after. i simply thought i might of gotten some realy frucked up mech position data or something, but right now i wounder.. as of yet i havnt seen this, but i havnt been playing the huge amount i used to. i guess in alot of ways the good news is that if i recall correctly most league matches are loged so the league knows what mechs we have and what weapons are on them etc. so hopefully that will keep any hacks like this from showing up in league play. however it could make fun playing a real pain in the ass, specialy if the " i got to win" folk decide to start useing this. maybe this is a time to hope the good old mechlab boys can get a cheat detector going hehe. they finaly did for mw3 but it seemed a bit too late before the hacks ruined that game. i hope the mektek folk will be able to fill the void left by the absence of the need for cheat detectors. looks like mw2 mechs are here again. anyone recall the 200 K warhawks with god armor? mass JJs and weapons to practicly kill ya in one shot? on the other hand though, it could be a new goal to kick the ass of these cheaters with legal mechs. in fact its a challenge i think i will be looking foward to

[BlackHawk*K]

would you guys please post links you find on these topics? i cant seem to find anything and im not too awfully aware of where to look.

Thanks.

[VEGETA]

My fear is not a jumping dashi. but htink about it, say on a nova cat u pop on 7 large lazers and add 2 or 3 more heat sncks then u are sopose to fit. You would realy have to look at thsoe logs carfuly and well how do u see if he has a few more heat sinks. And thye well not check logs if they are not asked to correct. I can see a few must win units acedentaly adding a few por points of armor of a extra few heat sinks just to gain a liittle edge without gaining much suppision

[Tach Deneva]

would you guys please post links you find on these topics? i cant seem to find anything and im not too awfully aware of where to look.

Thanks.

http://www.netbattletech.com/nbt-mercs/
(click HPG to access the forum)

http://www.mektek.net/forums/
(see Mechwarrior 4 forum)

http://www.dropshipcommand.com/
(see Mechwarrior 4 forum)


TD

[Buffalo Six]

Here is some info from Mechtech over on the MekTek forums:

Just an FYI about this trainer/hacked mech maker.

Yes, you can add all the heat sinks you want,
Yes, you can upgrade the engine to full speed,
Yes, you can max out to full armor of any type,
Yes, you can add all electronics onto mechs they normaly wont be on,
Yes, you can add as many weapons as the mech will hold, see below,
Yes, the hardpoint rule is still in effect.

Yes, you can tell who is cheating when they jump cause there is no jumping animation of the hacked mech and only a single upside down flame on the ground or in the air if they pump the jets a few times.

Yes, you can easily ban or kick the person from your server same as normal.

All the trainer/hack mech maker seems to do is alter the mech config files.
The weapons tonnage seems to be the only part of the files for a mech that is checked by the server.

It can do unlimited heat,
It can do unlimited weight,
It can add componants for any mech,
It can add Jump Jets to any mech,

It can not make you a better play, you still need skill..!!!!

Now other intresting info,

If you load up a mech with everything you can and join an open server, your weapons will disappear if you went over the original mechs weapons weight limit.

All that will remain is you mech with full speed, armor and electronics.

If you host your own server you can then use the mech that you built as normal, but since your a cheater, no one will stay long, so enjoy playing bots.[/color]

So the guys that can get into the hack/cheat/trainer and figure it out say that this is a easy fix. They say that server side will have to do a more complete validation check on mech varients, as of now it only checks tonnage and weapon tonnage not the exotic stuff. This can be fixed.

Of note, we have had these noobs on the fort this weekend. I have 2 names and remember seeing some odd stuff.
Here are their names:

-™
-TeTraVeX
-CoolHand

I know they were there late Saturday night and I remember seeing something odd on the jungle arena map but I know all 3 of these loosers were on the Fort. I will and I encourge anyon with admin rights to the Fort Winston server to ban any Noob they see running these hacks and using them to fight. If someone tells you they have a hacked mech and want to just take a screen pic or something use your discresion.

Also note: On the factory and scrap heap maps (the ones in the factory setting) you CAN and MAY spawn up in the rafters (aka Cricket) so be careful going after someone in a Landpig up there unless you see him actually jump up there. I'll post more when I get more info.

[Featherhorse]

Thank You Buff for that delightful color commentary.

Fethr

[Malin]

MW2 suffered a similar sort of problem and a little program (Freeware) called MLM (MechLabMaid) was produced so you could check your opponents designs to ensure nothing untoward was there.


All is not lost.


Malin