Official forums for BZFlag.org

I was playing on Pythonian and pybzmin32 was playing from observer mode.
Is this possible or is this a cheat?
Click here to see a screenshot
Just look at the places circled in red. It shows the player in observer mode with a flag and him on the radar.
Thanks

That's a client they run which runs several bots to attract players to their lame server. They are free to use whatever they want as a callsign for their client.

blast wrote:That's a client they run which runs several bots to attract players to their lame server. They are free to use whatever they want as a callsign for their client.

But then don't the bots have to join a team, rather than obs?

If you zoom in, the roster shows that the observer is holding a narrow flag. Even if it's a bot, this shouldn't be possible...right?

OB's can have flags though not without a cheat. I've had ST/GM/L and maybe others while in Observer mode. This was on Badgers while a cheater called "Nightmare" was on.

lol is it his full name by any chance

If you also look carefully, you can see that the obs player is actually the human, while the rest are bots.

BTW, pybzadmin, it is a lame way to attract people to a lame server Really, either start hosting better maps or stop being annoying...

Ah, I didn't even notice that before. I'm wondering if the '/flag give' command can be used to give an observer a flag. But yes, that user is the main callsign running. The bots have numbers after the '32' of his name.

Um... the observer is driving around the map and shooting other tanks. I have been on this map before an have actually played a game with the observer. I would also like to know how observers are playing the game. The only thing I could find on the forums is not very helpful: "A new observer mode where you can move like a normal player (moves, jump, fall...), so you can explore the map in a real way" (Manu, http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5373).

it is not normal, it is probably a bug.

I think the server discards any player updates from observer players, so they would have had to modify their server. Also, they would have had to modify their client to send out updates when the team is observer.

My personal theory is that the "observers" in question are actually people on a playable team. I know this because one time I shot a pybzmin32, and he printed out a "$#!%$@#!" and left. After that, I was pretty sure I TK'd. I've also had times where one (well-known and nice) teammate was killing me repeatedly. For some reason, in his player list I was listed on the other team. There's also the time when I could clearly shoot through another person, and I discovered that I did not even show up on his player list. He had to carry communication through the public channel because he could not select me. So if you hear me asking "what team am I on" or "what's your callsign," you now know why. I always feel odd asking those questions, though....

Does anyone know if Pythonian runs a modded BZFS?

To be honest, pythonian isn't the most reputable of servers*. Dodgy things go on there, they have a less than respectable admin team.

If you ask me, just don't play there. AFAICR, 2.1 has been changed not to list bots as regular players, much like how observers aren't included in listing now, so these kind of 'bot-whoring' servers won't be listed high on the list server.

* In my opinion.