The SMAXDG Pbem game mechanics

[Drogue]

With the password, I think it is safe enough. We would know if another faction messed around with it, and we have Googlie watching it. I think it is fine in a thread personally.

[Hercules]

Then all members would have to wait on the designated player to come on-line, to be able to have a look at the
latest turn.

Fair point

We would know if another faction messed around with it

They wouldn't mess around with it but if they could open it they would have some degree of inside intelligence. I am not thinking about now but about six months or more down the line.

I am just reflecting on the idea, a bit of devils advocating.

[Drogue]

Very true about the infiltration. Maybe if someone defects, Googlie, being a member of all factions, can check that they don't access it.

[Hercules]

There is another point re playing the turn which is to some extent unique to a team pbem.

If 3 or more people open the turn but only one to actually play it, the non players can experiment, explore and probe, test diplo with the AI, etc and then suggest courses of action based on the results of their findings (it wouldn't effect pod popping of course). In normal pbem, it's like iron man, no going back. Playing the game as we propose opens us to that form of abuse above. The final choices made will not feature as a replayed turn.

It is a bit like playing ahead. I suspect it is untraceable and I suppose it was possible in the 1st SMACdg and it didn't alter the course of events much.

So is what I describe possible. If not, no problem. If so, do we live with it. Is it to be condoned. Is it to be ruled out of order. Is it not a major issue ie it is on a par with the stockbuilding and reverse engineering tips. Should we permit it. Should we self police it as best we can.

I am looking for clarification so as to advise our Peace loving Pirate faction on their peaceful expeditions and explorations.

Move over C Darwin.

[Maniac]

That's indeed a valid problem which can't be solved as far as I know. You simply have to make a choice: Either you allow all team members to access the save file, which makes discussing easier, but allows some cheating = a form of playing ahead and testing. The other option is you only let the team player play the game. However, unless someone can think of some solution, that would make it almost impossible for the team members to participate in the game. The team player would have to post dozens of screenshots for the other team members to make some sense of what's going on.

However most of the time I believe this is a minor cheat. The only time this will have serious consequences is when there's a major war between two human factions. For example a Hivean non-team player could patrol his faction's borders with a needlejet, the only one the Hive has, checking out for invading Pirate ships and transports. He could reload until he has patrolled the entire area. Now THAT would be serious cheating, as it would make sneak attacks quasi impossible. There the only solution is self-control and fair-play as far as I can think of.

[Hercules]

Well summarised Maniac and I tend to agree.
I hope we could all sign up to something like a fair play charter.

Anyhow the other purpose of the posting was to draw to player's and leader's attention that we are aware of the cheat, but please refrain. Serious and / or frequent breaches, I think can be detected, but I won't disclose how.

[Jamski]

If the one noodle goes straight 12 tiles into the unknown and attacks the only transport foil without AAA, then we might get suspicious

-Jam

[Hercules]

Exactly

[Vev]

Reminds me of a WWII incident.

The Brits have cracked the Germans transmission of U-boats movement. To keep the Germans clueless of this knowledge, a plane is first sent to 'scout' the U-boat (whose position is already known) then another plane is sent to sink it. There was an incident where they couldn't be bothered with the 'scout' and bombed it anyway. To prevent the Germans from figureing out what happened, the Allies concocted a story that they bribed an offical somewhere for the information and hence how they 'knew' the U-boat location.

[Jamski]

I thought this story was made up by that R. Harris chap that wrote Enigma If you've heard it from somewhere else, then it might be true.

-Jam

[Vev]

Now you mentioned it, I have no idea if it is true or not.

[Jamski]

Quick Comrade! - Print it in PRAVDA, then it will surely be true for all time.

-Jam