Tuesday 31 January 2012

Poll results

It seems an "automatic vote" bot was put in place by somebody based in Berlin, Germany as AL Chsmata is leading the poll with 25% of the votes, after having only 1% a day ago.  Therefore, this option is not counted and it seems the winner will actually be be 'Someone Else', with 17% of the votes.  We are guessing this is made up of votes for SoE, KL and Fs. In second was FAB clan (14%) and then US with 11% of the votes.  In total over 350 people voted, although this number is probably inflated by about 70-80 from the vote bot. There is still 10 hours left for the poll, enough time for something to change?!

OPINION: Cheating means nothing anymore

It seems getting caught using hacks or even owning them means very little these days. More and more players get caught by UAC but clans do little about it. Only on very rare occasions have clans actually taken action when one of their members gets listed as a cheater, and you get the feeling people don't take it serious anymore.

I was playing online on a ViP server today and a player called Jameen was on the suspects team. For anyone who doesn't know him, he was caught by UAC a month back - and the following screenshot shows you why:

Yet this same guy is now strolling around other servers, using tag {Elite}Jameen<Pro>, and admins are oblivious to his history.  Someone like him should be banned permanently from all servers, but he hasn't really been punished. Does this give a good message out to all those people who are tempted to use hacks in the future? Not really, especially if they know the consequences aren't too damaging.  

Another incident more recently occurred in a B4E SuR fun war, where {B4E}GLaDOS was caught by UAC. Now you can understand accepting a mistake when it wasn't totally clear he owned hacks, but when I saw the actual screenshots, I was shocked. This is a guy who has developed a banlist mod - he clearly knows the basics of a computer - so you're telling me he didn't know he had cheats in a folder named "SWAT 4 Hacks", on his bleeding desktop!?


Our team lodged a sponsorship appeal to most v1.0 english clans - but to be honest in the light of this, I think we should revoke our offer to {B4E}. It's funny because Dida, somebody who I get on with well, told me "if you get banned by GLaDOS, you must've been cheating!". It's all been a classic example of 'high power and reputation' ruling above all else. They have some nice players who are respected, but as a clan their reputation is in the red. Cheating, it seems, means nothing anymore.

~Observer

Sunday 29 January 2012

Old comic strip nicely reveals a typical cheater's world


[Zoom-in by hovering cursor over the image and clicking on magnifying glass]

FoX knocked out of BS tournament

FoX clan have been knocked out of the Barricaded Suspects tournament, which was organized by SWT clan. FoX lost all of their group matches, although considering it was just a 2 v 2 fun competition, and the fact that FoX is primarily an RD clan, it's unlikely they will be too upset.

Ads on the way

In order to keep the site alive, there will be advertisements placed on the pages in the next few days. These ads will be small and not intrusive - but are necessary considering the level of traffic the site receives.  Regarding actual news, very little of note happened today :)

Saturday 28 January 2012

OPINION: Do we all, deep down, play for points?

I got asked an interesting question a few days ago.  If arrests were worth 1 point and kills were worth 5, would arrests become extinct from the game?  Obviously in the ViP game, you would still need to arrest to achieve a team objective, but the number of overall arrests would undoubtedly decrease massively if this was how the point system worked.

In my early days I used to be a point-hungry player, arresting whenever I could, even if I was a suspect and the ViP was about to reach the exit point, or an officer and the ViP was captured. I got a lesson one day on how this was the wrong way of playing, and it was a harsh one.  But it was what I needed to change me into a proper player. Now though, I see so many things people do which make me wonder if we still all actually deep-down play the game to impress others regarding our points total and the famous "points per minute" average.

I'll give you an example. If you click "Start New Game" in the admin menu, all the statistics regarding points don't get registered by GameTracker. Funny then, that when an admin fails to get too many points in a round, you will see a quick round start occur on many, many occasions.  This way, the poor points total (compared to time spent) will not get tracked.  If you haven't noticed it before, just visit a typical ViP clan server and look closely at how an admin acts to a disappointing round.  

Another trick is changing the name.  Whatever nickname you have used as the round finishes, that is the nickname that GameTracker will register your points total against. A classy response I see to an accident ViP kill and -50 points is to simply change your name quickly before the round ends - that way again, your stats aren't affected. Infact, I have seen some players from polish clans, such as CoB and Polish Legion, that force themselves into view so that their name changes from <Name> to <Name>(VIEW), hence making sure that their registered GT nickname does not encounter a negative points deduction.

Another thing is why do so many people gang around the ViP when his timer is about to end? Is it honestly because they to want to win the round for the team (surely you'll win anyway if you have 5 sus ready to kill already), or is it more because it's a free and easy 10 points to kill him? Moreover, why do people get so angry if you kill or steal an arrest?  Surely it's the same thing if you spray someone, equip your primary to kill him, but another teammate gets ahead of you and kills him first? But we never see people complain about that.

Of course, for the Barricaded Suspects mode, it's all about accumulating points for the team, so it's forgivable to find players like that over there.  But in ViP and RD, when you see the extent to which people go to ensure their points total isn't harmed, you do really wonder whether 'playing for fun' is just a fake thing which rarely occurs.

~Observer

Coert likely to join {KL}

Former NoobDude member Coert is likely to join Kahuna Land {KL} clan in February.  Currently, the clan's recruitment is closed but will re-open on February 1st, allowing the well-known player from The Netherlands to join.

Friday 27 January 2012

Trickster finds 'easy' way to fool admins

Today SWAT 4 News received an email from a guy who called himself the 'Trickster'.  He claimed to have found an "easy" way to fool most SWAT 4 admins, even the experienced ones.  Below are a few links to the screenshots of his proof on how he did it:

ScreenShot 2 } Use magnifying tool in ImageShack to see easier

The 'Trickster' confirmed that the motive for sending the shots was so that it would give a warning message out to all admins, to be wary before they force any action upon a player. Alternatively, to be completely safe from being fooled, he recommended to disable color text and names from use on servers.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

{B4E} give GLaDOS second chance

Brothers 4 Eva clan today confirmed they would be giving their member GLaDOS a reprieve, after he was caught by UAC for having cheats in his system directory. They said that GLaDOS was unaware he had such hacks and that he immediately apologized - which was accepted by the clan.

It does make you wonder though why clans enter UAC, if they decide to let off any caught players afterwards. It seems that as you long as you have a reputation and history as a player, there's a high possibility of getting a second chance even if caught by UAC/SMAC.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

1.0 vs 1.1 war talks begin

It seems after O's controversial article yesterday the talks of a 1.0 v 1.1 war have begun. Already we have people trying to organize it, but it is definitely easier said then done. The issue of the effective rules and current availability of the top players will undoubtedly be the biggest talking point and barrier to it happening in the near future. Watch this space

OPINION: Why are some v1.1 players so arrogant?

First of all let me make it clear - I don't hate all v1.1 players - some of them are very nice and highly-skilled. But it seems lately many of them have joined the v1.0 world, simply because the amount of active players in 1p1 is very little now. It seems many of them can't help but insult v1.0 clans and players; if I had a dollar for every time someone said "v1.0 is so noob" I would be a millionaire.

They have a few fair points - in v1.1, you have less cheaters due to the fact that you can't use the "copy edited .inis, start game, paste back the originals" trick that you can do in 1.0. Moreover, you won't find as many 'fat 500 ping' players that you do find in this version. However, it frustrates me when you also see them slating our rules. They think that not being able to camp and not being able to spawnkill are "noobish" rules. Let me show you a video, constructed nicely by a US member a few days back:

YouTube Vid

Now tell me something - do you think the way he killed all those players would've been harder if he waited all the time, pressing c+q/e, as a typical 1.1 player would do, or would it have been harder to achieve it the way he actually shows in the video, i.e. moving all the time? Ofc its harder whilst moving, so why do they call it a 'naab' rule? Surely naab rules are ones which make killing easier, which would mean their "camp allow at all times" rule is actually the 'naab' one?

The same goes for spawnkill. Is it really that hard to stay in the opposition spawn, crouched and ready to kill them all when they respawn and are not moving? Let me just say this - there was a reason why none of the top v1.0 clans (excluding Fs) participated in the ViP tournament that was held last year. No coincidence either, that a 1.1 clan came and won it - the rules suited them to the ground. Now if someone was to organise a "no camp, nor spawnkill" rule based tournament, we would see who is really the greatest clan and war team.

~Observer 

Note: Am expecting a few "dont cry" msgs from |WM| and the like

Monday 23 January 2012

New Poll

Since it's now obvious what most people's views are regarding UFF (>60% said they despised them), I've opened a new poll, asking: "Who are the greatest ViP v1.0 clan leaders?"

{B4E}GLaDOS is latest UAC cheater

ViP clans Special United Rangers and Brothers 4 Eva organized a fun war to be played today. As is the norm these days, all participating players joined the match ID in UAC3, and all came clean through - apart from {B4E} manager GLaDOS, who was recorded with cheat files in his system directory by the program. It will be interesting to see how {B4E} as a clan react to this - GLaDOS, despite being hated outside of the clan, is a very much respected player inside so whether {B4E} back the player, or punish him - we'll have to wait and see.

Site maintenance

We apologize for the lack of action today - the site went under some much-needed work. We are looking to bring in a new sponsorship deal, with as many English-speaking clans in v1.0. Work is very much in progress.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Download Section opened

We're always looking to improve the site - so we've opened a new Download Section, with all the files and programs you would want, virus-free and in one convenient location. If any links get broken for any reason, or you would like another link added to the page, leave a comment below! The Download Section can be accessed by clicking the "Download Section" tab near the top of the site. Enjoy!

{SWT} clan looks to set up mini BS tournament

Slys World Team has been inviting ViP clans to a 2v2 BS tournament they are looking to host.  Although they advise it is a 'fun' tournament, not one to prove who is pro and who isn't.

Friday 20 January 2012

OPINION: The myth of a high Gametracker ranking

I see many clans these days aim for a high Gametracker ranking for their server. You go on forums and other social media and see members discussing the server ranks on GT and how their respective clan is in a high place, which means they are one of the best clans.  Unfortunately, this is just a myth.

Let me give you an example.  Shadow of Heroes, SoH, has been in the top 3 of the Gametracker rankings for a long time.  Does this mean they are one of the best clans in the game?  Not necessarily - clan success is based on a mix of on how many wars a clan can win and how good the reputation of the clan is.  In this example, SoH has a very good reputation, despite the fact that it has one of the most despised players in the game, Windu, as it's leader. However, if you organised a war between 3rd placed SoH and, say, 9th placed FAB, who would win?  It's pretty likely FAB would - this is despite the fact that they are lower down in the rankings compared to SoH.

Gametracker rankings have to be taken for what they really are - an indication of how popular a server is, not how great a clan is.  Of course, the two are linked; if you have a clan full of friendly members who play fairly, then your servers will be filled 24/7.  But it never guarantees a successful clan, especially when it comes to facing your opposition clans in a war.

Ranks can also be misleading.  Only a few days back I was playing on the SoH war server.  Raptor, the WebAdmin urged all the players to go onto the main server (the one ranked 3rd).  His aim was fairly obvious - he wants to maintain a good rank for that server. So much so, that he ended up kicking all the members off the war server who didn't leave straightaway after his request.  This is the extent to which people go to ensure their server ranks don't drop - but it all means incredibly little in the greater context.

~Observer

Thursday 19 January 2012

Poll summary

After analysing our first poll, which was listed at the bottom of the page, we have come to the conclusion that 80% of our visitors will either "favourite" the site, or "see what quality of news" we produce. A positive outlook for us for the future. Keep it up with SWAT 4 News, 1 week completed!

<|UZ|> clan re-opens Custom Map server

In Barricaded Suspects mode, polish clan <|UZ|> has re-opened their Custom Map server - named "POLAND POLAND NEW MAP".  The server was opened initially a few months back but taken down due to a lack of players on the server.  However, it is now live again and is unique in the sense that one doesn't have to download any map whilst connecting - meaning you don't get kicked if you don't have the .s4m file in your directory.

{SWT} clan forms friendship with {B4E}

Slys World Team have become 'clan friends' with Brothers 4 Ever clan.  {SWT} are primarily a BS clan but occasionally do have a server in ViP mode.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

FoX is RD Champion

Fabulous, Obscene and Extraordinary clan won the RD 1.1 Tournament a few days back - in a thrilling final match that was originally tied at 6-6 against eLe clan and then 3-1 to FoX in the rematch.

Congratulations to FoX!

{UFS}CJ goes afk for some time

Well-known player CJ, from {UFS}clan, has gone afk from SWAT 4 for a year, as he has commitments in the military.  However, he is likely to come back and play for short periods from time to time, in his holidays.

SuR server hacked again

A player by the name {noclan}max*elite today gained the admin pass to SuR Clan Server and kicked all players off it. UFF Clan - the most hated clan in SWAT 4 right now? Vote using the new poll on the sidebar.

Tuesday 17 January 2012

OPINION: Will Trigger ever release his impressive mod?

For all those who have played in House of Pain BS servers, you will see there is an awesome mod, made by TR1GG3R, which lets you do many things such as voting to kick players out, as well as changing game modes, maps, costumes and much more.  But the question is: will we ever see this mod in ViP or RD clan servers?

You could argue that both Trigger and MarkieBoy (both from the Netherlands) are amongst the most powerful people in the game.  Mark has developed a mod used by servers worldwide - even if his paid add-on SMAC is slightly buggy.  But the difference is that Trigger has never made his mod to go public.  Many, many people have asked him for details, and even offered to pay if he shared the mod with them.  But it seems he is reluctant to release, and even has his own bodyguards - if you post on HoP forum about it, you will get an immediate default answer: "the mod is not for sale or loan, bb".

It's frustrating because when you see the capabilities of this mod it seems incredible what added layer of protection it can give to admin-less servers.  Moreover, the ability to change little things for players and gain special weapons for kill-streaks tricks you into thinking the game is not even that old. For the sake of the community, I feel Trigger should release it; the combination of this mod and a reliable anti-cheat would make servers extremely hospitable.  Unfortunately, I doubt it will ever happen.

Posted by The Observer 

New chatbox added

As many of you noticed I took down Chatango because after a little bit of research I found it to be a very unsecure widget.  I have since added a new simple chatbox, much safer and also accessible on iPhones which don't support Flash.

Monday 16 January 2012

MrElie's clan kill death ratio increases; now {|UF|} is dead

Our sources tell us that Ultimate Force clan {|UF|} has been closed by leader Andy.  The clan, formed in 2009 after a breakup between Andy, Massey and US clan, has had it's clan server removed from the public list and we are told has officially died.

We at SWAT 4 News are not surprised too much; the decision taken by Shadow earlier on to "fully support" MrElie will go down undoubtedly as one of the worst tactical leadership decisions in the game's history. Rumours are rife that MrElie will create a secondary clan, named 'UFF' (i.e. Ultimate Force Forever)

It's incredible when you see this child destroy fairly new clans, but UF was an established clan, however even that means little as it also gets brought down.  You feel that if anyone continues with him into this new project he is planning, they will need their brain testing thoroughly.

{|UF|} happy to keep MrElie despite latest hackings

{|UF|} manager Shadow today confirmed the clan would not kick MrElie, despite him hacking yet another clan server and site on the weekend.  Shadow said that Elie displayed good behavior in the clan server, and that was alone enough to keep him in the clan, regardless of "what he does in his private life".

This decision will likely bring uproar amongst the 1.0 community, and {|UF|}'s reputation is now hanging by a thread. Bulldog has left his role as SuR leader, in the wake of the security breaches of his clan. This is what the 1 man has done to the clan, but it seems {|UF|} does not really care.

Whether they are just saying all this to protect their own server from being DDoS attacked by Elie, we'll never know...

Sunday 15 January 2012

MrElie EXPOSED

MrElie, the coveted hacker, has had his identity exposed.  He is in-fact a {|UF|} clan member, who's nick is Ninjato.  Elie today made threats to the SWAT 4 News team that he would destroy the site unless his demands were met - i.e. we posted what he wanted us to post.

Unfortunately for him, we are not p****s, and his reward for making threats is this exposing article of himself. He claims {|UF|} know who he is, but we seriously doubt that considering what he has done in the past, and maybe the xFire screenshot below will prove what sort of things he gets up to behind closed doors.

The sad thing is, it seems he is just an attention-seeking nerd, who is still deeply, deeply hurt about how his pathetic KoN clan died last year. We have beefed up our site security in general - our xFire, Chatango and Skype ID's are now all false so guys pls dont bother trying to contact us through these mediums: contact us via email instead.


xFire Proof: [Link is DOWN] (Zoom-in for clearer reading)


Cheers and stay sharp!
Swat 4 News Team

P.S. Good luck in hacking our site Elie - we'll have a chat with Google if matters get out of hand; they do own the site after all.

Qatari player jokes of 'buying' Swat 4 Players

A player, that goes by the name "Qatar", has been playing regularly on Rapid Deployment servers recently claiming he is ready to 'buy' swat players.  He said things like  "<Insert Pro Player's Name>, I will pay $30million to buy you."

Only those who follow football and the money involved would understand this joke though!

Saturday 14 January 2012

Who are we?

Many people asking who is the face behind Swat 4 News - we are actually a team of four people. 3 article writers, all who are ex-1.0 ViP clan members, including our controversial writer 'The Observer', who simply writes what he feels. Finally, we have a spellchecker who cleans the articles up, before passing them onto me, and I publish them.

Hope that clarifies things

BosH asks for FAB Friendship

In a move similar to what Scarecrow did, SuR joint-leader BosH has asked for friendship between FAB and SuR clan.  Meanwhile member "Gautham", who left for 'study reasons' last week but has since asked to rejoin, seems likely to get rejected through analysis of the clan poll; not many people seem keen on letting him back in.

Old video brings back memories

It was released over half a year ago, but this video brings back the memories of using console commands to make the game even more fun.  Note: people from Germany may not be able to see it

YouTube Video

Hype joins FoH

Former Shadow of Heroes SoH member Hype has joined the Fighters of Honor clan.  Relations between the two clans are not stable it seems, although the news must be welcome to FoH leader Crotales, who's new clan have not entirely been successful yet, with a lack of active members to blame.

Friday 13 January 2012

Antics to the fore

Antics, the little-known anti cheat application which can apparently detect the radar/wallhack, is being used by a few more servers lately.  House of Pa1n, the popular modified server, started using it since last week. Moreover, the popular Barricaded Suspects server RevHosting is also considering to implement the program, which has caught hackers in the past.

OPINION: The influx of indians - has it helped or destroyed the community?

We all know that there has been a recent surge of Indian players playing online in SWAT 4; they used to keep to themselves - there used to be a server (and still is) called Indian Server, where many of them would hang out and play (players outside of India would have pings of 500+ regardless of internet connection quality).  However, in the past year, things changed, and one of the more "popular" players from the country, vipmillionaire, joined Ultimate Force {|UF|}.  There, he experienced for the first time what it felt like to be in a real group of people who play and enjoy the game day-to-day.

Unfortunately, it seemed power got quickly to his head.  When S|A*, Swat AllStars clan was formed in July 2010, Scarecrow (as he is more formally known) asked he if could be a joint-leader, as he could bring in many players behind him.  The leaders of S|A* declined, but accepted him as a member and all his followers came to S|A*.  This clan quickly mounted 50 members within a month, and it was arguably largely down to the Crow himself.  Unfortunately, relations broke down in S|A* and "king parthiv" then formulated a new clan, Blood clan.  

It meant that S|A* died within a day, as all of his followers, just like a dog does to it's owner, followed him to Blood immediately.  Jackal, as he is now known, made some good tactical decisions as leader of Blood; for example, by requesting friendship to arguably the strongest clan in 1.0, FAB. But again, issues regarding power came to the fore and he left Blood, leaving his friend BosH in charge.  At the same time, another new clan, SuR, was created by Bulldog (no he's not Indian).  But, seeing as Blood was a sinking ship, a large proportion of the indian members left and joined SuR.

The cycle continues.  Since the creation of Special United Rangers, another new clan has been formed, called B4E Brothers 4 Ever.  Let's just say we would not be surprised if, at some point it seemed SuR was struggling, there would be another huge membership addition to B4E.  Just a vicious cycle of clan-jumpers going when the clan isn't going places.

Let's not be too harsh - you could argue the influx of indians has actually helped revive the community, as the number of players on Swat 4 multiplayer was on the decline.  But many of them have been proven to be mere clan-jumpers, and it is arguable that they have destroyed the community - we now have new clans forming every week and dieing the following month.

Posted by Observer

Ass Clan opens up a ViP Server

Ass clan - more often known as Assassinations clan - opened up a ViP clan server for the first time yesterday. The clan has some very skilled members, so it will interesting to see whether they can attract players to the server and grow.

New poll added!

We have added a new poll at the bottom of the site asking of your opinion of the idea of Swat 4 News. Your views are valuable to us so please don't hesitate to leave your opinion!

Swat 4 News goes live

Welcome to swat4news.blogspot.com - the NEW site that will provide you with the latest, breaking news, as it happens, from the Swat 4 v1.0 multiplayer community.

Do you ever get tired of visiting clan websites to see what's going on?  No need to worry - our dedicated team of 5 people are here to make your life easier and inform you of all the happenings from the community on this very site.

We will also have opinion articles, voting systems and a chatbox, located on the side, so you can give us your valuable feedback and info on the goings-on!

We hope you enjoy it