Cheaters in World of Tanks

Publications about cheating in shooters and how Valve struggles with cheaters prompted me to write about cheaters and fight against them in the popular and quite well-known online game World of Tanks.

"World of Tanks" is a multiplayer online game in the genre of arcade tank simulator, developed by the Belarusian company Wargaming. The concept of the game is based on team tank battles in PvP mode. In the PC version of the game, this is usually a team of 15 players, limited to 15 minutes in time.

For those interested in technical details, readers will cite a couple of links:
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The first sheds light on the internal structure and principles of the server part, allowing to keep a million active users.

The second is an analysis of the World of Tanks client’s protocol by one of the enthusiasts.

I must say, I'm a former fan of "tanks". I started playing them after “Lineage” with the thought - “there will definitely not be any cheats here”. And I was cruelly mistaken - there are cheats in the world of tanks! They radically change the game balance, violate the fair play fair play principle and give a huge advantage to the players who use them.

Consider the cheats in more detail

Let's start with the classification. As mentioned in the mentioned articles, there are public, paid and custom cheats. All this is true in relation to the “World of Tanks”. Until a certain point, the company Wargaming denied the existence of cheats. Any mention of cheats on the company’s forums was tightly moderated, the topics were erased, and the posting complaints of the players were banned. After some time, the cheats called the forbidden modifications (mods) and published an abstract list of the functionality of the modifications subject to the sanctions. And finally, at the end of the past, in 2016, Wargaming openly admitted the existence of the problem (cheats) and announced the beginning of the fight against cheaters. It should be noted that, even before the public recognition of the problem, the company promptly prevented the spread of some dangerous modifications. I will tell about one such episode in more detail below.

Public cheats are easy to find on subject forums, easy to install (you need to copy the files into a special folder of the game client), and they are also easily detected (just read and analyze the contents of the notorious folder in the client). Builds (packs) of cheats with their installers and configurators are widespread. Advanced cheats are integrated into the client interface, allowing you to change your settings from battlefield to battlefield or directly during the game. More simple cheats are configured with handles using the edit method in the config. And there is a category of cheats, working on the principle of "trainer", regardless of the game client.


Paid cheats can either be installed in the client folder, or loaded after launching the client into the computer's memory, leaving no traces on the disk. Some of them are advertised in cheat assemblies / modpacks and have a limited period of time (trial period). As a rule, upon the expiration of the cheat / cheats, modpack rebuilds again with the updated and extended version of the cheat. Also modelers practiced embedding an alert about the appearance of a new version of the pack through the game client.

Paid build cheats can be purchased for a period of one week and above. You buy a key (license) and activate it using copyright "client cheat". When you first start the client "tanks", it is activated and tied to your game account. “Cheat client” (or luncher) provides protection against draining and validation of keys on modders' servers. The authors of the cheat guarantee its updating and adaptation to the new versions of the game client with compensation for the subscription time required for this very adaptation. The cost varies from 4 to 15 dollars per month.

Often, these paid cheats have their own online business card where you need to register. Works forum with technical support and news. You can register anonymously, but after linking the game account to the key, nothing prevents the cheat authors from building their own database of cheater nicknames. Some modders were caught gathering similar information. I am afraid even to imagine where and when such a base can eventually “surface” or to whom it can be sold / drained. More serious modders are limited to generating a special “temporary” user ID only for its authorization, without passing the nickname.

Custom cheats are written for the needs of a particular game clan, and to bypass some anti-cheat programs. For example, such as ESL Wire. ESL Wire is an anti-cheat e-sports league program - ESL. I didn’t have to see such a cheat in my work, but I know about the existence of clan assemblies of cheats not by hearsay. I personally saw one such custom assembly with detailed installation and configuration instructions. Stumbled upon her on the Teamspeak channel of one of the top clans. By the way, regarding the implementation of ESL Wire anti-cheat. The client of the game “tanks” is launched through anti-cheat and during the tournament collects and transmits data to the ESL server before and after each fight / match. Sometimes, due to high server load, this process can take a long time so that you will just be late for the start of the next match and you will automatically be assigned a defeat. In the case of entering into a match or a tournament at least one player from your team without a working anti-cheat ESL Wire, you also lose and a warning is issued. After several such warnings, your team may be disbanded and / or banned.

Now let's move on to the cheat functionality.

* Aimbot / AutoAim

A typical scenario for using an aimbot is as follows: you take an enemy tank on an auto-aim with the right mouse button. The sight is aimed at the tank and accompanies it until the auto-targeting is canceled or the player moves the sight to another tank. In the maintenance process, the following are taken into account and calculated:

• The distance to the target, the speed and trajectory of the enemy. In particular, such sights can "predict" the trajectory of the enemy's movement even after he leaves the field of view (in the light of a circle or in a drawing circle);
  
  
• An amendment is introduced in relation to the speed of the projectile loaded at the moment (speeds vary depending on the type of projectile and tank guns);
  
  
• The presence of sweepable objects and no objects between you and the enemy are taken into account (a landmine or cumulative, for example, will stop any fencing on the way, while armor-piercing shells and piercing shells are not terrible);
  
  
• The probability of armor penetration is calculated depending on the location of the enemy tank, the visibility and inclination of different parts of its armor, the presence of screens or caterpillars in the path of the projectile.
  
  
• Calculates the reduced (effective) thickness of armor at the point of aiming and the probability of penetrating it taking into account the distance, falling armor penetration of the current projectile at different distances and obstacles between you and the enemy, reducing this armor penetration by a known amount.

The sight is aimed at the most vulnerable part of the armor visible at any given time, or the tracks / rollers (if this option is enabled), or that part of the tank’s armor, behind which critical modules are located (you can shoot at the locations of the ammunition, tanks, engine, crew members and disable them).

Optionally configured auto shot. It can be turned on and off during the battle at the right moments for the player. It can be triggered with both full and partial aiming (summary). It may have different settings depending on the distance to the target (it makes sense to come down completely when firing over long distances and not really have to wait close). Autoshooting is very convenient on fast and dynamic tanks, for example, when you have to spin around another tank without being distracted by aiming and shooting. For some time it was dangerous to use them after introducing the detector to a shot without pressing the left mouse button, but again it became possible as soon as the cheats learned to emulate this very click.


The aimbot can also be configured to dynamically capture and hold the selected point on the armor of an enemy tank in sight directly during the battle. You can enable or disable the in-game sound notification of the capture of an enemy tank in the automatic sight. The aimbot allows you to capture even the goal that is behind the obstacle. Alternatively, you can set up automatic capture of the enemy in a certain sector of the review and / or prioritization of the enemy according to the remaining points of strength and degree of danger (say, to destroy first the enemy who is already aiming at you and whose shot can finish off your tank). In clan and team battles, the aimbot can be adjusted to automatically focus and shoot at an enemy chosen by your commander. The aimboat is dearly loved by artillerymen, as the above amendments introduce itself (and the artillery projectile approach time can be 5-8 seconds), plus he draws a circle of debris, which allows you to shoot without straining even on targets behind cover and moving equipment at a great distance.

In the legitimate mode, the aimbot can draw the preferred point of the shot, taking into account all the parameters listed above, without controlling the player’s sight. The player can only combine the sight with the proposed aimbot point and shoot.

A player or clan with such a cheat gains not an illusory advantage in the game. Aimbot sights a huge variety, both paid and free. Experienced players customize them individually, taking into account ping to game servers and other timings. In comparison with the in-game auto-capture functionality of the target, when the player’s gun is aimed exactly at the center of the enemy tank, without taking into account any other parameters, it’s just earth and sky. In the version of “tanchik” for tablets - WoT Blitz, Wargaming introduced the account of pre-emption when auto-capturing the goal, but this is a separate story, there it was impossible otherwise, the players simply would not suffer to play.

From the side, not having cheats, it is quite difficult to determine the use of imbot. Often, cheaters scorch themselves, recording and sharing replays of fights. Specially gifted ones burned themselves by sending entries to the OSR (the best replays of the week contest). If you download such a replay and run it on a pure client, you can see how the sight “jumps” over the enemy’s armor between vulnerable spots. At a great distance from a moving tank, in advance, the advance taken by the vehicle is seen. Although there are false-positive visual artifacts. Looking through one of my old replays, I saw inexplicable leaps of sight, although I never had any cheats. On YouTube, replays-expositions of cheaters are laid out on an enviable periodicity, where illogical and seemingly strange actions of players, their type “above intuition” with blindfolds and similar actions are clearly shown and explained.

Chit does not kontritsya. The skill player can only rely on his experience and skill. If the opponent's aimbot is poorly tuned and too inertial, then with a sharp turn or stop of the tank, such aimbot can miss you, its advance will not have time to correct. The effectiveness of the imbot is somewhat leveled by the randomness of armor penetration and aiming. In particular, this is plus or minus 25% of the base armor penetration of the projectile and the variation in the shot, calculated depending on the distance to the target using a special formula for the distribution of hits in the aiming circle. This is not a Point-and-Shoot model, you were aiming at the commander’s hatch, completely reduced, but in the end the projectile went closer to the edge of the circle and you did not hit. It is also impossible to influence the fact that it is calculated on the server - penetration / non-penetration and the number of hit points taken.

* Wallhack / X-ray

Allows you to see opponents behind any number of obstacles, drawing the contours of enemy tanks and / or allies. In close combat, it gives the opportunity to control the enemy without turning his camera and acrobatic stunts in order to look around the corner and understand what he is doing. You can see where the gun of the enemy is deployed and go to it at a safe time for yourself when it is distracted or looking in the other direction. You can also estimate the time needed for the enemy to turn the turret to you, go to that one from around the corner and have time to shoot.

At medium and long distances, the cheat mode allows you to assess the location of the tank, to see and to aim in advance at that place behind the obstacle, from which the tank hull or tower will first appear. When the enemy moves behind sweepable obstacles, you can easily hit the enemy by shooting and aiming him at the silhouette.

It does not contrive in any way, it scorches in rare cases according to player replays.

* Laser pointer

From the muzzle of each enemy tank a “laser” beam comes out, allowing you to see where the player is looking or what part of your tank he is healing. For experienced players, cheat allows you to adjust the position of your own tank and increase the chance of not breaking through by turning the hull or turret. In other cases, the cheat performs a purely informative role, displaying information about the direction of the enemy’s trunk or ally. For example, around the corner, one opponent is visible in the immediate vicinity, and there are two rays. Consequently, they cover him, and one of his allies standing further awaits your appearance. One whom you did not take into account because of the distance.

Scorched only by the screenshots.

* Turn off sweepable objects

By activating this cheat, your client stops drawing all those objects that the projectile that is currently loaded can break through. Armor-piercing is loaded, - and your client removes a brick fence from the drawing. And if the bomb is charged, - the fence in its place. "Benefit" cheat fashion is obvious.

Maps and so are overloaded with various small "beautiful" in the form of cars, benches, fences, various kinds of fences, lamps, etc. objects. They interfere in the sight and are able to stop the high-explosive or cumulative projectile.

* Tundra

This is a cheat for cleaning vegetation. The game has many different game locations (maps). On the maps in different places there is vegetation. This grass, and bushes, and trees. A cheat is able to “bare” the card, removing all the bushes and trees from the player’s screen in full or in part. By removing a bush, it will not “light” an invisible enemy, but it will greatly facilitate aiming when the enemy is behind a veil of green and only one marker is visible.

An ordinary player in a normal client must be “led” by the mouse under the opponent's marker in order to highlight his silhouette, understand how he stands or moves, and which parts of the enemy tank are open to the lumbago. In the movement and behind the obstacles the task becomes more complicated, which was the goal of the developers. Cheat also negates the presence of foliage and difficulty aiming. Cheater can see the enemy tank perfectly well, and in the compartment with the X-ray and its location. He can easily aim and take the necessary anticipation. Well, or use the aimbotom. Worst of all, the cheater can easily crawl through the entire map those places on the map that are usually not visible because of the greenery and where enemy vehicles usually accumulate in ambush.

There are options with incomplete turning off the green, or turning off only in sniper mode. You can customize the display of trunks and branches of trees, adjust the percentage of transparency of the bushes. To see the trunks you need to go around them, and the bushes to hide in them yourself.


He scorches on replays when a player is immediately directed to a tank without first caressing the manipulations with the mouse. I recall the case when one of the Wargaming employees burned a replay using tundra.

* Destroyed objects and fallen trees

It would seem that a well-known truth is not to transfer extra information to the client. A cheater with a mod on the destroyed trees sees all the objects destroyed on the map during the battle. The advantage of this kind is difficult to overestimate. In the case of successively breaking objects and their location, you can evaluate the enemy’s passing on the map, estimate the amount of equipment left in a certain direction, or track down the last remaining player. Knowing where the enemy is sneaking up from, it is possible to wait for him, converging to the place of his departure or just to blindly shoot at the place where something fell / broke.

In clan battles, cheaters easily determine enemy plans, implementing tactics advantageous to themselves, depending on the enemy’s separation. Knowledgeable clans are trying to counter cheaters by shooting objects on the map and creating the illusion of movement in the opposite direction. But the realities of some cards are such that it’s impossible to get through without breaking somewhere. Left alone against the cheater, it is necessary to drive very carefully so that if you break a machine or tree, you don’t give out your location. In a word - Fail. Almost epic.

* Display the location of the enemy team.

And this is an epic fail. There was, because the implementation of Wargaming known to me was quickly neutralized and banned by everyone, including the author of the cheat.

Fighting is played by 15 for 15 players. In simple, so-called. random battles, you do not see the enemy until you encounter him personally or your ally will not transfer information about his location. Chit also showed the location of all enemy tanks from the very beginning of the battle.

It was implemented quite simply. In the popular mods, both legal and not, the author of the cheat slowly built in the functionality of sending the location of the allies to your server. Infected were a variety of fashion, ranging from simple sights, and ending with cheat assemblies. As the critical mass accumulated, when the spread of the “infected” mods went so far that in almost every battle there was at least one infected player, a paid implementation of the cheat mod began. Persons close to the emperor, the author of the cheat, used a purely client version of the cheat, displaying for themselves the entire team of opponents. The rest, as I guess, were “double agents”.

It is not known for sure how merged cheat. But we can definitely say that the authors rushed, without providing their brainchild with proper protection. From the information that leaked out, it can be assumed that Wargaming intercepted traffic and, possibly, control of the command center of the cheat. And then banned the lighted customers. The noise arose and the modders began to clean the "left" code from their assemblies. Those who survived the ban were few, and the author already distributes a new version of his cheat in strictly limited quantities.

It is difficult to say whether or not someone else has similar working versions. By and large, script mods that run on the client can work with the network regardless of the client itself. They check the time on the ntp servers, are friends with Google analytics, notify players about new versions, authorize players and send information to the sites of their developers. This list of "legitimate", in quotes, actions, is not controlled by the game client. According to unconfirmed information, Wargaming itself took advantage of this ploy during the Tank Aces contest and quietly collected information about the modifications installed on the client side. Then swept a wave of bans.

* Reload timer

Guns in the world of tanks have their every reload time. It will not work here, you will not be able to shoot before the seconds you have been given. At the time of recharge affects the installation of gun rammer or module improved ventilation, the level of pumping crew, the presence of the skill of combat brotherhood, adrenaline "burn" and additional rations. Taking all that into account, it’s really possible to increase your rate of fire by 10% -15%. The longer your weapon is charged, the more significant the gains from these 15%.

Cheat reload timer shows the status of each enemy / ally tank and the time until the end of its recharge. Although the strip above the tank, even with an animated timer in seconds. Right next to his marker. As soon as the enemy shoots, the timer starts counting down. Knowing that the enemy's tank is discharged, you calmly drive out and shoot it safely for yourself. In addition, smart timers count and show the number of remaining shells in the opponent’s drum, if you find one.

* 3D collision models of tanks and their modules

Cheating and prohibited are those that draw the so-called collision tank model and / or allow you to see the internal location of the critical modules of the tank and crew members. Colors vary according to armor thickness. The redder the color, the stronger the armor. With a cheat, it will be easier to target a small section of an opponent’s tank. If the main part of the tank is hidden behind an obstacle, then even a small area sticking out from behind the shelter will contrast strongly against the background of standard map textures. It remains only to calmly aim and make an accurate shot. A simpler and more legitimate version of the cheat mod only draws or shades vulnerable zones and modules on the tank's armor. Cheat is configured to work constantly, in sight, or hover on the enemy.

* Red balls on the spot artillery shot + reload timer artillery

Thanks to the cheat, you can easily calculate the location of enemy artillery. In the place from which the shot was fired, a red ball is drawn. Varieties of fashion can also draw the trajectory of an artillery shell when playing on other classes of equipment. Often used in conjunction with the recharge timer. The display is configured individually. Cheat is possible due to the transfer of information about the shot / tracer to the client. It works even if the enemy is out of light, but the tracer after his shot hit the ally’s field of view or caused damage to any tank from your team. The cheat will process this data and display information about the reloading on your screen.

* Tricolor target direction and accessibility indicator

A cheat displays the direction and distance to enemies with arrows, along the way telling the type of enemy equipment. But the main “trick” of the cheat is that the color of the arrow depends on the availability of the enemy. If you see a green arrow, then the enemy is far away and you are safe. If the arrow is displayed in red, then the enemy combat vehicle is near you, but you cannot shoot at it, because it is hidden behind an obstacle. Well, the most useful color is purple, - the enemy is in a position that represents the possibility of lumbago. Both you and he can do damage. A cheat allows you to quickly respond to a threat that appears, even if you find it in a sniper scope. If a player does not need to cheat, he must constantly turn the camera and assess the possibilities of shooting through, then you can safely play with cheat, relying on this target designator.

* Cheat Shadow

On the site of the last display of the enemy combat vehicle, its transparent outline and name will be drawn. If the unfortunate opponent did not start moving, it is even possible to heal the vulnerable spot. The shadow will be displayed until the tank lights up in another place or disappears after the time you specify. Convenient thing, if the enemy suddenly disappeared from the light, but you did not have time to shoot. Often used in conjunction with the "sphere at the hit point" mode.

* Sphere on the spot of hit

If a blind shot, at an unmatched enemy, has reached the target, then a 3D sphere (ball) and a message about the impact on the enemy will appear at the point of contact between your projectile and the armor of the opponent's tank. Understand the enemy is pierced or not, you can not, but information about what you got for someone will definitely get. With sufficient rate of fire can be seen as the sphere "crawls" back. You can continue to shoot, "groping" the enemy. When firing landmines from large-caliber guns, the damage is almost guaranteed.

* Red pillars with multi-colored marks

The red pillars are a cheat mod that places a long, bright pillar on the position of an enemy tank located outside the frame of the game client's rendering. At the bottom of the column there is a color gradation that helps to understand the location of the enemy relative to the horizon. The height of the color marks corresponds approximately to the height of the tank. Simply put, you don’t need to shoot at an opponent if you don’t see at least the blue mark. Cheat is in demand because of the different range of the rendering of enemy tanks and the range of the projectile, which is almost one and a half times larger than the rendering. With the frequency of displaying the pillars about once a second, it is problematic to shoot at targets moving fast away in the distance. But slow and motionless targets turn into a good target. Variations of fashion instead of pillars draw a model of the tank.

* Thicker colored tracers after the shot

Cheat displays colored tracers after shots. After any of the tanks fired this cheat-mod draws a thicker tracer and it does not disappear right away as in the standard version of the game, but disappears with some delay. The color of the tracer also changes, depending on the type of projectile being fired. Normal armor-piercing shells are marked in white, cumulative ammunition is marked in purple, a high-explosive shell is marked in yellow, well, sub-caliber is marked in light blue. Colors are customizable and may differ from those given. By and large, the time of the cheat-mode has passed, it was relevant in the past, when information about all tracer, even not lighted opponents, was transferred to the client. But progress does not stand still. Invented and implemented the following idea.

* Attack line or reverse tracer cheat mode

This cheat is similar to the fashion "Colored Tracer", but working in the opposite direction. In other words, this is a reverse tracer. For example, if someone has shot and hit you, then a tracer is drawn from you in the opposite direction in the direction of the enemy who has shot at you. In the settings you can set the time of the disappearance of the line of attack, and that it is displayed only from non-illuminated opponents.

* Cheat for artillery. Mortar Shooting

In the world of tanks, a projectile from a cannon, sent vertically upright, will return back some time later. If you shoot an artillery bomb in this way, you can destroy yourself. In the game, the gunners have a unique sight, which allows you to aim and shoot at any target at the entire game location from the height of bird flight. Different self-propelled guns (self-propelled artillery) have different trajectories of projectiles. In some they are flat, in others they are steeper. You can get the hand, and "throw" a projectile for a mound or for the mountain. In a place where the enemy considers himself safe, say, behind a stone. But with a sufficient height of shelter, it is impossible to throw a projectile.

Smart heads came up with a cheat that allows you to aim at the enemy, raising the gun straight up. This does not allow to make a normal game client and cheater uniquely burned, shooting and falling in this mode. But you can shoot at any tanks for arbitrarily high obstacles - the projectile will fall into him literally falling on his head, along the mortar path. Considering the fact that many tanks have a thin turret roof, there is a high probability of penetration and inflicting the maximum possible damage. In relative safety, you can only feel under a bridge or similar shelter. The cheat was shown on video and I did not meet in open access. His further fate is unknown to me.

* Sniper scope for artillery and artillery for tanks

Mod is practically useless in the presence of all the others. Moreover, in the latest updates of the game artillery officially gave the sniper mode. Using an artillery sight on an ordinary tank is a dubious pleasure. Artillery in the sniper mode becomes damn effective.

* Automatic fire extinguisher, repair kit and first aid kit

Players of the world of tanks lose a lot of points of strength and receive critical damage to the modules due to the fact that they do not have time to press and use a fire extinguisher after the tank caught fire. You can use an automatic fire extinguisher. But the thing is that the price of this consumables a little more than six times the price of manual. If your goal is to earn as much silver as possible, the use of automatic fire extinguishers is not the best idea. The cheat mod makes an ordinary fire extinguisher automatic by pressing the activation button for you in case of fire. The mode is detected quite simply - due to an unrealistically quick reaction of the player. Therefore, they tied the config to it, and the player was given the opportunity to choose the response time, emulating the behavior of a person. By default, it works with a delay of 0.3 seconds.

The repair kit and the first-aid kit can be configured to automatically use if certain tank modules or crew members are damaged. For example, with a damaged ammunition or a wounded loader, the recharge time increases and you lose precious seconds for repairs or treatment. With an automatic repair kit and first-aid kit, this time is minimized, increasing your chances on the battlefield. Mod can work with two types of consumables at the same time (if any). First, use a manual consumables, then "gold".

* XVM

Do not cheat in the understanding of the company Wargaming. In fact, it is them, providing information on the rating and combat effectiveness of all the players who got into battle with you. And since there is no way to prohibit the issuance of your statistics in your account on the Wargaming site or in the game client menu, everyone has information about you: starting from a heap of third-party aggregator sites and ending with similar mods right in the game. At first, the players were interested in seeing who they were playing with, but over time this information began to lead to a lot of in-game conflicts. Inexperienced players with low ratings troll, and even worse - insulted. Experienced focus and together, purposefully "cut out". There are often situations when the artillery “grazes” only one skill player during the whole battle, because he considers him to be the most dangerous opponentable to break the outcome of the battle.

Many players were delighted with the wargaming cheating initiative. Others were skeptical. At the moment, the player who first slept using cheats expects a two-week ban. When you re-“zalety” such a player will receive a “permanent”. The first wave of bans affected mainly the players using free cheats. My friends after the first wave bought a paid subscription to one of the most popular cheat packs and happily survived the second wave of bans. Wargaming slowly tightens the screws, taking the course to integrate all the useful mods into its client and to rework the very principle of mods loading by the client. But according to my feelings, they are powerless in the face of dynamic loads and injections. To do this, they will have to write an analogue of anti-cheat ESL Wire or an analogue of 4game lancher for Lineage. It's a long way, and cheaters can sleep well,while one of the gamemasters of the company does not burn them according to the screenshot.

PS I know there are tank fans here, so for those interested, I have about 40k battles and 56% wins with the turquoise rating of WN8. Used only modpakom Jova + Battle Assistant. Now I play WoT Blitz. In the process of searching for screenshots, I came across the Tundra for Android. If this is not a fake, then a start has been made there. Sadly

Update. In the comments of the user @nikizan, there was a realistic description of the WG's fight against the cheat mode of displaying the enemy team:

, , () , ( — ) . . . Nothing complicated.