NOTICE: Metaverse Data - Cheaters beware.

Hello Frogboy.
Just one question: does that include events we create ourselves and the ones we can download from the library? I mean is it ok to add them?

By the way, with the latest version, in my current game, I'm having CTD if I go to the stat screen and click on the Yor. I have 2 or 3 saves of this game (I was checking that the crash would always happen at that point, no matter what I did before -- and it does). Would it be helpful if I email it to you? or are you already aware of this?

Aside from this little problem, that I only noticed recently (I'm certain I didn't have it before), I've nothing to say but high praises: while some people had complains, I must say that everything worked just fine, stardock, galciv, updates.

Great game! My favorite, with Medieval & shogun total war.


~SDC~

Oh, I forgot: My newly built terror star, after 12-20 turns with 1 mov eper turn, now has suddenly gone speed-crazy, moving 6 slots a a time!

~SDC~

How about giving people 4 chances and at the 5th you perm. ban their CD key and disallow them from Stardock altogether. Why 4? Well because people make mistakes and 4 games aren't going to tip the scales much even if they know what they're doing.

~SDC~

Or did you perm ban them?

~SDC~

Any chance we could get a quick fix for Technology Capitals? They are only granting +10% research instead of the advertised +100%, and I have been reluctant to fix it client side due to the metaverse. That would be considered cheating, right?

Are library events and techs OK? I submitted a game where I used the extra terraforming techs (the AI used them too) I agree messing with the political parties and trainers to unbalance the game and submitting the score to the Metaverse is not cool at all and it's right to ban those players if they don't heed warnings (but don't ban them off SDC they paid for the game after all)

I would like to see a *clear* statement/guide as to what is kosher change of the game and what is not.

We have user made events, we have user made graphics changes, we have user made political parties, we have the option to change the System name list, etc., but what we don't have is any clear sense of what is fair to change and what is not, yet we get a sticky post telling us not to cheat.

Come on Frogboy, im waiting for some of the answeres to the questions that was asked above!

What? so I cant use my new political party the Capitalists anymore? well, I hardly get above 2 points per game anyway...

You can use your political party, you just can't submit a game you won with it to the metaverse.

~SDC~

yikes. it might be illegal to use the user-made events and stuff from the library page?

oi. please clarify this. i was about to start another game, but i'm gonna hold of until this is clarified. i've got pretty much every event file put up on the lib page in my data directory (though not the extra govenors).

The mods in the library are legal to use. Mods you make yourself aren't.

~SDC~

Since there are broken mods and marginally balanced ones in the library, who is to really say what is "playing fairly." I agree with Code Monkey. We need a clear guide as to what "playing fairly" means.

M

On a related topic, some updates have tightened gameplay and closed some loopholes making certain strategies harder at the higher levels, ie. the economic and production changes. The AI may also get better over time at higher levels (if the Metaverse is used to improve the AI). The game is more enjoyable as a result, but people using the earlier versions may be able to win more easily and more often at the higher levels. This is not crucial to my enjoyment of the game, but it is fairer to recognise it. Question: Will submitted games using later versions get a slightly higher score to take this into account?

What about disabling certain victory conditions? Is this considered "cheating"?

It's built right into the setup interface, so it strikes me as "not cheating." Since you're really limiting how many options *you* have for victory, I think it only has the result of extending your game.

~SDC~

I'm wondering if i submit my 1.1a game (if i ever manage to get it submitted, the game is being picky about talking to the Metaverse, i don't even get the dialogue box asking if i want to submit, just exits to desktop) where i edited the wonders.imp to give the TerraFormer the correct id of 12 in order to make it buildible, will it be considered a cheat?

Say a word about library mods at least please.

~SDC~

Brad said on the mods forum that there will be something in the library to indicate "two levels" of mods - certified and uncertified.

Not sure which is which at the moment, however, or what certified means.

~SDC~

hi
i confess i use a trainer the frist games but now with my new nickname not
i submitted 3 clear game ~300 points but are not shown up at metaverse why not?
i will not try again plx cout my new games

DocAE :notsure:

DocAE, did you register on Metaverse with the nickname you're using to submit games?

Until you do, submitted games don't show up, and I'm not sure what happens to the scores submitted before you register on Metaverse.

Damian


~SDC~

I would also like to know if the user mad mods affect the metaverse score. SOme of them seem really cool.

later

~SDC~

I say ban them the first time. I take the hardline approach to ensure people understand cheating will not be tolerated.

It's not a mistake to mess with or tamper with files and events to alter the game and then "accidently" post them on the metaverse. It's a very deliberate, thought out act.

Whoops, I accidently gave myself a fleet a dreadnoughts and a +100% morale bonus. Gosh, how did that happen?

But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary...

I think the guideline to fairness could be very simple. If it's posted in the official library, it's okay. Everyone has access to use it or not.

A simple guideline, fair and equitable.

We're generally pretty flexible on it. That is, if someone wants to make their own mods and usethem, they're free to do so as long as they don't blatently alter the game balance (example: Make an "improvement" that increase planet quality by 1000% and only costs 10bc).

When we made the metaverse, we had a lot of time to think of all the things that might get used. On the admin side of thing, we can literlaly click on a particular game someone submitted and get all sorts of details on it. This is mostly meant for AI updating but obviously if someone's modified their political party to give them a 1000% planet quality improvement we'll see that too. There won't be any warnings, they'll just be banned.

The game will automatically flag out a lot of stuff that's obvious like what I mention above but there's sneakier stuff too that people have tried.

I think one thing we'll give priority to is to build a trainer into the game that people can use that will just turn off the submission so that no one "accidentally" submits a game where they gave themselves unlimited money or something.

~SDC~