Is this a cheat ? (crawler users only)

[Googlie]

You've moved your crawler three tiles by road, or one without a road, turn over.

If you have other units still to move, you can go back, click on that crawler, and get the nutrient/mineral/energy benefit the next turn without waiting for it to be reactivated that next turn and start blinking again. (So you get the turn movement plus the crawl effect one turn earlier)

Is this considered a cheat?

G.

[YT]

I would say it's a cheat. You letting the crawler do more than one thing in a turn (move and crawl). It would be the same with a terraformer (move, then start forming).

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Yours Truly

[Googlie]

Rats

[Velociryx]

Hmmmm.....I do it on occasion and never really thought of it as a cheat, but I guess in the strictest sense of the word it prolly is....then again, I'm all for mass upgrading from the DW if you've got the cash for it, and then moving....

-=Vel=-

[WhiteElephants]

So if I had a crawler, or former for that matter, on a rover chassis it would be considered a cheat if I moved it and then started crawling a resource back or forming? Or what about an infantry chassis on a road?

Either way I don't consider it a cheat.

[YT]

Not if it still has movement points left.

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Yours Truly

[Ned]

I believe it does work on terraformers - or any unit for that matter. You can click on a unit after it moves are complete and give it new orders for the next turn. If a former has stopped, you can click on it to direct it to terraform the next turn, and it will, as far as I know. If a unit has stopped in a city, you can, by clicking on it, immediately place it in standby mode so that it can be loaded onto a ship in the same turn it stopped. And so on.

In the larger view, all this is merely a sympthom of being able to change an units orders after its movement is compete. One really needs this capability to stop units on automatic or to correct a mistake (i.e., you hit N instead of M). Once we understand the way the game actually works, it is not cheating to play the game that way unless the written rules expressly say the opposite or the cheat fundamentally alters the game.

I do not know whether this is against an espressed rule. I do know that it does not alter the game in any fundamental way.

It would be different if, as in, Civ, one could ask a settler to build something, which he did at least partially in the same turn, click to give it new orders, repeat the orders to again partially build something, and by repeating, complete any improvement in one turn. If I could harvest minerals in the same turn that a crawler was given orders, and by repeating, harvest as many minerals as I wanted, I would call it a cheat. However, the procedure described here by Googlie is not a cheat.

[RedFred]

I have been doing this for a long time now and I am disappointed to hear that opinion is divided on if it is a cheat.

It can be irritating when you have a whole mess of crawlers and you reach your destination with zero movement left. The game will think you are done and zip off to some other part of the globe. Leaving you to sort through all the crawlers for the one not ferrying resources.

In any case if the majority of players say "cheat" then I'll stop. Sigh.

[JAMiAM]

My vote is that it is not a cheat.

What next? No disbanding (of crawlers or units) if no movement points left? No use of new population on the turn that they're born? No selling off facilities the turn you capture them? No spending of money the turn you earn (or steal )it?

Okay, I'm being facetious. But it is a rather arbitrary choice to declare it a cheat, when there is no documentation against it, the technique doesn't fly in the face of design intent, nor is it, in any way, a "game breaker".

[Garth Vader]

I wouldn't call it a cheat either, for the reasons listed above!

[Red Archer]

I do not think it is a cheat either.

[Enigma]

I *always* re activate my crawlers after they are done moving to get the extra minerals. I do not really consider it a cheat for Jam's above reasons, and besides that either way the difference is not large enough to be a major concern. The stockpile energy bug is a lot more major in my opinion since it is energy out of nowhere, the extra minerals energy or food from re activating crawlers is still using up a square 1 turn earlier.

[Chowlett]

In general, I would say not a cheat. However, I would call it a cheat if the crawler had not reached its final destination yet - since presumably the thing is meant to set up a supply line, and I say it can't do that just temporarily, then move on next turn. So not a cheat, unless used before crawler reaches intended locale.

As for terraformers, I believe that if you start them with no movement points left, they take another turn anyway, so that's not a problem.

[Aredhran]

Definitely not a cheat !

[YT]

-- apparently I'm heavily outnumbered here. What would you responce to whether or not it was a cheat be if that crawler on a borehole allowed someone to snag an SP one turn earlier, and you were ready to get it the next turn?

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Yours Truly