Embark Studios, the developer behind the upcoming co-op shooter Arc Raiders, is significantly toughening its stance against cheaters. The studio announced that from now on, any player caught cheating will receive an immediate and permanent ban, with no prior warnings or second chances.
Aleks Grøndal, writing on the official Arc Raiders blog, stated that the studio has heard community frustration regarding cheating and agrees that past leniency was misapplied. "Permanent bans are now standard for all known cheat programs and, as a matter of policy, any account caught using cheats is permanently banned. No warnings, no second chances."
Enhanced Anti-Cheat Measures
The studio has been actively combating cheating through various methods, including third-party software and internally developed machine-learning models designed to detect exploits and cheating behavior. Embark plans to integrate additional anti-cheat software, such as Elytra Anti-Cheat, to further bolster its detection systems.
The new policy extends to hardware bans, which aim to prevent banned players from simply creating new accounts. Embark has also refined its systems to lower the threshold at which these bans are applied, enabling quicker action against offenders.
Embark acknowledges that anti-cheat systems cannot always identify suspicious behavior in real-time to avoid incorrectly banning legitimate players. The current system analyzes multiple instances of behavior to ensure a high degree of certainty before issuing a ban. However, the team also actively monitors streams and video uploads to identify and address obvious instances of cheating.
Addressing Queue Teaming
Another issue addressed is 'queue teaming,' where players intentionally join the same solo lobby to team up against others. Embark has implemented measures to combat this, reporting a significant reduction in such behavior. In the past few days, the studio has seen "85 percent fewer players engaging in this behavior," with spoiled raids dropping from approximately 1 in 50 to 1 in 300, all without negatively impacting queue times.
These policy changes coincide with the upcoming 'Frozen Trail' update on October 8. This update will introduce a new map called Pendola Pass, a new ship to infiltrate called the Frigate, and new enemy types including the Bully, Skulker, and Hydra. The update also brings new weapons and a grappling hook, intended for both item retrieval and traversal.