[TheUltraFish]

Hello fellow Prop Hunt players and Dinkleberg community members who are not really Prop Hunt players but will click on, scan through, read each statement carefully, possibly contribute, and/or not care about this issue, there was an item of ghosting that I brought up in the staff chat about a week ago and would like to have an open discussion with the subject with the rest of the community to gather their thoughts, ideas, and contributions all in one place.


The problem that occasionally happens, is when people find out that there are ghosters or hackers and use them to get kills. This can be seen in a way as ghosting. I am not talking about the daily group(s) of players who get on and 3rd party ghost in a discord voice call. That has always been an issue and will probably continue to be a problem as long as prop hunt exists. This particular issue is when a certain player, generally a regular, notices that people are ghosting or hacking(may or may not inform staff) and participate in the ghosting. They do this by following the ghosting pair or hacking individual around the map stealing the kills from the individuals that are ghosting or hacking. Yes, people who come on and ghost and/or hack are bad and can be generally handled within a short time period, but what about those who give themselves an unfair advantage over the other players who are playing fairly? They have done this getting in the way of staff gathering evidence of the ghosting/hacking that is taking place because they ghosters/hacker have not quite figured out where the hiding prop is completely but then a regular or meta prop hunt player comes in and steals the kill(s) before much, if any, useful evidence is gathered. The individual then acts as if they are playing regularly until the ghoster or hacker finds another prop, rinse and repeat. 


This has been an issue at more than one point in time and is generally done by regular players who have been around for awhile or by players who are now being categorized as META gamers where they take the simple game mode way too seriously. Such playing has provided additional rules already within the past year or so to try and make it fair for everyone. 


Such rules are:

Pixel hunting: where the prop hides only show a few pixels showing if only just a pixel showing and trying to justify its legality constantly. This has lead to a few props being highly criticized for being used due to their ability to be abused like the blue chair and knife or has caused some props to be banned on any map they are on like the telephone and muffler.

Jetpack rule (in illegal spots list): the player who uses a spot only reachable by a jet pack must remain killable by a person who does not have a jet pack and has only standard weapons

Kill Robbing (rule 16): this is when a prop player types kill in console or uses a kill bind to avoid getting killed right when a hunter finds them or because they did not reach their "perfect" spot. Several people started doing in even at the cost of their team losing the round so that the individual using the kill bind would have a higher chance of winning the map by not allowing the hunter to get a point or points in some cases when multiple people did the act


Now, people will always find a way to abuse the system and those particular cases can be handled individually in most cases. However, when several people start abusing in the same way, then we end up having to make a rule about it. The players who are ghosting with the ghosters are participating in ghosting to give themselves an unfair advantage and making a staff members job more difficult. Most of them will stop when you ask them, but some of them think since that they are not 3rd party ghosting technically with the group, that it does not apply to them and they do it anyways. This is where a rule and punishment system could be established.


This is NOT to be mistaken for people who are just good at the game or a particular map. Some players are just good and know where props are going to hide on some maps. This can make it more difficult to gather evidence of players ghosting but I refuse to punish people who are just playing the game. This is to specifically go after those who are ghosting with the ghosters.


If a person figures out a group is ghosting and then uses them to get kills, they have joined in on the ghosting. 
~Matt_St3 (Strongrule)
Yes that is your quote Matt, I liked the wording of it and have added it here.


I was just wondering what the community thinks about people who are ghosting with ghosters while not being actually a member of the group of ghosters and ideas on how to handle them moving towards the future.