Help, Hints, Tips, TJ Cheat Detector

[Nightstelth]

Just a few comments, tips, hints, and help for anyone new to online racing at Need For Speed Underground.

This is basically just a guide from what I have seen so far, and to help anyone that plans to race online. No, its not as good as NFSHS was, or ever will be. I think EA could have spent more time in fixing the bugs, and problems in this game online. Is there more to add, why of course. I am sure there are some "Trolls" out there that have opposite opinions, that we are all sure of.

TJ Cheat Detector

There has been a program that was created by a racer called: IH8SKYLINES, called the TJ Cheat Detector. It basically is ran outside of the game, and will only detect if a racer is using more than the 3 allowed TJ Unique Upgrades. Is the programs foolproof and perfect? I don't have the resources to verify the program. Many are using it online, and agree with it. Then there are a few, that believe the program does not work. Use at your own risk. In this version, I have changed the Voice of the Detector to Windows Media Wave Files. In the original version, it had a human voice over, that sounded like the guy had drank a case of beer, very annoying, so I changed the voice to wav. files. Click below to download:

TJ Cheat Detector

Thanks To NFSUnlimited.net

Entering Online Mode

Check this previous post for instructions on entering online mode games. To enter Circuit, Drag, Drifting, and Sprints. To create your own Pit, 4 Player Games, etc... Click link below:

Avoiding Challenges

To avoid challenges from other players in the main lobby, a trick used is to sit in the 4 Player Menu, by clicking the right arrow key. In this room called the "Created Games List" or the 4 Player Menu. You can still type and see the chat in main lobby. But all challenges do not get thru, and are all denied. Its something that the newbies don't understand yet. They still believe in order to race, they have to challenge someone. They still don't have a clue about the 4 player menu. You will be bombarded by Challenges about 6 a minute. The problem isn't the Challenges so much, but, once you get a challenge, then all the chat in the main lobby disappears, and is wiped clean.

Cheaters Online

So whats new? This has always been a problem. The types of cheats I have seen, players with more than 3 TJ Unique Upgrades, Speed Boost, NOS Boost.

People driving backwards on the tracks, crashing the other racers. Becareful of these jerks, make sure you use the Map while racing, and check it often, by looking at the time of racers. Usually if a jerk is going backwards, you will see their time drop on the Timer. Watch the Map closely, 3D Map is prefered.

Why do they do this? Because they are being denied challenges all day long, and figure this is how they get back at the innocent. These people are usually low ranked racers, usually about 100 Rep Points. Then theres the other kind, they are a medium to high rep racer. From 3,000 to 100,000. At anytime in a race, if this type of racer is hit, bumped, ran off road, they take it out on the rest of the racers, and turn around and crash all the remaining cars on tracks. Why? They HoseHeads.

Starting a Race

I don't really have tips here for gettting a good start off the line, but I do have a great tip to add. When I race, I use bumper camera. Online the first 3 weeks, I was getting bumped into, ran into walls, being crashed by other racers, at the starting line. Finally one day, at the start of a race, I switched to the Rear Uppper Camera, to get a full view of the starting grid. Sometimes with this view, I could see all the cars, and sometimes only mine, and 2 others. At the starting line, use the Upper Rear Camera to see Cars, and also use the Rear View button to look at cars from the Front. Sometimes this view allows you to see all the cars.

When its "Go Time", the start of race, you will get a clearer view of what the cars around you are doing, and then you can manuver around the cars. After you get yourself settled in, and cars are away, you can switch back to bumper camera.

When I started using this trick, I found Skylines to start to the left or right and cross over in lanes. So when you get up to the starting line, and there are Skylines, left and right, be patient, try to avoid them with the Upper Rear Camera View. I use Manual Transmission with the RX7, and sometimes at start the car will veer left or right. I used to think it was the other cars running me into walls, but it was just the RX7 at the starts.

Odds and Ends

This is just a few ideas and tips I found helpful:

Before I finish the race, just before the finish line, about 200 yards, I change to Rear View, and hold this buton down as I cross the finish line. This way, at the end of a race, instead of the forward view, I have the rear view locked on, and can see the racers coming to the finish line. Its not a big trick, but interesting.

Drafting, get directly behind a racer in front of you and draft. You will gain on the racer, and be able to have higher speeds to pass. And when you do pass, by all means, find the right place to pass. Don't get up on a driver and run them off the road. Do it once, and you will hear about it in the Main Lobby. These guys don't take it lightly if you run anyone off road. I have seen many, many fights in the main lobby. Fights that happend days ago, about racers running them off road. Don't be stupid, if you can't pass cleanly, then wait. Be patient, use your drafting to gain, but pass when there is room.

NOS at start. I never do, I like to save my NOS for when I need it, like passing, or after a wreck. But most players will use a little bit, or all NOS to get out in front at the starting line. Every wonder why everyone gets a great start? They are NOSing to get out front first. This is not a cheat, its a good strategy. I never NOS at the start, unless its a race with 2-4 laps. Then by all means, I need to get in front quick. But I never NOS at start in a 5-10 lap race. I use RX7 with manual tranny, and its slow off line, and I usually start 4th. Manual tranny eventually will catch up with most racers, and if needed, I can use NOS on the back straights to gain on the leader. Also, I am hoping the leaders are battling it out, and crash each other, and that gives me a chance to get the lead. But, there are sometimes, where the leaders are very good, and harder to catch. You choose how to use your NOS, eveyone has their own strategy.

Click on all the arrows "<" ">" Read the Screen, click, on everything, check all the menus, left click, right click on players names, menus, test it all out. There are menus at the Opening Screen that go deep. Test everything, see what pops up. And NO you can't check your stats when you are in the Main Racing Lobby. Go back out and check "RANKINGS", check your stats at the bottom of Rankings, click on the arrows in this menu. Click on your name, other racers names, etc.... Be a Smurf and spend sometime first looking at all the menus and their functions.

Low Reps go away. LOL, If you are a low rep player, please do not enter the High Rep Games. If the majority of the racers, have over 250,000 more rep points than you, find a another game. Race other racers with your own equal rep amount. I know this is trivial, but the reason being, in a High Rep Race, these guys are serious, and the last thing they need is a inexperienced racer making a mess of the race. If you are getting lapped, get out of the way. By then you are probably behind the leader by 50 seconds, and the leader is about to lap you, move over, leave the game, get your stinky butt off the track and out of the way. At this point there's nothing to be gained. I have been in races where there are 3 high reps, and 1 low rep. The low rep guy proceeds to make a mess at the start, crashes all the racers, then leaves. LOL. Its like, why did they join in the first place???

Lag, argh..lag is bad online. We heard about this all last night from a player. He said people where cheating because they were "Map Jumping" What?? Map Jumping, what the heck is that? He said when he was racing, he could see the cars jumping off his map, and moving around the track. So this is his idea of cheaters. LOL, we explained to him its lag. But he never understood. Its not the connection you have, you can have Cable, T3, be able to download 4MB a second, its the connection to the server, and from other players, back to the server and back to your computer. Its not perfect science, EA has lousy Net Code, and even though you have a great connection, you are still going to see lag in the race. I guess that these players believe online racing should be clear, and no LAG. Like all the racers on the track lived next door, and they should be all means see no lag. Becareful, there are a handfull that believe lag is cheating. Be prepared for the allegations.

I was racing at Port Royal one day, and was on the back striaight. I looked up in the sky and saw this red thing, looked like a Kite, about a mile up in the sky. It started to fall, and "BANG", landed right in front of me, it was another racers car. I passed it, and it started to follow me. Its lag not cheating.

Then you get some players that have really bad, bad lag, and should be avoided in the future. When racing them, you will see their car sticking to walls, high up on buildings, crashing, going over bridges, going sideways, upside down, flashing, disappearing, all of a sudden appearing in front of you, hanging in trees, half a car, no top to car, missing doors, driver wearing a Klu Klux Klan pointed hat, (um er, ok, maybe not) and the worst the "Fly Swatter" effect. This is the car, that slaps back and forth over all 4 lanes of the road, side to side. Knocking over barriers, barrells, garbage cans, trash. Oh man, these are the worst. Kicking debris all over the place. Don't get close, that lag car will crash you. Lag is bad, and especially with collision. Cars crash into trees, and disappear. It looks like they wrecked but its lag. The worst is a lag car will wreck in front of you, and there is no way to avoid them, so you have to hit them. And when the dust is settled, you realize, you are now behind by 10 seconds. How do you avoid the lag cars? Don't race them, learn to drive around their ghost cars. Or hopefully EA would create an option to turn off collision. Sometimes I actully ran into their car, and thought it was just their lag car, but it was them. LOL, they got very mad. I couldn't tell if it was them or their lag car. Then there are the invisible lag cars. You can start a race with 4 cars, and be racing all by yourself, and never see the other cars until finish. This one is ODD.