Found here: Decode Helper at Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Nexus - Mods and community
I’m looking around and can’t find any official comment on it. A lot of the nexus posts about it read like extreme cope that it doesn’t count as cheating or something, but can we maybe get an official response on this mod in particular? It would prevent some naïve players from getting an account ban.
Fatshark approves of anything that other players can’t see or notice, although I stay away from mods due to a crippling fear of causing unstable performance.
That’s not really what their official statement says tho. Surely a mod that makes a mini-game significantly easier by taking away the reason why its hard (not knowing where the next symbols will be) is against their statement? You could also argue that it affects other players as it gives you a mechanical advantage that the non-mod users can’t obtain.
I just want FatShark to be more straight-forward on these grey area mods.
I mean in theory it’s sort of a cheat.
But then it’s also a pointless, mind-numbingly easy mini-game and this ‘cheat’ saves about 1 second time.
It’s whatever really.
On a bad roll it could turn a 5 second + mini-game into a 2 second mini-game. Those 3 seconds on an Auric maelstrom could make or break a run. It’s hard to quantify, but at the end of the day an advantage is an advantage, and it does so by changing a skill-based mechanic built into the game. And yes, having the reflexes to react to a symbol appearing immediately below one-after-another is a skill.
I’m not necessarily saying the mod shouldn’t be allowed. I just want FS to address this mod, and a couple of the other grey area mods that people are using. It literally doesn’t matter how we feel about it, as long as FS gives a clear answer on if these mods are okay or not. Right now, they aren’t being clear and it’s putting people’s accounts at risk. I would hate to be some kid who modded his game thinking FS approved these mods, only for FS to ban his account, leaving him £30 out of pocket and without access to his favourite game.
It comes off as a bit sh*tty when you consider that most people who download these mods don’t view them as cheating, so how can FS in good faith ban them? Especially when FS is responsible for not being clear enough. Of course they haven’t banned them (yet) and they may never ban them, but why make people gamble their account? Either be more clear, give examples of good and bad mods, create a thread where people can request verification of their mods, or just ban all mods. I don’t care what they do, as long as it’s better than what we’re getting rn.
They’re not going to do that because they have stated before they don’t have the resources to sanction mods every time a mod comes out or updates and whenever the game patches. Considering they have a lot of recurring problems in their codebase, scripting and versioning, that’s something I do believe.
That’s fair, then they should at least give a statement that uses examples of currently available mods on what is okay and not okay. At least then we will have something more significant to base our mod selection on. RN it’s just too confusing as to where the line in the sand is.
Here’s the official statement if you want to peruse their guidelines.
This particular mod like healthbars does not exist to overcome any shortcomings, or game bugs.
But healthbars are allowed so…I guess cheat away?
Not judging btw. I use healthbars though I’d be perfectly happy if FS decided to say a big F*ck you to that mod.
Or you could just accept that it’s here to stay and move on. shrug
And if you have no interest in the topic you can just not reply.
" * Using mods that directly affect unmodded players’ experience of the game and/or is used to grief other players.
- Examples: Speed hacks, outright cheating in missions, etc."
This isn’t detailed enough. It could be argued that the decode helper mod falls under “outright cheating in missions.” Although, it doesn’t conflict with the prerequisite “mods that directly affect unmodded players’ experience of the game.” since you are affecting their game by participating in the game with a mod that gives you a mechanical advantage, but the mod doesn’t directly affect them outside of making the match easier for the team.
The question is, would FS agree that this is a cheat, and does it conflict with the first rule?? Right now nobody has any idea at all as the statement they provided isn’t clear enough. You can assume the mod is okay, but why assume when FS can clear things up for us?
- Using mods that devalue other players’ investments (time or monetary) in the game
- Examples: Bypassing progression, penances or contracts, unlocking of premium cosmetics and currencies in the game service.
I think you could argue that the mod does in fact devalue the other player’s time spent in the game by remove all skill required to complete the minigame, skill of course requiring a time investment. The examples given don’t appear to apply to the mod in question AFAIK, so maybe the mod doesn’t break this rule. Once again, who tf knows.
I don’t care if anyone wants to use any of the popular mods. I just think FS is being too vague with their statement on what mods are allowed.
Throne, if it’s making you THIS concerned just don’t use it.
I sure don’t. I’m simply needed to point out my own inconsistencies since I still run healthbars.
It’s simple as that. Maybe FS makes a change through policies in the future. Maybe they don’t.
I’m not super pressed about this particular kind of thing in a PvE game.
No problem, I was just addressing the OP being Sheldon Cooper-level specific about the TOS on it when they should just not use the Mod if they think it’s a cheating concern.
Oh I know. Again with the tone thing on my end.
Just letting people know there’s an approach with no stress to this which is:
It’s out of your control. Don’t lose sleep over it. Even within the context of the game itself there are much bigger fish to fry.
Yeah, 100% agreed! Fatshark doesn’t care about anything other players can’t directly notice as cheating because they’re already busy trying to win back the community and fix the game’s issues.
They don’t have the time or interest in doing so for every mod. If they really don’t like a mod, they’ll let people know before banning anyone, and will probably do something to break it on their end.
Generally, it helps to keep in mind what this game really is. It’s a trip to virtual Warhammerland that funds itself through a single large lifetime admission charge and then by selling players outfits for their e-dolls to cosplay in. What FS wants to avoid is stuff that will sour those experiences for others or do something to that cash flow. Having someone be a second or two better at a minor mini-game element that just helps the team along a bit better without otherwise affecting anyone’s play experience isn’t something that harms others or interrupts the cash flow, so FS doesn’t have much reason to upset about it.
Have they said this anywhere?? Because that would obviously answer my concerns with their statement on mods.
Aww, bless your little heart. I don’t have the time nor the crayons to explain the topic to you, but I appreciate the bump.
They haven’t removed the height changer mod which utilises Fatshark’s own API hooks to their server to make the change and is actually visible to other players (but unless you knew what their height was before you couldn’t tell the difference and is effectively no different to deleting a character and remaking it with a different height).
But to assuage your concerns a bit, there are some Fatshark devs active in the modding discord who have been providing some scripting and codebase info in addition to keeping an eye on developments.