4,621 Rust players banned by new anti-cheat software

Naked cavemen can't fly, or at least, they shouldn't fly. In multiplayer survival sim Rust, nudity is encouraged, but using software to disrespect gravity, walls, or augment a human's natural aiming ability is punishable by permanent ban. CheatPunch, a new anti-cheat system described in yesterday's update notes , has already detected and banned 4,621 players.

CheatPunch currently only monitors official servers and unofficial servers which choose to run it, but Facepunch Studios implies that it will be mandatory—"We're testing it out on our official servers to make sure it all works before forcing it on everyone else." Bans will be permanent and there will be no appeals.

"If you get kicked from the official servers with the message that you've been banned then you have been caught," reads the post. "You're a naughty boy. You know what you have done. You won't get unbanned. We know it was your 9 year old cousin. We know your computer got hijacked. We know that the CIA is getting you banned from all your games on Steam so you will join them in the hunt for aliens."

Despite kicking nearly 5,000 players, Facepunch calls CheatPunch a "stop-gap solution" and says it's "not hard to get around."

"We fully expect cheats to be touted as 'CheatPunch proof' quite soon," reads the post. "That's cool. We're never going to be finished fighting."

And we may never be finished hitting each other with rocks. At least the 4,621 players banned represents less than one percent of the one million players who own Rust. Assuming the software makes accurate accusations, the honest majority wins and can continue to torture and murder each other in peace.