The worst thing about getting shot in the back in ARC Raiders is realizing, a few seconds too late, that the other player was acting suspiciously all along.
Maybe they were unusually quiet over proximity chat. Maybe they kept following a little too closely. Or perhaps they were just waiting for the right moment to take everything in your backpack. Whatever the reason, the trip back to Speranza is going to be a miserable one.
Still, getting betrayed is part of ARC Raiders. Players aren't required to be friendly, and trusting a stranger is a decision that can go horribly wrong. There's nothing against the rules about pretending to help someone before stealing their loot.
Cheating is a different problem, and one Embark Studios has been trying to get under control. Its recent anti-cheat changes address everything from illegal software to players arranging unfair encounters through matchmaking. The tricky part is protecting the game from cheaters without taking away the behavior that makes it so unpredictable.
Getting Betrayed Is Supposed to Hurt
Anyone who has spent a few evenings in the Rust Belt has probably encountered a Raider who seemed perfectly friendly until something valuable appeared. A casual conversation turns into an agreement to fight an ARC machine together. Both players survive, the loot gets collected, and everything seems fine. Then somebody gets greedy. It's a horrible feeling when it happens. It's also one of the reasons people keep talking about the game.
An extraction shooter where everybody politely divides the loot and heads home would get old fairly quickly. The possibility of betrayal gives even ordinary encounters a bit of tension. A stranger asking for help could genuinely be struggling. They might also have a teammate hiding nearby, waiting for somebody to come close enough to shoot. The game doesn't tell players which situation they're walking into.
There's plenty of satisfaction in surviving those encounters, too. Escaping with a backpack full of valuable materials feels much better when the journey involved a couple of questionable decisions and a narrow escape from someone who wanted the same loot. Of course, it's considerably less entertaining when the other Raider gets away with everything.
A Friendly Voice Doesn't Mean Much in the Rust Belt
Proximity chat has given ARC Raiders some of its funniest and most uncomfortable moments. People bargain for their lives, promise not to shoot, and occasionally form little groups that have no business trusting each other. Sometimes those arrangements work surprisingly well. Other times, somebody ends up regretting the conversation.
It's difficult to imagine the game having quite the same appeal if every nearby player had their intentions clearly displayed above their head.
Embark has worked on matchmaking that takes player behavior into account, including whether someone tends to initiate fights. It's an understandable attempt to make encounters more enjoyable for different types of players. But there's a reason that system shouldn't become too predictable.
Someone who normally avoids PvP might decide that a particularly tempting backpack is worth breaking their usual habits. An aggressive player might spare a stranger because they're busy trying to complete a quest.
And occasionally, the person who sounds most trustworthy turns out to be the worst one to follow into an empty building. Those little surprises are worth keeping. Nobody needs to know in advance exactly how another Raider will behave. They do, however, deserve a match where everybody is playing under the same rules.
Betrayal Is Part of the Game. Cheating Isn't.
Getting fooled by another player is annoying enough. Finding out they had an unfair advantage from the beginning is considerably worse.
There isn't much to complain about when someone wins a fight through better positioning, clever timing, or a convincing lie. It might have been a dirty trick, but it happened within the game. An aimbot doesn't belong in that category.
The difference is familiar in other kinds of gaming, particularly when money is involved. Online Casino Groups, for instance, cover online casinos regulated by the MGA, giving players a way to look into licensing and the rules operators are expected to follow. Nobody expects a guarantee of winning, but there should at least be some assurance that the game is being run according to established rules.
Naturally, ARC Raiders isn't dealing with casino regulations. The point is much simpler. Players can accept losing when the other person has played fairly, even if they've behaved like a complete nuisance.
Embark's September 30 anti-cheat update also addressed queue teaming, where players coordinate matchmaking to end up in the same solo lobby. That isn't the same as two strangers meeting during a raid and deciding to help each other.
Banning Cheaters Is Only Half the Problem
Embark has strengthened its penalties for cheating, including permanent bans for confirmed cheat users and additional measures intended to stop them returning through other accounts.
Good. Players spending their evenings collecting materials shouldn't have to compete against somebody running prohibited software. Unfortunately, working out who deserves a ban can be messy.
Sometimes a player lands an extraordinary shot. Sometimes lag makes a firefight look completely absurd. And sometimes an opponent really is that much better. A suspicious death doesn't automatically mean somebody was cheating, no matter how convincing the replay might look after an irritating loss. That's why detection and account reviews matter just as much as the punishment.
The Rust Belt Doesn't Need Polite Players
There's a temptation to solve every unpleasant multiplayer encounter by making it harder for players to behave badly.
In ARC Raiders, that would be a mistake. Ambushing someone near extraction might be irritating, but it's a legitimate tactic. So is pretending to be harmless or abandoning an alliance when things get dangerous.
Those decisions belong to the players, and the consequences are part of what makes a successful raid memorable. Embark's job is to make sure those encounters happen without somebody manipulating matchmaking or relying on cheating software.
There's already enough to worry about while carrying a backpack full of valuable gear through the Rust Belt. Hearing footsteps behind a closed door should make players wonder whether they're about to meet a friendly stranger or lose everything.
It shouldn't make them wonder whether the other person is using an aimbot. ARC Raiders can afford to have dishonest characters wandering around its maps. In fact, some of its best stories come from them. Cheaters, on the other hand, have nothing interesting to add.