Cheating Discussion - Mega Thread

February 1, 2022

Hello!

To avoid multiple post on the Forum, please use this big thread to share/discuss your thoughts about cheating problem. Many of us have experienced it, many of us would like to share it with others. One, big thread could be an open space for discussion, but also will help keep the Forum clean, organized and less messy.

❗ But, before you start posting, let me explain some major rules:
- avoid toxicity: it will not solve the problem, don't insult other Users, try to provide healthy discussion here.
- do not post any screenshots with nicknames with accusation about cheating: any suspicious player should be reported via game (on the death screen), none of us can be sure that your accusation is true.
- do not post statistics without data: remember that your experience is different than other Users.
- do not spread false information: please, let's not spread false accusation or theories without any proof or evidence; I will attach list of already talked hot topics about cheating.
Please, be sure that you've also understood the Forum rules (link); any comment that breaks them will be hidden and could lead to warning points.

There was other one big thread, here: link.

Some useful topics: replay system, anticheat, cheaters are not profitable for Devs, MAC address ban, shadowban for cheaters, invisible Scavs as cheating detection.

Feel free to talk, discuss, suggest or ask questions!

February 1, 2022

vor einer Stunde schrieb Biala_Mewa:

Hello!

To avoid multiple post on the Forum, please use this big thread to share/discuss your thoughts about cheating problem. Many of us have experienced it, many of us would like to share it with others. One, big thread could be an open space for discussion, but also will help keep the Forum clean, organized and less messy.

❗ But, before you start posting, let me explain some major rules:
- avoid toxicity: it will not solve the problem, don't insult other Users, try to provide healthy discussion here.
- do not post any screenshots with nicknames with accusation about cheating: any suspicious player should be reported via game (on the death screen), none of us can be sure that your accusation is true.
- do not post statistics without data: remember that your experience is different than other Users.
- do not spread false information: please, let's not spread false accusation or theories without any proof or evidence; I will attach list of already talked hot topics about cheating.
Please, be sure that you've also understood the Forum rules (link); any comment that breaks them will be hidden and could lead to warning points.

There was other one big thread, here: link.

Some useful topics: replay system, anticheat, cheaters are not profitable for Devs, MAC address ban, shadowban for cheaters, invisible Scavs as cheating detection.

Feel free to talk, discuss, suggest or ask questions!

I see, BSG has already discussed the topic "Cheaters" alot and I appreciate it. But also the Cheats has been developed into an amazing "mini-game". There is so much of stuff in EFT, what cheater platforms do sell and provide. It prospers, flourishes, thrives and booms. EFT has some poker elements, where you decide with how much you go in and how long you stay in and so on. So its for some people quite a gambling game, which can become addictive - especially combined with money buying cheats. So basically yes, you won't completely eliminate cheats from a game as long there is a (sick) will.

But especially because of the above explained cheating motivation, the cheaters should be found faster and be punished harder. Yes, cheats can be hard to be detected, but their results can been questioned. I don't care if about a cheater with a k/d-ratio of 50%, but about 99%? Or that cheaters quite 0.001% die when geared up, but die when naked in order to "scramble" the kd-ratio. Or if they consequently solve quests way to fast and getting rich very very fast. You could rank the players skill internally and realize that some players having no problem killing one of the highest skilled players. All those things BSG can have insight and analyze these in order to track cheaters down. No one would cheat, if they are forced to hide themself by having the same player statistics as a non-cheater. In such cases, they would give up cheating and join the EFT Discord to get along with others. With analyzing those statistics and key data, BSG even wouldn't need players to report one another. So is it really so difficult to save some of this data and run some SQL-commands???

February 1, 2022

Would it be possible for BSG to implement an option that when you report a supposed cheater and he is banned, the person that reported him gets a notification? The problem that I see right now is that we all encounter cheaters, YT is full of recent videos about this topic, yet the feel for the average player is that BSG doesn't do anything about it and the report function is not working. Also, how come that there other shooters out there that implemented bans on HWID, but BSG doesn't do it? I want to be wrong, but it gives the impression that as long as money comes from copies sold, BSG doesn't really want to stop the phenomenon.

February 1, 2022

@SimplyEpic I +1 the notification suggestion. I am sure a lot of other players will too.

HWID/IP bans are however useless imo. You can easily work around them without too much hassle.

3.5k · February 2, 2022

3 hours ago, SimplyEpic said:

Would it be possible for BSG to implement an option that when you report a supposed cheater and he is banned, the person that reported him gets a notification?

This is possible. In the end the devs will think on this based on prioritization.

3 hours ago, SimplyEpic said:

The problem that I see right now is that we all encounter cheaters, YT is full of recent videos about this topic, yet the feel for the average player is that BSG doesn't do anything about it and the report function is not working.

First of all, the report button *does* indeed function. It helps us gather information that improves the anti-cheat detection. When people are actually cheating, they do get banned. And the reports help a lot.

Agreed, cheating is a problem. It's a many-pronged one. One part of the problem is, as you mention, the perception. And the perception is based on many factors.

One of which of course being first hand experience of a blatant cheater (for example flying in the air). When players run into these, it's of course frustrating. And I certainly can understand that it's demoralizing. I've experienced the same thing, and there's no ifs or buts about it.

Then there's the unknown factor, situations where you THINK you experienced a cheater. Because you didn't really know what killed you. You perhaps got shot in the head seemingly out of nowhere. Something inexplicable. Tarkov is such a game where there are a lot of unknown factors. No information. Just a black screen and death. It's troubling for many.

Then there's those that when encountering the famous death screen immediately 'Report suspicion of cheating'. Every time, all the time. Because they've convinced themselves that if I die, it's a cheater. These guys exist too.

Then of course there's another, a bit more insidious part of the debate. And that's the cheat-developers, and sellers themselves participating in discussions. Similar to companies that review their own products, they of course want more customers. And since this is how they make money, they are quite likely to use common marketing strategies to sell.

We are of course aware of all the aspects of this, and we of course ban cheaters, this happens all the time. Every day. Whether people believe we do or not. And we won't stop making things miserable for the cheaters.

3 hours ago, SimplyEpic said:

Also, how come that there other shooters out there that implemented bans on HWID, but BSG doesn't do it?

There are a lot of rumors going around about BattlEye. Including how the anticheat works, or doesn't. I encourage you to stay critical. But please be critical in all directions. Who might start rumors that the anticheat doesn't work properly? Who stands to benefit? Who could wish that?

3 hours ago, SimplyEpic said:

I want to be wrong, but it gives the impression that as long as money comes from copies sold, BSG doesn't really want to stop the phenomenon.

Cheating is really, really bad for the world of gaming. It has ruined some games completely. And those that develop or use cheats do not care what happens to the games that are made. They want to make money, that's it. They benefit from certain messages. Very few that participate in spreading the message that game companies don't care that people cheat see the people behind game companies.

The guys and girls that work at BattleState Games are game enthusiasts, people who dreamt of making cool games, who dreamt that one day they would make a popular title. Who spent thousands of days and nights studying, testing, trying to make that dream into a reality. Nikita and the core dev team are people who out after college wanted to make one of those dream games together. Of course hoping that they could create something big, but never expecting that a niche hardcore shooter game with complex weapon mechanics would ever reach beyond a smaller group of enthusiasts. This team is passionate about making games, to the point where in spite of all criticism continue to want to make this dream a reality.

Cheaters make up all kinds of excuses for why they cheat, and cheat developers simply want to ride on any games' success, because they see it as a money making platform. Neither of these groups of people are creators. Neither are really passionate about games. So why is it easier to believe in their message? And to think that BSG have some kind of pro-cheating agenda. I'm not sure I'll ever understand that one.

Of course BSG is stopping cheating and cheaters. But we are also aware that it's a continuous struggle. And that there are many out there who want to try to ruin the game. For many different reasons.

February 2, 2022

I don't know if this is too much to ask, but I think there will be an impact if there's a transparency, like in case of ban waves, it will appear as notification somewhere in the interface along with the banned users/accounts. Just like in rainbow six siege, when they ban, it pops up in the upper right of the screen notifying the banned users/accounts. Whenever I see those strings, it gives me the impression that someone is doing there job and gives me certainty that one day, all of these cheaters will vanish...

Thank you for sharing this game, it's really a one of a kind game (unique), I never opened steam again since last year because of this game. More power!

1.9k · February 2, 2022

I want to know when a guy I reported gets banned. I really want a place where I can submit a clip of me getting rinsed by a guy who was definitely cheating.

February 2, 2022

7 hours ago, tobiassolem said:

This is possible. In the end the devs will think on this based on prioritization.

First of all, the report button *does* indeed function. It helps us gather information that improves the anti-cheat detection. When people are actually cheating, they do get banned. And the reports help a lot.

Agreed, cheating is a problem. It's a many-pronged one. One part of the problem is, as you mention, the perception. And the perception is based on many factors.

One of which of course being first hand experience of a blatant cheater (for example flying in the air). When players run into these, it's of course frustrating. And I certainly can understand that it's demoralizing. I've experienced the same thing, and there's no ifs or buts about it.

Then there's the unknown factor, situations where you THINK you experienced a cheater. Because you didn't really know what killed you. You perhaps got shot in the head seemingly out of nowhere. Something inexplicable. Tarkov is such a game where there are a lot of unknown factors. No information. Just a black screen and death. It's troubling for many.

Then there's those that when encountering the famous death screen immediately 'Report suspicion of cheating'. Every time, all the time. Because they've convinced themselves that if I die, it's a cheater. These guys exist too.

Then of course there's another, a bit more insidious part of the debate. And that's the cheat-developers, and sellers themselves participating in discussions. Similar to companies that review their own products, they of course want more customers. And since this is how they make money, they are quite likely to use common marketing strategies to sell.

We are of course aware of all the aspects of this, and we of course ban cheaters, this happens all the time. Every day. Whether people believe we do or not. And we won't stop making things miserable for the cheaters.

There are a lot of rumors going around about BattlEye. Including how the anticheat works, or doesn't. I encourage you to stay critical. But please be critical in all directions. Who might start rumors that the anticheat doesn't work properly? Who stands to benefit? Who could wish that?

Cheating is really, really bad for the world of gaming. It has ruined some games completely. And those that develop or use cheats do not care what happens to the games that are made. They want to make money, that's it. They benefit from certain messages. Very few that participate in spreading the message that game companies don't care that people cheat see the people behind game companies.

The guys and girls that work at BattleState Games are game enthusiasts, people who dreamt of making cool games, who dreamt that one day they would make a popular title. Who spent thousands of days and nights studying, testing, trying to make that dream into a reality. Nikita and the core dev team are people who out after college wanted to make one of those dream games together. Of course hoping that they could create something big, but never expecting that a niche hardcore shooter game with complex weapon mechanics would ever reach beyond a smaller group of enthusiasts. This team is passionate about making games, to the point where in spite of all criticism continue to want to make this dream a reality.

Cheaters make up all kinds of excuses for why they cheat, and cheat developers simply want to ride on any games' success, because they see it as a money making platform. Neither of these groups of people are creators. Neither are really passionate about games. So why is it easier to believe in their message? And to think that BSG have some kind of pro-cheating agenda. I'm not sure I'll ever understand that one.

Of course BSG is stopping cheating and cheaters. But we are also aware that it's a continuous struggle. And that there are many out there who want to try to ruin the game. For many different reasons.

Thank you for all the work you put into replying!

There are two big things in this fight against cheaters that I thing BSG would benefit from:

1. The technical fight which I believe that you are currently tackling

2. Things related to customer satisfaction like the one I've mentioned with the notification, that shows people that something is being done.

Regarding point 2, in business and in working with people(customers) in general, it is even more important to show your work(not literally), than to state your work.

Statements like "the report button works", "cheaters get banned" have no value, unless the customer has solid confirmation that something happens following their report. I am telling you this from a professional experience of someone that worked with datacenters that almost caught fire, but the customers were ok because we were transparent about the key elements of what we were doing.

There is so much potential in this company and especially in this product that I am sometimes chewing on my fists regarding how many small and cost efficient things could be done to support this fight against cheaters on the customer satisfaction side.

Everything I wrote is not a rant, but has my best intentions. Cheers!

Edited February 2, 2022 by SimplyEpic

February 2, 2022

Hello.

With patch 12.12, I feel like the number of cheaters increased a lot.

My question is, if I record a cheater with clear proofs (it flies, have speed, go through walls, etc.) and have his nick becuse he killed me, can I send the record to someone(dev, admin) and make sure that account will be banned soon?

February 3, 2022

On 2/2/2022 at 2:35 AM, tobiassolem said:

This is possible. In the end the devs will think on this based on prioritization.

First of all, the report button *does* indeed function. It helps us gather information that improves the anti-cheat detection. When people are actually cheating, they do get banned. And the reports help a lot.

Agreed, cheating is a problem. It's a many-pronged one. One part of the problem is, as you mention, the perception. And the perception is based on many factors.

One of which of course being first hand experience of a blatant cheater (for example flying in the air). When players run into these, it's of course frustrating. And I certainly can understand that it's demoralizing. I've experienced the same thing, and there's no ifs or buts about it.

Then there's the unknown factor, situations where you THINK you experienced a cheater. Because you didn't really know what killed you. You perhaps got shot in the head seemingly out of nowhere. Something inexplicable. Tarkov is such a game where there are a lot of unknown factors. No information. Just a black screen and death. It's troubling for many.

Then there's those that when encountering the famous death screen immediately 'Report suspicion of cheating'. Every time, all the time. Because they've convinced themselves that if I die, it's a cheater. These guys exist too.

Then of course there's another, a bit more insidious part of the debate. And that's the cheat-developers, and sellers themselves participating in discussions. Similar to companies that review their own products, they of course want more customers. And since this is how they make money, they are quite likely to use common marketing strategies to sell.

We are of course aware of all the aspects of this, and we of course ban cheaters, this happens all the time. Every day. Whether people believe we do or not. And we won't stop making things miserable for the cheaters.

A few options to have the community actually engage more to help combat cheaters:

- Post raid replay system, either just simple recordings saved locally and then the ability to replay them and view other players movements / angle and the moment of suspicious death. Or a full blown built in kill cam after you die.

- Like counterstrike has implemented 'overwatch' system, where good reputation players can 'review' (reported) potential cheater gameplay made out of multiple gameplay moments. And that review is done by multiple people at the same time.

As for the Cheat makers - you are never going to be able to stop them from trying to make a monies, that industry is massive.

There are a few things BSG could consider though:

More severe bans, cheater lobbies; put all the blatant cheaters in the same raids from backend (this will atleast keep them from making new accounts and flying under the raders (again with new accounts). Hardware bans , ip bans etc.

Also BSG could consider making the Anticheat on kernel level. More robust, just always 'ON' Like what Riot has done with Valorant game.

Or implement AI, theres Artificial intelligent Anti cheat, like VAC.

In any case, I would not mind a more intrusive anticheat on my system if that would give more of a guarantee that the person im fighting is clean. As long as there is transparency about what is being done with the data , and option to turn it OFF.

February 3, 2022

Not going to mince words: the resistance to putting in a replay system is a bad choice. There's a LOT of reasons such a system would be good for the game: it helps reduce the number of false reports - if a player misses the fact that there were two people when they only saw one, for example. It helps newer players understand what just happened to them so they can learn for next time. It helps all players learn about weird angles they never knew existed, allowing everyone to play a better game. It's also a good stop-gap while you pursue other options.

I assume the reason there's resistance is because of fear it can't be implemented correctly?

February 3, 2022

On 2/2/2022 at 9:25 AM, SimplyEpic said:

There are two big things in this fight against cheaters that I thing BSG would benefit from:

1. The technical fight which I believe that you are currently tackling

2. Things related to customer satisfaction like the one I've mentioned with the notification, that shows people that something is being done.

Regarding point 2, in business and in working with people(customers) in general, it is even more important to show your work(not literally), than to state your work.

This. Its so annoying and all the hate (at least mine) comes from it.

On 2/2/2022 at 9:25 AM, SimplyEpic said:

Statements like "the report button works", "cheaters get banned" have no value, unless the customer has solid confirmation that something happens following their report.

Same. Report button may work but its kinda useless now. Without killcam there always will be tendency to abuse it and report nearly all deaths. "Just in case" because you are not sure and you got head/jaws for 10th times in a row. I've heared about one occurrence when a guy was banned for 5 days because he got 140 reports in 24h.

February 3, 2022

A kill cam for solo players only would also go a long way. It would severely reduce false reports.

February 3, 2022

1 minute ago, SimplyEpic said:

A kill cam for solo players only would also go a long way. It would severely reduce false reports.

I disagree with a kill cam as a solution. Part of the fun of Tarkov is finding really good places to snipe/ambush from. A kill cam would essentially ruin that. I also feel it would take way from the realism aspect generally.

February 3, 2022

1 minute ago, shanersimms said:

I disagree with a kill cam as a solution. Part of the fun of Tarkov is finding really good places to snipe/ambush from. A kill cam would essentially ruin that. I also feel it would take way from the realism aspect generally.

Ok what do you think would be a good implementation?

February 3, 2022

41 minutes ago, shanersimms said:

I disagree with a kill cam as a solution. Part of the fun of Tarkov is finding really good places to snipe/ambush from. A kill cam would essentially ruin that. I also feel it would take way from the realism aspect generally.

100% agree

February 3, 2022

2 minutes ago, RaInks said:

Ok what do you think would be a good implementation?

Well, as others have pointed out, I think one effective solution would be to target the RMT agents first and foremost as this likely comprises a significant portion of the cheaters. First, it should immediately flag an account for review if someone is selling an inordinately high amount of loot in a short amount of time. An example would be when you see those stacks of 50+ graphics cards for sale on the FM. It should then flag any transfer of money or high value items from one player to another over a certain value. They could do a lot here, such as flagging high-value transfers from one player to another who have not been on each other's friends list over "x" amount of time. To note, by "transfer" I mean tracking the Item ID to see the history of ownership.

Further, if you make it exceptionally tedious to make money, this will curb RMT agents. For instance, don't allow high value items (e.g. graphics cards) to be sold in bulk. Make them list every single one individually, and perhaps even set a temporal limit on FM sales. They already have a max-at-one-time limit (2 by default), but why not also make it where you can't sell more than "x" items in "y" amount of time?

Aside from cutting the RMT incentives, they need to utilize physically unobtainable loot that instantly flags an account when such items are acquired (e.g., items spawning in inaccessible containers, outside the map boundaries, etc.). This will help with the teleporting loot and no-clipping hacks.

For ESP+Aimbot and maphacks, one route is to flag accounts with unusually high K/D's, headshots relative to other types of shots, and overall survival rates. They could also monitor relative positions of players, and an account can be flagged when a player closes the relative difference to the other players on the map at a much higher-than-average rate. This would probably be difficult to code, but it would target those players who roam the maps running straight to other players to kill them, then go straight for the next person or group, and so on. It shouldn't be too hard to see when a player comes within "x" feet of another player and how often they are doing that both in a single raid and over multiple raids generally. Unusually low times between instances of crossing those proximity thresholds to unique player targets should flag an account. For example, in a single raid {cheater} came within 20 meters of 5 unique players/groups. Moreover, over 10 raids {cheater} came within 20 meters of 45 unique players/groups. This account should be flagged. To note, I think players who spawn as a team should be given a Group ID, and the system would track proximity to those Group IDs, since of course players on a team are generally going to be together. So, when a person comes near a group of 5 people, for example, it would only make sense to count that as one instance of crossing the proximity threshold. The metric that matters is how many times a player is crossing those proximity thresholds relative to the amount of playtime. Unusually high values suggest a player is map-hacking/using ESP. And, of course, hackers tend to not die, so high values here between deaths further suggest cheating. How many times do you think a player would come within 20 meters of 45 unique groups of players over 10 raids and not die?

Anyways, you an of course never defeating cheatings altogether. But these kinds of measures and many others like them would go a long way to cut down on it.

3.5k · February 3, 2022

2 hours ago, Ne0x said:

- Post raid replay system, either just simple recordings saved locally and then the ability to replay them and view other players movements / angle and the moment of suspicious death. Or a full blown built in kill cam after you die.

Nikita mentioned that something like this could be tested for Arena. And if the implementation would be successful, that it also could apply to the main game as well at a later date. No final decision has been made, when or if it's made, there will be an announcement about it.

2 hours ago, Ne0x said:

More severe bans, cheater lobbies; put all the blatant cheaters in the same raids from backend (this will atleast keep them from making new accounts and flying under the raders (again with new accounts). Hardware bans , ip bans etc

I don't think that cheaters should be in the game at all, cheating should and do lead to bans. As for the ramifications from cheating, there are things being done that are kept from the public to avoid helping or assisting the cheat developers.

2 hours ago, Ne0x said:

In any case, I would not mind a more intrusive anticheat on my system if that would give more of a guarantee that the person im fighting is clean. As long as there is transparency about what is being done with the data , and option to turn it OFF.

What is or isn't being done already is best handled by those who work in this profession. But just for your information, a lot of the suggestions you presented have been made many times, and the developers of the game are aware of them. The interaction between the developers and BattlEye is done based on many many years of knowledge about multiplayer games, in multiple titles by engineers and professionals. They will do what it takes to make the experience for the cheaters as bad as possible, and the main goal is always to make the experience for those that play legitimate as positive as possible.

As you and others mentioned, there are improvements that could be made that are being considered. BattlEye for EFT is unique to EFT, and is adapted to our game, and you can count on that the development continues.

February 3, 2022

20 minutes ago, tobiassolem said:

Nikita mentioned that something like this could be tested for Arena. And if the implementation would be successful, that it also could apply to the main game as well at a later date. No final decision has been made, when or if it's made, there will be an announcement about it.

I don't think that cheaters should be in the game at all, cheating should and do lead to bans. As for the ramifications from cheating, there are things being done that are kept from the public to avoid helping or assisting the cheat developers.

What is or isn't being done already is best handled by those who work in this profession. But just for your information, a lot of the suggestions you presented have been made many times, and the developers of the game are aware of them. The interaction between the developers and BattlEye is done based on many many years of knowledge about multiplayer games, in multiple titles by engineers and professionals. They will do what it takes to make the experience for the cheaters as bad as possible, and the main goal is always to make the experience for those that play legitimate as positive as possible.

As you and others mentioned, there are improvements that could be made that are being considered. BattlEye for EFT is unique to EFT, and is adapted to our game, and you can count on that the development continues.

First of all, we can do the simplest one: cheaters are banned from giving feedback to informants. This can be easily done with only one piece of code. At least it can give players confidence to continue playing. It will not delay the development progress.

February 3, 2022

3 hours ago, shanersimms said:

I disagree with a kill cam as a solution. Part of the fun of Tarkov is finding really good places to snipe/ambush from. A kill cam would essentially ruin that. I also feel it would take way from the realism aspect generally.

I don't care about "realism". If your beef is realism there's a hundred things that I could point at that aren't realistic. You can heal to full after being killed by pressing a button. Don't care.

Once you're eliminated from the raid, nothing realistic matters any more. I would suggest even allowing a spectator mode would be good.

If you're so protective of your magic sniping spot, that just tells me you want to camp new players, and honestly I can't think of anything less fun.

February 3, 2022

1 hour ago, worldnamer said:

I don't care about "realism". If your beef is realism there's a hundred things that I could point at that aren't realistic. You can heal to full after being killed by pressing a button. Don't care.

Once you're eliminated from the raid, nothing realistic matters any more. I would suggest even allowing a spectator mode would be good.

If you're so protective of your magic sniping spot, that just tells me you want to camp new players, and honestly I can't think of anything less fun.

If you don't care about realism than I suggest you play something else. This game is trying to be realistic. Keep in mind, this is still just a video game.

Some people enjoy sniping in this game. Not me, I enjoy shotguns with ap-20 mostly, but newer players will learn eventually where they are getting picked off from and learn to avoid those line of sight areas where snipers can easily pick off a pmc.

Not everyone is out to just pick off new players because they're easy prey.

February 3, 2022

9 minutes ago, Bwee said:

If you don't care about realism than I suggest you play something else. This game is trying to be realistic. Keep in mind, this is still just a video game.

Some people enjoy sniping in this game. Not me, I enjoy shotguns with ap-20 mostly, but newer players will learn eventually where they are getting picked off from and learn to avoid those line of sight areas where snipers can easily pick off a pmc.

Not everyone is out to just pick off new players because they're easy prey.

Again, not saying the realism isn't interesting! I'm saying there are many stupid inconsistencies in the realism of the game, and if we're upholding realism as a goal I got a lot of issues that I could bring up.

The realism aspects that occur inside a raid are just fine. I love them actually. Once you extract or get killed, I lose all consideration for realism. There's a flea market for trading with thousands of PMCs. Healing takes real world time and it has nothing to do with the kinds of injuries you sustain. Apparently you can't pick stuff up long enough to rearrange them in your stash, despite the fact that your stash takes up a very defined space in your hideout and it's very obvious that hideout has plenty of space. All this is fine! It's a video game.

Just don't pretend like some realism aspects are somehow more holy than others. The costs for an *after raid* battle debrief is minimal versus the effects at helping new players get better at the game and removing what I'm assuming are 90% of the cheating reports. Being killed tilts you. That's fine, it's part of the game. But if you want players to get better, give them tools to understand what they did wrong, yeah?

February 3, 2022

Hello everyone, lovely to find topic like this actually pinned by BSG, shows you proper mindset on side of our beloved developers.

Anyway for the topic, first the question, since we started spam running Reserve lately (Glukhar), is it just my impresion, or is there extreme amount of cheaters on this map?
And i do not mean blatant HS only teleporting ones, but i never had such clear encounters with people which are using wallhack before (and no, i play tarkov since 2019).

How i see this cheater situation in Tarkov, it is quite unique. In most of the fps games, you have people which cheat simple because they are bad and need extra pair of training wheels to help them play the game (and etc. with reason, in my mind they are simpletons).
However in Tarkov, you have extra set of cheaters, which do this to actually make money, you do not get usual "cheat dev. gets money, cheater eventualy banned" but in this case cheater actually buys this program to make money as well. This creates perpetual economy where they do not do this for their own satisfaction, and get bored eventualy, but keep returning on new accounts to make more money, willing to pay more for cheats etc.

And yes, if you ever bought any item in this game for real money, you are the problem.

In my mind BSG needs to focus much more on topic of real money trading, i do not say they do not focus on it, but it needs to be much more public.
If i were new player, i would question if buying anything from 3rd party website could get me banned, i never saw anything which would suggest i will, so why not buy 20m rubles to make my life easier, or dominate labs with some cheating boosters, feels good to get all those juicy items i bet.
BSG needs to find clear ways how to communicate to players this is a big NONO, it will get them banned, basically needs to scare away as much of potential customers as they can.

As for the second kind (simpletons) which cheat to "have fun", just like any other game, there is no perfect solution, but endless battle, BSG is doing decent job at getting rid of them, but as always, it is endless chase where they keep finding new ways to get around (however i believe it is on steroids right now due to RMT).

Recently i personaly see a lot of them started instead of HS only, switching to double tapping thorax. Wallhack is ever present, and almost impossible to tell, nakeds lowering their KDA on factory, etc.

Since BSG multiple times said they use and partially rely on player reports, i belive reporting system has to change. As you (devs) said multiple times "Tarkov is hardcore game, and it is hard to tell how you died" some sort of deathcam / replay system needs to be implemented.
Personally i would cancel reports at death screen, implemented some sort of deathcam / replay and made the footage available 30 minutes after death, it could keep history of let's say 10 deaths and report would be available based on players review of this replay. I am almost certain it would filter 70% of my reports and made identifying cheaters via this method so much more reliable.

Besides this i do not have much to add, TLDR is more public eye on RMT, reporting via replays / deathcam, GL to BSG in this endless struggle.

February 3, 2022

Today is a clown Fiesta, must be some sort of discount on hacks, i got literally onetapped in livestreaming on Twitch, all the times by level 1 Timmies, prefire and single shots in head, eyes, i payed 145$ for this kind of poo?

February 4, 2022

The state of hackers is so bad I just want a refund. Give me my money back and ill be on my way. I signed up for a beta not a hacker fest. This game has more hackers then any game I have ever played in my 31 years of playing video games. GTA5 pales in comparison too this games easy to download and use cheats. Let the people who want refunds get refunds, you will cut down the toxic people on the forums were only here because we are financially invested. If I did not pay 150 dollars for a game that was in beta when its really in alpha I would have left a long time ago.