[PBEM] Sneak Attack

[aebbeka]

Players:

Team 1
aebbeka (Russian)
KrazyE (German)

Team 2
Lumpkin (American)
sabrewolf (Aztec)

Map: Islands (1 large island per player, various small islands)
Size: Small
Sea Level: Low

[aebbeka]

Turn sent to Krazy.

[KrazyE]

Turn

Turn Sent to Lumpkin

[sabrewolf]

ah, here we are

[Lumpkin]

Turn sent to sabre

I hope I'm missing something but it isn't it rather easy to cheat on PBEM? If a battle goes badly can't you just reload and try again?

[sabrewolf]

reloading is indeed an easy, but not nice way to cheat.
but there are ways to find out:
- number of reloads: sometimes necessary (for example really wrong move because the the GUI moved your units in a stack and left your capital open for conquest), but usually suspicious
- huts: for instance if you see someone rotating around a goody hut it is pretty likely that he is waiting for a better turnout
- the enemy waiting an additional turn before attacking. if he has 20 units outside your city but then suddenly decides to back off and attacks a turn or two later (maybe because).
- overwhelmingly positive odds.

while all of these aren't proof, they do raise suspicion...

either way, it just isn't fun to win with cheating. of course it is frustrating if you are unlucky in your battles, but in a war you should come enough prepared to beat the odds

[sabrewolf]

i'll be playing the turn when i get home

[sabrewolf]

lumpkin,

unfortunatly, i can't open your file. it asks me for YOUR password. is it possible that you sent me the wrong file with the correct file name?
the right file should be in the folder
c:\Documents and Settings\[yourUserName]\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Saves\pbem\Sneak Attack\
and named like the file you sent me.

if you are sure you sent the right file, can you try replaying?

thanks and cheers!

[Lumpkin]

aha, thanks for the info. Well if you can see how many times a person has reloaded then I suppose that's fine. But how do you find out?

I wasn't able to send the save my smtp server so I just saved it manually. Hope it works okay.

[sabrewolf]

i don't know how to find out but in civ3 it was saved somewhere in the save file. in civ4 it's bound to be somehow.

anyway, resended version worked, thanks!

3960bc to aebekka

this is some dry planet we live on

[aebbeka]

Make sure you are loading the game from within the Play By Email menu. Load Game on the main menu usually doesn't work. Also make sure you are hitting the End Turn button. Saving it from the menu isn't the way to do it, and I don't think it works.

Isn't the number of plays just indicated in the file? Like if you played year 4000 twice, the filename is 40002? Of course, I think this is just because instead of overwriting, it makes a new file. But I don't know if it's embedded within somewhere. I remember SMAC would tell everyone if somebody played their turn more than once.

[Lumpkin]

Well I reloaded by game once (because I saved it badly the first time as you heard) so it should be announced somewhere.

[KrazyE]

Woo!

3960bc to Lumpkin

[Lumpkin]

3960bc sent to sabrewolf

[sabrewolf]

3920bc to aebekka

lumpkin: reloading a few times is not sooo bad, as long as it isn't in a decicive situation like wars or goody huts...