How strict are they on banning?

[Yurivw]

Hello there!
I've heard a lot of talk about banning people for modding their game, I was wondering what the chances are on getting banned when you exclusively play singleplayer. Or even completely disconnect from the internet to play the game.

Say I download a mod, pull out my internet cable and play the game with said mod before removing it again and plugging my cable back in. Would they be able to somehow detect that and ban me despite not going online at all?

Thanks in advance!

[Sky Wizard]

I wouldn't advise it. From the automated cheat detection's point of view you would have gained a lot of cash and exp the instant you log back in. At best you'd just get labelled a hacker (other players would see the word "Hacker" instead of your level.) At worst ...

[Prinny]

if you plan to cheat, then why bother playing with people at all. just play in singleplayer and cheat all you want. Invul? infinite sprint? speed of light? what even is the point. it's like cheating a flying mario for SMB1, just get a refund or something.

if you're truly talking about modding, then you're on your own. nobody can help you mod properly and most of the mods are either silly, sexy or allow more than 4 players in a game... funny how there's only 4 flashlight possible. Naked grandma or sexy nurse ghost is up to you, really... don't complain if the game doesn't work properly because the animation are buggy or you crash nonstop...

about bans... people can ban you regardless of any reason you might think of. if your voice annoys them they can ban you, if you don't use the voice chat they can ban you. any host can ban you for whatever reason they seem fit and no the dev won't punish them because why would he. that's not his job. if people don't like you then that's not his problem.

there is no vac server or official server. this isn't call of duty shootaman. this isn't Rust-admin-abuse, this isn't steam regulated public servers. this is a peer-to-peer player-based online game. meaning the player starts a game and host the other 3 player for however long they wish to. Some streamer do rotation of viewers and stuff, might kick you out if you're not part of their viewers or subscriber or whatever. might ban you if you come back without their consent.
Most people I know start a private lobby with a passcode for their friends. similar to Jacksbox thing.

bans won't show on your account but you wont be able to rejoin that person's lobby for a long time. I don't remember how long it is.

btw, if you don't have the same mod and version of the host you won't be able to play together.


TLDR: ban are given by the host of each lobby, not modos or devs. Mods wont make you banned, just not allow you to play with people unless they also have the same mods.

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by The Prinny:

if you plan to cheat, then why bother playing with people at all. just play in singleplayer and cheat all you want. Invul? infinite sprint? speed of light? what even is the point. it's like cheating a flying mario for SMB1, just get a refund or something.

if you're truly talking about modding, then you're on your own. nobody can help you mod properly and most of the mods are either silly, sexy or allow more than 4 players in a game... funny how there's only 4 flashlight possible. Naked grandma or sexy nurse ghost is up to you, really... don't complain if the game doesn't work properly because the animation are buggy or you crash nonstop...

about bans... people can ban you regardless of any reason you might think of. if your voice annoys them they can ban you, if you don't use the voice chat they can ban you. any host can ban you for whatever reason they seem fit and no the dev won't punish them because why would he. that's not his job. if people don't like you then that's not his problem.

there is no vac server or official server. this isn't call of duty shootaman. this isn't Rust-admin-abuse, this isn't steam regulated public servers. this is a peer-to-peer player-based online game. meaning the player starts a game and host the other 3 player for however long they wish to. Some streamer do rotation of viewers and stuff, might kick you out if you're not part of their viewers or subscriber or whatever. might ban you if you come back without their consent.
Most people I know start a private lobby with a passcode for their friends. similar to Jacksbox thing.

bans won't show on your account but you wont be able to rejoin that person's lobby for a long time. I don't remember how long it is.

btw, if you don't have the same mod and version of the host you won't be able to play together.


TLDR: ban are given by the host of each lobby, not modos or devs. Mods wont make you banned, just not allow you to play with people unless they also have the same mods.

Er.. You're conflating the act of Kicking users from their lobbys with the actual Bans given out by the devs. The devs absolutely can and will ban you for modding/cheating on the live servers.

Also, This game is, in fact, NOT peer to peer. Every game connects to the official Phasmophobia servers. You're correct that the game is not VAC protected, but the devs have their own anti-cheat detection built into the game and action things accordingly.


To the OP, Hypothetically If you only mod in Singleplayer and your modding does not in ANY way affect your level, money, items, etc, You could PROBABLY get away with it. But you should do so with the knowledge that you may well forget you have your mods in some day and load to multiplayer and get banned for it.

The official stance is, No Mods. End of. And bans will be handed out to parties found to be modding- Especially when cheating or harassing other users. Modding the game files in any way is against the terms of the EULA.

If you're willing to risk it for some singleplayer fun, you do you. But I wouldn't recommend it.

[Ratigan]

you're asking in the wrong place. Read whatever skid notes were posted on the skid forum you likely found it on

[Cool Cereal]

The game will detect it regardless at some point and ban you. If you never ever ever plan on playing multiplayer ever, you can try it I guess.

I don’t know what a game ban constitutes (because I don’t have one) so it could extend to single player too.

[GuineaPrince]

Originally posted by Yurivw:

Hello there!
I've heard a lot of talk about banning people for modding their game, I was wondering what the chances are on getting banned when you exclusively play singleplayer. Or even completely disconnect from the internet to play the game.

Say I download a mod, pull out my internet cable and play the game with said mod before removing it again and plugging my cable back in. Would they be able to somehow detect that and ban me despite not going online at all?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, you will get banned for all this.

[Hammer Of Evil]

anti cheat is present in the game, and has been for a few patches now.

there is also a manual flagging review, if an account gets flagged it will get reviewed by the developers/sys admin.

they are very strict, and will not remove a ban once they catch you.

i believe most common cheats and savefile editors will get you banned these days.

you should never attempt to mod/cheat in a game with an anti cheat.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Cool Cereal:

The game will detect it regardless at some point and ban you. If you never ever ever plan on playing multiplayer ever, you can try it I guess.

I don’t know what a game ban constitutes (because I don’t have one) so it could extend to single player too.

Game bans will still allow Singleplayer on Steam. Something something Aussy lawsuit I think?

[Yurivw]

I don't plan on playing multiplayer at all, but I would probably go ballistic if I got a game ban showing on my Steam profile. As for modding I was thinking about silly mods. I remember back before the devs starting banning people for having fun I was playing with a Scooby Doo mod that replaced certain textures. If anything I wanted to try modding the game myself, but I won't bother working on any mods if there is even a small chance I get myself a game ban.

[Cool Cereal]

Originally posted by Yurivw:

I don't plan on playing multiplayer at all, but I would probably go ballistic if I got a game ban showing on my Steam profile. As for modding I was thinking about silly mods. I remember back before the devs starting banning people for having fun I was playing with a Scooby Doo mod that replaced certain textures. If anything I wanted to try modding the game myself, but I won't bother working on any mods if there is even a small chance I get myself a game ban.

Yup even those type of mods would get you banned swiftly and permanently so if you don’t want a game ban you should stay far away from modding.

[Yurivw]

Originally posted by Cool Cereal:

Originally posted by Yurivw:

I don't plan on playing multiplayer at all, but I would probably go ballistic if I got a game ban showing on my Steam profile. As for modding I was thinking about silly mods. I remember back before the devs starting banning people for having fun I was playing with a Scooby Doo mod that replaced certain textures. If anything I wanted to try modding the game myself, but I won't bother working on any mods if there is even a small chance I get myself a game ban.

Yup even those type of mods would get you banned swiftly and permanently so if you don’t want a game ban you should stay far away from modding.

Ah well, I hope they'll one day make a modded mode like Vermintide does, separate from the main progression just so you can have fun with mods.

[Jimmy Hunter]

Originally posted by Yurivw:

Ah well, I hope they'll one day make a modded mode like Vermintide does, separate from the main progression just so you can have fun with mods.

They won't be allowing it because "modding" in this game has meant using every type of cheat and trainer to screw with other players. Otherwise the only things we saw were "more players per lobby", which caused such bad server instability that other players games were crashing left and right.

I'd say it was a case of "The few ruined it for the many", but this time around the cheating and griefing scum decided to flip the phrase around and "The many ruined it for the few". Things might have been different if it wasn't that way, but degenerates on the internet gonna be degenerates.

[ajffizzy]

I see where you're coming from, but I only do it on single player for the giggles and when I'm done cheating, then I'll leave the game so I don't gain XP