While I would still prefer no anti-cheat, this also means we probably won’t have to worry about a non-compatible anticheat getting added later.
While I would still prefer no anti-cheat, this also means we probably won’t have to worry about a non-compatible anticheat getting added later.
I’m curious, why’s that? For me, cheaters are extremely detrimental to enjoying online games.
Yeah sorry, I should have explained better. I think anticheat has a valid place in multiplayer experiences, but I think most games should offer anti-cheat free experiences for solo play or playing with friends.
Sea of Thieves has friend only modes, so I would like to see those remain anti-cheat free where people have the option to use mods/etc if they want.
That’s true, though notably even the solo and friends-only options in SoT are still entirely online and share their progression with the main online mode. I agree that it would be cool to have a modding-friendly option that’s completely separate.
Yeah, and shared progression is a decent reason for them to have anticheat as well.
For the mod side of things, Deep Rock Galactic has a pretty good approach. They have 3-categories of mods, verified, approved, and sandbox. Verified is client only (usually cosmetic) and is allowed in all games, approved mods require all players to have the mod installed but otherwise can be used in any game. However sandboxed mods are considered too disruptive to the game experience and require a separate save file. Players can create a “sandbox” copy of their save file at any time, so it’s extremely easy to play around with the extreme mods without losing any of your base game progression.
While this approach to mods is great though, it’s important to note that DRG doesn’t really have anti-cheat to keep people from bypassing the mod system and cheating in public games. But hopefully by providing easy ways for people to “properly” have that experience, they can avoid most cheaters (similar to the idea that the best way to fight piracy is through good convenient options to be a legal customer). It works pretty well, but I do imagine it won’t work as well in a game with a more PVP focus.
There’s no place for anti-cheat or other restrictions in co-op games. Sea of Thieves is PvPvE though, so anti-cheat does make sense, even if it won’t stop cheating.
I wish user controlled servers were more of a thing so individuals in charge could kick out suspected cheaters.
Feels like client side anticheat is a perpetual game of cat and mouse either way. EGS certainly doesnt prevent cheaters from spoiling apex (impossible aim & recoils control, impossible aim snapping & prefiring on target location, impossible movement etc).
Server side would be great but extremely costly in terms of performance from what little I understand.
I think VAC is the best. It will be interesting to see how VACnet develops with the AI boom now.
Neat! I wasn’t aware of this. Has there been any press or indication of its efficacy so far?
Valve are very mouth shut about AC, which is for the best. They also have trust factor, which is a rating given to your account based on many factors across Steam, to try and predict if you are trustworthy, so it will match you with other trusted accounts.