| Some of the cheats that have more frequently begun to surface are mentioned below. |
| What to look for signs of: |
| Multiple reloads without a reload warning |
| One of the cheats that has begun to appear recently is a trick to circumvent the reload warning when doing multiple loads of game files. Being able to reload a game multiple times enables a player to amongst others redo pod pops and attacks to get a more desireable outcome. So signs of this would be that chance events related to that players actions to an unusual degree turn out in that players favor such as: |
- Pod pops giving results that significantly differ from what one would expect. Combat outcome of attacks that significantly differ from what one would expect
- Unit movements through fungus or with only partial movement points left tend to succeed more often than they should
- Other fortunate chance events (such as probes always succeding, returning unharmed and getting exactly the tech that was most needed)
|
| Map extraction/extrapolation |
| There are strong indicators from a recent game that some sort of map extraction or even savegame editor may exist. Needless to say a player gains a significant advantage from knowing the exact map. Indicators of this would be units moving directly towards favored places that should be unknown. |
| Much of this won't be visible to other players even if they have infiltration. What will be visible is usually a player doing unusually well and if you are at war he is winning attacks he should have been loosing. |
| While single instances of this can and does occur due to chance/luck it starts getting suspicious if it does well beyond what one would expect. |
| What to do if cheating is suspected |
| Rather than starting to yell cheat all over the forums and getting into a fight with the players you suspect contact your CMN and inform him of your suspicion and what you base it on and ask him to check it out. As preferred the game can be halted or continued while the investigation is carried out. If the CMN is unavailable feel free to contact me with a PM here at Poly or at bintravkin[@]gmail[.]com (remove "[" and "]"). |
| How CMNs go about investigating allegations of cheating |
- First of all detecting a cheater based on a single turn is normally next to impossible. Thus the first thing to do is to get as many back-turns as you can.
- Go through the turns one by one and notice what the player in question has done and if the rules of the games is being violated. (ie: probing without informing, use of stockpile if not allowed etc.)
- Note the outcomes of chance events (attack wins/losses, pop pod results, fungus bounces/not bounces, probing results etc.)
- Look for other unusual/unexpected game behaviour
|
| What to do if cheating is uncovered |
| If a clear undisputable pattern emerges inform the player who requested the investigation of this and work out with him and the other players how to proceed. A CMN who has no doubt that a player has cheated is free to evict the player from the game and to publish why he does so. One should take care not to give the recipe for how cheats are done when doing so. |
| If a clear undisputable pattern emerges inform the player who requested the investigation of this and work out with him and the other players how to proceed. A CMN who has no doubt that a player has cheated is free to evict the player from the game and to publish why he does so. One should take care not to give the recipe for how cheats are done when doing so. |
| Alternatively a player can be ordered to make remedies and be put "on probation" or "under watch" if the cmn and remaining players feel this is preferable. |
| One would typically be less severe towards a generally well behaved first time offender that did a bit fiddling than one would towards a serial offender pushing every exploit to the max and who is also an ***hole. |
| The final decision is with the CMN. |
| What to do if the CMN thinks there has been cheating but is not sure |
| Get a second opinion from another CMN and ask the involved player for an explanation of the suspect occurences. Then re-evaluate based on the information/opinion gotten. You are likewise free to contact me on the matter. |
| If it is really not clear the obvious choice would be to let the game go on and watch the further progress carefully until it swings one way or the other. |
| Keep in mind the main purpose is not to hunt down and ban everyone who ever did something that violated the rules, but to ensure that the games played are fair and interesting. |
| Recourse for players who are incorrectly accused |
| Players who claim to have been unjustly found guilty of cheating in pbems are always welcome to contact mods. They would then invoke some other, more independent, persons to do the investigation. Just keep in mind that if they review the situation and still find your guilty, they might even increase the sanctions put on you. |
| Don't request a second investigation unless you really are innocent. |
| And keep in mind that you should keep a store of all your turns at least for the first 40-50 turns of the game, as cheating usually becomes visible in early game and it is also much easier to investigate and find signs of cheating in early years' files. |
| This text has been compiled by official CGN SMACX forum mod Buster and modified by binTravkin to fit Apolyton, 2005. |
| The original text |
