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This is what counts as cheating in Outriders

Next week see the official launch of Outriders, but ahead of that developer People Can Fly thought it a good idea to address cheating and hacking in the game.

While there is no PvP in Outriders, there is the ability to team up with other players so it seems People Can Fly want to avoid you teaming up with a cheater brimming with Legendary Weapons while you’re still learning the ropes.

That having been said, the amount of cheaters present during the free demo was small, 0.01 percent small.

While the developer doesn’t believe that this figure will grow much, it’s important to be clear about what counts as cheating.

So then, what counts as cheating in Outriders?

Thankfully it’s a short list.

  • Intentionally running the game on PC without Easy Anti Cheat (EAC)
  • Modifying game files to enhance a character: levels, skills, inventory, etc.
  • Externally modifying game time to reduce time dependent features such as vendors and challenges
  • Using a trainer program or similar to gain advantages within the game
  • Using gameplay altering programs such as aimbots or wallhacks

While these rules are pretty basic, as you can see in the video above, some developers consider using exploits discovered within the game cheating.

But within the gargantuan Reddit thread announcing these rules, an interesting discussion arose – what about .ini files?

For the uninitiated, an .ini file for a PC game contains the options within the settings menu in a text document. As it’s a text document, it can be edited and it’s incredibly useful to adjust settings if your game isn’t launching correctly. For instance, when we benchmark games we often have to edit an .ini file in order to change graphics settings from 4K to 1080p if we can’t access the settings menu.

But for Outriders it’s unclear whether editing an .ini file will get you flagged as a cheater.

“I would recommend reseting your .ini files back to normal now, particularly as most of the issues that forced .ini changes were resolved via a patch and won’t be in the main game. If you did this during the demo, you shouldn’t need to worry about being flagged as a cheater. Just make sure everything is okay by launch day,” wrote People Can Fly.

We had a laugh at that.

The idea that People Can Fly has accounted for every conceivable system configuration and every option PC players want available to them is quite frankly an impossibility. The developer says it will assess the situation at launch and if there are a large number of people editing .ini files to make the game more enjoyable from a visual standpoint, it may not take action.

Bit of a massive oversight if we’re honest.

So what happens if you get caught cheating?

  • You will not be able to matchmake with legit players
  • Matchmaking will likely take significantly longer
  • You will still be able to play solo
  • In future, your HUD will have a discreet but visible watermark placed on it so that gameplay footage created on this account can be readily identified as coming from a flagged account.

You might notice the word “ban” isn’t used. It seems People Can Fly is opting for shaming folks for cheating rather than banning them from the game. These rules will be applied account wide rather than for a single character.

For the 0.01 percent of people who cheated in the game, you will have to wipe your account before 1st April (Outriders launch day) in order to have your game remain unbranded.

Outriders launches on 1st April for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

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