The "Lag-Switch" Conspiracy...

Games Other Halo
1

I’ve heard of this supposed cheat/exploit/mod/whatever-the-hell-you-wanna-call-it many times since I first joined the Halo multiplayer community back in Halo 3.

Now… as I understand it, a “lag-switch” is some method used by cheaters on Xbox Live that somehow cripples the connections of their opponents in a game; making the game more difficult to play for the other players and giving them an unfair advantage.

The real question is… what exactly is a “lag-switch”? Is it a mod? Is it a software mod, or a hardware mode (i.e. JTAG’d console). The term “lag-switch” gives me a mental image of some kind of device; like a jammer that’s hooked up to the supposed cheater’s Xbox, allowing him to manipulate the Halo servers.

Or could it simply be that no such thing exists? That’s what I’ve heard more than once on these forums; that some people just have really bad connections, and there is actually no such thing as a “lag-switch”.

I remember at least one game; way back in Halo 3’s Rumble Pit, where I’m certain I encountered a definite cheater who was using a lag-switch. That story I’ll post below.

But what about you? Do you think such a thing exists, or is it merely the product of a sore losers imagination from some point in the distant past… that has grown into this larger conspiracy theory.

My Lag-Switch Story…

I’ll try to keep this brief. It was a game of FFA Swords on Epitaph in Halo 3’s Rumble Pit. More than half the players lagged out at the start of the game; leaving just me, a dark-grey Elite, and our cheater… a guy in blue Hayabusa armor.

Me and the Elite were stuck in black screen for most of the game; while Mr. Hayabusa, our cheater (BTW, that is NOT his gamertag; that’s just the name I gave him), was running around the map getting easy kills on our motionless avatars. He also seemed to know exactly where we were spawning somehow, because he was getting them pretty fast; without really having to look for us (another mod, perhaps?).

My mic still worked, though; and halfway through the match, just after this guy got a Running Riot, I yelled at him and accused him of cheating. The instant I did so? BOOM; no more black-screen. I could move, though there was still some lag. Me an the Elite ganged up on Mr. Hayabusa, and managed to score 15-16 kills apiece on him before we ran out the timer.

Afterwards, me and the Elite backed out of the lobby and filed complaints on our hacker friend. If I’ve ever run into a genuine cheater, I would say this guy was it. I’m not sure if this was an actual “lag-switch”, or some other kind of mod, though… if it makes any difference.

2

Well, as far as I have seen, when somebody is using a lag switch you see their avatar running straight/into walls/ not moving at all but since they are host (and they need host to lag switch) they keep playing the game and they can kill you. I have seen a couple of these, but the game after the one they cheated, they don’t get host and they just get owned…

3

I only seen two cases of lag switching. Both on ragnarok.

  • Screen would go black,then snipe. What they were doing was lag switching to get weapon respawn. THE SNIPER…
    So after the game ended. It showed the host been offline for 24rs…
  • Second time was capture the flag. We were winning by 2.Then screen goes black,then comes back on. Says we lost…
    Ruins game play and makes these things unbearable. I didnt grip much but my other team mates let them know lol.
4

Oh they exist. Youtube has videos of making them. It’s not a mod. It’s like a modification to your cords that temp shuts off internet access temp. The delay is used to kill people.

Your screen you move around just fine but everyone else is not moving to you.

Everyone elses screen people are lagging around tanking shots etc.

5

They exist but I think they’re fairly rare. The only times I think I’ve ran into a lag switch was

1.) The host had 0 Gamerscore but had a K/D > 6 (Roughly 18000 kills with 3000 deaths) and was pretty much a Juggernaut (at one point there were three people ganged up with AR’s / BR’s against him, after he took a couple of hits his health stopped going down and he actually started healing while being shot according to my theater mode. He managed to kill all of us and walk away with full heath).

2.) Playing Team Slayer on Complex. My entire team spawned inside the building near where the Sniper spawns (I’ve never spawned there again in any game). My entire team was stationary while 1 member of the other team ran in and assassinated everyone. Entire team them spawns in the open again unable to move only to be mowed down by a ghost by the same guy.

So out of roughly 1400 multiplayer games I’ve only suspected 2 games of any issues.

As a side note they should disable the kill cams on all game types. I think this leads to confusion as not everyone realizes they are broken. Also I’ve noticed that when I’ve suspected cheaters if you watch the theater replay you’ll find that you got outplayed by a better team (matchmaking parameters in this game are crap leading to a lot of lopsided contests where one side has NO chance).

6

There was this one time on Reach, where my brother was playing BTS on Hemorrhage (is that how you spell it?). Anyway, right at the start things were going weird. We would be fine one moment, then be seriously lagging the next. Then of course the random black screens (when it was black screen, this certain player’s score would continue to increase). Later in the same match we ran into said player, and as soon as we engaged him, we would lag like crazy, (we would black screen sometimes too) then suddenly die, while the other player just walked off with nary a scratch. All throughout the match stuff like this was happening, such as being in a warthog, shooting at the enemy, suddenly black screening, then be on fire when the screen returned. Needless to say, that one player won.

When we checked back on theatre mode, we couldn’t even see what was going on, as even in theatre mode it would go to black screen.

Now I’m still not sure just what was going on in that match. Was it just plain lag, or was it lag-switch? I don’t know. Either way that match was ridiculous!

7

I know what lag-switchers are and I’ve encountered them, but I honestly don’t care enough to remember these instances other than “Yeah, in this one game, this guy was temporarily God.”

Ruins the games that they’re in, but they’re too rare, imo, for me to have an issue with them. Just report and move on.

8

I know that lag-switches and the cheaters who use them exist, but too many people blame regular lag on cheaters.

Please read this so we don’t spread misinformation about how this type of cheating occurs.

9

I know lag switching exists, I’ve actually seen a friend doing it back in Halo 3. But the more common method these days is host booting or DDoS’ing (something else I know exists, since I used to have a guy on my friends list who used to use one to hit people offline for fun, even when he was sitting on the dashboard).

10

Its called Standby-ing and its been around since Halo 2, when cheating was extremely common.

Im not going to explain how its done (and yes I know how its done), I’d probably get banned for telling people how to cheat.

But yes it exists.
No it is not a software or hardware mod.

It’s simply network manipulation. And it is as easy as pushing a button.

But honestly, I could count on one hand how many times I’ve encountered a standby-er in halo 4. Halo 2 & 3 on the other hand…

11

Are you serious?! Of course they exist…I’ve experienced them since I started playing Halo in 08. Hacks and mods are all too real, aswell.
Like…Did you really not think they were just a rumour?

12

> Are you serious?! Of course they exist…I’ve experienced them since I started playing Halo in 08. Hacks and mods are all too real, aswell.
> Like…Did you really not think they were just a rumour?

No… I just heard from some guy on these forums that the “lag-switch” doesn’t exist. When I read that, I had to consider the possibility… since no one has ever really elaborated on what exactly a lag-switch is or how it works; or how common it really is.

This would be the first time I got some real information. It helps to know if you’re atually being cheated, or if somebody in the game just has a really bad connection.

Vektor0 provided a very useful link in that regard:

> I know that lag-switches and the cheaters who use them exist, but too many people blame regular lag on cheaters.
>
> Please read this so we don’t spread misinformation about how this type of cheating occurs.

13

Ohhh yes. If you ever played halo 2 online you would know far more than you cared too about lag-switching.

14

Yes they exist and yes people use them. Although I doubt it ever happens on this game anymore because no one has stuck around that is competitive enough to use something like that.

15

> Yes they exist and yes people use them. Although I doubt it ever happens on this game anymore because no one has stuck around that is competitive enough to use something like that.

I’ve actually run into more definite modders in Halo 4 than cheaters, I think. I see a lot of people who mod the game to unlock the team mascot emblems (the animal emblems, like the T-Rex, which are otherwise unatainable) as well as unlock armor and weapon skins early. I ran into one guy who was only level 45, and yet he had full Stalker armor and the Breach stance. Obvious modder is obvious?

I have yet to see more serious mods like aimbots, invincibility, or anything like that… in ANY of the Halo games in over 5 years, I personally have not seen anyone using an aimbot mod.

16

I’ve yet to see anyone with the Team Emblems (Seriously though, I’d love that T.rex icon, and I’d grab it in a heartbeat if it was legitimately made available) but I have seen plenty of the “Oh hey I’ve got the Weapon Mastery armors but I’m only SR 4. I’m that awesome.” people.

17

There’s definitely something going on because too many times have I’ve played matches when my team is ahead by a few kills then all of a sudden the whole game lags and the other team demolishes us. Then once we get ahead again, the lag starts back until they are ahead. Something ain’t right. And I never understand how my internet speed is 30mps and yet my friend who lives down the road had a speed of 6mps and pulls host over me every time. Can’t wait for dedicated servers with Halo 5

18

> I’ve yet to see anyone with the Team Emblems (Seriously though, I’d love that T.rex icon, and I’d grab it in a heartbeat if it was legitimately made available) but I have seen plenty of the “Oh hey I’ve got the Weapon Mastery armors but I’m only SR 4. I’m that awesome.” people.

I run across modders wearing the Team Emblems on a regular basis. They seem to think they won’t get in trouble just for modding emblems… boy are they in for nasty surprise.