Identifing undercover Covert Ops/Infiltrators

[PointlesS]

is there a way? do they look different? been playing for a while now and I Can't find any way to identify them

[Slade05]

Main way to identify them is through their actions. Undercover players tend to avoid shooting(it blows their cover immidiately) and not to run too long(human breathing is not too similar with those of the strogg, it can cause suspicion).
Watch out for your back: almost everyone of them tries to atttack you if you seem careless and alone, so you can try to provoke person you suspect. :)

[2phew]

i had this earlier,he was on me like cack ,outa nowhere
thnks ill use this info

[Digger]

When you aim at them it shows your name not theirs. Still hard to catch a good spy though.

[PointlesS]

When you aim at them it shows your name not theirs. Still hard to catch a good spy though.

cool that helps out a lot :)

[Oompa]

When you aim at them it shows your name not theirs. Still hard to catch a good spy though.

Not true. It shows the name of the person's uniform they took.

[HAVOK#24]

the way i caught one was he killed me and used me to take my identity and i saw it on death cam and when i respawned i knew where he was and i killed him then he called me a hack lol funny :D :dance:

[taken]

+ They cant take your ammo or meds and if you shoot them in the foot you get real hitreg.

[zoglog]

Spies are really annoying when you're trying to construct the EMP lol....

[Oompa]

I think they still retain the red arrow above their head too, not sure though.

[Squishy]

I think they still retain the red arrow above their head too, not sure though.
Newp.

#2 has it right, watching their actions or lay down health is the best way. The obvious one (which happened to me today) is when you see your name above them. :D

[nonpareil]

You'll probably see them if they jack your corpse...when they do? SOUND OFF! Tell your team where the guy went undercover, and stay out of that area for a little bit. (Inefficient, but sometimes necessary, especially if the guy is good.)

[Hakuryu]

1. If they are breathing heavy, it will be their team breathing - Strogg sounds for Strogg in disquise for example.
2. If they fall far enough to be damaged, they will make their team sound like #1.
3. They can only wield a melee and rifle weapon. Be suspicious of your team players running with the knife out. If you see someone with a handgun, they are not in disquise.
4. If you see your name on an enemy, they are in disquise.
5. If you are a Technician, and you throw health at a guy that needs it but it goes right through him... he's in disquise. Same use on GDF side. On the same note, if you see a damaged friendly avoid stroyent/medpacks when they could use it... probably a disquised enemy.
6. Same as #5 for GDF but with a Field Ops throwing ammo.
7.If you see a teammate get 'startled' by a mine, this tips me off occasionally. They won't set it off (in disquise), but human reaction is to jump back.
8. Is someone hanging around you? In a pub this just might be an enemy in disquise. I try and act noobish if someone notices me hanging around them... looking at the ceiling/etc, walking slowly and crouching and stuff :p
9. Certain spots just cry out enemy in disquise. The last capturable spawn for the GDF in Sewer, if you notice someone hanging around it, especially to the side of it... they are probably taking the spawn.
10. Lastly, a teammate of your's hanging around with the enemy and not being shot at by them is an enemy is disquise. If you know your at the front of a spawn wave and see a friendly just sitting by the objective... that's me waiting for you to turn your back :dance:

[reyalp]

3. They can only wield a melee and rifle weapon. Be suspicious of your team players running with the knife out. If you see someone with a handgun, they are not in disquise.

Are you sure about this ? I'm pretty sure I'm able to select a fake pistol in disguise.
edit:
Checked and they only get the lacerator/ar and spikes/knife.

edit:
when all else fails, there's the hitsound. If you shoot a disguised spy, you get the normal enemy damage sound and flash.

There are some things you can do to assure your teammates you are NOT a spy. Fire a weapon (strogg blaster is good, since it uses no ammo), or show your class special (medpack/ammo/hacker/etc).

Note that if someone takes YOUR uniform, you can hunt them down across the map, because they show up on friendly radar (unless it's a GDF with the radar jammer upgrade). I'm pretty sure the jammer itself is a giveaway, because they don't show up on the minimap at all.

[havocAz]

1. If they are breathing heavy, it will be their team breathing - Strogg sounds for Strogg in disquise for example.
2. If they fall far enough to be damaged, they will make their team sound like #1.
3. They can only wield a melee and rifle weapon. Be suspicious of your team players running with the knife out. If you see someone with a handgun, they are not in disquise.
4. If you see your name on an enemy, they are in disquise.
5. If you are a Technician, and you throw health at a guy that needs it but it goes right through him... he's in disquise. Same use on GDF side. On the same note, if you see a damaged friendly avoid stroyent/medpacks when they could use it... probably a disquised enemy.
6. Same as #5 for GDF but with a Field Ops throwing ammo.
7.If you see a teammate get 'startled' by a mine, this tips me off occasionally. They won't set it off (in disquise), but human reaction is to jump back.
8. Is someone hanging around you? In a pub this just might be an enemy in disquise. I try and act noobish if someone notices me hanging around them... looking at the ceiling/etc, walking slowly and crouching and stuff :p
9. Certain spots just cry out enemy in disquise. The last capturable spawn for the GDF in Sewer, if you notice someone hanging around it, especially to the side of it... they are probably taking the spawn.
10. Lastly, a teammate of your's hanging around with the enemy and not being shot at by them is an enemy is disquise. If you know your at the front of a spawn wave and see a friendly just sitting by the objective... that's me waiting for you to turn your back :dance:

Excellent tips guys, keep 'em coming. :)

[Alcorr]

Help a noob out guys. :D

How do I change uniforms and do this? I saw some people doing this earlier but I never figured it out.

[assassin]

haven't played it yet but im taking if FF was off and you through a grenade at them and they dodge it as quickly as they can, there probably in disguise.

That leads me to this as well, If they get damaged/hurt do they lose disguise?

[PointlesS]

That leads me to this as well, If they get damaged/hurt do they lose disguise?

nope

also from the 10 or so hours I've played ff is always on

[mf-]

hahah i love the covertops class, its so much fun to muckaround with on w:et when ur after a not to seroius game.

[MoP]

Disguising is awesome. :)

Nice tips in here guys, I shouldn't encourage it since it makes people more likely to realise that I'm about to stab them in the back! :cool:

[Infiltrator]

Can anyone tell me if you can still use that cheap fire team indicator to foil disguises, because that would suck to be honest.

[Hakuryu]

Yea that works too, forgot about it. If the friendly you see is listed in your fireteam, but doesn't show the white circle... it's an enemy in disquise.

[Infiltrator]

Wow, talk about unexpected.

Since you are obviously monitoring this thread MoP, can you tell us if this will stay? Fire teams surely were never meant to be a tool to detect disguised players, just make the disguised player have an indicator as well, if the guy who's uniform he stole was in the fire team in the first place.

[dommafia]

I think it's fine the way it is. It's almost like asking for the disguised covert opts to change name on the fly so the guy you stole from can't see his name. If you are in a fireteam and you die, it makes sense that your fireteam is aware that their teammate died and that guy over there with his name is not really him. A fire team has what, 6 players? that's not much to worry about tbh, specially at the speed of this game :0

[engie^benjy]

I normally shoot my teammates by the sewer controls - three times it has been someone in disguise waiting for me to leave them alone to hack!

After shooting them i give them stroyent - or if they shoot back i know they arent disguise

[b0rsuk]

I think it's fine the way it is. It's almost like asking for the disguised covert opts to change name on the fly so the guy you stole from can't see his name.

This wouldn't be bad, either. Technically the person you took uniform from should be dead. Makes sense from both gameplay and immersion point of view.

[reyalp]

Can anyone tell me if you can still use that cheap fire team indicator to foil disguises, because that would suck to be honest.
fireteam indicators are correct in etqw. Meaning if the person took a uniform from a person on your fireteam, they will look like they are on your fireteam.

Using it to identify coverts in W:ET was bug, which I believe was fixed in etpro.

[silent]

Pay attention to your radar, all friendlies will show up on your mini map. You see someone running around that looks like their on crack and they don't show up on radar=disguise.

[Ashen-Shugar]

how do you switch back to your normal skin? I snuk into the control room but couldnt figure out how to switch back to hack

[Red_Roger]

how do you switch back to your normal skin? I snuk into the control room but couldnt figure out how to switch back to hack

Just fire your weapon, you will return to your regular skin.

[madhaha]

Pay attention to your radar, all friendlies will show up on your mini map. You see someone running around that looks like their on crack and they don't show up on radar=disguise.

Covert Ops show as friendly on radar when disguised. Things to really look for on a radar:

A red arrow turning into a green arrow.
A green arrow miles away from the front running towards everyone else.
A green arrow behind that makes another green arrow disappear when no-one else is near them. Check the kill messages for knife/spikes backstabs.
A green arrow running towards your deployables.

[Cerci]

Any idea how the radar jam upgrade effects that, madhaha? I think it's at rank4, the strogg (maybe gdf too) get a passive (I think) radar jammer, which presumably means they won't show on the radar. Does that mean if you're in diguise, you won't show on the enemy's radar as a friendly? That'd obviously be a bit of a giveaway, especially if you were wearing the disguise of a medic or something.

[blodtang]

Don't go undercover when you have just killed someone, they will see you doing it, you will take their name too, so they'll be on the lookout for their name on someone else. Instead, check the name of the player who just died, take note of the name and disguise when they have respawned. Now they don't know that you stole their body, and you also know who to look out for.. so you don't go running near the player you're disguised as.

[blodtang]

Any idea how the radar jam upgrade effects that, madhaha? I think it's at rank4, the strogg (maybe gdf too) get a passive (I think) radar jammer, which presumably means they won't show on the radar. Does that mean if you're in diguise, you won't show on the enemy's radar as a friendly? That'd obviously be a bit of a giveaway, especially if you were wearing the disguise of a medic or something.

I think it's better for snipers, the radar has a wide sweep, you can often see snipers on the radar that are very far away. To my experience, when someone is disguised as your team, they show up just as your team do, green icon, and green on the radar, I'm assuming the radar jammer blocks enemy radar, as you're technically a friendly I guess you will not be affected. Stroggs get a faster disguise at rank 4, I guess the rail trail gives them away, the jammer blocker makes the GDF sniper even more stealthly as their rifle shot is hard to track.

[Richy]

I would guess it means you are invisible to the PSI radar when you are not disguised, so you can sneak up on your enemy.

[Vir]

The best disguised people are the ones that walk to where they are going and mingle with you a bit before doing whatever. People are getting really easy to spot now, you can see their behavior totally out of character once you have played the game enough.

[blodtang]

The best disguised people are the ones that walk to where they are going and mingle with you a bit before doing whatever. People are getting really easy to spot now, you can see their behavior totally out of character once you have played the game enough.

I've only been noticed once, but i think he seen me taking his body, or told his clan mate. I walk around with them with the main weapon out, acting like I'm on the assault, and when they feel comfortable I have my way with them from behind.

[CarRamrod]

9 times out of 10 if you see someone following your teamates closely with a knife out its a spy. I dont like when anyone gets behind me anymore.

[J-Mag]

The question is what to do when you see two "teammates" attacking each other. It's like Face Off, which one do you shoot?

I've had a couple boneheads actually kill me when I recognize an infiltrator because they think I am TKin or maybe they just think I am the infiltrator...

[Axz]

The disguise enemy can't take ammo,healt :)

[Lekane]

yeah you gotta love running behind enemies when spotted and still in disguise, creates a tk fest :D

[Schismatic]

Tips for staying alive while disguising or use them to kill people who are disguised. :)

1. When taking someone's disguise lay prone... I can't count the number of times another bad guy has run right over me and not noticed me grabbing his buddies uniform.

2. When moving head towards the enemies base only when no enemies are present. When you see a bad guy turn around and act like you are being pursued.

3. When entering a room full of bad guys act like you just came from some intense combat in the room ahead. Bunnyhop in BACKWARDS and always keep the direction of your own team in your view so that you appear as though you're ready to defend against them. This really gets people.

4. Wait until you KNOW that you can get the knife kill. Snipers, medics, and campers make the best targets. :)

Oh... and when hacking a deployable make sure you aim at where the base meets the deployable... not the part of the deployable that moves. If it's a turret or something that activates you'll lose your hacking progress bar. Try to crouch at the deployable and if you start taking fire circle strafe the deployable to keep it between you and the enemy until you're done hacking it.

[[]v[]]

Team bleeding seems to be the covert-spotting-tatic at the moment.
Very annoying. I think some other indication is needed. Maybe red on command map. So not to obvious.

[Czin]

v[];67672']Team bleeding seems to be the covert-spotting-tatic at the moment.
Very annoying. I think some other indication is needed. Maybe red on command map. So not to obvious.

Bleeding? bah! Play a medic, just shoot them in the head and if you got a TK revive them! So what if you get Most TK award. If you managed to do it to everyone on your team at least once then each one of them will understand your intentions.

[Gr3y]

v[];67672']Team bleeding seems to be the covert-spotting-tatic at the moment.
Very annoying. I think some other indication is needed. Maybe red on command map. So not to obvious.

Unfortunately thats the direction this is going... :(
I guess the only option is to removed the hit-sound before it becomes a habbit.

[Thug_NL]

it's funny when you see someone with your name walking :P

[Mithikal]

Yeah but as a strogg when someone throws health at me I use StroyUp/Down so it looks like im healing.

It's pretty damn hard to figure out who a covert is, it's also pretty damn hard to get a knife kill on anyone but a sniper.

[MoP]

v[];67672']Very annoying. I think some other indication is needed. Maybe red on command map. So not to obvious.

It used to be like this and was changed partly because it was quite obvious.
I'm a player who uses the radar/command map a lot for working out how and where the teams are going, so having a red arrow is a dead giveaway, I'd just turn round and shoot the guy every time before he got a chance to backstab.

[Schismatic]

v[];67672']Team bleeding seems to be the covert-spotting-tatic at the moment.
Very annoying. I think some other indication is needed. Maybe red on command map. So not to obvious.

Just like in TFC (Team Fortress Classic) players will learn to cope. In TFC, where spies can disguise as the enemy the standard practice, even on pubs, is to swap to your non-primary weapon and back again real fast to prove that you weren't a spy. In this case, ETQW players will learn to pistol swap whenever they realize that running back into the base etc is suspicious.

[[]v[]]

mmm i still think there's another way to identify these, something your not saying.
I saw one come at me and there was somat not quite right.
Not sure if its somthing you can identify on his body.
Face of a corpse maybe. Or is it lack of ammo on the belt.

[J-Mag]

So what if you get Most TK award. If you managed to do it to everyone on your team at least once then each one of them will understand your intentions.

Yeah, but you can get the boot from a server for too many TKs...

[haze]

Help a noob out guys. :D

How do I change uniforms and do this? I saw some people doing this earlier but I never figured it out.


Kill an enemy.
Press F while facing the body to steal clothes.

[PointlesS]

Kill an enemy.
Press F while facing the body to steal clothes.
too bad you can't go up to suspected covert ops/infiltrator and take their "clothes" off...

yeah that sounds bad

[assassin]

too bad you can't go up to suspected covert ops/infiltrator and take their "clothes" off...

yeah that sounds bad

HAHA

just hold down "F" and remove thier clothing to see whats truly underneath :dance:


Easiest thing you can possibly do to detect an enemy in disguise is shoot them on the foot, if it flashes red, keep the bullets coming( at the head though), if it flashes green, say sorry/heal/explain what your doing.

[Deemer1]

Wow, talk about unexpected.

Since you are obviously monitoring this thread MoP, can you tell us if this will stay? Fire teams surely were never meant to be a tool to detect disguised players, just make the disguised player have an indicator as well, if the guy who's uniform he stole was in the fire team in the first place.

This was actaully the easiest way to spot a covy in wET. All of the members of your fireteam had a shield above their heads. If a covy took one of their uni's, there would not be a shield. I miss those little shield things. I find it hard to keep track of my fireteam using only the compass map.

[Szakalot]

The question is what to do when you see two "teammates" attacking each other. It's like Face Off, which one do you shoot?

I've had a couple boneheads actually kill me when I recognize an infiltrator because they think I am TKin or maybe they just think I am the infiltrator...

There is no question because either one guy is running with knife and the other shooting ie. his AR , OR one guy is shooting his AR and the other is just about to change into strogg.

And imo the easiest way to spot coverts in ET was the weapon. Unless the covert is disguised as another covert they ALWAYS hold a different weapon then others or a knife. And when u get close to a disguised enemies his nickname disappears like he was an enemy. This becomes an instinct and it takes less than 1 sec to realize if some is a covert. Not to mention they do not appear on the minimap.

And ETQW : one good thing is the soldier/agressor class. NO soldier or agressor will play with the default AR/lacerator as there are just better weapons. So when u see some soldier running with AR its a covert or a total noob who cant even choose GPMG in the limbo - so no shame in killing them anyway.

[MetalChont]

There's an even easier way to identify someone in disguise (though it may be a bug) - their icon on the minimap rotates according to their direction. Friendly icons do not rotate.

[signofzeta]

One time I shot teammates because I gave them stroyent and they didn't take them. They were mean.

Another time I shot teammates because they were not being fair in that I couldn't go through the strogg shields, but they could. It just wasn't fair.

[Taffer]

I have shot more than my fair share of teammates in teh foot,especially this one guy who was practically humping me from behind.Although,one time at the forward hill spawn,a spy took my body,then everyone respawned right next to him.I looked for the guy with half health(and my name,obviously) and shot him in the head.His WTF response was amusing.

[Aegeri]

I'm getting really good at spotting covert ops now for some reason. There are a few really good ones that I often miss, but as a general rule I can spot the majority of covert ops pretty easily now.

[Omnifarious]

Somethings I do when i'm undercover I'm sure they've been listed but tough!

1. If you see an enemy coming towards you dont hesitate/go other way, infact turn your back on him and walk backwards to the nearest cover you can and peak around the corner from where you just came so its like you're being pursued

2. If someone shoots at you dont react just look at them or something like you're waiting for them to stop being morons a lot of times that makes them secondguess themselves even if they're hearing the hit sound. I can't tell you how many times some dimbulb almost killed me when I was in covert ops but then quit shooting cuz I didn't react by attacking him.

3. A good place to go covert ops as strogg is on the roofs so you can act like you're observing the objective waiting for a good moment to build the EMP

4. You can walk into the enemy bases once you're undercover and hack their deployables for some good xp the challenge is being able to get that far without being obvious ;)

5. Play like you're not out for kills/xp the chances to get an easy backstab will come to you and you'll die a hell of a lot less

[Alera]

is there a way? do they look different? been playing for a while now and I Can't find any way to identify them
Shoot them in the foot. It'll make a hitbeep noise if it's a Covert Ops.

Or do what we had to do back in the days of TF!
/bind <key> "say_team ^1H^3alt^7! ^1S^3py check, shoot or be shot^7!"

[[SD]BongoBoy]

There's an even easier way to identify someone in disguise (though it may be a bug) - their icon on the minimap rotates according to their direction. Friendly icons do not rotate.

This is a bug and being fixed, so you won't be able to rely on this in future.

I've had some fantastically paranoid final ten minutes on Sewer defending the control room with EVERYONE on the Strogg team suspecting everyone else of being a disguised GDF CovOps. The GDF could have just stopped and brewed tea by the EMP Disruptor, we were doing such a good job of killing ourselves, convinced we were them. Some Strogg hit on the idea of firing their blaster every few seconds to prove they were who they appeared to be. Everyone got the idea pretty quickly, and we started discovering Enemies In Disguise almost as soon as they'd entered the room (whether they strafejumped in backwards or ran towards us nonchalantly holding the spikes). However it did make some pubbers nervous - they'd hear firing and instinctively fire back, so maybe weapon switching is the way to go.

As for that trick of Strogg Infiltrators appearing to pick up GDF MedPacks by standing in front of them to hide that they're not disappearing and Stroying Up so that the GDF Medic sees your health increase, apparently as as result of his MedPack...if I managed to pull that off I'd leave my keyboard and take a lap of honour that went round the entire globe.

[imawesome]

i don't have much trouble identifying spies. every once in a while a clever or quiet one will stab me in the back but it doesn't happen often... i dunno, it just seems like when people don't want to be suspicious, they act super suspicious.

[Jammydodger]

Tip top tips there Hakuryu, iv quoted you over at my site as I know alot of people have trouble spotting them, hope you dont mind.

[[]v[]]

When you think theres a few of you guarding the computer. you get killed and realise you were the only true strogg, then the paranoia kicks in.
i felt like a piece of meat.

[Herr_Doktor]

Shoot them in the foot. It'll make a hitbeep noise if it's a Covert Ops.

Or do what we had to do back in the days of TF!
/bind <key> "say_team ^1H^3alt^7! ^1S^3py check, shoot or be shot^7!"

Or just have a bind to "say_team Spy check! Sorry!" and hit that if you shoot someone and get the teamdamage hitsound/flash.

[Herr_Doktor]

Don't go undercover when you have just killed someone, they will see you doing it, you will take their name too, so they'll be on the lookout for their name on someone else. Instead, check the name of the player who just died, take note of the name and disguise when they have respawned. Now they don't know that you stole their body, and you also know who to look out for.. so you don't go running near the player you're disguised as.

What I do is kill them and run off behind cover... after a few seconds I'll peek out and hold my crosshairs over them - if it still shows them as "unconscious", I keep watching until I see them tap out (unconscious goes away, and the character stops moving). Once they've tapped out I know it's safe to steal their uniform.

When taking someone's disguise lay prone... I can't count the number of times another bad guy has run right over me and not noticed me grabbing his buddies uniform.

Yeah, I think they figure you're dead/unconscious just like their buddy next to you, and just keep on going. I love it when that happens :D

Oh... and when hacking a deployable make sure you aim at where the base meets the deployable... not the part of the deployable that moves. If it's a turret or something that activates you'll lose your hacking progress bar. Try to crouch at the deployable and if you start taking fire circle strafe the deployable to keep it between you and the enemy until you're done hacking it.
Another tip: go for the radar first. While you'll drop your disguise before the radar goes down, you're only exposed on the minimap for a few seconds until you finish hacking the radar. Then, hopefully there's only one radar and now you don't have to worry about showing up as a red arrow on the minimap and will be free to hack other deployables or take up a rear sniping position. Who knows, maybe you can kill an engineer/constructor going to check out the radar and get his uniform, and still have yourself a disguise :)

[SlippytheWeasel]

This was my response in another thread about this:

"Real basic, if they are running in the opposite direction than the objective, turn and shoot the bugger in the back!:eek:

Either they are a disguised enemy, or a coward. Bullets work for both! :dance:


Slippy"

[GorkerMorker]

Eliminate everyone not in your fireteam

[Hykos]

What I do is kill them and run off behind cover... after a few seconds I'll peek out and hold my crosshairs over them - if it still shows them as "unconscious", I keep watching until I see them tap out (unconscious goes away, and the character stops moving). Once they've tapped out I know it's safe to steal their uniform.

Even better way, just tap F. The process of tapping them with the needle/hack thing is an INSTANT gib. Use that to your advantage. :)

[Shaamaan]

Even better way, just tap F. The process of tapping them with the needle/hack thing is an INSTANT gib. Use that to your advantage. :)
It's an instant gib, but they'll SEE you changing into them. I think that's what you're trying to prevent by waiting till they respawn (thats when they stop being unconscious; unless more damage is dealt to them).