Warhammer: Vermintide 2 developer responds on Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux with Proton

Funny how Valve keeps silence about its own CEG DRM which brakes several old games.


Last edited by chelobaka on 28 September 2021 at 10:31 am UTC

I hope they enable it, I enjoyed Vermintide 1 and look forward to trying Vermintide 2 once they enable Proton access.

I don't think many developers will have an issue enabling the feature so long as they can explicitly state they aren't supporting it and for the community to accept that, though I am not certain what the actual legal position is (presumably different on a per country basis)?

I expect this to be a very common stance on it, especially from the bigger devs. We shall be happy if they enable it, but beyond that we're on our own.

And quite frankly I'm fine with that.

I never understood why a coop game needs anti cheat in the first place...

I never understood why a coop game needs anti cheat in the first place...

So you can be better than your friend...!

;)

Well, what is it worth, if they don't officially support it running via Proton?
Let's say they enable it, interested people try it, but get banned? Or will you just be disconnected?
From Destiny 2 we know people don't just get disconnect but get banned.
If they don't support people playing via Linux and Proton and don't lift bans of people who get banned... who will play it then?
Yes, the Steam Deck might change the situation, as it could become a viable "platform"... but with the statement above, I'm worried that the EAC situation might not improve after all.

Me reading the title: Really? That’s cool.
Me reading the statement: eh. Not as cool as I thought. Better than nothing, of course but eh.

Well, what is it worth, if they don't officially support it running via Proton?
Let's say they enable it, interested people try it, but get banned? Or will you just be disconnected?
From Destiny 2 we know people don't just get disconnect but get banned.
If they don't support people playing via Linux and Proton and don't lift bans of people who get banned... who will play it then?
Yes, the Steam Deck might change the situation, as it could become a viable "platform"... but with the statement above, I'm worried that the EAC situation might not improve after all.

I think what they're saying here is that they're investigating NOT banning/kicking people for playing via Proton. BUT, they won't "support" issues you have getting the game running. So if you have a stuttery experience, low performance, broken shaders, etc, then that's tough luck. But crucially, they WILL "support" (they mean "accept", I think) your Proton anti-cheat and let you join in, assuming you can get the game to work.

From my experiences of playing Vermintude 2 when I got back to my Linux PC, this will be fine. The game plays perfectly out of the box in single player. However, you are disconnected (even from a single player "server") when it tries to update your character's experience.

So basically, you can play all the missions you want, but only with a starting character - you can never progress.

This is similar to the earlier situation with Killing Floor 2, where their anti-cheat prevented you from levelling up, even though you could play the game itself.

That's good news.
This game was the ONLY reason I booted up Windows in the last year for a game.

Just be aware that Fatshark is one of the slowest developers out there when it comes to fixing stuff & communication.
So... any result here is likely to take a while.

I think what they're saying here is that they're investigating NOT banning/kicking people for playing via Proton. BUT, they won't "support" issues you have getting the game running. So if you have a stuttery experience, low performance, broken shaders, etc, then that's tough luck. But crucially, they WILL "support" (they mean "accept", I think) your Proton anti-cheat and let you join in, assuming you can get the game to work.

I hope it'll be this way. So you don't get banned, or if you get banned accidentally they'll realize it's a false positive and lift it again, and will be independent to the fact you got the running on Linux.
I trust Proton pretty much nowadays to get games working well, so it wouldn't really be an issue to run the game itself. If it doesn't work, I guess Valve will make it work soon enough as there is probably enough interest in the game, that it needs EAC.

Maybe I misinterpreted it, thought it read as they will get the EAC working but wont say its a game that's supported on linux, like no steamplay/linux icon. There for no support for linux users for the game.
No different then it is now just with EAC enabled.

I think their statement very clearly shows why Epic (correctly) chose to make this opt-in.

Nice, I stopped playing because I had to boot into windows to play it. I hope they tick that check box so I can play again

Mmmm...

Whilst we wish it could be done in a couple of clicks, realistically we require dedicated resource, planning and QA to ensure it runs as seamlessly as possible.

This has me worried... Not for this game, but for other devs who won't want to engage with Proton in any way, because of this. They might just tell Steam Deck users to install Windows on it. That's why we will probably never see the likes of Fortnite on SteamOS 3.0.

Proton is supposed to be Valve's responsability, as per "Valves's marketing".

Let's hope I'm wrong.

I'd say... just wait and see what happens. There might be a bigger shift than they expect and then change their stance.

To me the translation of the statement is:

"It's not going to happen."

I don't quite understand why they are invoking the need for resources, planning and QA for an unsupported use case.

Funny how Valve keeps silence about its own CEG DRM which brakes several old games.

If I had to guess, I'd figure that they're trying for an ongoing trickle of announcements right up to release, to keep buzz going. And, if I were them, I'd hold announcements about stuff that was more under my control until later, because hiccups and delays are less likely. So it's distinctly possible they already have that working but they're keeping it quiet to slot into a slow news week closer to release.

Or, maybe, someone behind the scenes is finding that what they thought was going to be an easy fix turned out to be a rat's nest and they're desperately trying to get it ready in time . . .

Mmmm...

Whilst we wish it could be done in a couple of clicks, realistically we require dedicated resource, planning and QA to ensure it runs as seamlessly as possible.

This has me worried... Not for this game, but for other devs who won't want to engage with Proton in any way, because of this. They might just tell Steam Deck users to install Windows on it. That's why we will probably never see the likes of Fortnite on SteamOS 3.0.

I think that's a valid worry . . . but probably not for games as big as Fortnite. I mean, I think that the difficulty of doing this doesn't really scale much with the "size" of the game, whereas both the potential sales from doing it and the chance of Valve taking a specific interest and talking directly to the makers do.
So what I'm saying is, is it worth clicking those buttons and doing a few tests for a couple thousand dollars in Linux sales? Maybe not. Is it worth clicking those buttons and doing a few tests for a couple tens of millions in Linux sales? You'd think. Is it worth it for those millions plus making your lunch with the Valve representative more cheerful? Probably.

I think they just mean the regular EAC SDK update that requires QA and testing.
Probably not gonna test linux specifically.