Ricochet: Anti-Cheat Introduces New Features

Love it or hate it, Call of Duty is not holding back when it comes to finding innovative ways to combat cheating in its games. The latest tactic involves cutting parachute cords and launching cheaters into the air, introducing a messy and unpleasant end to their gaming experience. This is just one of the many measures taken by the Call of Duty’s server-side and kernel-level anti-cheat solution, officially known as Ricochet, to keep the online gaming community free from unfair play. The team recently detailed its latest efforts, including the use of Machine Learning, in a blog post coinciding with the launch of Modern Warfare 3.

According to the team, their focus has been on improving the “efficiency and strength” of the anti-cheat system by leveraging new Machine Learning advancements. This new system is capable of generating about 1,000 clips of suspicious behavior per day per PC, showcasing the effectiveness of the new measures. One of the major focuses of the team is preventing unfair advantage in Ranked Play and foiling any attempts at manipulating leaderboards. To achieve this, the team is introducing new tactics, some of which are intended to cause annoyance to cheaters while maintaining fair play in the game. These measures aim at alerting the cheaters that they are being watched and their unfair tactics will not be tolerated.

One such tactic involves disabling cheaters’ parachutes in Warzone before they deploy, leading to a sudden fall to the ground. For those caught cheating after deployment, their characters will be propelled 10,000 feet into the air with a superhuman bunny hop, resulting in a deadly fall back to the ground. These new measures will be implemented in Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer mode and Call of Duty: Warzone while retaining some previous tactics like Damage Shield. However, the team also mentioned that some measures will be administered privately to gather as much information as possible from cheaters’ behavior. Ultimately, the focus is on the prevention of cheating and evolving the Ricochet: Anti-Cheat system.

While the multiplayer mode of Modern Warfare 3 is now live, the initial reception to the game has been mixed. Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell was unimpressed with the campaign, describing it as “clearly rushed to market” with several shortcomings. Despite this, the addition of new anti-cheat measures is a positive step towards maintaining fair play in the Call of Duty gaming community.