Multiplayer Strategy Guide 2nd Version

[checkMate]

Originally posted by Mathemagician
hello,

i would like to know whether the following behaviors are considered cheating or not (regarding PBEM play):

- looking at your own old turns of a game to have a picture of how the situation was a while ago.

This should be legal (imo)


- reconstructing a situation in the cheat mode of an independent single player game, using only the information of the actual game that you can legally access (without using the result of what you learn from the cheat mode).

Why do it if your not going to use it? Or, better to
say how could you not use it? Once you know the
information, you would always use it. However,
I don't think the above would be cheating even if
you did use it. In fact one
could do many of those experiements on several stacks
and build a data base of results for later use.


example:
i see a stack of 6 units on a forest with a samurai on top. i consider attacking that stack with my own stack of which i naturally know the contents.
the question is: am i allowed, before i make the decision to attack or not, to start a new single player game, open the cheat mode and give one AI a stack of 6 units on a forest including one samurai (guessing the remaining contents), then give myself "a copy" of the stack i have in the game and test out how the attack works ?
basically experience would give you the same result as testing it this way, so i dont see anything illegal about it.

- replaying a turn with the exact same decisions. note that the results will be the same if you use the same order of actions, due to the random seeding of the game.

example:
i make an attack and clicked close too fast, not memorizing which enemy units were participating. i reopen the turn, make the same actions in the same order, this time looking more closely at those units.

- replaying a turn with the same decisions in all situations involving randomness or otherwise 'hidden' information, but changing those decisions where none of these are involved.

example #1:
i end my turn but suddenly realize i forgot to adjust the slider settings. i reopen the turn, make everything identical as before, but adjust the slider settings.

example #2:
i rush buy a certain object, look at the next city and see i would have rather spent the money on that object. i reopen the turn and act accordingly (provided no random event made me change my mind or something like that).

These last few seem error prone, but only the last one there seems to be kind of cheating, the rest were basically not-cheating, but just error prone, you could
make a mistake or mis-remember you previous move?



---
thank you
math
trying to make the best out of his turns.

[Mathemagician]

@checkmate

maybe i put the thing about the cheat mode unclear.
of course i want to use the end result of what i learn. im not exactly sure what i ment with that sentence the first time. i now deleted it.

about the last thing. sure, you could make a few mistakes, but i think the chance is very slim. at least i believe my short time memory will be good enough for that.

what about the issue to change some actions ?
its very likely that not doing it the right way the first time just came from being hasty. else you would have to take much more time for all your turns.

--
any other opinions on that ?

[Grandpa Troll]

Ramping is definetly considered a cheat/bug/exploitation=from my understanding one rush buys several "cheaper" facilities" to in fact claim a more expensive one, which if bought outright would cost more.

Rush buying is done in several ways, the most common is building a granary and when the city grows to size "2" you "rush" buy the granary and in same turn switch to a settler and for a greatly reduced cost you have a settler...

These are both regarded community wide as exploits/cheats/bugs


Here is something several of top players have taught me..Blackice,Paul and the Late Great Fascist Jack-Booted-Rest-In-Peace Faded Glory Hole


Say you have the Abiliites to mass produce something like Calvary which is really the first unit worth contemplating this strategy with:

Say you have a city building London Exchange, well worth the investment

You have multiple cities building Calvary and then send them to that city building the London exchange and BAM disband them within that city and get a portion of the production value applied to the building of the London Exchange or for that matter whatever you are building


Here is another strategy..say you had communism then are at a tough battle and on multiple fronts need quick aggressive units so you switch to Fascism..build Fascists then quell the disturbance now years later have say 100 + running around but now say you want Corporate Republic.

Try sending all them buggers to city recently "accquired and disbanding them to maybe build Drug Stores or Oil Refineries......

That way you reduce the cost associated with many war units, reduce the happiness penaly associated with war even though its a great militray govt. and help with production facilities or even maybe Televisions in +10 size cities...

Just a thought is all and no I dont have all the number crunching but it does have its upside...

Peace

GT

[Mathemagician]

generally, i think a shortcut which makes something faster that would legally be possible should be allowed.

[ricketyclik]

Rush buying later in production phase costs less per remaining production required. If you rush buy something with 2 turns to go, then switch to something which was going to take 3 but now 2 and rush buy it, it costs a lot less than rush buying the second item from 3 turns til finished.

This applies even more if you switch from a building to a unit.

This practice has been strongly disallowed in this community for some time, although it hasn't been discussed recently. It gives the person using it a MAJOR advantage.

[Mathemagician]

okay.
i always thought the gold cost was proportional to the production cost, like in civilisation.
of course, i wont use it anymore.
(had done so only in one game anyway)

but i assume first pumping units into a production, then rush buying is allowed.

[Mathemagician]

Originally posted by ricketyclik
Rush buying later in production phase costs less per remaining production required.

do you know where in the text files i can find the respective values ?

[ricketyclik]

Originally posted by Mathemagician

but i assume first pumping units into a production, then rush buying is allowed.

As far as I know. It seems it should be, given that the facility is explicitly allowed for in the game design.

Originally posted by Mathemagician do you know where in the text files i can find the respective values ?

'Fraid not. It's just something I've noticed from looking at the cost of rush buying an item from turn to turn.

[quinns]

Rush buying IS allowed in all forms -- It is part of the game. What is NOT allowed is to rush-buy then SWITCH PRODUCTION TO A MORE COSTLY UNIT ON THE SAME TURN. That is what is strongly discouraged here because it is a bug exploit that does give a significant adavantage.

[ThePlagueRat]

Once I experienced an opponent who pulled something really bad at me. I was a bit too cocky and there was a war. He did not have a whole bunch of cities and I was not really worried about him, but suddenly he stood me up with a whole bunch of mounted archers and knights and such. They came in stacks of 4 and spread over a rather big area. I was in the expansion phase without an offensive army and I got outmanouvered pretty easily. That's one ditch to jump into...

[Solver]

Anyone else think this threads deserves to be topped?

[Mathemagician]

[Solver]

Waiting for another .

[Grandpa Troll]

Make it so Obi Wan Solver!!

[Solver]

Vox Populi, Vox Moderator.