Tuesday, September 10th 2024

Cheaters Ruin Valve's Deadlock Before New Arena Shooter Even Launches Despite Harsh Punishments

Valve's latest arena shooter Deadlock has been generating hype for a long time, with recent concurrent player counts exceeding 170,000 at one point, according to SteamDB. More recently, however, reports indicate that cheaters are already invading Deadlock, despite the fact that the game is still in invite-only public alpha testing.

As shown in a recent Reddit post containing a kill-cam video from Deadlock, a supposed cheater very brazenly appears to use a wall hack to track an enemy through a wall and pre-emptively dodge an attack. In the clip, the gamer who spotted the alleged infraction, this isn't even the first time they have encountered the same cheater in-game, and there are countless reports on both Reddit and the Deadlock forum reporting similar experiences.
According to previous posts on the r/Steam subreddit and the Deadlock forum, the punishment for cheating is severe, with both your account and the account of the player who invited you getting a ban for the offense. While Deadlock doesn't seem to have an anti-cheat built into the game just yet, Valve encourages users to record deaths and kills and report cheating and toxicity on the forum. It's likely that Deadlock will use Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) when it nears full release, meaning anyone caught skirting the rules could be subject to bans in other games using the same anti-cheat system—most notably Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, and several Call of Duty games.

It's entirely possible that the absence of automated anti-cheat in Deadlock is intentional—at least while the game is in alpha testing. This could be a low-stakes way for Valve to get a good idea of how both players and cheaters behave in these scenarios, what software and strategies cheaters are using, and how they are manipulating the game's mechanics or code. Moreover, in an alpha build of any game or software, there are almost certainly going to be stability issues which could be picked up by an anti-cheat system, making relying on manual reporting a safer bet in that regard.

Update Sep 13th: A Valve developer that goes by the name Yoshi online has reportedly confirmed that the development team is actively working on implementing anti-cheat for Deadlock.
Sources: 80 Level, Deadlock forum, Reddit
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33 Comments on Cheaters Ruin Valve's Deadlock Before New Arena Shooter Even Launches Despite Harsh Punishments

#1
CrAsHnBuRnXp
Cpt.JankValve's latest arena shooter Deadlock has been generating hype for a long time
This is the first ive ever heard of the game :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#2
thesmokingman
That's kind of hilarious though, cheaters in their closed beta.
Posted on Reply
#3
sethmatrix7
Oh I’m sure VAC will work sooo well on release just like in CS2….

oh wait

Valve anti cheat sucks in CS2
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#4
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
CrAsHnBuRnXpThis is the first ive ever heard of the game :laugh:
It was kind of a big deal. A games journalist at IGN with the highest level of journalistic integrity leaked the game after ignoring/bypassing the in game NDA that you had to agree to when starting up the game for the first time.

So Rather than hide the games existence since the word was already out. They opened the doors for everyone to get on board with it.
Posted on Reply
#5
natr0n
thesmokingmanThat's kind of hilarious though, cheaters in their closed beta.
The alpha for Delta Force had 3650+ bans for cheating

Alpha cheating is unreal
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#6
RUSerious
FreedomEclipseSo Rather than hide the games existence since the word was already out. They opened the doors for everyone to get on board with it.
Hmm, went to the store page and it's still invite only. 150K peak users, that's allot of invites!
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#7
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Wait, COD is by activision-blizzard , now owned by ms
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#8
tpuuser256
Somehow, someone will find a way to give away 3000 hours of their life to this
Posted on Reply
#9
Cpt.Jank
eidairaman1Wait, COD is by activision-blizzard , now owned by ms
Correct. Error on my part. Fixed now, thanks for flagging.
Posted on Reply
#10
Why_Me
I hate cheaters. I wish there was an anti cheat program that fried cheater's motherboards.
Posted on Reply
#11
Easy Rhino
Linux Advocate
imagine cheating in a video game to make up for your failure in real life. now imagine cheating in an alpha version video game...
Posted on Reply
#12
Fokker
I should install this and try it (keep forgetting).
Posted on Reply
#13
GhostRyder
Its amazing how quick cheat software gets out for this stuff.

Also really, that's the username of the person in the screenshot being spectated lol...
Posted on Reply
#14
R-T-B
GhostRyderAlso really, that's the username of the person in the screenshot being spectated lol...
Political trolling and online video games. Name a more iconic pair.
Posted on Reply
#15
Totally
CrAsHnBuRnXpThis is the first ive ever heard of the game :laugh:
Not surprising, they've only been relying on word of mouth. Despite that they're averaging 150k players daily, even if someone manages to get an invite there's a three month wait as valve approves them in batches.
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#17
ecomorph
TotallyNot surprising, they've only been relying on word of mouth. Despite that they're averaging 150k players daily, even if someone manages to get an invite there's a three month wait as valve approves them in batches.
No such thing. My friend invited me yesterday and I got an email a few hours later.
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#18
Fokker
ecomorphNo such thing. My friend invited me yesterday and I got an email a few hours later.
No idea if the delay was a thing at one point, but my invite cleared as soon as I accepted.
Posted on Reply
#19
bonehead123
"I don't cheat very often, but when I do, you can bet your arse it will be on something that hasn't been cheated on yet by other cheaters" - TMIMITW
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#20
Minus Infinity
This is why multiplayer sucks arse and I'll never play.
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#21
Jun
Been having a blast with this game. I normally stay away from moba because of toxicity but Valve is actively banning them in the play test, making the environment much nicer. Hopefully the new VAC3 get implement and helps with the cheating.
Posted on Reply
#22
csendesmark
Valve's latest arena shooter Deadlock
Anyone whom played an actual arena shooter like Quake 3 Quake Live or Quake Champions are cringing reading that line. :laugh:
Deadlock is an action game according to wikipedia:
"Deadlock is an upcoming action game developed and published by Valve. It combines elements of the hero shooter and MOBA genres."
I agree with that description
Posted on Reply
#23
ecomorph
Game is a lot of fun and I haven't encountered any egregious cheaters yet. My only gripe with it is that there are wild swings in difficulty depending on the opposition. Hopefully when it releases, there will be different leagues according to users' skillset, so you're not choking new players in the crib and getting them burned out while they're still learning the ropes.

Alternatively you can always play a game vs bots (team of human players vs bots, which is substantially easier than real matches).
Posted on Reply
#24
DaemonForce
FokkerI should install this and try it (keep forgetting).
That's where I'm at.

I checked out a few streams of Deadlock and it feels underwhelming but every other FPS chick is terminal passenger princess and just sucks at these games.
It might be the type that's way more fun to play than to watch but jury's out on anything made in this reprehensible era of gaming, even if it's Valve coded. Wat do? (´・ω・`)
Posted on Reply
#25
Onasi
>Deadlock
>arena shooter
It’s about as far from being one as you can possibly get. It’s quite literally in the same ballpark as SMITE - a third-person MMO with shooter elements, even if those elements are slightly more pronounced. It’s not even an Overwatch-esque hero shooter, let alone an arena one.
Posted on Reply
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