CheatyBeaty

[Cubanmoogle]

Originally posted by Vita Nuova
Firaxis has robbed us of our potential fun

What are you talking about? To play any game with cheats takes away all the interest. So what if you can beat a game with cheats. All that means is that you can type in a code word and exploit the backdoors the programmers coded in to test the game. If you can't beat any games without cheating, why buy them? Why not cheat the company that sells it too and pirate it? Cheat mode can be too much of a temptation for players who otherwise might be good at a game.

 

[Robespierre]

I'm by no means (for lack of experience mostly I think) an "elite" civ player but I nonetheless would never use cheat mode and am glad there isn't one.

I don't play civilization for entertainment but rather to live out my megalomaniac fantasies of being a dictator. Because of this, everything that makes the game more realistic (like culture and government) makes it more fun for me while everything that makes it less realistic (like cheat mode and bribing) makes it less fun.

 

[mote]

I used the cheat mode all the time and will miss it. Hopefully I can use the scenario editor to cheat the way I used to.

Someone has to give the other civs a helping hand...

Nothing spices up the game like giving your rival a dozen nukes. ;santa:

 

[Chinese American]

I tend to agree with Tribalchief that you could find mechanisms of the game that you would not know unless you read all the CFC or other elite guides. For example, I found on the net about the 'airbase' bug that treats it as both farmland and RR. There were some simple charts by other Civ fans but with the cheat mode I was able to find the subtle relationships amongst the terrain types, improvements and bonuses (eg wine.) I don't remember reading anything on how transformations affected bonuses. IE buffalo on plains transformed to hills get wine. Not necessarily correct but buffalo always change to one bonus and not the other. And you might already know that some grasslands with shields can hide bonuses--if you play with cheat mode or editor enough. Maybe this was covered in advanced scenario editing guides, but I don't make scenarios.

There was a question on newsgroup about what cities can build ports. With the editor and cheat mode, I was able to efficiently figure out the requirements that allow a city to build ports.

Sometimes you can use the cheat mode to make the game harder, or just to keep things interesting, or see what happens in certain situations. Like mote's idea to give rivals nukes. There are times when I just wanna play in 'sandbox mode' (ala Railroad Tycoon 2.)

I can cheat without the cheat mode. Like BusterBunny prophesied, there could be a trainer out by the first week. I find it more satisfying, if I really wanted to cheat, to hexedit the save file. If I wanted to cheat, the lack of a built-in cheat mode wouldn't stop me. I find the cheat mode as a useful debugging tool to help dissect the game mechanics.

 

[tribalchief]

Originally posted by Vita Nuova
Firaxis has robbed us of our potential fun because a number of internet blowhards have decried the presence of a built in, comprehensive cheat mode.

Guys, if you don't like the cheat menu, don't use it, but it's wrong to infringe upon the happiness of the casual user with your mousepad machismo.

Well put, Vita. The presence of a cheat mode did nothing to detract from the game. People could use it or not as they saw fit. But its absence is a loss, whether or not people realize it. It is one less option there, one less tool to milk the game for all the fun it should be worth.

 

[tribalchief]

And thanks, C.A., although I didn't have anything quite so detailed in mind! You are right. I think we have some people here who think the only use for the cheat mode was to cheat your way to a win. If that was its only value, I wouldn't miss it either. But it's good for a lot more -- teaching yourself about how the game ticks, setting up a game you might actually have more fun playing, or skipping through a part of the game you don't enjoy. I hope these things are not lost in Civ III, because if they are it's a loss indeed.

 

[Vita Nuova]

Originally posted by Cubanmoogle


What are you talking about? To play any game with cheats takes away all the interest. So what if you can beat a game with cheats. All that means is that you can type in a code word and exploit the backdoors the programmers coded in to test the game. If you can't beat any games without cheating, why buy them? Why not cheat the company that sells it too and pirate it? Cheat mode can be too much of a temptation for players who otherwise might be good at a game.

You didn't even read my post, did you? Neither I or my friends who play Civ/SMAC have any interest in beating the game on its own terms. We're not playing the game to prove that we are more clever than silicon We play with cheats because we all have god complexes that need to be satiated.

 

[Cubanmoogle]

Originally posted by Vita Nuova


You didn't even read my post, did you? Neither I or my friends who play Civ/SMAC have any interest in beating the game on its own terms. We're not playing the game to prove that we are more clever than silicon We play with cheats because we all have god complexes that need to be satiated.

I apologize, I missed the point completely. You are a true megalomaniac. So who's more suited for CivIII, Vita or everyone else?

 

[smallstepforman]

As someone already mentioned, the biggest cheat of all is "Save game" attack/open goody box "Load game" until you succeed. Wimpy (but I'm guilty like everyone else).

I miss the days of Civ (the original) where you could only load a game when you start the game, not during the game. This way it took a lot of time to exit, reboot (Amiga with floppies), wait a minute to load Disk one, insert save game disk, load save game, eject disk, load disk one, load 2 seconds of data, switch to disk 4 (civ came on 4 floppies), wait another 10 seconds and then finally get an opportunity to raid / move. All up, this took a good 4-5 minutes, hence was seldomly practiced.

With Civ2, you simply hit CTRL-S/CTRL-L to rewrite history. Thats the biggest cheat of all.

Waiting for Nov19 for Civ3 down under.

 

[Flak]

Originally posted by Vinc
As I said in a previous thread on that topic, I think NO cheat mode is better. Because when you start playing with the cheats, you get bad habits and can't play with cheats off.

Yeah but what do you care? It's my $50. It's my game. It's none of your business how I have my fun with the game. You need not concern yourself with my habits. Ever.

The cheat mode added to the game for many players. For those where the cheat mode detracted or had some other reason not to use it, they didn't use it. The net result is that they took away a fun feature that will ONLY detract from a good game.



P.S. Now if they ever put a multiplayer in this game like they should have never released without, then you and any others may concern themselves with my habits. For online play anyway.

 

[Punkymonkey]

I sometimes used the cheat, but only at the end because i wanted the enemy civs to be more of a challenge. i'd give them money and free techs cause there just too easy to beat:slay:
Anyways looks like to me that civ 3 is going to be a challenge but i'm up for it :soldier:

 

[chokenspit]

Originally posted by Jive
cheating makes you want to play less of the game.

:fish:

playing the game over and over again and winning makes you want to play less of the game. it adds some fun to the game