Great Library: Player Cheats

[Ming]

Surely we haven't listed all the cheats yet.
There must be more

[Xin Yu]

While more details still need to be tested, one more bug is found and confirmed once. You can use 'w' key to put your airplanes on the air on hold and move other units, then use 'Ctrl-n' to end the current turn. The planes won't crash.

[CapTVK]

I would like to add to Xin Yu that it works with ALL airunits, that includes NUKES!

[Titos]

quote: Originally posted by CapTVK on 01-31-2000 04:50 AM I would like to add to Xin Yu that it works with ALL airunits, that includes NUKES!

[porcerax]

An (exploit) is an undocumented feature of the game that gives a single player an unfair advantage over the AI. A (cheat) is when you use these exploits in a multiplayer situation. Traditionally, I think of cheating more as a hack of the games code, such as the Raymond Tan Diablo Trainer and other similar add on software.

In addition, cheating is all a matter of opinion. If a group of players decide that they wish to have a free for all or permit the use of some exploits then no-one is really cheating. The worst thing about abusing exploits is that it takes away from the intended spirit of the game.


I only rarely use an exploit in single player mode, mostly after I have already beaten the game and feel like experimenting. Civilization 1, 2, and Alpha Centauri have so many exploits that it just takes restraint and good sportsmanship to avoid using them. I don't know about anyone else here but I don't care to play any game with someone who is a childish loser who needs to win so badly that they are willing to cheat to do it.


This thread was an insightfull read for me, and I hope that Sid and the rest of Firaxis read it and try to address these issues.


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"It takes one to know one"

[Adam Smith]

Ming:
I just took another look at this thread and would like to pose a possible correction to the "Repeated Commodity" 'cheat'. If this is the phenomenon that I posted some time back in the strategy forum, then the idea is that certain cities can receive the same commodity over and over again. If somebody knows how to get cities to produce the same commodity over and over again (without rehoming), then I sure would like to know about it.

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"I fear that I shall die a Prince."
-Edward VII, Prince of Wales

[Theben]

AS, I thought "Hides" was the magic item that would remain even after the caravan was built. I've also seen newer items free up a slot, but in both cases the items were never permanently freed.

Hugo, Not a conscious choice; most of the ones listed are from civ2 because the majority of cheats in SMAC weren't well-known at the time.

[Hugo Rune]

Is it a concious choice just to let this section cover Civ2 "cheats"? I mean, SMAC is much closer in time than Civ2, and is therefore probably going to influence Civ3 more than Civ2 will. And believe me, SMAC has it's own "excentricities".

[Ming]

Hugo Rune...
The reason was simple... I'm a civ addict
I don't know the other games as well. And since this was a discussion for Civ III...

I WOULD WELCOME AN EXPERT to list the cheats for other variations. The key here is to alert the designers on how we abuse there sloppy programming. Please, make this list even longer by showing them their new mistakes.... PLEASE!

[Theben]

Ming- Check out the AC General forum, there are 2 HUGE lists of bugs, and probably some cheats in there too, covering SMAC and SMACX.

[porcerax]

Ming, how could Sid or Brian Reynolds or Tim
Train have played any of these games through without finding one solitary bug or exploit? I especially like the bug I found in SMAC before they patched it where you could support your units for free from a pact brother or sisters faction. I enjoy finding obscure exploits that are hard to produce, but you would have to be pretty new to TBS style games for the very obvious exploits and bugs in SMAC to escape your attention!

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"It takes one to know one"

[Ming]

Yeah porcerax... I wonder who the heck they have playing testing these games before they are released. Many of the bugs or cheats are very obvious to veteran war games. I found a bunch the first time I ever played civ... things that don't agree with what the rules said.

[Xin Yu]

The reason is obvious: they are lazy.

When programming civ1 the major concern was the program size (they zipped it in one 1.44mb floppy disk, or was it two?) since hard disk were very small at that time. This 'compact' program could not expand very well, and all statistics had upper limits (city size cannot got beyond 127, etc.).

When civ2 was out they could reprogram everything but they just used the old civ1 codes. Then they just used the civ2 codes when producing Cic, FW, MPE, and TOT.

So I think Brian's leaving Firaxis may be a good news. Hopefully without him they have to reprogram everything!

[species8474]

I want to thank you all for these usefull tips/tricks, especially the rush building and land scouting (sea or land) was very usefull. in exchange i wish to add one of my favourite tricks that is not yet described here: THE REOPENING OF HUTS. this is not a myth.
sometimes a hut stays visible when you moved a unit in. if you dont move this unit out you can send another in and get another goody. you can do this endlessly as long as you dont move any units out and hold at least 1 unit inside. this means you can put cheap units in (warriors) each turn and disband them after they took the goody. This works great in longer games when all the goodies are gone and you still receive 3 per turn. Simply make 3 cities close to the hut, produce every turn a warrior and move it in, then disband it.

[Xin Yu]

Got to try that. Amazing!