The Amazing Way Outriders Is Dealing With Cheaters

Many mainstream games have been negatively affected by players attempting to cheat their way to success. Games with massive fanbases, like Fortnite, have been known to attract a large number of cheaters. However, some development teams have taken measures against hackers, such as Fall Guys developer Mediatonic, who used numerous methods to curtail the number of Fall Guys cheaters. With Outriders on the cusp of release, developer People Can Fly has developed multiple ways of handling cheaters.

In a development update posted on March 25, People Can Fly discussed a variety of topics ahead of Outriders' release. Notably, this included the developer's policy on cheating and hacking, which has been a "hotly debated topic," according to People Can Fly. People Can Fly stated that, of the 2 million players who have taken part in the Outriders demo since February, 200 were caught "clearly cheating." The developer cites an example of a player giving themselves 600 Legendary Weapons.

The developer can identify players who have cheated in multiple ways. In the dev update, People Can Fly listed a number of things that it considers cheating. These included such action as "Intentionally running the game on PC without Easy Anti Cheat (EAC)" and "Modifying game files to enhance a character," as well as using hacks that alter the game's internal clock or equip aimbots.

People Can Fly also helpfully clarified a few methods that aren't considered cheating. Specifically, the developer said that farming for equipment and items won't be considered cheating. In addition, utilizing "performance-tweaking software" like RivaTuner is not considered to be a method of cheating, since that doesn't directly impact gameplay or progression.

The developer discussed the consequences of cheating. Cheating could result in longer matchmaking waits, wince cheaters "will not be able to matchmake with legit players." Further, the repercussions will be given to every character on a cheating account, rather than to just a specific character on the account. While cheaters can still play solo, when playing multiplayer, they will be specifically marked on their HUD as a cheater, making it so that any footage captured "can be readily identified as coming from a flagged account."

Those who cheated during the demo period do have the option of absolving themselves of these consequences. In order to do so, they have to get rid of every character and item on their account, meaning they can't carry over any of their ill-begotten demo progression to the full game.

Players who have been discouraged by the cheating in other major games may be pleased to see People Can Fly making a concerted effort to curb cheating. Of course, fans will just have to wait and see how effective these policies will be when the game actually launches.