Using mods in multiplayer games is a contentious issue, especially if those mods are completely cosmetic. With the exception of a few games, field-of-view adjustments aren’t going to bring the house down. Unless it’s GTA V, in which case Rockstar might just ban you for two weeks, if you happen take your enhanced peripheral vision online.
Sure, if you’re flying around, spawning money on people, you might want to take your antics elsewhere, despite how altruistic your intentions are. But tweaking a graphics setting? That’s on the more debatable side.
Over on Reddit, a thread entitled “GTA Online Ban MEGATHREAD” contains stories of player bans, ranging from the justified to the slightly more mysterious. Obviously, honesty is an issue when it comes to these things, but there are more than a few reports of online patrons being handed suspensions for the use of a FOV mod.
Here’s the email Rockstar is sending to suspect players (via aust_b):
Receiving generous donations from players who are cheating is enough to warrant a ban (which is fair enough), so Rockstar is able to discern when someone isn’t breaking the rules themselves, but has benefited from another who has.
I guess the message here is to turn off any mods you might be running before switching to multiplayer. Oh, and don’t accept cash from levitating strangers.
GTA Online Ban MEGATHREAD [Reddit]
Comments
57 responses to “Looks Like Rockstar Will Ban You From GTA V For Using A FOV Mod”
Wouldn’t it be easier if they just made mods disable automatically
NO! Sure it would be easier, but that’s a terrible idea.
For online only i mean
Mods aren’t officially supported by the game, so probably not. I imagine it’s a lot easier to automatically work out whether a person’s game has been modified when online than it is to automatically reverse-reverse engineer whatever that person did to mod it in the first place.
If they can detect that a user is using mods why don’t they just use those parameters or whatever and just block them from using online until they remove the mods?
It appears that people are getting banned after the fact, not during, which would mean that their detection is not happening at the time the person is playing online with mods. This would mean that the person would be free to use the mod until they are detected, which would be more than enough time to fuck with people. And with the only punishment being that they can’t go online until that particular mod is disabled, it really isn’t going to be a deterrent.
Rock Stars rules are stated in the EULA. People need to learn how to read things before blindly clicking agree.
As for the FOV mod getting people banned, good. If you have deeper FOV than other players and you use a sniper rifle… Then guess what? You’re cheating. End of story.
Yeah, those dirty cheaters. People should also be banned for having better PC’s than me. over 100 FPS??? Higher View distance?? You cheater!
Seriously though, it’s nonsense. Players shouldn’t be punished for fixing an issue that Rockstar are too lazy/incompetent to fix themselves – yes it is actually an issue. I’ve never had any trouble with FOV in any game ever, until I tried GTA V in first person on PC. Even at max FOV, it makes me feel dizzy.
This isn’t ‘gaining an advantage,’ it’s fixing what should be considered a bug (but apparently isn’t because Rockstar can’t be bothered). The official answer is apparently “The engine can’t handle higher FOV” ….. that’s rubbish, as proven by the mods getting people banned.
Draw distance affects non player assets only, player draw distance is universal regardless of graphics settings.
The game is 3rd person, if a tacked on feature added for fun is making you sick, the solution is blatantly obvious.
It was a balance issue, people were using the FOV slider to gain an advantage over players who didn’t use it.
R* has said nothing officially, people are just making up shit.
The obvious statement that is being conveyed without words is “No mods” which is an extension of the TOS everyone has ignored.
GTA has never supported mods ever, they only tolerated them because they didn’t affect other players. R* have become more active in stopping mods since multiplayer has become an option.
Note: If this comment ever shows up, it’s not new (it was about the first thing I wrote on this article). It’s just been under moderation for hours, I assume because of the links.
Except it’s not just a ‘tacked on feature added for fun.’ It’s a feature that was advertised with the PS4/Xbox One versions (the PC version is supposed to be better), it even tells you to use First Person within the first 5 minutes of the story mode (the forced tutorial), rather than leaving it up to the player the figure out like other fun gimmicky features.
Also, gimmick or not, it’s a feature that makes multiple people worldwide feel sick. That’s a fault with the game, not the players.
http://i.imgur.com/PKxUFtT.png
Just one I found with a 2 minute search. There were others I found earlier, one talking specifically about FOV mods – although the support staff essentially said while they didn’t actually know what FOV was, it should be fine as it was a graphical mod. Looking for the post now..
EDIT: Here is another, slightly less positive one: http://i.imgur.com/KiFx2bU.png
It seems like they have no specific problem with mods like FOV changing, but the mods that change FOV require editing in the same way that money/character hacking does – which is constantly checked/auto-banned for.
Higher FOV does result in an advantage though. A FOV of 120 lets you see more than an FoV of 75.
A player with constant 60fps has an advantage over one with 5fps, a player playing at 4k has an advantage over one playing in 800×600. Should we therfore cap all players at 800×600/5fps in order to keep things ‘fair?’
That wouldn’t make for a very fun game.
With current technology (and considering what it takes to run the game on PC in the first place), the advantage given by any of these settings (including FOV) is extremely minor and (especially in the case of FOV) suffers from diminishing returns due to technical limitations.
For example, 120 FOV like you said will let you see more than 75 but it’s still condensed into the same space. Playing at 120 FOV on most monitors will just cause a fisheye effect – usually not a great advantage. Unless you have on of those awesome set ups with 180 degree views, in which case yeah you’ve got an advantage but fair enough.
It’s a standard graphical option that really should be included in any game that includes a First-person view, and a cap of 75(?) really isn’t good enough.
You sound like Lance Armstrong – I had to cheat because others were doing it too!
What? When did I ever mention it being about fairness with other players? I infact said the opposite…
I was saying it’s a standard option in PC gaming that should’ve been there to begin with. To use your analogy (but more accurately), I’m essentially arguing that I had to cheat by putting a custom wheel on my bike because the race organisers thought all the bikes should only get 1.
You are strawmanning the argument.
Mods have no relevance on the difference between a player running graphics on low and another with a powerful computer. Neither of those players are breaking the rules by doing either.
I agree that R* should look at improving FOV, but those who used modifications to achieve it themselves are no less guilty of breaking the rules regardless of reasons.
But if R* decides not to change anything, that’s their game and choice, platform standards have no relevance.
Ridiculous. FOV sliders are standard in FPS PC games these days, they significantly reduce motion sickness in the player base. It’s not cheating, it’s a graphics option. Period.
You know, you don’t actually have to say ‘period’ when your sentence is finished.
A good old full stop will do just as well 😛
And a period doesn’t actually end much. Menopause is the real full stop.
When my girlfriend says “period”, I know to keep my mouth shut.
Haha… I was just thinking the other day how annoying it is when people write “and that is all” as if they stopped writing, i would have known it and I would have read 4 less words. I don’t like reading so those words are an effort.
In the case of Mannotron, the end of the post is “. Period.” or period period period, so maybe they aren’t finished and they are pausing for dramatic effect as in “I have something exciting to say…”
GTA isn’t a FPS, everything is built around 3rd person with 1st person tacked on later for fun.
People should speak with R* to expand on FOV options, not break the rules and cry afterward, period fullstop smiley face
You sound like a blast at parties.
“WAAAAH, BREAKING THE RULES, WHERES MY MUMMY!?”
The “rules” also told us that black people shouldn’t use the same facilities as white people, but yeah, lets just bend for the dumbest rules on the face of the planet cause someone told us to
while gta 5 is a 3rd person game, the fps option is definately not a tacked on feature. the FPS option is almost up to par with Arma 3 in how well the animations and options are. its more of an FPS than far cry.
I’m afraid it is.
All the animations and details existed before 1st person was added, you simply get to see them from a different perspective.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun feature. By placing the camera in the eye region you get a pure 1st person view that still benefits from all the little details the game has. Most of the options relate to removing the crippling limitations, sickness from rag dolling, swapping to 3rd while driving etc.
You don’t understand how first-person works. You need an entire new set of animations, textures, and the like to be able to add first-person to a usually third-person game. It’s not just simply moving the camera to the position of the character’s eyes, there’s a lot of work associated. Just ask the modders who added first-person to saints row. All the arms and guns as well as the insides of vehicles would be pixelated messes if you only moved the camera since none of that is ever meant to bee seen until you try to add first-person. Take a look at this article with quotes from R* when first-person was initially released http://ign.com/articles/2014/11/04/grand-theft-auto-v-a-new-perspective
FOV is an issue for many who experience motion sickness in games. Being unable to change FOV has made a few otherwise great games unplayable for me.
That’s a problem but higher FoV results in an advantage.
If it’s an available option, then anyone can choose it…
That’s like saying having the brightness set correctly has an advantage over me a black screen – no shit, but I have the power to fix that. All settings/options can give advantages if you set them correctly over someone who has no clue, people shouldn’t be limited because of that.
And likewise (I assume this was your point) that altering FOV is not something that is a setting, therefore it is a cheat.
Many games have a time rewind function, you can’t mod that into this game (even if it was a possibility) and say it’s fair.
i dont have 30+ days per year to read all the EULAs that affect me each year
This is retarded. Next we’ll only be allowed to play during certain times of the day.
Or only if you dont have mods installed (Aka a clean game)
Yeah cause then the game police will come knockin’!
I imagine total biscuit has started a hunger strike over this. Won’t someone please think of the FOV sliders???
Heh, nice! Well, 30 minutes of his 45 minute review will be devoted to this. And his entire review of the product will hinge entirely on this one facet, irrespective of how the game plays, or compares to other versions. Then (if it’s even a slightly negative review or worse), he’ll lament about how this is representative of the state of gaming today.
Don’t get me wrong, I think FOV sliders are critical to gaming, but I’m just not ready to hop up on my cross in an act of self-important indulgence because of it.
“Using mods in multiplayer games is a contentious issue, especially if those mods are completely cosmetic”
I don’t think this sentence says what you want it to…
I think it’s sarcasm.
Rockstar should just extend the fov slider to 110 then no one is “cheating” and people playing 1st person can have a more comfortable experience.
A SENSIBLE REPLY. GET OFF THE INTERTUBES!
Exactly, people should of engaged R*
This after the fact anger is annoying
Yeah, but how many people are sick of impotent rage and years of devs not listening to the consumer (Infinity Ward, anyone)? Modding ‘fixes’ are often the main recourse for consumers to comment on the parts of the game the dev got ‘wrong’ or missed the mark on. Yeah, they have to restrict mods for MP, that’s just sensible, but saying FOV mods give an advantage is a strawman argument. While technically correct, the advantage is minimal and more importantly, if a player is reliant on an FOV mod to compete, as opposed to the situational awareness required to play these games, then they’re in for a long, arduous time of sucking at that game.
THAT is the correct solution to the problem.
I think they don’t because all the vehicle interiors have been designed with the FOV limit they have now, and it’ll take months to redo all of them. It sucks for people getting ill, but I don’t think they’ll change it.
Well.. It is online, any mod online should be 100% banable.
I dont play games made in 2013 anyway!! You guys still play GTA 5? sorry GTA V
How bad is the FOV at default? what can it be adjusted to in game? I must say my first ever time I adjusted a FOV was Black ops 2. Id owned FPS shooter for ages B4 that, but I never did very good. I mean I did alright, but never got good at rekkin ppl
I then met a few dudes in game on Blops 2 and was saying how im loosing gunfights cause I cant see ppl well. he said whats ur FOV. Im like whats that lol.
So i changed that to like 85 and since then I been rekkin kiddies.
I don’t see why people are acting surprised that this is happening. Sure, the FOV is obviously an issue, and Rockstar should do be doing something to give people the option to fix it. But people modding the game themselves and then going online with it, regardless of their intentions, are violating the EULA (technically just modifying it in the first place is violating it, but Rockstar is smart enough not to pursue people over this as long as they don’t go online with it). And while changing the FOV really isn’t going to be used to give one player an advantage over the other, the fact is that people are using modified versions of the game online, and it isn’t the job of Rockstar to confirm that every single person using a mod online is doing so in a way that can’t affect other players (in fact, I imagine doing this for even one person would be a bit of a nightmare, as you can’t really determine intention through automation).
The online in this game is so pathetic as is. Its amazing that you can have online this bad in a game released in 2015.
Also can anyone tell me why its not ok to cheat money into the game when rockstar has cheats that you can pay for?
I mean ethically of course not legally. Since when has it become ok to purposely gimp the amount of money people get from missions to try and get them to buy fake currency with real currency?
That’s their dlc money. Have you really never encountered a game where you can buy currency?
They used to only be in F2P games, I don’t like seeing it in games I have already paid 60 dollars for.
As someone that was there day one on console when the balance was all screwed, you could make $9k in 2 mins from the contact mission “Violent Duct”. I made around 500k from that before the first balance patch nerfed it to like 3.5k per run.
These days the best way to grind out cash is to get a couple of mates together and keep doing random contact missions. An hour will net you around 100k-200k.
The shark cards sell incredibly well on psn (consistently in their top 10 dlc numbers) and while MS don’t release that data I assume (ass+u+me) it does ok on their platforms as well. While you may not want them in your games, it makes it easier for those that are time poor or dont actually want to invest the time to keep up with us that can/do want to invest the time.
Personally I feel like the jobs pay a little under what they should (especially races), but know it’s not that bad compared to when a mission didn’t even pay out more than the cost of the ammo/armor you used (yes that was a thing).
It just reminds me of Forza how they balance the race payouts on what will make them the most money not what makes their game the most fun.
Its a real shame.
I know that was said, but after racing for around 10 hours I had enough to buy the lotus f1/kart car. Forza didn’t seem to me to be unfairly balanced (to me). It might have, if I’d kept playing the low class races in order.
Just because some other companies do bad thing, doesn’t give others free pass to do bad thing.
I think another thing people are getting pissy about with Rockstar is that they are banning some people who have never touched Online and only play SP. Rockstar are automatically banning anyone with any unknown .dll files in the games directory i.e. scripthook.
Alex Blade, the guy behind Scripthook and the Native Trainer has made his latest release automatically quit the game if his mod is installed so the only way to go online is to delete his mod from the GTA V directory, but the issue with that is that other modders and decompile the code and make it so that it’s available online.
PC version was always going to have their unfair share of hackers and cheaters, it’s one of the unfortunate downsides to PC gaming. A way to appease both modders and online players would be to separate SP and MP into two downloads, MP would only be a quarter to half the size of SP, SP can still be modded freely and MP can be strictly enforced.
So if I never want to play online anyway this will not affect me in any way.
Good to know.
The game needs more built-in FOV sliders. The first-person FOV in vehicles is pretty claustrophobic and makes me feel a little nauseous after 15-20 minutes, which sucks because I actually want to play the whole game in first-person; its got such a different feeling in FP (already finished it twice on consoles.)
I was thinking, would you get a higher FOV if you had one of those ULTRA-WIDE screens? or does the game expand everything to fit? (would look amazingly ugly).,
You would indeed. You can also tell the game to run at 21:9 in a config for a slightly higher fov without it being cheating
1. Delayed a year and a half for no particularly good reason
2. Had the audacity to charge 60 dollars for a year and a half old game
3. Bans any use of mods because god forbid you upset the in game economy and prevent Rockstar from sucking even more money out of you
I’m actually shocked that they have the balls to jerk around the customer like this. This is a whole new level entirely.