I just got this PM from a player asking me how save scumming works in this game. Since there is no advantage of simply hiding this information I am going to redact the name of the player asking and post exactly how this is done. I think it is important that players know how easily this can be done so that Slitherine/Byzantium games are pressured into promptly make some steps to addressing this problem. I am pretty angry about this given that we were assured in the past that widespread cheating is impossible.
I don't have time to investigate this myself, and don't want to put it out for general (abuse) consumption, but does FOG2 store the turn in a file upon download, or does it dynamically reload them into memory from the server with each restart? If the later, a technical solution is possible, if the former...... BTW, thank you for your video series!
You don't have to worry about the info being public. It has been known for a long time for anyone looking for it. The PBEM server holds the save file. The client downloads the save file through the game and starts playing their turn. Once the turn is complete or the player chooses to save mid-turn, the game uploads the new save file to the PBEM server where you can redownload it and continue your turn, or if the turn is over your opponent can then download it and play.
The flaw in the system is that if you make a mistake or RNG goes badly, you can use Windows Task Manager to kill FieldofGlory2.exe, and thus your actions are not recorded on the PBEM server. Upon restarting FieldofGlory2.exe and connecting to the server, the PBEM server simply serves you the existing save file on its drive so you can try again. Since you can save at any point in your turn, you can conceivably save before every dice roll on your turn and kill the program in Windows if the RNG doesn't go your way and retry again and again until it does. This is in gaming terms is known as "save scumming". Happens all the time in single-player games but in multiplayer games, there are usually some safeguards.
Slitherine and Byzantium games have assured us in the past that they have an automated checker that detects the number of uploads vs the number of downloads. So a save scummer would have to download the save file more than they upload since they have to kill the program every time RNG fails them or they make a mistake. Given that dkladenda was able to savescum 225 times and 99 times in a single game, it is obvious that the automated checker is so lax that it doesn't work or that no one reads the reports it spits out to take action.
I have always known that even with this automated checker, cheating can and probably does occur, but I thought the threshold was much lower. Something like if you download exceeded your uploads by a small number like 5 then the system would flag you for punitive action. Given the large number of dice rolls that occur in FoG2, this would limit a cheater to maybe "redo" some rolls at critical junctions and they would have limited attempts at it. At best I thought a player could use it to maybe "fix" their bad luck roll when they failed a 75% win or something in a single unit to unit combat. But it is now obvious that a cheater can abuse the system excessively before they are caught, and even when caught and suspended, you just have to claim "internet problems" and you get reinstated with *no one knowing* despite such absurd figures like dkalenda managed.
There are ways to program around this but it is unlikely that Byzantine games (RBS's development house) or Slitherine (the publisher) will implement measures given that it means essentially rewriting how FoG2 does multiplayer. One way would be to make the game copy the save file off of the PBEM server and each move immediately overwrites the client's save file so any attempt to kill or crash FoG2.exe won't allow the cheater to redo past actions. Another method would be FoG2.exe write the new save onto server immediately on each move but it is unlikely that they will do that since their PBEM and forums server creaks and groans under the lightweight traffic that it currently receives as it is.
A more realistic method that we should advocate for that seems to be within easy technical reach is to have the PBEM server, which already sends an automated email to you whenever it is your turn, to document the number of uploads vs downloads in this email after every single turn so that players can police themselves and can verify suspicious runs of "crazy" RNG with the number of uploads vs downloads a player has had.
