Are people cheating? Is this ever going to be resolved?

I've heard about actual cheats:
where you can see everybody on the map,
you can see where people will respawn after death, even before they respawned
where all loot is across the map
what items are in people's inventories
what weapons they are holding
how much hp people have
Aimbot
etc.etc.

Have I ever encountered a cheater? Yes I believe so. Most times I get sunk is because people are better at PVP... Some times you're just unlucky... but sometimes things get very suspicious... double gunning ( I don't believe a barnacle this is because of lag )... very glitchy laggy movement, making you not able to hit others, but they can hit you every time... Hitting people 2-3 times with a blunderbuss from nearby, not seeing them eat and they still are not dead...

Recent events made me start recording my gameplay, so I can actually start getting some proof. Also the rise of very toxic players over chat + speech is getting rather frustrating, so getting some actual proof for that would help banning them ^^

@Ziggybitz024 I feel you. Sometimes it's just getting to obvious people not playing fair.

@1 I always thought those are key macros .. simply program key presses (shoot, change weapon, shoot again) in least possible time intervals. There are keyboard/mouse hardware options natively supporting these. I didn't try it myself though.

@2 You can expect your mast falling, or hear it soon enough to "catch it". I often half raise sails on encounters in sloop to get extra maneuverability and time during drive-byes to shoot multiple times and it also helps when your mast is hit. I've caught the mast plenty of times - no hacks there.

@3 I experience that as well, however I think it might be waves affecting each ship in a little bit different way, especially depending on wind and sailing direction. Bu that is my hypothesis.

Regarding tricks .. I don't know if it is a common knowledge, a feature, or a bug, but I noticed you normally get slowed down while performing sword-dash attack. This slow-down does not occur if you hold parry before that, allowing fast movement during sword-dash attack.

@ziggybitz024

They all lack the critical information pepelaugh.

@ziggybitz024 said in Are people cheating? Is this ever going to be resolved?:

So I've gotten thousands of hours in this game, sunk hundreds of player ships, achieved legendary sea dog and legend of sea of thieves, I've solo'd no less than 30 fleets with a broken arm and won sloop arena matches solo against worthy crews, I've stolen some of the rarest items in the game using stealth, recon and cunning, but I feel like I'm still a complete noob when I see ships and players pulling off some of the things I'm about to describe. I've searched every forum and guide on the internet and watched hundreds of hours of the best streamers in the world and I don't have a clue or explanation besides cheating for what I'm experiencing and at this point I can't even be mad at these players, because the official sea of thieves channels seem to be completely oblivious to these things too, I've seen no streamer or youtuber mention them and I'm at a complete loss where to turn.

Double gunning: is this just forever part of the game or is it cheating to shoot both of your guns at a single moment in time appearing as a single shot? I can't even believe this is lag as I have a great connection, and experience little to no other anomalies in player movements or behaviors besides this increasingly frequent occurrence. Joe Neate told me himself this is not how the game is supposed to be played and has attempted multiple times to fix this, but it seems to be getting worse where I now clearly see these people shooting two projectiles as one singular instant kill shot. How are they achieving this and is it cheating? I've seen guides explain a quicker way to swap weapons and frankly it seems unsportsmanlike, but to shoot both shots instantly seems completely bogus imho.

Mast recovery without falling: I know how to repair a ship, frankly I can tend to my vessel with my eyes closed using sound alone, so I feel totally dumb googling this for hours only to be met with "beginners guides" but frequently, I will hit an enemy mast with a chain shot, and have clear confirmation of the hit, and the enemy crew is able to catch their mast before it even drops more than a few inches, and sometimes when I can see clearly that only one person is on the ship. But I have tried this countless times, sometimes I'm in the perfect position and on those ropes immediately, and I've never been able to achieve the speed I've seen others pull off, it's kinda triggering to repeatedly nail a ships masts bullseye after bullseye and they hardly even slow down a beat. When I get my masts hit and it's a totally different story, how are they pulling this off? Is there a way to bypass animations like so many other things in this game through an exploit?

Ships unexplainably going faster in seemingly worse wind conditions. Now fyi about me, I have 20/15 vision. I can tell when another crew has their sails off, I know when dummy sails (centered against the wind) are ideal and the exact moment to turn them, I know what speeds each ship travels and I am frequently chasing a ship that seems to be going faster than the game logic should dictate. But all too often it seems when I'm tailing a ship (when I should have advantage seeing their movements ahead and adjusting instantly) they gain distance, even ships that appear unaware of basic sail speeds, meanwhile when I'm being chased, even by the same sized ship, I seem to do everything right according to all the guides and I'll successfulness anchor them multiple times, kill 3/4 their crew singlehandedly and yet they eventually close distance on me when it appears they are significantly slower at adjusting their sails. I watch closely at their flags to see if their wind is different or something, but I'm baffled by how little I seem to understand the game logic apparently after having 90% of the achievements done in the game and staying as active as anyone (I've been top of the emmisary leaderboards every month since they've come out and these things make me feel like I don't know anything and how is someone supposed to learn when the advanced information seems unavailable from official sources and and the basic information from tutorials and youtube guides seems obsolete compared to what a portion of the player base is capable of.

This is all not to mention uncannily lucky snipes and cannon shots that seem almost completely impossible and ambushes that feel like some players had access to information on ship locations and loot on a server. Where can someone go to learn about what cheating is going on in this game, ultra-aadvanced technique like beyond perfect chasing strategy, instant mast repair and double attacking in a single strike. Players should know what they're up against, especially the most vigilant and studious should be able to find this information on what exploits are happening and how to defend ourselves from them. Does anyone have any anecdotes of these situations occuring for you? Any knowledge on where people can go who are experiencing these frustrating conundrums to learn more about how things work in this game? For example one interesting tip I know is that because players/ cannons movement is locked to their ship until they collide with another surface an interesting thing to pay attention to is for example when you jump off your ship as it crashes into another object, the rocking of the ship will cause you to rock as if you were attached to it in mid air like you were bound to it's gravity in orbit, so account for the crashes in your jumps or plan to land before the ship impacts (my example of an advanced trick I find very helpful for boarding ships/turning in arena chests)

DISCLAIMER: I do not practice double gunning. I have been curious as to how it is accomplished, but frankly, I do not like the practice at all.

• DOUBLE GUNNING:
  (Double gunning both is and isn't a cheat, depending on how it is accomplised)

It can be done in one of 2 ways. One is using the game mechanics and timing. The other is a flat out cheat:

Using Game Mechanics: It's accomplished by a very specific set of control actions on PC and Xbox. Fire weapon 1, then sprint, switch to weapon 2 and click fire button again in rapid succession immediately after each other. With enough practice, people have been able to get the timing right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVMLvzpM9SA2. Despite updates and fixes, I still see videos online of people double gunning to this day using this method.

The flat-Out Cheat: There are some players on PC who use a macro to accomplish Double Gunning. This is something that gets you banned if reported.

• MAST FIX
  I have no idea

• SHIP SPEED - It depends on player coordination and wind effects. Wind changes direction rapidly in various grids. You may be ahead for a while, pulling away for a map grid or 2 from your chasers, but in a grid where you had diagonal wind, it may shift to straight forward direction by the time the other ship enters that same grid.

Against the wind (with sails flat and facing forward):

Sloops are fastest .
Brigantines are 2nd fastest.
Galleons are slowest.

With the wind:

Galleons are fastest, but have the slowest acceleration.
Brigantine is 2nd fastest ship but has the fastest acceleration.
Sloops are slowest with the wind in comparison to the other 2. It accelerates faster than the Galleon but slower than the Brigantine.

• CANNON/SNIPE SHOTS

With enough practice, you can adjust for angle and bullet accuracy even on a moving ship. It took me months of daily play, but I've gotten to a point where up to a certain distance, i can angle and lead my cannonball shots to land hits nearly 90% of the time.

My sniping still leaves a lot to be desired.