Hi WGT,
This morning I came up with few ideas that I'd like to share with you and which are feasible for implementation (maybe some are already there?)
One of the major concerns of the fair players is the use of the "clicking" software by the cheaters for shot execution. There are two factors which are the basis of these programs that are subjet of my proposal: relying on exact timing of the meter and the need of direct operation by the user.
1. Exact timing.
Two things can be done:
a) Slight random delays after release of the mouse button at the end of the backswing. The mechanics of the implemented backswing model is that the user drags the mouse cursor away from the meter with the left mouse button pressed. When the desired power of the swing is reached the button is released and the meter begins the downswing motion. A slight random delay before the meter downswing action will ruin the timing. For a human user (or rather his brain) such tiny delay will not be a factor.
b) Slight speed deviations of the meter. The meter descends at the certain speed being a derivative of the selected club and used ball parameters. Initial value of this meter speed could be varied with a random parameter being added.
v(t) = meter_model(v_0 + rand, t)
where:
t - time,
v_0 - initial speed parameter,
rand - random value, determined once at the start of the swing,
meter_model - function to calculate the meter speed at the moment t,
I assume that variation at the level of at most 5% will be enough not to affect human brain but ti hinder using of the cheating software.
2. Need of operation.
For the cheating software to work it has to be operated. This means that the focus of the windows will be changed - for some time it will be the browser window used to actually play the game, for the other it might be a cheating program.
The game could have an indication for each player participating in the scored game whether his/her browser window has got a focus or not (green/red dot, repsectively). This mechanism was already applied years ago in the online scrabble(tm) game available in Poland. Scrabble is prone to cheating too, since anagraming software can be utilized. Such focus indications have become a commonly accepted mechanism of detecting non-fair users.
Of course sparse occurences of lost focus might not be a direct indication of cheating, but once a given player will be recognized for abnormally high rate of changing window focus during scored play (esp. before tough shots) his reputation will be taken care of on the forums right away ;)
Thanks for reading this to the end,
BR,
Wojciech