[b0rsuk]

Would aimbots be impossible to make if there was no anti-lag / network prediction code? As a thought experiment, imagine a game which has only single player and LAN multiplayer (Local Area Network), where you have to physically connect computers to each other. Games used to be played like that decades ago, and today we have PCs that are much more mobile - notebooks and laptops. As far as I know, LAN has super good network latency and it could work without lag compensation code. Didn't DooM work like that? Also Quake before QuakeWorld.

You don't have to lecture me about the practicality of releasing a game that has LAN only multiplayer, or that people have jobs, kids and responsibilities. I get that.

[z3t4]

Aimbots are simple, you reskin the other players head, then detect where on the canvas that color is. As others have mentioned you could probably use external tools like a video camera aim system. You can't do much about aimbots. But you can make it so that the game takes more skill then "point and click". I used to play a lot of Unreal Tournament (the classic) in instagib mode which meant one shot instant kill, but even then I was able to win over players with auto aim. You just waited for them to shoot someone else, then you killed them while their weapon was cooling down. You couldn't shoot them in the back as they used 360 field of view, so you had to know the map well. Players/athletes that cheat usually do it because they want a shortcut, and thus can not become very good. Or there is a financial incentive, where you cheat just a little bit in order to make a living doing what you love, and those cheats are the most problematic as they are hard to catch.