Cheating clarification

[flatsix518]

All,

I am looking at signing up for LoEG season 9. I am seeking some clarification around cheating. (My intention is to avoid cheating.)

The sign up includes the following:


3. Some very important points
There will be no use of the split hex rear charge move - to gain a rear-charge advantage when it isn't entitled . This has been confirmed as a bug.
Please make this clear to all players, playing, immediately.
Slitherine have incorporated a system which can now detect if players using the task manager to restart a turn. We all want to play this game where it is completely fair and open, however if somebody is caught out they will be asked to leave.

Q: What is a split hex rear charge move? I hope I haven't been unintentionally doing this. I don't thing so...but don't know what this means.

Q: I've never deliberately crashed a turn to reset it. (It has happened a couple of times by accident back when I had a problem with my wireless service provider.) But beyond that, I often download a move several times. I'll study my move and close the game saving it back at the starting position. Sometimes I make part of a move an put it away. Is this cheating? I recently got a notice that the multiplayer server has noticed me doing this and inquiring if I'm having technical difficulties. No technical difficulties, but I do, sometimes, download a turn several times.

Thanks,

John
aka flatsix518

[batesmotel]

Hi John,

The split move rear charge bug was fixed in the last update with the scenario pack so is no longer an issue as long as both players are running the latest version (1.8.1).

As long as you close the game part way through your turn and then re-open it, you're not cheating. The Slitherine warning should be triggered if a single turn is opened/downloaded several times without a corresponding close/save in between each down load. So long as you successfully save between each open you're playing correctly. I think there are still bugs in the automatic warning logic so it still does seem to generate some false positives.

Chris

[flatsix518]

Thanks, Chris...we need to play again, sometime.

[lydianed]

Like Lazarus the thread comes back to life...

Far be it from me to impugn flatsix's spotless character but the thread didn't resolve to my mind what constitutes a cheat and what does not. I can't see there is any problem with opening the turn, looking around the battlefield, making no unit moves and then closing the turn down only to reopen it later. Similarly there seems nothing wrong with opening the turn, making a few unit moves and then saving your progress in the turn and then closing it down. You could, in theory, open, move a unit, save, close, open, move a unit, save, close and so on. (although I have to confess I didn't know the system let you do this).

There does seem to be a problem in opening the turn, making a unit move, getting a ghastly outcome, not saving, closing the turn and re-opening as if the bad thing never happened to your army. Before the flame-wars start let me just say I am not suggesting John, or anyone else I have played against, has done this. My question more is how does the Slitherine system cope with identifying system crashes and cheats? I run FoG on a completely unsuitable laptop and because of a knackered Graphics Card which overheats on a whim I get maybe 5 or 6 system crashes a week.

Jules

[flatsix518]

Jules,

That's how I discovered this. I was having connectivity problems in 2011 and couldn't upload my turn. I was frustrated with losing my move and having to redo it. In the course of that, I discovered that each time I re-did my turn, I could, if I chose "improve" its outcome. So while I was aware of the the cheat, I never intentionally did that.

However, I won't say I wasn't tempted a couple of times while wrestling your Lydians....



John

[FedeM]

Well my friend. Unfortunately there is no way to stop re-downloads.

My finger got rusted of writing about the issue to Slitherine, etc but there was no progress in my opinion.

So no more stone to the water from my side.

Just live with it.

Cheers!

[Turk1964]

Agree with Fedem we know people do it and sometimes its very odvious but it still happens.Unfortunatly not much can be done so we have to live with it im afraid The people who do it know what they are doing is cheating so really its poor sportsmen ship in my opinion and its their loss .

[flatsix518]

I thought Slitherine could detect this activity. That they note when a turn is downloaded without a corresponding upload.

In other words, non-cheating activity is: download - upload, download - upload, download - upload.
Cheating activity is: download, download, download, upload.

Pretty easy to spot, I'd think. The question is, who to notify. Also can a person have a day in court to explain that it was due to poor connectivity or system crash. (Just recently I had a forced MS updated shutdown my PC while I was playing in full screen mode.)

John

[Turk1964]

Best thing to do if you have problems with system crashes is to tell your opponent the game was stopped and restarted.If both agree to continue then no problems.If it happens to me which it hasnt since i have replaced my old computer then i will Pm my opponent and ask if they wish to carry on.Believe me its still happening mate