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PLAYER PROTECTION UPDATE
We know that Y9S2 has seen an increase in cheater activity, and in this Player Protection Update we will be showing how we are working to reverse this. The journey of Anti-Cheat is a constant back and forth between ourselves and cheat makers, and we are in this alongside our players. We are coming back stronger, and our efforts and passion will not be thwarted.
Covered in this update:
ANTI-CHEAT
- Encryption - Binary Hardening: The Impact & Investment
- The QB System: Advancement & Investment
- MouseTrap: Updates & PC Matchmaking
- Match Cancellation 3.0
- New Ban Data For May & June
- Learnings
- Reputation Standings: Changes
- Reputation System: Y9S4 Refresh
- Additional Updates & Features
- In-Game Player Reports
NEW ANTI-CHEAT DEVELOPMENT TEAM In Y9S1, we decided that it was necessary to have increased, long-term investment for Siege Anti-Cheat. In response to this, we restructured our team in a way that would dedicate more resources to the challenges of cheating and Anti-Cheat. Our new team is now composed of multi-disciplinary expert developers with an increased field of expertise that has continued to ramp up since our last {LINK REMOVED}Anti-Cheat Status Update, and is dedicated to improving the cheating situation in Siege.
CORE STRATEGY - PROACTIVE & REACTIVE Our Anti-Cheat strategy can be split into two main parts: proactive and reactive protections.
Proactive protection includes measures which are taken ahead of time, some of which will have a future or longer-term impact. These will generally impact cheat creators more, leading to reductions in the availability of cheat software. Encryption and binary hardening are proactive measures, which work by securing the game and making the creation of cheat software more difficult. Our team will be using these proactive measures to disrupt cheat-makers, making cheats more difficult to maintain.
With our proactive protections having reduced the amount of cheat software available, our reactive protections can now continue the journey. Reactive protections will cover the areas which tend to affect cheaters themselves, who again, will have less software to choose from. This is where BattlEye and the QB System step in, working again to disable cheats and ban illegitimate players.
The Anti-Cheat team is working to create new innovative approaches to Anti-Cheat in both the proactive and reactive areas by pursuing research and development. They will also be adding new data points and detections to our systems as part of our range of reactive protections, including detections for abnormal gameplay behaviors.
PROACTIVE PROTECTION ENCRYPTION - BINARY HARDENING After the beginning of Y9S1, we started work on an internal roadmap to update the game code base using encryption and hardening techniques to enhance security. We've made several hardening updates during Year 9 so far; however, this is a long-term strategy. While every security update that we make has the potential to help in the here and now, this work will hit ongoing and future cheat creation hardest, as it results in new cheats being harder to develop, increasing the barriers to entry. The resources that we are putting into encryption and binary hardening will set Siege's security foundations for the future.
ANALYZING UPDATES
The changes introduced with encryption and binary hardening can however also work by disrupting cheat-makers, resulting in unstable cheats after each season update, patch, or hotfix. We closely analyse the time that it takes for cheats to get back online after each deployment while also monitoring in-game cheating reports. Such analysis helps the Anti-Cheat team to understand how an update has performed and which changes might have been the most impactful, helping us to measure the performance of such updates.
Y9S2 CHEATING INCREASE: WHAT WE'RE DOING
Some cheats came back online more quickly than expected after the launch of Y9S2, resulting in a surge of cheating early on. We also measured an increase in cheater reports during this time, indicating that players were coming into contact with cheaters more often. Our promise is to keep investing in hardening for seasons to come, all the while working to find new ways to further improve the game's security. These will be key factors in reducing the impact of cheaters in both the short and long term. In the meantime, we ask that you continue to report players that you suspect of cheating, as this is a tremendous help for the team.
REACTIVE PROTECTION QB SYSTEM - EXPANSION The QB System is our bespoke security system which saw an extremely successfully introduction in late 2022, with several cheat creators halting production for Siege. The addition of the QB System into Siege was monumental, but as cheats received updates, more of them were able to function with success. As is the case with other security and Anti-Cheat systems, the QB System requires constant updating, and our team is committed to this. Our new Anti-Cheat team is currently working on an expansion of the QB System which we believe could be a game changer for the disruption of cheat makers. We cannot share technical details at this time, but we are hoping to be able to test a prototype in Y9S4.
The QB System is crucial in undoing the increase in cheating that players have felt this season, and it remains to be a high priority for the team.
MOUSETRAP - MOUSE & KEYBOARD DETECTION ON CONSOLE MouseTrap first released in Y8S1 with unprecedented success, reducing spoofing device usage by 78%. In some cases, cheaters did find ways around this system and so the team has worked to resolve any exploits that have arisen.
Today we are focusing our MouseTrap efforts on its detection capabilities, continuously making updates and monitoring its performance. As we continue to work, we will be ensuring that more device types can be detected with increased accuracy.
MOUSETRAP - PC MATCHMAKING
As we have shared previously, an overhaul on the MouseTrap sanctions system will also be coming in Y9S4, forcing confirmed users of spoofing devices into PC matchmaking. Let us be clear too, that those players will be fighting on the proper PC playing field, so we are working to ensure that PC recoil will also be activated in those cases. If you are using a spoofing device, you will not have an advantage.
MATCH CANCELLATION 3.0 Match Cancellation 3.0 will be coming in Y9S4 and will feature Cheater Match Cancellation. With this version, once a cheater is confirmed and consequently banned, the match they are in will be automatically cancelled, leading to less time being spent by honest players in unfair matches.
BANS - DATA BANS + BATTLEYE BAN NUMBERS Ban data for the 2024 so far, including new data for May and June.
A MESSAGE FROM THE ANTI-CHEAT TEAM As passionate developers and players, we acknowledge cheating as a top priority for our game. We believe fairness is at the core of a competitive game such as Siege, and are fully dedicated to making it a safer, fairer, and a more competitive space. We believe that we have gathered the right team of passionate experts to tip the scales in our favor in the cat and mouse game we play against cheaters and cheat-makers. As we move forward, we will be providing more transparency on our ongoing strategies.
ANTI-TOXICITY
TOXICITY MONITORING PHILOSOPHY - PROTECTING PLAYERS FROM TOXICITY We have redefined the way we want to monitor and drive our initiatives related to toxicity in Siege, and our main focus remains to protect all players from experiencing toxicity in-game while measuring toxicity in a way that makes sense for all players.
IN-GAME PLAYER REPORTS In-game player reports are crucial for connecting player experiences with the Anti-Toxicity team. While your reports help to manually outline the possible behavioral patterns of an individual, they also help us to analyse the current state of toxicity in-game through your perception of it. This is why in the future, we will be making changes to ensure that the report feature is as accurate as it should be.
NEW MINDSET LEARNINGS Since the Reputation System first released in its Beta form, we have received a lot of valuable feedback. This feedback has taught us that all features related to Anti-Toxicity must be transparent and clear. We know that we have not met this standard yet.
With your help, we have learned that we need to more closely align our Anti-Toxicity features with your expectations and sensitivities, fostering a fair and collaborative environment. Our commitment is to ensure that this system not only protects but is also easily understood by everyone. The primary goal of the Reputation System remains to protect the community from recurrent or highly toxic players while rewarding those who consistently demonstrate positive behavior.
REPUTATION STANDINGS Moving forward, we will be removing abusable actions that affect a player's Reputation Standing. We will also be removing or updating any Anti-Toxicity features that can be exploited. The result will be that only your own actions will have a negative impact on you.
Changes:
- [Y9S1] Deactivation of Written Chat and Voice Chat Penalties that could have relied on the unverified actions of other players.
- [Y9S2.3] Deactivation of the Friendly Fire kick that could be abused leading to targeted players being kicked.
- [Y9S4] Future removal of abusable or inaccurate actions which feed the Reputation System.
- [Future Update] Removal of the Reverse Friendly Fire deactivation after reviving a teammate, due to its abuse.
MOUSETRAP IMPLEMENTATION
This new Reputation System will also tap into MouseTrap in Y9S4, meaning the usage of spoofing devices will start to affect players' Reputation.
AUTOMATED TEXT CHAT MODERATION
Coming to the Reputation System in Y9S4 is AI text chat moderation. With this, AI will analyze and moderate all text chat messages in real-time, resulting in problematic messages being censored or flagged. Your messages will have an impact on your Reputation Standing, whether they are censored, flagged, or positive.
IMPACTS & FULL RELEASE
Impacts based on your Reputation Standing alone will not be activated until the Reputation System leaves Beta and a full release is realised. This will not happen until we are absolutely confident in the robustness of the Reputation System, while being sure that it is understandable, transparent and clear for players. With this in mind, we will not be sharing potential dates for a full release just yet.
ADDITIONAL UPDATES & FEATURES Here is a look at some of the other Anti-Toxicity topics that our team is working on at the moment but are not yet ready to be shared in detail.
COMMENDATIONS & SQUADS
We know that the Commendation system is not as rewarding for those that regularly play in squads, and this is due to the Commendation limits that were put in place with the feature launch. We are working to change this behavior to make it more fair for squads.
IN-GAME REPORTING OVERHAUL
The report system can be used in ways which reduce the accuracy of reporting overall. We plan to overhaul this system in the future with this in mind.
VOICE CHAT MODERATION
Automatic voice chat moderation is a very important topic for us, and it will be added to the game as soon as we are ready.
REPUTATION SYSTEM DEPENDENCIES
The Reputation System has a lot of dependencies with other elements of the game. We know that in some instances bugs can cause certain actions to be unfairly received or go unaccounted for. We are working on clear mitigation plans and safeguards to be sure that these situations impact you less.
TO THE FUTURE With a new strategy, our latest learnings, and a wealth of updates and changes planned, we hope that the Reputation System will become a powerful tool for players. We want everyone to have the power and knowledge needed to be able to control their path, and we are working towards a clearer system.
Thank you for your feedback; we look forward to bringing these changes to you.