Ai Cheats

[Kuciwalker]

DL?

Is this the same guy (please no)

[mimi]

Cheating???

Hey... is it cheating when you are pushing your cat off the top of your computer 'cause she hangs over the edge and bats at your hair while you're trying to play and she gets pissed off and jumps on your keyboard and runs out of the room and you look down to see she had landed on the enter button and ended your newly begun turn so you reload?

[FrostyBoy]

no

[vmxa1]

No, of course not. I would say there are several times where it would be ok, even though it does help you or may help you.
Since I may sit there for 10 hours, and you have a large map in the latter stages, it is easy too forget or over look something.
Example would be I intend to make a settler in a given city. I get a phone call and when I get back to the game , I forgot to do that. If have not gone far from that point, I may reload to start the settler or I may not.
The distinction (to me), is that I did not see the play and then decide to go back and make the settler. I was distracted. I see events like this, for interruptions for meals, bathroom, trips to this place or that. Crashes and many other occurences.
Same thing can happen, when you restart the game the next day or when ever you get to it. You forget what you intended, but you are not trying to gain an advantage. Reloading to change an outcome such as a combat or a flip is the type of thing that seems to me to be unethical.

[Solomwi]

Good explanation, vmxa. I'll give one more scenario where I've reloaded with a clear conscience. Attacking a city in the modern age with a column of Marines covered by one of my "Elite Infantry" units (all helicoptered in). The EI unit is just what it sounds like, when I get Computers, I pull my elites get pulled out of cities and don't get upgraded, in order to provide a stiff defensive cover for airdropped stacks. Anyway, I attack with one Marine, then two, then three, then just get in the rhythm of sending them in and the fourth unit it gives me is... the Elite Infantry which I inadvertently send to attack, with its 6 attack value, a fortified Infantry in a city. I reloaded, recreated everything up to that point as faithfully as possible (including once again nearly wiping out a different column of Marines throwing them at Karachi), then made sure my fourth attacker was a Marine.

[Rhothaerill]

Re: Cheating???

Originally posted by mimi
Hey... is it cheating when you are pushing your cat off the top of your computer 'cause she hangs over the edge and bats at your hair while you're trying to play and she gets pissed off and jumps on your keyboard and runs out of the room and you look down to see she had landed on the enter button and ended your newly begun turn so you reload?

Now that sounds like my cat. She sleeps on my monitor while I play Civ. Not being too graceful a cat she occasionally falls off.
As to cheating, I confess that when I started playing this game I often saved and reloaded if something didn't go my way. Since I started frequenting 'Poly a year and a half ago I realized what that all I was doing was cheating myself out of part of the fun of the game. We play these games to challenge ourselves, and restarting after something bad is something I never do anymore. Unless my cat falls on my keyboard.

[mimi]

I may have restarted a game or two (dozen) when the land didn't turn out to be what I was looking for. I really shouldn't do this I suppose but... if I want to war monger I really get upset when I'm on a tiny island by myself... or when I'm playing baby for a peaceful game and end up starting squished 4 squares on either side by the Zulu and the Aztec. (Yep, really happened and you can imagine just how long I lasted after the zulu demanded their first tribute about 4 turns after meeting them. Me with my temples and granaries nicely built...)

And starting off separated from every other civ by 20 squares of jungle is also very annoying.

But it takes so much time to play a game, I hate to waste it on such an uphill battle.

[Rhothaerill]

I do start a new game if I discover a really bad set of circumstances to start the game (i.e. an ice island like Aeson's "So Very Cold" or Mimi's peacenik surrounded by early warmongers). I'm not quite up to challenging Aeson for the "Something From Nothing" title. Though maybe in the (far) future.