RICOCHET Anti-Cheat™ Progress Report

Authored by callofduty.com and submitted by a_Ninja_b0y

Call of Duty: Vanguard enjoyed its first weekend since launch, and fans from around the globe have been grinding progress across multiple modes. November 5th was also the launch of server-side upgrades to anti-cheat security, as part of the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat™ initiative.

In its first progress report, #TeamRICOCHET shares updates from Vanguard’s release, a change to its security enforcement policy, and the latest enforcement updates for Warzone™.

The RICOCHET Anti-Cheat team continues to actively monitor Call of Duty: Vanguard, issuing bans throughout launch. Additionally, in coordination with Sledgehammer Games, #TeamRICOCHET has worked to resolve exploits related to XP earn rates and unlocks.

As always player reports are vital for security enforcement, and we ask any player that encounters cheating behavior to submit reports as incidents occur. Your reports help us:

· Collect valuable information about cheating behavior

All our anti-cheat efforts are focused on fighting unfair play and protecting the player experience. Launching the server updates as part of the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system is the first step in our new anti-cheat security initiative and we’re working hard to make things as frustrating as possible for cheaters.

Learn how to report a player in Call of Duty: Vanguard

Now less than a month away from the release of the new Warzone Pacific update, we’ve expanded our enforcement process resulting in more frequent banwaves that halt game access to cheaters and account resellers.

#TeamRICOCHET is preparing for the arrival of the next phase in the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system, the new PC kernel-level driver. Warzone will be the first title to receive the driver, launching alongside the Pacific update in December. The kernel-level driver, which is one element of the multi-faceted RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system, will be added to Call of Duty: Vanguard at a later date.

For more information on RICOCHET Anti-Cheat and the PC kernel-level driver, read the official announcement blog.

Change to Our Security Enforcement Policy

We have made changes to our security enforcement policy for Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Extreme or repeated violations of the security policy – such as in-game cheating – may result in a permanent suspension of all accounts. Additionally, any attempt to hide, disguise, or obfuscate your identity or the identity of your hardware devices may also result in a permanent suspension.

Permanent suspensions for security infractions may now apply franchise wide, including Call of Duty: Vanguard as well as any past, present, and future titles in the Call of Duty franchise.

Read the Call of Duty: Vanguard Security and Enforcement Policy.

#TeamRICOCHET is focused on continuous anti-cheat security updates. We will provide updates on our mainline and studio social channels as well as the Call of Duty blog when possible.

Tantric989 on November 16th, 2021 at 15:27 UTC »

Honestly one of the main reasons I've quit the last few CoD games was just the rampant cheating, and games becoming completely unplayable. The worst is early CoD's they slowboated handling cheating and ban waves so much that at one point I assumed most players had started cheating because it became some kind of cheaters arms race, people picked up cheats just to level the playing field with other cheaters. Doing something substantial about this is a move in the right direction.

LegoSpacecraft on November 16th, 2021 at 13:11 UTC »

Nice! Although I’ve always been worried about incredibly strict banning processes.

I used to play MW2 on PS3. That was my childhood. Then one day I enter a game just like any other day, and I notice everyone is jumping super high. I try jumping and it turns out some hacker made the match “low gravity”. I played for a bit since it was fun to jump really high and see the map at new angles.

I quit before the match ended since it was almost impossible to get any kills and it stopped being fun. Next day I start up the game only to find I was permanently banned for hacking.

I was devastated. I tried emailing and calling anyone at Activision or CoD, and tried all sorts of support channels. I never got through to anyone helpful and am probably still banned to this day.

I’d hate for this to happen to anyone. Yes, I understand I participated in a “hacked lobby”, but I didn’t know what was happening at the time. Was I banned because I kept playing for maybe 10 minutes? I’ll never know.

chillingbythepool on November 16th, 2021 at 11:44 UTC »

I'm ok with this.