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Today we are back with a much-anticipated update from the Fair Play Task Force. Earlier today, we released a video update, which you can watch below, but we thought some of you may prefer a text version, which you can find here.
Hunt lives and breathes through its community's experiences. Your battles in the bayou are what become the stories that bring these grim backwaters to life. Our number one priority is making sure you can trust that the quality of your Hunt experience is always in the front of our minds. In some areas we're getting this right, and in others we know we still have room to improve.
Today, we want to share some top-level information on what we're working on right now, as well as what's coming in the future to make Hunt better.
As always with Fair Play Task Force updates, we have to be a little cautious about what we share publicly. Timelines shift, which can lead to disappointment, and sharing too much detail risks tipping off the very people we're working to keep out. So while we can't answer everything at once, or attach firm release dates to every point, we want you to know your voices are being heard loud and clear by everyone at Crytek.
Recent Ban Figures
Let's start with cheaters. Since our last update, we've issued:
- 3,515 cheating bans
- 428 mouse & keyboard on console bans, via our recently added AnyBrain tool
- 269 bans for in-game reasons
It's important to understand that more bans doesn't automatically mean a better situation. Sometimes fewer bans mean we're staying on top of active exploits, and sometimes a high number means we've caught a large group using a commonly identifiable pattern. We rely on a combination of tools, data, and player reports to correctly identify and take action against cheaters, so please keep your reports coming.
We also have a couple of initiatives landing in Update 2.8 that directly target cheaters. We won't be sharing details here, since keeping them under wraps keeps them effective, but we'll talk more about their impact in a future FPTF update.
Just a reminder that you can always submit reports via the in-game reporting system or through the Support widget on https://huntshowdown.com
High Ping Limits
Ping limits have been another hot topic in parts of the community. We’ve tried stricter limits in the past, but there were strong signs they weren’t working the way we intended, for both good and bad reasons.
We want to bring ping limiting back in a way that solves more of those negative issues than our previous approach could. We’re actively building a more robust solution that draws on a variety of client and server-side data points to assess each player’s ping situation. This has proven more complex than we first expected, but the team is making great progress, and we can’t wait to roll it out when it’s ready.
Cheat Report Follow-Ups
We understand how frustrating it is to be caught up in a Mission with cheater. What is equally frustrating is not knowing whether we ever took action against the cheater you flagged. That silence breeds mistrust and doubt in what is actually a very effective and crucial part of the ongoing fight.
Later this year, we're introducing better tools that will notify you when a report you filed results in a confirmed ban. We've still got a few quirks to work through to make sure this scales across our growing player base, but we're confident it'll help close the communication loop on these frustrating experiences. We want you to trust that your actions are having a real impact, because they are.
MMR Decay & Calculation
It's been humbling to see so many of you calling this the "golden era of Hunt content" as we keep focusing on what makes Hunt the best PvP-focused extraction shooter out there. That positivity has brought a lot of old Hunters back to see what's been cooking.
The frustration for many returning players, though, has been getting caught up in their legacy matchmaking score and landing against more recently seasoned Hunters. To help, we're introducing a Matchmaking Rank Decay system that grants a temporary handicap score to players returning after time away. Your rank will be reassessed across these Missions to make sure you land in lobbies that fit your current skill level, not your legacy one.
Hunt's creative combat is core to what keeps you coming back, and our matchmaking is what tries to keep that combat fair. There are factors we can influence—like skill levels, team size, and platforms—and factors we can't fully control, like server population at certain Times of Day, new cheats, or players experimenting with wild new builds. Our calculations do their best to account for as many of these as possible, and most of the time they do a solid job.
As our player base grows, we'll keep evolving the formula that decides who lands in a Mission together. In an upcoming update, we'll be trialing a new matchmaking system that factors in a broader set of variables. We'll share more in the coming months on what those factors are and the impact they're having on Mission quality as it rolls out.
We're also working on a range of broader matchmaking improvements built on the strong foundations we've laid so far, and we look forward to sharing more soon.
Final Remarks
There'll be more to share on each of these topics as they get closer to release, but for now, we hope this gives you a strong sense of the direction we're heading, and our ongoing commitment to fair play in Hunt: Showdown 1896.
You'll also be able to catch FPTF touch points on the most imminent topics in upcoming dev streams, including the Road to Hell dev stream on June 3rd at 18:00 CEST.
See you in the bayou, Hunters.