Call of Duty’s ongoing battle against hackers in games like Warzone and Modern Warfare 2 has added another powerful ally, but if you’re a legit player, you won’t even see it.
The latest addition to CoD’s RICOCHET anti-cheat measures is what the team is calling hallucinations. No, they won’t be deploying psychedelics through players’ controllers. But they will make cheaters start to see things in-game.
“Hallucinations place decoy characters within the game that can only be detected by cheaters that have been specifically flagged by our system,” Activision said. “These false characters are undetectable by legitimate players, and they cannot impact a legitimate player’s aim, progression, end of match stats or overall gameplay experience, but serve to disorient cheaters in a variety of ways. Hallucinations can be deployed both as a method of mitigation for verified cheaters or, in secret, as a detection for suspicious players.”
Related: Team RICOCHET makes big change to curb cheating before Warzone ranked launch
Team RICOCHET said that, as a mitigation technique, hallucinations are clones of an active user within any given match that mimic real movement, so cheaters won’t know which is which.
And when the cheater engages with the hallucination, it sends valuable info to the anti-cheat team to help take them out, which is part of using hallucinations as an additional detection tool, as well.
“The team can place the hallucination near a suspicious player, forcing them to self-identify as a cheater if they engage with the cloned character in any way,” Activision said. “Like hallucinations as a mitigation, the character model displays legitimate data when viewed in cheats and will also trigger things like aimbots.”
A recent update that increased detection of third-party hardware devices like the popular Cronus had a big effect, as well, including a 59 percent drop in any usage of devices. But of those users, only 57 percent didn’t try using it again, while the rest “attempted to circumvent the policy.”
“Repeat offenders and those continuing to use these devices without pause have been penalized,” Activision said. “Malicious use of these devices may result in account suspensions – up to permanent account bans.”
As part of the seasonal anti-cheat update, Activision also revealed that it will begin penalizing players who abuse the reporting system to target innocent players, “up to and including warnings or permanent account suspensions.”
“The Team RICOCHET mission is to fight unfair play using all means necessary,” Activision said. “From developing new detection and protection systems, mitigations and even cease and desist notices, our commitment to gameplay integrity is unwavering and we will utilize every tool available to us to keep your experience fun and fair.”
