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Broken Arrow News

On the matter of cheating and bans

[p]Since launch the development team has been working hard on the anti-cheat system, in order to ensure that the multiplayer environment is safe, fair and fun to everyone.[/p][p]We have been monitoring reports and more than 2000 players have been banned on suspicion of cheating since launch.[/p][p]Unfortunately, after internal analysis of the logs and a review of the banning procedure, we've observed some cases where false positives may have occurred in the process, and while we have made every effort to ensure fairness, we cannot fully guarantee that some players haven't been banned unfairly. It is also the reason why we have been quiet in the past few days, we were undergoing a rigid and serious analysis of our internal processes.[/p][p][/p][p]For this reason we have decided we are going to review all cases of bans which might be the result of false positives or result of human error from our staff.[/p][p][/p][p]There have also been cases of players banned from multiplayer for having cheated in single player. Our system cannot differentiate between single player and multiplayer at the moment, so while we wouldn’t object to use of cheats in single player in normal circumstances, we cannot allow them right now, as it wouldn’t be a simple change.[/p][p]We don’t take this decision lightly, but it is the only right thing to do in this case. Rest assured that there is only a very small % of players affected, but our aim is 0 false positives - there can’t be any doubts.[/p][p]We apologize to those who have been banned unfairly.

Rest assured that we remain determined to stamp out cheating in all its forms. [/p][p]
Update 1.08 includes improvements to the anti-cheat system, and the team has been expanded with new members dedicated to thoroughly reviewing all cheating reports, ensuring fairness in the ban process. With this added expertise, we’re confident the staff will be even more efficient in detecting and addressing cheaters.[/p][p][/p][h3]Update 1.08 released tomorrow[/h3][p] Tomorrow on July 11 we are going to release update 1.08. We are aiming at releasing it at around 9 am GMT, so hopefully we’ll be punctual. As usual, we will accompany the update with a post and a detailed changelog.[/p][p]Please note that we will take the servers down in order to deploy the update. Estimated downtime: 15 - 25 minutes.[/p][h3]
Community Call[/h3][p][/p][p]Broken Arrow has players from all over the  world. We come from many different countries and cultures, and we all have different sensibilities. All of us need to be more understanding and tolerant towards everyone. It is a game and we are here to have fun.[/p][p]Stop accusing different nationalities of cheating, or having assumptions that different nationalities are more prone to cheating than others. That is simply not the case.  Simply put, the proportion of cheaters is globally the same in every country, but some countries have more players than others.[/p][p][/p][p]We must be clear on one point: we do not accept or tolerate any form of racist language or behavior. We are one big family and we want people to enjoy Broken Arrow and to feel at home in the Broken Arrow community, no matter where they are from or who they are. [/p][p][/p][p]This is our call to the community: cheating makes things harder for everyone. [/p][p]Cheaters are only making things harder for the developers, as they need to put more time into that rather than focussing on new additions.[/p][p]Cheaters are only making things harder for the staff, as they are putting a lot of time into ensuring that cheaters get banned.[/p][p]Most importantly, it makes the game not fun for people who play multiplayer. [/p][p]If you love Broken Arrow, consider this and please help us by contributing to creating a healthy environment for everyone.[/p][p]
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New RTS game Broken Arrow struggles on Steam as players speak out on cheating

Before it was released on Thursday June 19, Broken Arrow was one of the most wishlisted strategy games on all of Steam, and with good reason. A rival to Warno, and spiritual successor to the classic World in Conflict, it serves as a more realistic, more challenging alternative to Command and Conquer, an RTS where - supposedly - tactics truly matter. But all has not gone well for Steel Balalaika's debut. Despite tens of thousands of daily players, Steam reviews for Broken Arrow have gradually grown more critical, citing problems with unit balancing, multiplayer settings, and, most significantly, online cheats. Now, the pseudo milsim's overall rating has dropped from 'mostly positive' to the far-less-auspicious 'mixed'.


Read the rest of the story...


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Broken Arrow review - realistic RTS has big problems, but it's still good

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New, realistic RTS game Broken Arrow is finally here, but players face a problem

Broken Arrow review - realistic RTS has big problems, but it's still good

Command and Conquer, Age of Empires, Tempest Rising, and essentially all the major icons of the RTS genre share the same problem, whereby tactics, positioning, and legitimately strategic play are less likely to result in victory than building 50 of the strongest units and telling them to attack, attack, attack. Glory in RTS games is often secured not through shrewd generalship but mass production. If you have more ore, a bigger base, and a larger number of troops and vehicles, you can brute force a win against even the most astute opponent.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

After fan feedback, Broken Arrow dev immediately fixes RTS game's skirmish mode

New, realistic RTS game Broken Arrow is finally here, but players face a problem

Broken Arrow may be the greatest RTS of 2025, and it finally has a release date

What is coming with Update 1.08?

[p]Broken Arrow launched last week and it’s been a tremendous success.[/p][p]Hundreds of thousands of copies sold and the number of players in the game has never gone under 10.000 once since launch.[/p][p]While no game is perfect, the response from the community has been incredible, and we’re just getting started.[/p][p]We have been closely monitoring feedback and we know there are some points that stand out more than others:[/p]
  • [p]Lack of a save game feature mid-mission in single player;[/p]
  • [p]Problem with people leaving mid-game in multiplayer;[/p]
  • [p]The anti-cheat system needs to be fine tuned and improved;[/p]
  • [p]Some more issues with connectivity and stability;[/p]
[p]In the first week the team has been hard at work to fix the most immediate problems, and they started addressing Skirmish mode, localizations and multiplayer stability.[/p][h3]
What is coming with Update 1.08?[/h3][p][/p][p]We sat down with the developers to discuss what is coming next for Broken Arrow. The next patch is going to be 1.08 and it’s going to be a big one. Compared to the immediate hotfixes on launch week this update will be larger and will need more thorough testing, so we’re currently targeting the week of 7th July for its release.[/p][p]Let’s have a look at what it is going to contain:[/p]
  • [p]First off, improvements to stability, both offline and online;[/p]
  • [p]Fix to the most significant problems related to memory consumption;[/p]
  • [p]Reconnect fixes and improvements;[/p]
  • [p]Update to the anti-cheat system; [/p]
  • [p]The possibility to choose between a small or large layout for the maps has been added for custom matches and skirmish for players looking for smaller matches than 5v5. The game will automatically select the layout corresponding to the number of players+AI but you can also force one layout or the other;[/p]
  • [p]The tower defense mode that was present during the beta is back and has been improved;[/p]
[p][/p][h3]What is coming after that?[/h3][p]
We will continue our work on fixing major issues, and overall improvements of the game client as well as server-side software.[/p][p]We’re going to address the issue of the lack of a penalty for players who leave during a multiplayer match: we’re going to introduce a time-out system that will penalize leavers with progressively longer time-outs. Furthermore, we’re planning on introducing a Surrender option.[/p][p]We’re not going to stop our fight with cheaters and we will continue working on improvements for our anti-cheat. [/p][p]As for Save Games, we know it’s a highly requested feature. However, implementing it is more complex than it may appear. Currently we’re investigating our options to make your single player experience more convenient.[/p][p]While it’s no secret that we’re planning on expanding the game with new factions and new DLCs, this post doesn’t focus on that. We have plans, but we’re not going to give any spoilers just yet. [/p][h3]
I’m still having technical problems! Help![/h3][p][/p][p]As the devs are working on the update, we’ve prepared a list of solutions to some of the issues that players are currently facing. You can find it here.
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Broken Arrow devs confirm their anti-cheat will not block Linux, SteamOS

Broken Arrow recently released on Steam, promising to provide a fresh large-scale real-time modern warfare tactics game.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/06/broken-arrow-devs-confirm-their-anti-cheat-will-not-block-linux-steamos/