Hello Shiva server. This post is very serious, and id like to get the opinions of everyone regarding something that happened in game. I will not be nameing names, soo please dont ask.
I was farming of sorts somewhere in vanadiel (im leaving this out also, to prevent anyone from knowing exactly who i am speaking about). Im happily farming for quite a while, when a few other players enter the area im fighting in. An NM does spawn in this area, but im not all that concerned about that, because the chance of it spawning when i was there was very slim, and thats not what this is about anyways. Im rounding up the mobs in this area, and killing them (sometimes one at a time, and sometimes a bunch since they link). One of the other players, begins to compete with me for pulls. I am completly fine wiht this, as the item im looking for isnt even sellable, and the mobs dont drop stuff worth much. However, i noticed that when we would compete for a mob, that this person was moveing at least 4 x's the speed of me. Finding this rather interesting, i was very curious to see what speed + equips this person had on, so i too might be able to score some of it (moveing so fast is a definate bonus for pretty much any situation). Upon checking the player, i see that this player has absolutly no speed+ gear on. Ok i say to myself, maybe the player was useing flee for that one mob. But amazingly enough, this player is moveing all around the area, at this constant fast speed (i would say about 4 x's my speed). All of my filters were off. The person never used any speed altering medicines (i think there is a flee medicine, not positive). The person could not have used flee (or if they did then it lasted for about 8-10 minutes). They didnt have any speed + gear on. I never saw chocobo mazurka being sung, and i heard that doesnt work in dungeons (not sure about that one).
I did a little research, and found out there is a speed hack. It allows you to change your players speed at will i guess (Its not exactly easy to find out exactly how it works).
My dilema:
I am not a snitch. I dont really care much what other people do in this game, so long as it doesnt affect me in a negative manner. And in this instance, it didnt really affect me much. Ive made 2 GM calls in over a year and a half of playing, and neither were about other players. If i dont like someone, i simply /blist and go about my ways. But i have heard of several other people, who have seen this same activity by other players. This means that people are spreading this speed hack around, that is giving people a distinct advantage over me, and those of you who dont cheat. Even if i wanted to cheat, playing on a PS2, makes this impossible (well impossible as far as i know).
The person who was useing this speed hack (i am convinced this was a speed hack, and if someone can offer another explanation, i would be happy to know i am wrong about this) is a very well known person on our server. That makes things even worse for me. If it was someone i had never heard of, and saw them doing this in the dunes on a lvl 15 char with no sub job, i would have just called a GM, and let them handle it (or not whatever they want to do). But being that this person is well known, and even possibly friends with people i know, i choose not to make a GM call. I despise people who cheat to get ahead of others. But most of the cheating thats been going on in this game for so long, is invisible so to speak. Yeah people all of a sudden know when and where an NM is going to spawn, but i can convince myself that it was luck or lots of practice, and i cant see people useing bots ect. But this hack, is very much visible. Its unmistakeable, and if you happen to see someone useing it, you to will be like o.0
So I choose not to make a GM call about this situation. But im positive i should have. Well known or not, cheating is cheating. It is unfair to those of us who cant, or dont want to cheat. I play this game for fun, and other people cheating makes it a lot less fun for me. Especially a cheat, that has the potential to make it impossible for the average player to compete in an NM/HNM situation. Add on top of that, that there might be cheats that do other significant things that i havent seen or heard of, and it sevearly depresses me.
So im asking you all as a community,, what you would have done, and what you think i should have done. Remeber when replying to this, that it could have been your best friend, your oldest game friend, a LS member, your mentor, or even your LS leader. It could have been the person you look up to the most, or the person who has been there for you when youve needed them.
Thanks, and im saddened that i needed to post this. I wish i had never seen this, so i could live my game life in ignorant bliss. But since i now know of it, i feel it is my duty to not only inform everyone of what is possible, but to maybe take action against it as well.