Cheating in PBEM

smitty · #1 March 16th, 2003, 04:59 PM

Are people able to cheat in SEIV during PBEM? Has this been a problem?

Thanks

Ruatha · #2 March 16th, 2003, 05:09 PM

It depends upon how you define cheating.

There's been some bugs that people could take advantage of, but they are fixed now.
Some people try to play more than one empire in the same game, milking one empire in favour for the other.

It happens but it's not nearly as common as in many other game communities. (It's rather rare, I belive)

[ March 16, 2003, 15:11: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Gryphin · #3 March 16th, 2003, 07:05 PM

I don't know of anyway to cheat in PBEM.
My current PBEM game is both a Non Zero Sum teaching game and testing the Gryphin Mod. We do not have passwords but I know if I said "don't look" the other players would not look.

Grandpa Kim · #4 March 16th, 2003, 08:04 PM

Cheating is very rare on PBW. When found out, the admins come down very hard. I haven't heard of an instance of cheating in more than 6 months.

As Ruatha said, there were some security holes, but they have been plugged.

mac5732 · #5 March 17th, 2003, 05:48 AM

cheating is frowned upon on this forum and in pbw... doesn't make one very popular around here

tesco samoa · #6 March 17th, 2003, 06:03 AM

PBEM cheating.

The only one i know of is if the game admin would run two games.... one where he resests passwords and sees what will happen next turn...
or if he redid his turn due to the situation that occurs next turn...

Hence the reason to use PBW. As it removes those situations. Since the log is available for all to read...

smitty · #7 March 17th, 2003, 06:47 AM

PBW? Can someone give a quick explaination of that? Do you have to play Online for hours?

SamuraiProgrammer · #8 March 17th, 2003, 06:57 AM

PBW = Play By Web

At seiv.pbw.cc, there is a wonderful free (donations accepted) service that automates the play by e-mail functions.

You don't have to play for hours at a time (unless you want to - that is a great way to get a game started off). It is essentially PBEM that has been automated so no one has to go through the drudgery of packaging e-mails every turn.

Heck, they even have a java program that will watch for a new turn & start up your space empires game with the turn ready to play.

I highly recommend that you take a hard look at their website.

Dean

[ March 17, 2003, 04:59: Message edited by: SamuraiProgrammer ]

Fyron · #9 March 17th, 2003, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
PBEM cheating.

The only one i know of is if the game admin would run two games.... one where he resests passwords and sees what will happen next turn...
or if he redid his turn due to the situation that occurs next turn...

Hence the reason to use PBW. As it removes those situations. Since the log is available for all to read...

It does not tell you if the host has processed the turn manually though. The host can just process a copy of the savegame he downloaded and that does not show up on PBW at all.

Atrocities · #10 March 17th, 2003, 11:44 AM

As far as any one offically knows, there is no "cheating" occuring at PBW. However, there are standard tatics and exploits that have been mistaken for cheating in the past.

Many exploits have been discovered and either programed out of the game, or dis-allowed by agreement.