Broken Report a Player System

  • Norwiegan Wood
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    Rare, please address the issues with both the in‑game and online reporting systems. Players are openly mocking the process because they know nothing will happen. Toxic behavior, griefing, cheating, exploiting mechanics (like parking ships where they can’t sink), and even hate speech are going unchecked.

    I just encountered a crew bragging that Rare “won’t do anything” and that they can keep abusing the system without consequences. In‑game reports almost always return “not enough evidence,” and web portal reports often receive the same response. On the rare occasions when there is a reply, it’s usually just “We have escalated the issue,” with no visible follow‑up.

    Rare needs to uphold the standards they’ve promised and start taking player reports seriously. I love this game, but the broken reporting tools—and the feeling that these issues aren’t being taken seriously—make it harder and harder to want to log in.

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  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    System is fine. It the players who can the extra time to drop full report.
    Sure there could be easy way to do it. But like court of law, you need evidence and you need to provide it. Simple saying and reporting it won’t do much and investigation requires help.

    Also. I’ve never encountered players openly “bragging” unless you provoke them to start.
    Rule 1) don’t say “I’m gonna report you” that just always makes you a bigger target and causes more problems when you’re upset.

  • Norwiegan Wood
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    This is with posting video and picture evidence. Problem with In-game reporting is that it doesn't allow the posting of evidence unless you come back on PC.

  • BloodyBil
    Legend
    Insider

    @burnbacon said in Broken Report a Player System:

    System is fine. It the players who can the extra time to drop full report.
    Sure there could be easy way to do it. But like court of law, you need evidence and you need to provide it. Simple saying and reporting it won’t do much and investigation requires help.

    This. So many times on these forums people have decried that the system is broken because Rare won't ban players on demand. When asked if they provided any proof before saying the system is broken, they get defensive and say it's not their job to provide it, they don't have time, etc etc.

    Maybe anecdotal but as far as I am concerned, when I provided proper proof to a report, I got feedback from Rare saying actions have been taken, consequences happened, thanks for keeping seas safe etc.

    Not saying that OP didn't take proper actions, just saying that everybody needs to do their part, see something say something and use proper evidence, its easier than ever to record last 30secs of gameplay with a simple hotkey for example.

  • KarminiumSOT
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    So many times on these forums people have decried that the system is broken because Rare won't ban players on demand. When asked if they provided any proof before saying the system is broken, they get defensive and say it's not their job to provide it, they don't have time, etc etc.

    I have ran into the same people when I have played this game despite making reports. The in game report system does not work whatsoever, and it is the only game I played that has this bad of an in-game report system. Only way to keep the seas safe is to start IP/Hardware banning people so cheaters and excessive toxicity comes back.

  • heslashthem
    Legend
    Insider

    The system isn’t broken, however it does require a much needed overhaul and streamlining considering the way how players behave has changed. They reworked the way punishments are handled, they can do the same to the reporting process for as little burden on the player reporting as possible.

  • MisereNZ
    Captain
    Insider

    A faster way would be great but evidence is always needed.

    My crew wins around 80 to 90% of our fights. Most of the losses are just better crews but vs sweats it is hard to tell if they are using aim bot or are just really good shots. Is it hit reg or a some hack that reduces damage? Its not until you catch them teleporting or dropping kegs from on high that it becomes clear.

    I have been accused of cheating by players who are not very good, and while I take as a complement I would be very unhappy to lose my account just because its too easy for bad players to make bitter claims.

  • Super87Ghost
    Commander

    @karminiumsot said in Broken Report a Player System:

    Only way to keep the seas safe is to start IP/Hardware banning people so cheaters and excessive toxicity comes back.

    No it doesn't, that only hurts ligit players. IP/Hardware bans are easy to circumvent for cheaters. The huge problem is that if they change those parameters, those parameters could very well be the same as those of someone else on the planet and that innocent person will now get banned.
    In fact: cheaters could even abuse IP-/Hardware bans to get players banned that they don't like. IP and Hardware info can be spoofed, so if they find the numbers for you, they just spoof it to your numbers, then cheat and now you get banned and not that cheater.

    That is why IP-/Hardware bans are not used anymore, because companies already know this and understand how bad it is for their bussiness.

  • PC MonkFish
    Marauder
    Insider

    I open crewed onto an offensive ship name - reported it and was advised it was actioned within a couple of days.

    Worked for me.

  • KarminiumSOT
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @super87ghost
    How does IP bans hurt legit players, if they got banned, they're probably not legit. The IP/Hardware bans are gonna be better than what they currently have, even though it's not the greatest. Right now, you can make a fresh account and continue cheating. Rare needs to start taking real action by shutting down hack clients from the source, using player reports to update their anti-cheat, and start setting clear guidelines for what is toxic because people like the OP don't see results at all.

  • Flashkannon5118
    Sailor

    I don't think direct IP bans are a good solution, but perhaps if a player nets a ban, they just keep an eye out for that player resurfacing, and apply extra scrutiny from the get-go. Still, there's no way to get rid of cheaters without getting rid of cheats, and cheat devs

  • PotatoSord
    Marauder
    Insider

    @burnbacon No it is not. The system is broken and nearly useless. The average player is told almost every time that the cheater who just ruined their afternoon in 30 seconds didn't have enough to convict because they weren't constantly recording themselves. The average player loses trust in the reporting system and just stops reporting. I've heard this story from hundreds of former players of this game.

  • Super87Ghost
    Commander

    @karminiumsot said in Broken Report a Player System:

    @super87ghost
    How does IP bans hurt legit players, if they got banned, they're probably not legit. The IP/Hardware bans are gonna be better than what they currently have, even though it's not the greatest. Right now, you can make a fresh account and continue cheating. Rare needs to start taking real action by shutting down hack clients from the source, using player reports to update their anti-cheat, and start setting clear guidelines for what is toxic because people like the OP don't see results at all.

    I literaly explained it in the post you are reacting on, but i will give a bit more extensive expaination:

    IP Bans
    IP-adresses are not hardwired to your computer like many people think. Just change internet provider and you already have another IP-adress. But there are also other ways your IP-adress changes, the most common one is using a VPN (wich changes your IP-adress to a random one from the country you are lining up to, that is how the VPN works), but there are already routers that automaticly randomise the IP-adress every time they are reset for privacy reasons, so just resetting your router already gets you around the ban. And there is also spoofing-software available where you can change your IP-adress to wichever one you like. This is why it doesn't work against cheaters, since it is so immensly easy to get around it.

    Why does it hurt legit players:
    Two reasons. First: if that randomised IP-adress coincidentally aligned with an 'normal' IP-adress from someone else, that other person would get the actual ban and not the cheater. Second: let's say your IP-adres is 1.1.1.1 and the cheater has 2.2.2.2. Someone didn't like you for whatever reason (perhaps he is annoyed you sank him ingame, or whatever), he only has to find your IP-adress (and that's not to difficult to do) and then spoof his IP-adress into 1.1.1.1. and starts cheating. Now Rare/Microsoft will see the IP-adress of the cheater as 1.1.1.1 (your IP-adress) and not as 2.2.2.2, so they will give your IP-adress a ban. Now that cheater has gotten you banned. And if you don't have a router that randomizes your IP-adress or a VPN, you now can't play anymore, while the cheater can keep on cheating.

    Hardware bans:
    Hardware bans are a little trickier to get around (it requires a bit more knowledge), but also can be pretty easily bypassed if you know what you are doing, mostly by doing 1 of 3 things:

    • Getting a new hardware component. If you change one of your hardware component (CPU, harddisk, motherboard, etc.), the ban is already circumvented, because you already have new numbers.
    • You can change your client to not show some/all of those numbers, so you either can't get banned (because the numbers aren't available) or the system can't see that you are banned (because it can't check the numbers).
    • And just like with IP-adress, you can just spoof the hardware information, so it looks like it's a completely different computer.

    And why it can hurt legit players: two main reasons. First: the spoofing can make it so a cheater uses your numbers (by accident or on purpose) and you will get the hardware ban and not the cheater. Second: when you buy a second hand part of hardware because you want to upgrade your computer, you could accidentally buy a part that has a ban 'attached' to it.

    I hope this clears it up for you?

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