Modding/cheats in private game lobbies allowed? (Dev Question)

[LordZarmack]

Just thought i'd ask directly. Is modding or using any cheats in your own private games with friends allowed or is not?

I've seen many articles/posts *and now some youtube vids* but nothing definitive and seems to be generally shunned If used to ruin or troll public lobbies, to which I would clearly state I have no intent to do so and would strongly be against.

I understand a dev response is unlikely but would be ideal for clarification. Given the games PVE nature and private lobby ability I would assume we could mod the game for friends without any risk of repercussions or is this not so?

"An official response only at this point", thanks.

[Shurenai]

LordZarmack님이 먼저 게시:

Shurenai님이 먼저 게시:

Ya'll want official word? The EULA you agreed to the first time you launched the game expressly forbids modifying the game in several ways.


Relevant parts bolded. 2.1.8 (ii) specifically is bit of a catch all that could/would bring the rules listed on the Official Phasmophobia discord that state not to modify the game in as well, as those rules were supervised made and posted by the owning company, Kinetic Games.

Fact is that, as things currently stand, Modifying the game, even in Private lobbies, will still impact the server that everything is hosted on- And that impacts everyone, Not just your private lobby. This may change in the future, But currently, It's not allowed, Private lobby or otherwise.

I hate to tell you but modifying software in general "Aka: modding more ghosts in or changing how they work or function, changing graphical settings or visuals" is legal providing it does not infringe on the product or any other products copyright end of. You cant legally reprimand "Modders" for modding something they bought and paid for to host on their own rig, on their own Ip or used in singleplayer. A company can only deny them access to official servers and that is up to the devs.

As of yet, nothing to date has happened to my knowledge and no definitive stance has been taken but If your literally telling me that the devs would ban people for modding their own private lobbies, with friends who consent and are not using them on public lobbies or with intent to troll, greif or ruin other players experience, I would tell you to go have a deep, long look at the steam workshop and rethink your point.

ps: I wont be replying to any more "You cant mod this game" posts and explaining how modding works or the legality/ eula of it all and I will wait and hope someone official responds, and btw. Have a happy new year.

There is no private server hosted on your own rig or paid for to host on your rig. ALL servers are run on the official servers, Publicly facing or Private and invite only.

The only thing in the entire game that is currently fully client side with no internet connection to the main server required is the new Singleplayer option.

So yes, If you mod your Private lobby, which is hosted on the Official servers, The devs can indeed act upon your decision to compromise the stability of the whole, as you would potentially be causing damages and disruption to players NOT in your private server.


The workshop is great; And when a game is built for it, it's awesome.

But Phasmophobia is not built for it. It's not built to be modded at this time.

It's expressly stated NOT to be modded by the developers.
It's expressly stated NOT to be modded in the EULA, Repeatedly.
It's expressly requested/stated NOT to be modded in the official discord.

If you act in blind defiance to all of that, Then yes, Kinetic Games would be well within it's rights to bar you from the server entirely for your actions; And almost certainly within it's rights to rescind your license to the game for EULA violation. Because, again, You modding a private lobby is NOT modding a private server that only would affect you and your friends.


You asked for info, You've been given info, yet keep refusing it, despite it all coming from official sources. Go tweet at cjdxn or DKnighter on twitter, Maybe you'll get a response. But it's going to be the same answer you've been given a number of times in this thread.

Anywho, Happy new years.

[LordZarmack]

I don't use or have a twitter account and no, your wrong on multiple things you've said there. Not going to bait me into engaging with yourself on that topic any further lad when I told you I did not wish to because you are not a official source of information, move along.

[Something Hank]

The devs or anyone tightly wound on the game will go "never even change one texture it'll crash the entire servers, burn your friends computers AND ♥♥♥♥ your mom!"

So like, just mod and cheat engine if you want to, man.

[LordZarmack]

Something Hank님이 먼저 게시:

The devs or anyone tightly wound on the game will go "never even change one texture it'll crash the entire servers, burn your friends computers AND ♥♥♥♥ your mom!"

So like, just mod and cheat engine if you want to, man.

Yup that's the conclusion I've come to, would be nice to get a dev response but after going over some Q&A's it's pretty clear to me the other commenters on this post are just being disingenuous and repeating the same old rhetoric we got from sony and fatshark fans when they were giving us crap over modding total war or vermintide. Ain't got time for that -

Looked at multiple youtube vids now and there's been no action taken against anyone modding or cheating in private lobbies so that's that. I don't have any plans to do so but if you cant even discuss a texture mods or mods that make the game harder and more immersive/scary and difficult on the discord whats the bloody point joining it.

[The Loathsome Catt poster]

Do you bro, ToS is for toliet paper and plenty of other multiplayer games alloy you to do whatever you want in private lobbys, have fun you own the game do with it as you please

[Hexerin]

datCookie님이 먼저 게시:

https://imgur.com/a/IIZ5pTP

As I continue to have my perception of this game's devs (especially CJ) further reinforced. Imagine being so aggressively hostile to your customers.

[datCookie]

Hexerin님이 먼저 게시:

datCookie님이 먼저 게시:

https://imgur.com/a/IIZ5pTP

As I continue to have my perception of this game's devs (especially CJ) further reinforced. Imagine being so aggressively hostile to your customers.

How is this being "aggressively hostile"?

As explained by many of us in this thread (ignored by OP), mods destabilise the game server. When you host a public or private lobby, you still use the same server as everyone else. You're not creating your own server to play on.

They have these rules because they don't want people modding their game in its current state as it may potentially cause server wide issues for everybody.

If and when the game has proper mod support in the future, I'd expect these rules to be specific to hacking/cheating only.

[Lone Strider]

datCookie님이 먼저 게시:

No, using mods/cheats of any kind are not allowed for various reasons. They can and will mess up your game files and the files of anyone in your own lobby. No help will be provided to those who have issues arise due to this.

Anyone caught cheating/modding risk being game banned.

Yes, this includes private lobbies.

This is a joke right, like you do know that what you stated isn't correct.

[LordZarmack]

Princess Tinkle Panties님이 먼저 게시:

Do you bro, ToS is for toliet paper and plenty of other multiplayer games alloy you to do whatever you want in private lobbys, have fun you own the game do with it as you please

aye I know, I just wanted to double check after I heard and saw some twitch streamers being very careful about glitches and got a strong "Dead island case" vibe you know- were everyone got yeeted for simply using mods until the devs realised vac banning people for using a mod on a singleplayer game or privately with friends is completely unethical and beyond unacceptable... Pve games should never punish people for modding them with the exception of people using them on public servers to greif people (like blocking doors/ getting people killed deliberately etc)

I have no doubt this game will get full mod support in the end as no game ever lasts without it..... i'm alredy starting to find it boring and repetitive, let alone the fact I hate not being able to attack the ghost. Playing some passive coward who has no means to attack the ghost is already annoying me... first mod should be players can banish/kill the ghost using a cursed object or crucifix/ mirror, Constantine style.....more so when the ghost is in a physical form you should be able to attack it physically.

I cant get into this mindset that your some passive, useless npc who can only get killed or hide. It aint how it should be.... still, Il get on it time to time because my wife likes it.

[SiEgE]

LordZarmack님이 먼저 게시:

"An official response only at this point", thanks.

You won't get any, here. Except when it comes to game breaking bugs. If you want direct answers - contact devs on their official Discord channel.

With that out of the way..

LordZarmack님이 먼저 게시:

Just thought i'd ask directly. Is modding or using any cheats in your own private games with friends allowed or is not?

I've seen many articles/posts *and now some youtube vids* but nothing definitive and seems to be generally shunned If used to ruin or troll public lobbies, to which I would clearly state I have no intent to do so and would strongly be against.

I understand a dev response is unlikely but would be ideal for clarification. Given the games PVE nature and private lobby ability I would assume we could mod the game for friends without any risk of repercussions or is this not so?

For as long as cheating is happening at isolated lobbies and/or with your close friends not being against you cheating - you do whatever you want. You'll get no repercussions whatsoever. The game has no anti-cheat, so you're completely safe.

You can only be banned from participating in private lobby plays at the official Discord channel. If you care not to play with trolls/cheaters - you might wanna try it out.

[Pepper Pimienta]

LordZarmack님이 먼저 게시:

Just thought i'd ask directly. Is modding or using any cheats in your own private games with friends allowed or is not?

I've seen many articles/posts *and now some youtube vids* but nothing definitive and seems to be generally shunned If used to ruin or troll public lobbies, to which I would clearly state I have no intent to do so and would strongly be against.

I understand a dev response is unlikely but would be ideal for clarification. Given the games PVE nature and private lobby ability I would assume we could mod the game for friends without any risk of repercussions or is this not so?

"An official response only at this point", thanks.

You are allowed to use Mods/cheats in private lobbies with Friends or playing solo Don't Listen to most the people ranting in here that are against Modding and Cheating Most Don't even know that its the hacks that cause the issues with the servers not the mods Basically most players that are so against using mods don't know there is a Difference between Hacks/cheats and Mods But to my understanding its just frowned upon by the developers and mostly is only for those that play public lobbies so you should be safe.

[BrackObama2]

A lot has been said, so I won't repeat what others told. However this year we will receive updates regarding custom games. So you could choose whatever you want, how long hunts last, grace periods, starting sanity, bunch and bunch of others options, so maybe at some point there will be no need to mod your lobbies ans there will be enough options to create a lobby that you and your friends want to play.

[datCookie]

Star Dust Moonasaku님이 먼저 게시:

LordZarmack님이 먼저 게시:

Just thought i'd ask directly. Is modding or using any cheats in your own private games with friends allowed or is not?

I've seen many articles/posts *and now some youtube vids* but nothing definitive and seems to be generally shunned If used to ruin or troll public lobbies, to which I would clearly state I have no intent to do so and would strongly be against.

I understand a dev response is unlikely but would be ideal for clarification. Given the games PVE nature and private lobby ability I would assume we could mod the game for friends without any risk of repercussions or is this not so?

"An official response only at this point", thanks.

You are allowed to use Mods/cheats in private lobbies with Friends or playing solo Don't Listen to most the people ranting in here that are against Modding and Cheating Most Don't even know that its the hacks that cause the issues with the servers not the mods Basically most players that are so against using mods don't know there is a Difference between Hacks/cheats and Mods But to my understanding its just frowned upon by the developers and mostly is only for those that play public lobbies so you should be safe.

None of us here are against modding as a concept and also perfectly understand how great real modding can be in games.

We're saying that modding your game isnt safe because the developers themselves have said so, for the reasons constantly repeated.

My information regarding action taken against players may have been incorrect, which is fine. However, my information regarding the use of mods IS correct, as this information is found on their official discord.

[datCookie]

Lone Strider님이 먼저 게시:

datCookie님이 먼저 게시:

No, using mods/cheats of any kind are not allowed for various reasons. They can and will mess up your game files and the files of anyone in your own lobby. No help will be provided to those who have issues arise due to this.

Anyone caught cheating/modding risk being game banned.

Yes, this includes private lobbies.

This is a joke right, like you do know that what you stated isn't correct.

The only part that was incorrect was the game ban. That's my bad.

Everything else is accurate information

[LordZarmack]

cCheerSs님이 먼저 게시:

A lot has been said, so I won't repeat what others told. However this year we will receive updates regarding custom games. So you could choose whatever you want, how long hunts last, grace periods, starting sanity, bunch and bunch of others options, so maybe at some point there will be no need to mod your lobbies ans there will be enough options to create a lobby that you and your friends want to play.

sounds great if it happens, but I do still think the game could benefit from the modding community as it can only bring more people to the game, ensure it's replayability over time and add content that the devs overlook like making it so you can actually "Attack the ghost" and banish it, not just be some helpless victim. Like I say, I'm only playing it because my partner likes it, personally I cant stand this type of game and prefer Hunt showdown for this sort of thing (if at all)