Civ2 PBEM Diplomacy

[yaroslav]

Well... That info you are asking me for is stored on the saved files. I believe that a program that read the auto-save each turn and send this info over Internet to display on other computer will be not (very) dificult.

On the other hand, the server is much more dificult, because I don't know how to hack Civ2 in order to allow that

[SlowThinker]

Re: The diplomacy mechanism

Originally posted by yaroslav
How a player can know that a offer is to be trusted? And how a player (or a pair of players) can not cheat doing offers in others' name?

I think that these problem can be solve with signature (password).

I think you can omit any anti-cheating mechanism. Cheating in PBEM is and always will be extremely easy (for example game reloading, editing rules.txt, removing opponent's "password" etc.). You must trust.

[Henrik]

Why make easier than it has to be Slowthinker?

[SlowThinker]

Henrik,

It is so easy that you cannot make it easier. The right door of your car is missing: will you install a lock into the left door?

We have had a debate on CivFanatics:PBEM about this, but I can't post a link, because I can't get to the site last two days

[Kramsib]

Perhaps it is easy to cheat, you said : "changing the rules.txt, reloading, ..., but, perhaps it is easy to detect it, when something strange happens that is becouse there is someone cheating, isn't he?

[SlowThinker]

Kramsib,
Even after a detailed study of the game after its end you may have only a suspicion that the opponent won too much of battles (and he reloaded after bad results or changed rules.txt before the battle) or that he got the most valuable things from the huts (reloading) or that he revealed the map.
But you can't prove that.

And if the player would cheat reasonably and limitedly then you would have no suspicion.

But I can't imagine why a player would cheat ? He would loose all the entertainment from the game!

[Máximo Décimo]

But I can't imagine why a player would cheat ? He would loose all the entertainment from the game!

Right

[SlowThinker]

The threads about cheating I mentioned are here:

BLACKLIST of PBEM Dropouts and PBEM FAQ. Both threads are locked now, they were locked after a murder committed due to that extremely stormy debate.

[yaroslav]

Thank you for your advice, SlowThinker. Also Scenario Leage Magazine covers the PBEM cheating

[SlowThinker]

Thank you for the tip, just answered : Scenario League Magazine Issue #1 out now!