by everamzah » Sun Jul 03, 2016 18:15
I was unaware that anticheat causes additional latency to such a degree.
Is it a problem when someone cheats? I think that depends on the context. The interacted_too_far cheat detection is the one that interests me the most. I have experienced players attacking me from great distances, as if they were locked on (hooked). I believe it was a cheat that may have been caught, if anticheat hadn't been disabled.
Another issue I personally have is that players travelling very fast, at any altitude, are able to load many more map blocks than "regular" (re: non-cheating) players. Additionally, I feel there may be two main reason to cheat: 1) To get items faster than others. 2) To dominate other players. The first one is not such a big deal, so what if they're able to see diamonds through transparent textures, and dig them before they can be available to anyone else.
What bothers me is 2) where they're able to dominate players more than a non-cheating player could dominate. When the playing field is equal, checks and balances can be better made. I am not a fan of moderation, and if the only solution to a cheating player is to kick/ban them, then that is no solution at all. If the player is able to cheat, then they're likely able to circumvent a ban too.
So is cheating that big of a deal in Minetest? I don't think so, but I bet there are some who no longer play who thought otherwise.