Several anti-cheat features have been added to TOAW III; for example, you may get a notification that your opponent has reloaded the same move several times.
Continuous reloads are forbidden of course, and such behavior may allow an opponent to claim a forfeit; however, we're not enforceing that yet, as there may still be some bugs; during playtesting, there were occasional "false positives" caused by something other than cheating; ie, playing two simultaneous games against two different opponents, or playing a human and the computer at the same time, or simply loading an older move, to check a hex location. Generally, though, the system seems to work well now, if the players aren't doing something weird.
The problem, of course, with continuous reloads, is that you can run combat until you get the results you like; or recon the enemy's position, and then re-do your move; or try out several moves, and then decide which you like best, etc; all those things are cheating, and have always been considered as cheats; it's just that before, the opponent rarely had any indication it was going on.
Other changes to the game make it more difficult to convert a mid-game move to an .sce file, to take a look behind enemy lines; etc. Generally, the improvements will be welcomed by most players. It is lots more fun to play without cheating.
I have a question on this. Is it still OK to save a file (even several times) to resume playing it at a later time? Or does this already produce a "cheating" report. For I do not always have the time to play a turn in one session.
You can certainly save the file, and resume at a later time, and it won't (shouldn't) generate a cheat report. You can likewise save multiple times, as many as you like, and it's not a problem if, after you quit, you go to the latest save, to recommence. The problem is, if you have multiple saves, and open one of the older ones (ie, not the latest).
There are some grey areas here; for example, if you open an older save merely to look at it (you're doing an AAR, want a screenshot, etc), but don't actually continue play from that save, you are just looking, then close back out, I think you could probably then go to your most recent save, and continue your game, without generating a cheat report; if two of you can test that, let me know. Also, if you are experiencing anything else unusual, let me know, I'll report it.
I'm playing a game now with a newbie, and haven't had any kind of cheat or multiple reload reports, and I assume (and hope!) he hasn't either, so it seems pretty clean, as long as you just save so you can resume from the same position at a later time.
Hm, from my very brief experience with TOAW3 PBEM it looks a bit like that that feature should be used with caution (or at least not be believed at all times). The first turn from Antoni arrived late night, I just openend it to watch the playback and turn start reports, saved and closed it, opened it again to play it next day, and already Antoni did get a cheating report. Turn three I just opened it, played and closed it, all in one session, and apparantely there still was a report.
Maybe the game is confused because we are on different versions ... (v. .14 vs. v. .17)
Are there any insights as to how this feature actually works? I got a turn from Antoni that was the wrong one (an earlier turn #) - I loaded it three times to make sure the error wasn't on my side - requested a new turn from Antoni - got it, played it in one session - and Antoni got a "3 reloads" message.
Unless this feature is really unreliable, this message can only come from my earlier problems with the wrong turn - but how? :conf:
I'll see what I can find out, but I do think the anti-cheat features are a work in progress. In your first example, a cheat warning should not have been triggered. either time. In the 2d, I think perhaps it worked correctly, because you were loading an older move (albeit it legitimately) three times.
There is an active forum on TOAW-3 on the Matrix site, and both the programmer and the project leader are watching the messages over there; if you have the time, I think it would be good to check in there, read what's being said about the anti-cheat, and perhaps share the experiences you're having.
My 2 Cents on this......that's also all it's worth IMO.
I assume most of us just enjoy war-GAMES, are interested in (military-)history, and the detail, depth these games offer. I really play as an "armchair general". I wanna win the battle, if I loose I loose.
So WHY cheating.....go play other games - they mostly have even bild in cheats, or Google them.
The enjoyment of wargames does not come from winning or loosing.
And if one cheats, I guess most of us will have a "feeling" something strange is going-on on the battleground.
Better put effort in futher developping the real game....cheaters are loosers.
I have never trusted these anti-cheat features. I have experience that when I saved my turn, and returned to it imediately, later on my opponent found reloads. Later on whenever you returned to such previously made save, you never know how many reloads your opponent may find. That is really annoying! Especially when you and your oponent agreed on not having any reloads. With this feature I think gaming lost its fun. Now, probably a lot of players are accusing eachother beacuse of that poorly working system.
I was thinking for a while and also found a solution to this problem, if Matrix would not fix it.
Think about a difference between two scenarios, small one with small group of units, and a huge one with thousands units on each side.
It is very easy to do everything in one go, or repeat small scenario if your opponent found reloads. But, what would you say about playing huge one without saving? Normally, it is imposible not to save from time to time without the purpose of cheating, of course. It is almost certain that your opponent will see annoying message about reloads, and at the same time start thinking about your bad behaviour. Then, you are accused of cheating and let's say you have to repeat your turn.
I would not recomend that.
What is more, even if you do everything in one go, it seems that you cannot have turn guaranteed without any reloads. Recently, my opponent notified me about 6 reloads. How come??? I have not saved even this one time!
In conclusion, maybe we should allow certain amount of reloads in medium, and huge scenarious. The bigger scenario the bigger amount of allowed reloads respectivly. I believe that could be a solution to odd reloads. Like a minor fault in statistics, it will not harm the overall outcome.
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