Another update, still no action against cheaters

@mopwieldinghedgehog

I want to follow up based on a very recent experience.

After reading the points about waves and calmer periods, I went back into Hourglass again. In my second match today, I ran into a full cheater using the same things already mentioned earlier: wallbangs from water, mid-air freezing, extreme aimbot range and speed, instant double taps. Nothing new, nothing subtle.

From a player perspective, this is where the disconnect comes from. Even if there are calmer periods overall, the moment you queue and immediately hit something like this, it is hard to feel any visible improvement in practice.

Regarding forum activity, fewer posts do not necessarily mean fewer incidents. It can also mean players stop reporting here because previous threads were removed or locked, which naturally reduces public discussion without changing what actually happens in-game.

I understand the arms race explanation. I am simply describing what the current state looks like from active Hourglass gameplay right now.

As someone who has played a lot recently, I observed that:

• Instant ladder, invisibility, magic bucket and teleportation cheats are now less common. This is either because the cheats were patched, or because cheaters have better alternatives (e.g. why instant ladder when u can fly?).
• I'm not sure about quickswap and machine gun cheats.
• Air-control/Air-freeze and wall-banging cheats are still very common. I'm guessing these are harder to prevent/patch?

I don't expect aimbot/esp cheats to be detectable, unless the cheaters streamed their screen with all their overlays. I have actually seen this on bilibili before.

There were less cheaters in November. More cheaters in October (teleportation cheat update) and December (holidays?).

At this point, I am repeatedly running into the same player using obvious cheats over and over again. There is no hesitation or attempt to hide it, which strongly suggests there is little fear of consequences.

I can submit in-game reports after each fight, but the system immediately asks for more detailed evidence in the form of recorded clips. This is where I draw a line. I am not going to spend additional time recording, editing, and uploading footage to effectively do investigative work for a system that should already be able to identify blatant cheating on its own.

As a result, the same player continues cheating for days. Even if a ban eventually happens, it comes too late to matter in the moment. Repeated valid in-game reports without video evidence appear to have no practical impact for the reporting player.

This creates a loop where:

cheaters keep playing freely

players are told to provide video evidence

many players simply stop reporting altogether

From the outside, this can then look like fewer cheaters or a calmer situation, when in reality it may just reflect reduced participation in reporting due to frustration with the process.

I am not saying no work is being done behind the scenes. I am explaining why, from an active player perspective, the current system does not feel effective and actively discourages reporting over time.

At this point, it’s genuinely discouraging to see how ineffective this situation feels from a player’s perspective. Based on repeated in-game experiences, it is extremely hard to believe that the current approach is producing meaningful results.

If there is a dedicated team actively working on this problem, then the lack of visible impact in-game raises serious questions about effectiveness. Long-standing and highly disruptive cheats continue to function with little to no observable reduction, which makes it difficult for players to trust that progress is being made.

This isn’t meant as an insult toward individuals, but as a critique of outcomes. When a single cheat developer can repeatedly introduce exploits that remain usable for extended periods, it gives the impression that the response process is too slow, too reactive, or simply insufficient.

From the outside, it does not feel like these issues are being addressed with the urgency or depth that the health of the game requires.

I hear the explanation about technical differences and the arms race, and I understand the theory behind it.

The problem is that from an active Hourglass player perspective, these explanations increasingly feel like reassurance rather than something reflected in actual gameplay.

Today again, within a very short session, we encountered multiple different crews using the same high-impact cheats that have been mentioned repeatedly in this thread: wallbangs, air-freeze, extreme aimbot behavior, and machine gun usage. These encounters leave no room for counterplay.

At some point, it becomes difficult to reconcile “visible improvements” with the lived experience of repeatedly running into fights where there is effectively nothing a legitimate crew can do. When this happens day after day, update after update, players naturally conclude that meaningful action is either not happening or not reaching the live environment in a way that matters.

I am not arguing that cheating can ever be eliminated completely. I am pointing out that the most disruptive cheats appear to persist with little observable reduction, and that players are left waiting for the next update in the hope that something changes. Often, it doesn’t, and the cycle repeats.

This thread exists to provide feedback from actual gameplay, not to deny that work may be happening internally. But if that work does not translate into a noticeable reduction of these core cheats in Hourglass, then from a player standpoint, it is reasonable to question its effectiveness.

I will continue to share feedback here when nothing changes in practice, because right now, waiting and hoping for the next update feels like the only option left.