Stat cheating... either its real or a bug -- SD please take a look

Can an SD staffer take a look at this?

By pacov on June 29, 2009 10:58:15 PM from

I decided to check my stats to see how I was doing tonight. I did a search by my userid and found out I had 1 less win than I expected over my last 3 games. Well, bugs are bugs, so I figure, ok maybe just some strange rule I don't know about, but after digging for a minute, here's what I found:

I played this game a few hours ago (http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/692752/player/28414/). My team won. I remember there being 1 disconnect. I think that person was the Sylis, who I also think was the host (but I'm not sure). I believe he quit about midway through the game while he was losing. He, and only he, shows up with a win stat. I click on his name and pull his stats http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/games/player/46528/. He's ladder ranked number 4. He was getting his butt handed to him and he's ladder ranked number 4. As in, I played a pick up game with unknown people and ladder rank number 4 get crushed (and he appears to do premades with Slamoo on a regular basis), but emerges with a win... and I get a loss. The guy is not an active forum member (eg no posts I can find). Can anything be done? This appears to be an exploit to me...

For the lazy inclined, here are some pastes that I found in a 5 minute search. I'm thinking he found a way to still get a win if he loses a match by disconnecting or something. The worst part is everyone else playing appears to get a loss recorded to them.

(US) 3v3 US

Conquest on Cataract : Game Info

Winner: Forces of Light

Game Type: Conquest

Start: Jun 29, 2009 7:33 PM

Players: 6

Map: Cataract

End: Jun 29, 2009 8:15 PM

Playing: Custom Game

Game Length: 42 minutes

Ranked: Yes

Note: Games marked as "NA" do not count towards statistics.

Player	Team	Entity	Favor Points	Result
Sylis	Forces of Light	Torch Bearer	180	Won
Slamoo	Forces of Light	Regulus	0	Lost
Archaic Dhaos	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	0	Lost
xaos2121	Forces of Darkness	Regulus	0	Lost
Vaidoras	Forces of Darkness	Rook	0	Lost
chacawaca	Forces of Darkness	Sedna	0	Lost

(US) 3v3 US

Conquest on Cataract : Game Info

Winner: Forces of Darkness

Game Type: Conquest

Start: Jun 29, 2009 6:20 PM

Players: 6

Map: Cataract

End: Jun 29, 2009 6:47 PM

Playing: Custom Game

Game Length: 27 minutes

Ranked: Yes

Note: Games marked as "NA" do not count towards statistics.

Player	Team	Entity	Favor Points	Result
pacov	Forces of Light	Lord Erebus	0	Lost
Sipherous	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	0	Lost
wmatheric	Forces of Light	Sedna	0	Lost
Sylis	Forces of Darkness	Lord Erebus	105	Won
Slamoo	Forces of Darkness	Rook	0	Lost
LC217	Forces of Darkness	Unclean Beast	0	Lost

Winner: Forces of Light

Game Type: Conquest

Start: Jun 27, 2009 12:51 AM

Players: 8

Map: Cataract

End: Jun 27, 2009 12:57 AM

Playing: Custom Game

Game Length: 6 minutes

Ranked: Yes

Note: Games marked as "NA" do not count towards statistics.

Player	Team	Entity	Favor Points	Result
Sylis	Forces of Light	Torch Bearer	90	Won
Slamoo	Forces of Light	Regulus	0	Lost
DrunknMaster	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	0	Lost
Sly_Squash	Forces of Light	Lord Erebus	0	Lost
SDGuthrie	Forces of Darkness	Rook	0	Lost
Lucifirus	Forces of Darkness	Lord Erebus	0	Lost
doomcloud	Forces of Darkness	Queen of Thorns	0	Lost
HauserGrim	Forces of Darkness	Regulus	0	Lost

+161 Karma | 62 Replies

Quoting Sylis,

reply 22

Some input on your last post: It doesn't keep me in the game and let me finish it out. It just automatically disconnects me entirely from everyone and gives me an auto win due to being against all AI.

It must keep your "game" alive somehow because how would the "game" communicate to the server that you're playing against all AI if you (the host) are physically disconnected? Does it report the game AFTER you have reset your modem and everything? Because that is just weird.

Here's just a final summary regarding this with the extra info you added Sylis...

You host games and get briefly disconnected from the internet when you have a loss of power or a short to your modem. This causes all players to disconnect from you, the host. They see you as having left the game and are still connected to each other, but are now unable to report their stats as they are apparently routed through the host (you). You see an auto-win screen as you are now only playing against AI. Somehow, even though you no longer appear to be connected to the internet for another 10-15 seconds while your modem cycles back on), the stats record this as a win for you. Everyone else in the game gets a loss because your connection indicates that they all disconnected or that they quit the game.

Exactly. Not sure how are why it reports a win for me.

Cool, Sylis. Sorry to have caused a bit of pain for you, but thanks for providing feedback and explanations. Hopefully some info here will be useful to SD in tracking down the problem.

End of thread I hope.

The host disconnect bug is known and hopefully worked on. Nothing to get upset about though, the current ranking system says almost nothing about skill, which really sucks. There are countless threads about it. As long as the ranking system isn't representing skill, i couldn't care less about stat exploits.

p.s.: give us team pantheon and a decent ELO ranking system!

Quoting the_bune,

reply 5

Pantheon was terrible idea from beginning.

Quoting wnmnkh,

reply 6

Pantheon was terrible idea from beginning.

I think it was a great idea poorly implemented.

I've had a lot of bad stat tracking bugs... for example, I was just in a game (with pacov) and suddenly it said all my enemies DC'd, and that I had won. I figured it was a bug; we were losing horribly, after all. I check the stats, and not only did we get a loss, I got no favor (I at least wanted my favor).

I also had a game where I destroyed a Rook in 1v1, but then I got a loss afterwards. And one other incident where the host DC'd and the game didn't count for a win. And a bunch of other problems

Mils... that is lousy. From the perspective of everyone else in the game, you disconnected and our game persisted. Throughout the game I saw your ping spike up to 1900 at various points and we all experienced some lag. The last time it occurred, you were dropped from the game. Shortly after you dropped, Windvar dropped, presumably conceding, and legion70 played the game out. Actually, from looking at the stats and Windvar having 0 favor, I'd think that he was somehow disconnected as well... For your part, are you on a network with additional people who could eat up your bandwidth? If not, do you have any processes running of your own that could eat bandwidth? Torrents or anything of the sort? I don't think the ping spikes you were having were related to a network code issue with demigod, but its possible.

Here's a copy of the game stats:

Winner: Forces of Light

Game Type: Conquest

Start: Jul 2, 2009 9:11 PM

Players: 6

Map: Leviathan

End: Jul 2, 2009 9:43 PM

Playing: Custom Game

Game Length: 32 minutes

Ranked: Yes

Note: Games marked as "NA" do not count towards statistics.

Player	Team	Entity	Favor Points	Result
pacov	Forces of Light	Lord Erebus	120	Won
Classyguy	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	90	Won
theoriental	Forces of Light	Queen of Thorns	75	Won
Legion70	Forces of Darkness	Regulus	95	Lost
Milskidasith	Forces of Darkness	Unclean Beast	0	Lost
Windvar	Forces of Darkness	Oak	0	Lost

I wasn't complaining about the fact I lost at all; I was simply pointing out that, somehow, I managed to get DC'd from only the people on the enemy team, causing it to display the message that I had won. I knew I would have lost, it's just a weird DC bug (and yes, somehow it said I was still connected to my teammates).

Also, my brothers were on the Xbox, so that could have been eating up bandwith. I'm not complaining about exploits or stat cheating; I'm simply pointing out a weird bug; I got DC'd somehow, but it said I won. And then I didn't get favor. :/

Mils... please don't misunderstand. Perhaps my communication was shite, but I am in no way, shape or form busting balls here. I think it sucks that you were dc'd. I do, however, find it very interesting that YOU saw a message that you had won. That's actually very different from what I've seen in the past. Eg, the host disconnects and all but the host stays conncected. I was the host here and I saw you drop. You apparently saw all dropping from the game except your team. What happened in reality was that you dropped due to timeout... then Windvar dropped (probably due to timeout or quitting) and Legion stayed until the end of the game.

All -if its possible, please be clear - I DO NOT CARE IF YOU ARE CHEATING YOUR ASS OFF. I'M NOT POINTING MY FINGER AT ALL. I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT CAUSES THE STAT EXPLOITS. No harm in responding here, but please get it. I'm not pissed at anyone and not trying to take a shot it you (I was pissed a Sylis for a few minutes, but that was my bad).

To any that are still following this thread... I'm trying to sort out and identify issues stat exploits/errors here and then summarizing them over here:

https://forums.demigodthegame.com/358171

The Forums Are Now Closed!

The content will remain as a historical reference, thank you.