Multiplayer cheating?
An odd thing happened when I finally made the switch from Player matches to Ranked matches. I'm now beginning to believe that some people have found exploits.
I've put in 3 to 4 hours of actual gameplay time into Brotherhood's multiplayer, all of which was in Player matches. I was doing pretty well, so I figured I would try out some Ranked and see how it went.
Things were weird.
You know those situations where you did everything right and you should have won that exchange, yet you didn't? That happens to everybody from time to time. But as soon as I switched to Ranked, it was happening constantly. First thing I thought was to check my connection and it was just fine. No latency, solid consistent internet connection. No lag in the gameplay whatsoever. But some funky stuff was going down, and too often to be a coincidence.
In one Manhunt match, there was a guy who wasn't killed a single time. He wasn't making any effort to hide (just blending with other characters that don't match his) and he would move around a lot making it obvious who he was. So every time I go to kill him, he stuns me. Every time.
Now we all know that assassinations have a much higher priority than stuns (that's an understatement, and a broken game mechanic IMO). And there was no lag here. I could approach him stealthily and he would do nothing. I would close in and start jamming on the assassinate button and he casually turns around and stuns me. That's not supposed to happen.
I watch him as he wanders around the corner and I follow as soon as the stun wears off. Right around the corner he's standing right there in the middle of some NPC's, none of which are doctors. He's the only doctor in sight and my compass confirms that it's him. So I walk up to him and toss a smoke bomb. He and the NPC's around him are all coughing. I immediately step in and begin tapping the attack button and...he stuns me. The animation plays out with smoke everywhere and the other NPC's still coughing in the background. It was my smoke bomb and not his because his character was coughing, mine wasn't and my smoke bomb cooldown began ticking.
I keep my camera on him as he runs about 15 meters up the street, then sits on a bench. No NPC's around and he was in clear line of sight the entire time. He clearly wasn't trying very hard to hide. So I lock on, sprint up to him jamming on the button and as soon as my character gets there, he stands up and does the stun animation and I go down. Then he walks out into the middle of the street, turns to face me and waits for me to stand up. I get up, face him, walk forward and begin hitting the button again. Stunned again.
All of the above happened over a period of about 40 seconds, so it's not like he used Charge every time. He actually did have Charge equipped, because when I went to go try my luck with another target, he refused to let me go by Charging me down and stunning me yet again. But there was so sound effect or graphic for the other times he stunned me, so why did he have priority every time? Something's fishy.
In all the time I've played, I've never seen stun take priority in any situation. I've seen assassination take priority over everything else, including smoke. I've smoked out my pursuer and see them coughing, start tapping the stun button and they kill me (they should still be coughing). I've seen people walk into my smoke cloud and assassinate me. I've dropped firecrackers and attempted a stun and have been assassinated. And in any situation where I see the pursuer coming and they know who I am, there is simply no way to win the confrontation without using abilities. Assassinate always has priority over stun. Yet here was one lone player defying the odds every single time.
So how did he do it? Did he cheat somehow? It certainly wasn't lag, and there are no abilities or perks I'm aware of that would have allowed him all those easy stuns.
That was the worst situation, but all of the other Ranked matches I played had some weird happenings that have never occurred during Player matches. And what's worst is that the levels of the other players were closer to mine in Ranked compared to the 40-somethings I'm always playing against in Player matches, yet these guys in Ranked had advantages I've never seen or read about.
I had weird situation during a Manhunt match where I was the pursuer in this round. The guy was sitting on a bench with a duplicate. No other NPC's within 3 or 4 meters. I follow my compass and come around the corner to see it really wide and lit up, pointing at the two characters over on the bench. Behind them was a building and behind that was the stage wall, so there was nobody beyond them. The compass did not have "Up" or "Down". He was unmistakeably one of the guys sitting on that bench.
My abilities were on cooldown and there was only a minute or so left, so I just risked it and sprinted over and attacked the one on the left. Contract lost. Okay, so I chose the wrong one, it was a 50/50 shot. To my surprise, the other guy on the bench doesn't get up and run away. He just keeps sitting there. My compass comes back and it's a full circle, lit up. So I kill the other one on the bench and...contract lost. WTF? When my compass comes back this time, everyone else is at the opposite end of the stage.
That was probably just a server glitch. At least I hope it was. But alongside the other issues, it's tough to ignore.
I think I'm going to stick to Player matches for now. There's something really funky with Ranked.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with Ranked matches?
A few people have used a glitch against me where everytime you try and kill them they dodge it (like in a smoke bomb attack) and it repeats the cycle infinitely with me not killing him and him not killing me, he wasn't using any abilities but just kept on avoiding being killed which got really frustrating.
That dodge thing is a server problem, I think. Every time I've seen it, it has effected pretty much every player in the lobby. But that stunning incident sure sounds fishy. I've never experienced it myself, so it would be nice with some video documentation of it.
Perhaps people have started modding online for brotherhood, like they do for fps games
People glitch through buildings in maps like Monterriggioni and San Donato on PS3...
MP in Assassin's Creed is getting worse, kinda wish the servers were just a little bit better IMO.
Thats why I went in with friends because being by yourself in MP just doesn't seem fun and are likely able to see boosters or someone modding.
When the game first came out, I've played lots of MP in the beginning when nothing was an issue in Brotherhood. Three weeks later and ya.
Some game mechanics are broken... (server needs update) (not v.1.02) 
Wow that stun glitch just sounds game breaking for anyone. I've experienced the dodging during smoke bombs as well, but it's not a glitch or server issue, as I used a smoke bomb on a pursuer (he was sprinting right towards me!!!) and when I threw it down, he did the kill animation, but i dodged him. Then I was able to stun.
Nah Joey it's more than that, they just repeat the dodge animation over and over again even after the smoke bomb wears off and you keep on trying to kill them but missing.
Oh, that happened to me my first night. I forgot. haha
A few people have used a glitch against me where everytime you try and kill them they dodge it (like in a smoke bomb attack) and it repeats the cycle infinitely with me not killing him and him not killing me, he wasn't using any abilities but just kept on avoiding being killed which got really frustrating.
I've had that happen to me too, it's VERY annoying. Oh well, it was only a matter of time before people figured out how to hack the game.
Arrogance do you remember the time we were playing Wanted and suddenly I became "invincible"? This is a very common glitch, thou I do not see it very much.
@Asaic
I believe that in Manhunt, stun has a priority over assassinations to give an edge to the hunted team. I have always played and have been able to stun my pursuers without any effort whatsoever in that mode, and I have heard them scream over the mic that I was a cheat 
Anyway, I think you should try to investigate on this issue, see the Ubi forums, or the Wikia forums, maybe something will come up. Has something similar happened on Wanted?
ROB_88 wrote:
[On the meaning of BAMF]i figured it was something similar to a MILFBabes Await My..............Flap-a-doodle
@Asaic
I believe that in Manhunt, stun has a priority over assassinations to give an edge to the hunted team. I have always played and have been able to stun my pursuers without any effort whatsoever in that mode, and I have heard them scream over the mic that I was a cheat
I've investigated (and done plenty of testing myself) and stun always has the lowest priority over everything else. Always.
Keep in mind that I completely disagree with this game mechanic. It should be more difficult to be an effective assassin. If seen coming, an assassination should always fail IMO. That's kinda the entire point of a stealth game, isn't it? But no, the multiplayer mechanics are ass-backwards.
But that's neither here nor there. The game is the way it is, and that is to always put stun as the lowest priority. It even says so on the loading/joining screen, that you need to catch your opponent completely off guard in order to stun. Surf any forums about the topic and you'll see a lot of other people complaining about how stun has low priority. I'm far from alone in hating that game mechanic.
If you have a local friend who also has the game, you can test it. I recommend using the telephone rather than the microphone as there will be a slight delay over the mic. Get both of you into the same game, meet up and stand toe to toe, then do a countdown over the phone and simultaneously assassinate/stun. Assassinate will win every single time. Try it out. 
@Asaic
Ok I get your point. I believe as well the stun system is kind of broken and has almost no point in being there as it is when the point of the game is being STEALTHY.
Yet, I did some tests as you said, in a private match with 6 friends and the results kind of surprised me.
First we tried on Wanted, the results were the same you described. Then Alliance had the same results as Wanted.
Then when we tested on Manhunt something strange happened. The stun ability suddenly seemed to be top priority. Now I know how it sounds, but believe me, in Manhunt mode there seems to be a sort of balance mechanic that makes the stun kind of unstoppable. Out of the game we played, my hunted team managed to test it around 15 times (counting when they pressed the button first of course) and all resulted in a successful stun, being a solid evidence to my point. Again, this was only in Manhunt so don't get any hopes to be able to stun without failing in any other mode.
Yest, I know I don't have any evidence to prove my findings. This is just a theory and maybe we just got lucky so if anyone else is able to test this it will be much appreciated.
ROB_88 wrote:
[On the meaning of BAMF]i figured it was something similar to a MILFBabes Await My..............Flap-a-doodle
Just played manhunt against noobs, I can tell you stun has no power over assassinations at all in that mode. The noobs basically ran straight towards me, and I could kill them every time. One time one ran towards me, killed him, just as kill animation finished I had enough time to instantly kill the next one who arrived too late, but this is PS3.
Also about invisiblilty, in my official 1 vs 1 for the fraggnation ladder the guy said afterwords that I was invisible for two kills, but im not sure if he was making excuses or not
I have to agree with Jack, stun is lowest priority in all modes, including Manhunt. 90% of my ACB multiplayer gaming is done in Manhunt mode because it's less intense, you tend to get a lot more EXP points, and it forces people to actually try to be stealthy sometimes (which is what it should be all about).
Whatever is causing your experiences, James, I would love to be able to duplicate on my end. But it simply does not work that way for me, and posts all over the official and GameFAQs forums agree.
It's possible it's some kind of server-end issue, or it might even be accessible via exploit or hack. Whatever the case, I wish that they'd iron things out better in terms of game balance. There are still far too many people throwing stealth out the window, and that's not what this game is supposed to be about.
Well, it seems it was just luck as I'm encountering this even less and less. Oh well, the only hope left is to wait for a patch.
ROB_88 wrote:
[On the meaning of BAMF]i figured it was something similar to a MILFBabes Await My..............Flap-a-doodle
Today I was playing with a team, I went to attack the guy on defence and he simply dodged me and stunned me. Then the team mate went to kill him and he dodged him as well and stunned him, was really dogey
Today I was playing with a team, I went to attack the guy on defence and he simply dodged me and stunned me. Then the team mate went to kill him and he dodged him as well and stunned him, was really dogey
That's scary to hear. With lag, usually neither player can affect the other, so that could be a cheat. 
Man. I just let my friend borrow my Brotherhood, so I'll be sure to tell him to look out for any glitches or bugs.
Look up my latest online video, some really dodgy crap there
Look up my latest online video, some really dodgy crap there
A lot of what I noticed in there looked a lot like lag. Lag is definitely the culprit when things zip or teleport around.
Not to say that none of the problems I described above were related to lag, as anything is possible. But it seemed to be a bit different.
I had a situation today where it must have looked like I was cheating. I was hiding in a blend group just beside another player on my team who was standing in a morphed group. The opposing team went for him and then I went for the stun. I threw down smoke just to be safe, then stunned the killer. Another of his teammates was nearby and surprised me. He walked up and went for the kill, but my character did the smoke dodge even though the smoke had already worn off (visually) and the assassin was clearly standing outside its radius. I didn't want to risk staying to stun him, so I just took off.
I bet he was pissed off, and I was pretty puzzled myself. I should not have dodged his attack. He legitimately caught me off guard and was outside my smoke bomb radius.
I guess it was lag or a server glitch or something. I'm really starting to worry about the lack of server integrity in this game.
I guess it was lag or a server glitch or something. I'm really starting to worry about the lack of server integrity in this game.
Agreed. The servers are bad IMO but that doesn't necessarily mean I never have fun with the game.
Heres some annoyances with Abstergo's server lol'
* Joining a match with 00:50 secs on clock and some kid says "Wow fyiByas is awful he sucks ***" Argh' online community these days -_-
*Stuns ... Must admit in ManHunt I tend to stun and try to escape. At least when you're killed they only got 100 from you. When first playing decoy was my favorite ability it was hilarious to see someone frustrated
now Decoy is kind of lame.
*Some glitches
Invisible bug does happen.. "luckly never was killed by invisible purser, though I've seen someone kill an invisible target"Abstergo is behind in their technology.