Anti-cheat is "a top priority" for devs behind faltering RTS Broken Arrow

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: there's nothing worse than cheating at a videogame. I don't get it. It's no fun for you, it's no fun for your opponent. What's the point? Unless you're spawning a tank in GTA: San Andreas or motherlode-ing your way to millionairedom in The Sims, cheats have no place in games. The players of Broken Arrow agree with me, and are constantly pleading with developer Steel Balalaika to implement a better anti-cheat into the game. Thankfully, the developer has finally responded.

"The anti-cheat system, which has been a key concern for players, is currently a top priority," Steel Balalaika wrote in a press release earlier today. "The team is actively working on improving this area with the goal of ensuring a fair experience for everyone."

However, players will have to wait for cheaters to be banned. Steel Balalaika says that it will focus on banning those using cheats in Broken Arrow's multiplayer modes after the release of patch 1.09. By ignoring the harmless cheating in the campaign mode, it can reduce the number of appeals and tackle things more efficiently. If it wants to be one of the best RTS games on PC, it will certainly need to ramp things up in this regard.

On that note, Steel Balalaika has also hired another person to deal with managing cheat reports and appeals, and is developing improved tools to analyze statistics and spot anomalies.

In addition to this welcome focus on anti-cheat, Steel Balalaika is working on a leaver's penalty to punish those who rage quit a match, and a surrender option for when no hope remains. The two should work in tandem to keep matches fair throughout.

Advanced telemetry, improved customer support, faction balance, and server stability are also in the works. Update 1.09, however, will only implement a small balance patch, as well as a change to the lobby creation window and the option to restart campaign missions.

If you want some hot RTS action, but don't want to deal with all the cheaters, our picks of the best war games should have you covered. Alternatively, the best strategy games are always great.

Have you got a problem with cheaters? Are you a cheater yourself? Let us know in our community Discord server, where readers and staff promise not to get mad at you, you dirty, cheating bastard.