Consensus on Cheating?

[Enigma]

Bustamike- Wrong

Use drop transports. It will give you the same probability of getting an artifact as if you were using a transport on the sea, and then it will allow you to carry that artifact back. If you agreed to no drops from outside of airbase or base bring a former with the transport and make an airbase.

[Helium Pond]

Okay, you sold me. I'm adding the drop-from-anywhere thing.

[BustaMike]

OOPS!!!

Ok, I checked it out. Airdropping does let you get pods in SMAC, but still I couldn't help thinking I'd seen pods disappear from dropping before. So I loaded up Civ2. If you paradrop onto a hut in Civ2 the hut does disappear, so I'm not totally mad. I just mixed up my games.

[Chowlett]

They are definitely not 'chutes. Look at the ability graphic, and the pic that comes up when you perform a drop. Quite how powerful the thrusters are, I would say the look only cushiong-good to me.

[YT]

Korn: I didn't say that multiple air drops is okay by me. I said that a single airdrop per turn, from any location, is okay by me. I do not think it is right to use the bug to drop the same unit over and over again. I just think that it should not be a requirement that you have to start in a base/airbase.

Incidentally, I've always envisioned the pods as thrusters that launch the unit into the air, and then cushion the landing. This may have something to do with how I feel about their usage. If I was thinking of them as some kind of parachute, or thrusters only strong enough to cushion a landing, I might feel differently.

Gotta love how perception can affect the rules of a game

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Yours Truly

[Famyn]

I'm not sure if everyone would consider this 'cheating.'

To be blunt, I suck. I can't get past thinker level (I'm always getting my butt kicked). To make things more fair for me, I turn on 'flexible starting locations.'

When I start, I start out with no city, just a pod or two and a scout.

Here's the cheat: you can simply self destruct your units and start over. The game considers you 'destroyed' and respawns you someplace else. However, when you get respawned, you also get a terraformer unit to go with your pods/scout. You can keep doing this again and again, at the cost of one turn a 'jump.'

You can also do this in normal mode as well. Simple let something like a mind worm or enemy unit destroy your first city, preferably within the first 5-10 turns. You'll respawn somewhere else, with a terraformer and at least one defensive unit (the best you could have made up to that point). If the computer respawns you in a bad location, then self destruct all your units and start 'jumping' like described above.

I will use this 'cheat' sometimes, but only if I find myself with only a single pod in the middle of a large mostly arid area. Once I respawn, I self destruct the former because I should'nt have had it anyway. The way I figure it, I could just simply quit that game and start a new one, so respawning out of a horrible starting location isn't 'cheating.'

[Helium Pond]

I don't think that's cheating, but please remember that this is a thread directed towards defining cheating in multiplayer games.

[Famyn]

If 'do or die' isn't enabled, I bet somebody could pull this off in a multiplayer game. Wouldn't the presence of a former really help someone early game if flexible starting locations was turned on?

[Helium Pond]

I see your point. However, would anyone consider that cheating? It's not something for nothing, after all; you're losing turn advantage, and against a master builder, that's everything.

[Sikander]

Well, you lose a turn, and gain a former and a new location. Quite a bit of advantage for both builders and momentum players. Builders can leave the fungus infested area of the largest continent. Momentum players can try for a more centrally located, larger continent, especially if the local terrain is somewhat foreboding.

[Helium Pond]

Let me put it this way: if you were starting a multiplayer game, would you ask that other players not do this?

[korn469]

i wouldn't consider this cheating because i always insist do or die is on

try it under those settings and see what happens

[Famyn]

In the multiplayer games I have been playing lately with flexible starting locations, my home city started at a 3, I already had a former plus a recon rover and a scout patrol. If I would have pulled this trick, then I actually would have lost some stuff. Is there an option that you just get a single pod and your city starts at 1? Or do all multiplayer games do this? (I'm a newbie when it comes to multiplayer)

[Helium Pond]

I just found out about another cheat, and a nasty one: trying to bribe another human player during council results in the bribe being evaluated by the AI, not the other player. I've added this to the list.

[Ned]

HP, I think this cheat was No. 14, on your original list.

BTW, that list taught me for the first time about the upgraded crawler and the infinite airdrop "cheats." I now find I use them both all the time. It is hard not to. I can only wish that Firaxis will fix at least two cheats.

This reminds me of my favorite cheat in Civ II - starting out with Fundamentalism. Those 4-4 Fanatic units were both extremely cheap and powerful compared to the early-game military units of the competiton. Loved it.

Ned