Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers • Hacker News Board

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#201

Post by EamonnMR » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:24 AM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #74

EamonnMR wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an AI that aimbots by predicting player moves with uncanny accuracy really that different from a regular old aimbot?

Another interesting point in the spectrum could be, what about a program that marks up the screen or minimap with detailed heatmaps of likely player positions based on historical data? If that's not obviously cheating, make it time dependent, make it player dependent, etc. If that is obviously cheating, what about producing those maps and not providing an in-game overlay?

I don't see as very different from a wallhack if it's any good if it's an in game overlay. I suppose if it's an offline thing that you can study but need to apply yourself that's no more of a cheat than any other prep.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#202

Post by AustinDev » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 10:30 AM UTC

When you add escape from Tarkov auditory radar let me know. You should be able to use software to tell me where the enemies are and what direct they are roughly as well as what weapons they’re shooting. Been looking for a good passive cheat for that game that doesn’t require DMA. I love that YC is getting into ‘passive’ game cheats. This has huge potential people pay good money for cheats.

I learned programming reverse engineering last kingdom, Everquest and others.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#203

Post by jcelerier » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 11:48 AM UTC

tigertigertiger wrote: post #198

jcelerier wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Exposing information that’s intentionally obfuscated (cooldowns or timers)" Doesn't this just benefit people who are good at counting ?

That's the way games work. Doesnt having a good memory give advantage to chess players? Or having good reflexes benefit shooter player?

Well, at least in a casino, if someone notices that you look like you are counting cards you will promptly be escorted to the exit

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#204

Post by reportgunner » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 12:24 PM UTC

alisonkisk wrote: post #177

hobs wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but to me its starting to splice hairs because at the time the meta wasn't something that changed much, there was effectively a pre-determined set of actions in the first 10 or so minutes and most matches were less than 16 minutes so perfecting your opening via almost a programmatic efficiency was pretty normal. The proper inject time (for instance) is just X*N seconds since game start, the second b…

Ugh. Why don't the devs randomize things a bit so the game can be more interesting and fun than memorizing digits of pi?

Randomizing doesn't always make games more interesting and fun, it often makes them less skill-rewarding and more frustrating. This especially shows if you play for hours every day.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#205

Post by reportgunner » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 12:28 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #74

EamonnMR wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an AI that aimbots by predicting player moves with uncanny accuracy really that different from a regular old aimbot?

Another interesting point in the spectrum could be, what about a program that marks up the screen or minimap with detailed heatmaps of likely player positions based on historical data? If that's not obviously cheating, make it time dependent, make it player dependent, etc. If that is obviously cheating, what about producing those maps and not providing an in-game overlay?

I would say that a skilled player doesn't need to see the heat maps in real time, it would be enough to see them once or twice and they will remember because it "makes sense" to them that the heat maps are the way they are.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#206

Post by NamTaf » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 12:29 PM UTC

The cheating question has been covered more than enough so I'll ignore that.

How will you avoid having the game studio eat your lunch in the blink of an eye if your service becomes remotely popular? Look at what Dota Plus offers, and consider how the game developer holds all of the keys as well as the rulebook itself regarding this. How do you carve out a competitive advantage against that?

Moreover, how is there not extreme risk against a developer simply deeming your tool a cheat and eliminating it? That's a lot of effort struck out with one rule change, and it could be up to and including entirely eliminating your ability to provide your service, rather than something you just need to tweak around. That strikes me as an extreme amount of business risk for you.

It also seems like the games which would provide the biggest target audience for you are simultaneously the ones where there's most likely to introduce that sort of ban. Your service highly focuses towards competitive multiplayer esports games, and towards players who want to be more competitive rather than play it causally. It seems like the venn diagram of people who would use your service and people who would be most affected by bans is a worryingly overlapping venn diagram.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#207

Post by NathanielK » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

throwaway675309 wrote: post #143

Operyl wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re providing something in game, regardless of what it is, and not all players have equal access without external software too .. it’s an unfair advantage.

Just to play devil's advocate here what about somebody who has a superior DPI laser mouse versus somebody who has a standard rollerball mouse. What about people who use monitors with higher refresh rates like 144 Hertz, what about keyboards that have no ghosting and unlimited key rollover. Do players who can afford these premium gaming and hardware devices have an unfair advantage? Just to be clear I don't really hav…

Amusingly, both those examples used to be common.

Old CRT monitors ran at up to 160-170Hz. Even at lower refresh rates motion was still clear. Key rollover really became a big issue with early USB keyboards and janky membrane setups. Many old keyboards didn't have the issue.

In my opinion, games are at least designed around the lowest common denominator. Very few twitch-shooters are popular now. Most shooters have other characters/classes that let players with disadvantageous equipment still join in on the fun. If everything is a blur playing "Scout" in TF2, you can play "Engineer" instead and let the automated turrets do the work for you.

I think there's a certain Director's Vision gaming setup. Ideally, everyone could play on a big screen, where everything is clear, not muddied by the physical realities of technology.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#208

Post by enumjorge » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

NamTaf wrote: post #206

The cheating question has been covered more than enough so I'll ignore that. How will you avoid having the game studio eat your lunch in the blink of an eye if your service becomes remotely popular? Look at what Dota Plus offers, and consider how the game developer holds all of the keys as well as the rulebook itself regarding this. How do you carve out a competitive advantage against that? Moreover, how is there not…

There’s also the danger of a game falling out of fashion after a couple of years. What do you do in that case? The training you can offer needs to be customized to each game. It has to be both useful and not considered cheating, so expanding the business to other games would be tricky.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#209

Post by whateveracct » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 2:52 PM UTC

Olcy07 wrote: post #88

whateveracct wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In-game coaching _is_ considered cheating in FGC tournaments

We do not target tournaments - any 3.rt part application or a human coach is also not allowed as well.

Matchmaking has anti-cheat. This is cheating in an environment that disallows cheating.

Re: Launch HN: Senpai.gg (YC S21) – Personal gaming coach for PC gamers

#210

Post by andrewzah » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #74

EamonnMR wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an AI that aimbots by predicting player moves with uncanny accuracy really that different from a regular old aimbot?

Another interesting point in the spectrum could be, what about a program that marks up the screen or minimap with detailed heatmaps of likely player positions based on historical data? If that's not obviously cheating, make it time dependent, make it player dependent, etc. If that is obviously cheating, what about producing those maps and not providing an in-game overlay?

Those kinds of maps are already available for study outside of the game for DotA2, eg. here’s the analysis for a game I played. These are incredibly useful for learning and analysis after the match.

https://www.opendota.com/matches/5501229759/laning