Just recently, Blizzard released the highly anticipated patch 1.12 in “Overwatch.” While it is true that the studio has been very honest about the changes introduced via the update, they still surprised the community with a significant change. The latter basically affects players who are fond of using aim-bot software.
“Overwatch” aimbots have been around as far back as players can remember. As a matter of fact, there has been a steady rise of players using this system in the game. Of course, this completely affects the overall gameplay experience and thus Blizzard decided to make a move.
Now, thanks to the update, these aimbot users will be nothing but a memory of the past.
How aimbots work and how Blizzard disabled them
In its most organic form, an aimbot system works using an image-recognition feature. This basically means the usage of red outlines of enemy players for targeting. Once this process happens, the system then helps players by increasing the probability of hitting opponents. Apparently though, this has become a huge exploit in the game that gave birth to hundreds, if not thousands, of aimbot programs.
Unfortunately for them, they are all but rendered useless in “Overwatch” courtesy of Blizzard. The aforementioned outlines of enemies have changed in color, something that should happen after every match.
As a result, the image-recognition system becomes obsolete, rendering an aimbot program totally useless. It holds true, though, that some of these tools utilize certain RGB values to achieve accuracy. However, despite targeting a specific range of these values, this still becomes inaccurate in the long run. The change the studio introduced directly affects an aimbot’s capability of understanding either outlines or RGB value.
The fight is not over
While “Overwatch” fans have every reason to celebrate, the fight against aimbot programs is not yet done. It should be noted that some of these do not necessarily utilize image-recognition. Why? That is because some of them resort to developing the program’s core through code. As a result, distinguishing and countering them becomes a struggle.
Nevertheless, Blizzard vows to battle these exploiters and/or cheaters. As a matter of fact, bans have been implemented to convey the studio’s disgust towards this unacceptable behavior.
The video game company promises the “Overwatch” community continuity and a fairer gameplay experience. Many believe that these are all important objectives, considering how influential the game has become in the eSports scene. As the studio obviously does not want to infect these competitions with aimbot users, punishing these exploiters is a must.
