Battlefield 4 anti-cheating measures detailed

Battlefield 4 anti-cheat administrator Sabina af Jochnick has detailed the ways DICE is combating the scourge of exploit hungry players. While it's known that Battlefield 4 uses the FairFight anti-cheat software to monitor and flag unusual activities by players ( also used by Titanfall ), the software is not responsible for enforcing the rules. Jochnick says the studio needs to take a more hands-on approach when it comes to punishments, and that the community can play a role in swatting cheaters.

"Creating a new rule takes time," Jochnick wrote in a new blog post . "We need to make sure that the rule is configured and tested properly before we start taking any action on it. Rules needs to be analyzed and validated. No legit player will be banned based on having multiple awesome rounds. The rules aren't built based on solely K/D stats, FairFight takes more than that into consideration. The evidence we collect are solid and there's no doubt that the player was cheating."

FairFight is also being used to monitor players who exploit map layout glitches to gain an advantage, though only until the studio gets around to applying proper fixes. While the worse affected maps, Metro and Locker, have been patched up, the software will continue to monitor similar cases.

On the topic of bans, Jochnick stressed the need for hard evidence. "So what kind of evidence could the community look for? It could be abnormal stats or uploading a video on YouTube (please do not do any editing to the video). Players being caught cheating will never just receive a stat reset, they will always get a time-based suspension or a ban. Disputes will always be read and checked against the evidence."

Check out the full post here .

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.