Fallout 76 shaping up to be a cheater’s heaven

Bethesda’s latest entry into the Fallout series has, no surprises, a few technical issues. Ones that allegedly will have a serious impact the game’s multiplayer, which is a big problem considering it’s an exclusively multiplayer game.

According to a post on the official subreddit, Fallout 76 has no server checks to verify file integrity, and it sends network traffic in plain text, apparently unencrypted. 

It would appear that Bethesda has decided to save a little money by having large portions of the games multiplayer code running on the client side with the servers just passively shuttling traffic. Unfortunately, this opens the door to all sorts of nasty shenanigans.

Using tools like Wireshark, malicious players could forge packets to enable god mode, give themselves unlimited items, send disconnect commands to other players, or even nab other peoples’ IP addresses. No real hacking experience required. 

Bethesda has responded that they are looking into the issue. In a press release, the company said that “many of the claims in the [Reddit] thread are either inaccurate or based on incorrect assumptions. The community has however called to attention several issues that our teams are already actively tracking and planning to roll out fixes for. Our goal is always to deliver a great experience for all our players. Cheating or hacking will not be tolerated. We know our fan base is passionate about modding and customizing their experience in our worlds and it’s something we intend to support down the road.”

Despite this, mods have already been spotted in the wild that take advantage of the security loopholes in the public beta. Though for their part, Nexus Mods at least has been quick to take them down.

While at best there is only speculation on the cause of the issue, it would seem the underlying problem has to do with how the game is built. Many fans have accused it of being a mod itself for Fallout 4, with 32-player functionality duct taped onto an engine that was never designed for it. Regardless, it could make for some major headaches for the games early adopters. 

Fallout 76 is scheduled to hit retail on November 14th.