OMG
tayseth, my heart goes out to you bro. Don't expect sympathy here on POF - the broad majority of people here don't understand the difference between HACKING, vs. the swift foot potion. Or maybe they do, but abuse CE themselves, therefore try to obfuscate your complaint.
For example, you can explain that you were hit 20-50 times in 2 or 3 seconds, yet people here on POF will think you are trying to describe fast-switching (HAHAHAHAHA.) Obviously you are talking about encountering someone who has hacked the game...but the denial around here will earn you derision instead of compliments. HACKING the game is a blatant violation of Disney's terms of service, yet rarely results in even a 72 hour suspension.
Yes, speeding has been a problem for a very long time. Disney has never pursued the makers of cheat engine (they should, as should the FBI) probably because they don't realize how much revenue they lose from it. Disney has never bothered with a snippet of heartbeat code to verify clockspeed (from client computer vs. any Disney server) so they actually have no way of knowing, currently. The new potions make it harder for Disney to verify reports of abuse.
Some good news:
- http://piratesonline.go.com/
- Help (navigation bar on left of page)
- Contact Us (first item)
- E-mail form (third link)
- Report Misbehaving Players
Fortunately, in there, you can get as lengthy as you need to. The bad news, is that they seem to be ignoring reports.
Again, from what you said, you are encountering people who have HACKED the game. That is clear to me, as I also see people like that almost daily.
Now, just to be thorough...
Swift foot glitch:
origin: Disney
method: done within the context of the game
running speed: up to 30 times normal speed (each increment increases chances of client game crashing - my tests got me to 15 one day.)
jumping height: up to 30 times normal height
attack speed: unchanged
sailing speed: unchanged
server performance effects: minimal or no affect to other people's games
worth reporting: nope
Fast switching (e.g. bladestorm/Esc) glitch:
origin: Disney
method: done within the context of the game
running speed: unchanged
attack speed: up to an 80% speed increase (less than twice as fast as normal)
sailing speed: unchanged
server performance effects: minimal or no affect to other people's games
worth reporting: nope
Hacking game:
Origin: unknown
method: done using 3rd party software in complete violation of TOS
running speed: up to 100 times normal speed (one-click - limit is client computer's available computing power)
jumping height: up to 100 times normal height
attack speed: up to 100 times normal attack rate
sailing speed: up to 100 times normal sailing speed
server performance effects: catastrophic affects to any other player on that server. Enemy re-spawning alone, locks up server for 3 to 5 seconds at a time.
worth reporting: absolutely
Sailing (regular, not SvS) is perhaps the worst effect. When someone is hacking the game, even if you are on their ship, it is impossible to even get off a single shot at an enemy ship before it is gone. It is beyond ridiculous to even try launching your own ship - every enemy will simply vanish before your pirate's eyes. The servers struggle to match the hacked client computer's speed, so the ships you do encounter will be attacking YOUR SHIP at the speed of the person hacking (NOT FUN!) if they have been aggro'd by the hacker, before you. Enemy ships respawn everywhere with little or no warning.
Sailing in ship vs. ship (privateering) makes SvS an absurdly unplayable part of the game POTCO. With max windcatcher, max ramming speed, when you see someone sail circles around your war sloop...guess what? Yup, they are hacking the game. I know of only 1 person (not me) who played SvS from the start, that still plays it regularly. Without some way of immediately booting people hacking the game, there really is no point in even trying SvS. Even on a quiet server, you can only play with friends or guild mates for a couple minutes, before someone hacking the game will come along.
Within the regular game (land-based enemies) you can be in the cursed caverns, and see the red dots just disappear from the F8 map when someone cruises through. If very very adept, you might be able to click on their pirate as they fly by. You can switch servers or wait it out. Fortunately, they have the attention span of gnats, rarely doing more than three or four laps. (6 to 8 minutes.) You can observe the server grinding to a halt, trying to keep up with the hacked pirate...your pirate will barely be able to move at all.
The effects of hacking in PvP is somewhat more pronounced. People hacking the game can easily land 50 attacks in 2 seconds. Obviously that makes PvP silly. But do remember the "~" key while in PvP match - get the screenshots you can, then pop out to the "Contact us" e-mail form and give it a shot.
Sadly, both people I've reported for hacking just this week, I've encountered again the next day after reporting.