People Can Fly issued a severe warning to those who cheated on the Outriders demo, promising to mark their HUD with a watermark if they keep it when the game starts.
“We can see you all,” said the Polish studio in a post on reddit. “Yes, even the person who gave himself 600 legendary weapons.”
Since the release of the Outriders demo, cheating has been a hotly debated topic. The progress made in the demo continues in the main game, so there is concern among legitimate players that the balance of the looter sniper will be thrown into chaos by cheating already made in the demo.
People Can Fly said that when the demo reached two million players, it identified 200 who clearly cheated – or 0.01 percent.
The studio said it expects that percentage to not rise much as the Outriders progress to launch on April 1 and beyond, but wanted to outline the steps being taken to ensure that everyone plays the ball.
Cheaters identified by the developer will see repercussions across the account – not character-specific. Cheaters will also not be able to matchmake legitimate players – and matchmaking will take “significantly” longer.
Cheaters will still be able to play alone, but in the future your HUD will have a “discreet but visible watermark” placed on it so that the game images created in your account can be identified as coming from a flagged account.
People Can Fly said that all accounts will be checked for evidence of cheating on launch day and then at regular intervals after launch.
“Any account records found with evidence of cheating on or after the launch date will be marked permanently,” People Can Fly said.
That’s pretty clear, but what if you cheat during the “just to try” demo, but want to get into the main game with no brand?
People Can Fly said that if this is you, you should delete all of your characters and items across your account “to clear the board”.
“You shouldn’t keep any progress between the demo and the main game if you cheated earlier, but you don’t plan to do that in the main game,” said People Can Fly.
So, what counts as cheating in Outriders? People Can Fly published a list:
- Run the game intentionally on the PC without Easy Anti Cheat (EAC).
- Modifying game files to improve a character: levels, skills, inventory, etc.
- Externally modify game time to reduce time-dependent resources, such as vendors and challenges.
- Use a training program or similar to gain in-game benefits.
- Using gameplay-altering programs, such as aimbots or wallhacks.
Players who are regularly kicked by multiplayer hosts right after entering can also be reviewed manually as additional anti-cheat / anti-grief protection, said People Can Fly. Using performance tuning software (such as RivaTuner, for example) to improve a personal gaming experience is not considered cheating.
It is important to note that the mention of “externally modifying game time to reduce time-dependent resources, such as vendors and challenges” is something that many players did in the demo to create powerful items before People Can Fly repressed it. The developer said that if you did this in the demo, you’ll be fine because “we haven’t made it clear yet that we won’t”. Anyone who does this going forward, however, will suffer the dreaded mark.
As you might expect, agriculture is not considered cheating (the Outriders demo has had a fascinating swing to agriculture since it was launched).
“We reserve the right to update and change this policy in the future,” said People Can Fly.
Consider yourself warned.