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User.cfg Cheating
Coming back after the December holidays we received a number of requests from league players to investigate and reduce the potential for visibility cheating via the user.cfg file. We investigated and a number of CVars that can be edited via this file have had their ranges restricted to ensure they are used in keeping with the original intention. The user.cfg file is provided to allow users to tweak their configurations in regards to controls/performance etc. but only to provide a better play experience not to allow cheating of the game. As always we take reports of hacking/cheating seriously and as described this should be much harder with these checks in place. These changes release with the next patch.
That said we cannot prevent all possible client side hacks, though we can make them harder to accomplish. As always if you suspect a player is not abiding by the terms of service feel free to report them and upon investigation if they are found to be cheating the CSR team will deal with them. We continue to put work into our internal telemetry that allows us to spot cheating behavior and highlight it to the CSR team. The team has had for a while now the ability to spectate suspected cheaters to monitor their behavior and we don’t see widespread cheating in MWO.
A couple of factors can play into a view that the game is being unfair. One simple source is players not being fully familiar with all aspects of MechWarrior weaponry/equipment e.g. not understanding PPC minimum range or forgetting about coolant flush as the reason an enemy Mech was able to stay in a fight so long without overheating etc.
Hit Registration
Another more technical reason I’d like to quickly discuss relates to how hit registration currently works. When a Mech shoots, any hit effects are client authoritative currently, this means you may see an effect that shows your AC shot clipped the edge of the building, but what really matters is what the server saw, and in the case where your shot was clear this can give the impression that you are making impossible shots.
We've discussed internally making the effects happen server side, this will resolve the discrepancy but will also introduce a small amount of latency to the effects there are currently no plans to do this due to other more pressing tasks but we will continue as always to evaluate hit registration on an ongoing basis.
For now all players should understand that ultimately what the server decides is not arbitrary it is correct, it is more likely that what your local client is showing you is incorrect at times.
Server Performance
Something that may help this to a degree is that we've recently dug deep into the CryNetwork layer and fixed up some network congestion issues that were at times becoming bad enough to bring the server to a halt, this is experienced as a game where all Mechs walk in place and then everyone quits.
These issues have been addressed and will hopefully help the servers to behave much better in the general case, these updates are due to release in the Feb 18th patch. Hopefully this will make everyone’s games that much smoother and reduce the number of badly lagging games noticeably.
DX11
After the release of UI 2.0 the current plan is to target a release of DX11 in March. We are currently ensuring DX11 doesn't cause any new issues with the new UI 2.0 system.
We are excited to get what should be a solid month of content into your hands, thanks to everyone who joined us in Public Test for your reports on these features, that have helped to raise the quality of these features as they roll out. That said these are not minor features so please as always if you do experience issues just head over to the Patch Feedback thread and note the issue or open a new ticket with support these channels are regularly monitored and we’ll do our best to resolve anything that arises as quickly as possible.
Here’s looking forward to a great month of releases that lay the foundation for more great changes to come.
See you on the Battlefield
Please leave your feedback about this update in the Official Feedback Thread. Thank you!
