It appears that Apex Legends from Respawn and EA has started banning some players on Linux, and while the Steam Deck uses Linux too it seems nearly all the bans were desktop Linux players.
The bans started appearing just before the weekend, and I waited to see what happened here instead of jumping the gun. As we've seen in the past when only a couple mention a ban, it turned out to be actual cheaters. In this case though, more ban reports are gradually appearing on this.
Currently it's not clear what the issue is or what's causing it and the overall number is still really low when talking about the overall Apex player-base, even taking into account the lower amount of players on Linux Desktop and Steam Deck, the number is still pretty small. However, now there's quite a few noting a ban, it's worth perhaps waiting to see what happens if you value your Apex Legends account (especially if you've spent money on it…).
Looking over the reports on the EA Forum, at least one person was using a Steam Deck while the rest were on Desktop Linux and on the GitHub post all reports there were seemingly on Desktop Linux too. Seems the players were using a mixture of different Proton versions too including Proton Experimental and GE-Proton so there's not a clear cause.
Apex Legends uses Easy Anti-Cheat, and they have the support turned on for Linux / Steam Deck with Proton, so this shouldn't happen to legitimate players regardless of how many it is but accidentally bans do happen. It is also a Steam Deck Verified title.
EA is at least looking into it as of a few hours ago, as a Community Manager replied to say they've passed the information on.
I've been playing a good few hours over last night and today with no issue on Steam Deck so far.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: GuestIndie devs: port their games to every platform possible, flawless native linux ports.
AAA studios with billions of dollards profit: wE cAn't aFfOrD LiNUx sUpPoRt uwu
just admit that game industry is full of incompetent useless people managed by greedy billioners. even though you buy all games, you don't support developers. you support upper management's annual paychecks so they buy another yacht size of aircraft carrier
While true on a level we also have to remember that indie devs owns their own games and can make their own decisions. When it comes to AAA studios the devs are not allowed to make any decision like this on their own. And the finance guys that runs the show in AAA studios sees the Linux market as far to little to be worth the effort (compare with say the movie industry where the financiers require that the movie makes 3-4 times the money or they consider it as a flop while a indie movie maker would see anything above production costs as a huge win).
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Quoting: stuffQuoting: SteveFox1620It's pay to win garbage. Why would they care if you pay them on windows or linux?
I don't think Apex is pay 2 win. Why do you think it's pay 2 win?
Simply he doesn't play Apex, or played once got killed immediately and now is a "pay to win"
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fenglengshun Mar 2, 2023
Quoting: GuestIndie devs: port their games to every platform possible, flawless native linux ports.That really doesn't apply in this case. EA and Apex has been (surprisingly) supportive of Linux and it is one of the cases where Linux players also play the game, proving the investment worth it.
AAA studios with billions of dollards profit: wE cAn't aFfOrD LiNUx sUpPoRt uwu
just admit that game industry is full of incompetent useless people managed by greedy billioners. even though you buy all games, you don't support developers. you support upper management's annual paychecks so they buy another yacht size of aircraft carrier
Also, the game does support Linux, it's just an issue of tweaking the parameters to not have false positives -- fundamentally, that's what is about, it could also happen on Windows because of misconfigured parameters. And as much as I hate anti-cheat, you really do need to take it seriously or you reach a state like Tarkov where the sanctity of the gameplay becomes questionable once someone like g0at exposes it.
To be honest, these days the only games that actually doesn't support Linux (as opposed to just anti-cheat blocking them) are probably just random Japanese games with weird codecs and DRM.
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Quoting: GuestQuoting: sarmadCSGO: native linux portQuoting: GuestIndie devs: port their games to every platform possible, flawless native linux ports.
AAA studios with billions of dollards profit: wE cAn't aFfOrD LiNUx sUpPoRt uwu
just admit that game industry is full of incompetent useless people managed by greedy billioners. even though you buy all games, you don't support developers. you support upper management's annual paychecks so they buy another yacht size of aircraft carrier
The issue is real and has nothing to do with greed or incompetency. Indie titles are far less likely to be targetted by cheaters than the big titles, so indie devs don't need to spend much time, if at all, fighting cheaters; for them it's usually just a matter of flipping on the switch in the engine. Big titles on the other hand are usually targetted by a lot of cheaters, and by more sophisticated cheaters and it takes a lot of efforts to fight those on different platforms.
Dota 2: native linux port
Both games are big and targeted by cheaters. but somehow Valve did it, and Gaben didn't go broke. It's possible after all, ey? Not that complicated.
Stop defending greedy publishers and incompetent devs, you don't make any sense.
You are comparing a corporate with another corporate. That's different from the original comment which was comparing indies with big titles indicating that indies can do the job that big corporations are failing to do. I'm not defending big corps, I'm just stating the fact that indies aren't doing the same job as big corporations because they are not faced by the same problem in the first place.
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GaGaGaeland Mar 3, 2023
I posted on the forum, but it might be more visible here.
Update :
Even though EA responded with the meanest message when I appealed my ban :
They started to silently unban people: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/4350#issuecomment-1453575624
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Linux-players-getting-banned/td-p/12338557/page/10
I played a game today and confirmed that I'm no longer banned
Last edited by GaGaGaeland on 3 March 2023 at 9:07 pm UTC
Update :
Even though EA responded with the meanest message when I appealed my ban :
They started to silently unban people: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/4350#issuecomment-1453575624
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Linux-players-getting-banned/td-p/12338557/page/10
I played a game today and confirmed that I'm no longer banned
Last edited by GaGaGaeland on 3 March 2023 at 9:07 pm UTC
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Quoting: GaGaGaelandThey started to silently unban people: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/issues/4350#issuecomment-1453575624
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Linux-players-getting-banned/td-p/12338557/page/10
I played a game today and confirmed that I'm no longer banned
The sticky comment here is interesting, too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/11gaefo/comment/japp3xk/
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InhaleOblivion Mar 7, 2023
Not surprised some behind the scenes update on their anti-cheat caused the bans. Would it hurt to have one of their testers play on a Linux desktop and/or a Steam Deck. /facepalm
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Quoting: stuffQuoting: SteveFox1620It's pay to win garbage. Why would they care if you pay them on windows or linux?
I don't think Apex is pay 2 win. Why do you think it's pay 2 win?
I played with three friends one day. We had 10 matches. I didn't get one kill and neither did they. I shot this one dude like 15 times in the head and he shot me three times and I died. Buddies said the same thing, and we noticed they all had characters and weapons you couldn't find or pick up with out paying for. One of them actually admitted and said they had Heat Sink and Heavy Metal skins or something and that was impossible to lose basically if you bought them. We were like WTF and left. Then we did an online search and found websites stating as such. Just google apex pay to win and they come up with all of it. We have had zero interest to go back and see if they fixed it. Not saying we are the best, or don't ever lose. We do win a lot of rounds in other games, and have good ranks in games that are not pay to win though. EX https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/all-current-pay-to-win-weapon-skins-in-apex-legends
Again, maybe they changed it. I'm not going to waste my time to find out. I'll just play other games.
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Quoting: SteveFox1620Quoting: stuffQuoting: SteveFox1620It's pay to win garbage. Why would they care if you pay them on windows or linux?
I don't think Apex is pay 2 win. Why do you think it's pay 2 win?
I played with three friends one day. We had 10 matches. I didn't get one kill and neither did they. I shot this one dude like 15 times in the head and he shot me three times and I died. Buddies said the same thing, and we noticed they all had characters and weapons you couldn't find or pick up with out paying for. One of them actually admitted and said they had Heat Sink and Heavy Metal skins or something and that was impossible to lose basically if you bought them. We were like WTF and left. Then we did an online search and found websites stating as such. Just google apex pay to win and they come up with all of it. We have had zero interest to go back and see if they fixed it. Not saying we are the best, or don't ever lose. We do win a lot of rounds in other games, and have good ranks in games that are not pay to win though. EX https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/all-current-pay-to-win-weapon-skins-in-apex-legends
Again, maybe they changed it. I'm not going to waste my time to find out. I'll just play other games.
The thread is quite old now, but I just got a message that you replied to me, so I'll reply, too ;)
Just had a small quick research. These "pay to win skins" give a very minor very small edge if any. I think it's so minor that having 250 FPS compared to 120 is an extremely more significant advantage and extremely more expensive to achieve this. I can't reach 250 FPS in Apex, but the ~80-120 I play with feel like I have a potential significant disadvantage. For games like Quake Live and CS:GO it it certainly true that playing on 120FPS is worse that playing on 250. Both on 60Hz, mind you, not even going into the 60Hz vs. 144Hz which is an obvious advantage.
That being said, it seems that there is a small amount of "pay to win" skins that give indeed minimal advantages. Probably these advantages only kick in at the professional level. But for normal players like 99% of the player base it makes no difference, as we need to get better ping, better equipment, better FPS, better training conditions etc., first. Some of those "pay to win"-skins furthermore can be crafted with in game currency (that can be earned by just playing the game). So I could craft 3/4 of the weapon skins I had a short look at. The one I could not craft is the seemingly biggest offender, the Heat Sink. But even If I wanted to buy this skin, I could not, as it's not available to buy in the Shop right now.
Comparison old Heat Sink (pay to win) to default Skin:
https://i.redd.it/8ptwbgkq13w41.png
There is a difference, yes and it is quite obvious. But you want a scope, even 1x (common ground loot), on your gun asap anyways.
But this big offender was changed by the developers to this, to be more in line with the rest (and stop being pay to win):
https://gameriv.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Respawn-is-Removing-Pay-to-Win-Skins-from-Apex-696x392.jpg
Bottom line:
I don't think intention was to create "pay to win" skins, but like cool looking guns. And it just happens that some were unintentionally "pay to win", unfortunately. Probably not completely avoidable when you have different skins and/or models as cosmetic rewards.
edit: Don't know if it's clear. All the differences are just cosmetic. All values (Damage, Recoil, ROF) etc. of the guns are the same, Heat sink or default Flatline. It's about the iron sights, which cover a little bit less of the screen, when aiming down sights. A common ground loot scope improves these iron sights (even the pay to win) to an even level. There are no custom scopes. And the 1x scopes are very common to find.
Last edited by stuff on 23 March 2023 at 8:24 pm UTC
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