Hello vrc devs if you are reading this, I would first like to say I understand where you are coming from for the EAC updates. You are attempting to get a choke hold on hackers without innately removing the players behind the hat, however be it a corporate decision from the higher ups or be it the features of EAC that gotten your appeal I would like to say you made a poor choice, but at least you made one. Now then before I get into the issues EAC made for me and a couple of friends, I would like to talk about an issue I been having pre EAC update that still is present.
For some unknown reason I occasionally can not accept invites, for they would either not appear or appear but without any buttons. This glitch seems to be very rare thankfully, but it goes on for the whole day only temporarily reset by fully closing Vrchat out and reopening it.
Now then the EAC issues, starting with what I personally faced.
While EAC update has improved my ping and occasionally my fps, it has made my fps much more unstable. That’s it for me.
My first friend had faced an issue where ever since she updated Vrchat to the first EAC update her bifactor log in protection on things like her twitch channel and discord were pierced by a random person in Russia, sinking her money like a ship that lost it’s insides entirely. She luckily caught it and it happens if she opens up Vrchat, her main game to stream, mind you. This happens regardless of the world she is in, leading her to distance herself from vrchat and consider not playing at all until the issues are all resolved.
My second friend was trying the beta a bit a couple of days back and then suddenly EAC went off against her midgame. My guess is that EAC compares code and since the good mods let their code be public property you probably copied it (since it’s public property it shouldn’t be marked as illegal but some humans are stubborn), which lead to this incident.
My third friend reacted… poorly to the EAC update. He started ranting about how it won’t protect anyone, and when I tried to get him more reasonable he decided the natural corse of action was to get an avatar ripper client and bypass EAC, something apparently very easy. Within the hour he managed to steal more than 100 avatars in rebellion against you and EAC as well as the other hackers and rippers, a very poor choice. After a bit of convincing he gave up and realized that the ripper raids that were going on were caused by people reacting the same way. Luckily he deleted the downloads, unluckily he’s just one of a mob that chose not to read the update log you sent that said “Hey this is very important please read throughly”. Unfortunately people heard “EAC” and immediately reacted the same way my third friend reacted, not even considering to read the log which actively critiqued EAC and Epic Games and stated that you expected such controversy and heavy of a reaction.
Do note I only want you to acknowledge these issues and hear a solution another company that uses EAC had found, a dual protective system, half EAC half custom. The EAC made sure no conventional cheats were being used, the custom covered the complex and kept the users safe from possible dangers from EAC. This dual protection allows the players to play the game without even realizing there is EAC, I having been such a player until I did a bit of digging on what EAC is. Again, I would like to state I know where you are coming from but that won’t save you from my critique of your actions.
Hoping you acknowledge the issues and consider such a protective system
-Gibb Hartin
Oh, right I forgot I wanted to add additional suggestions.
I would suggest making an official vrchat modding sdk, and inspect the mods for any malicious software before letting them go to an offical vrchat mods page. This lets the mod makers gain fame, keep your public image being “mod friendly” and decrease the current mobs of angry people.
I would also suggest making offical tutorials on how to make entirely custom animations like the stock dance animation, ie legs and arms, primarily due to how confusing the set up is, from my own experience.
Another suggestion could be a menu based “phone”, it could work like the text bubbles, especially seeing how you already have an impressive notification system implemented, impressive by the standards of things I managed to get to work that is, and it may have a function to contact friends who are in other instances or worlds, meaning that you can stay in contact with friends even if you are hanging out with other friends who don’t know your friends and your currently in an invite only world. This would be useful for both mute and nonmute players, and perhaps even widely used by all players.