Do You Cheat?

[Jenaelha]

Yup. Hadn't realized you could cheat until .23c drove me to discover auto saved games. Now, it's routine I just save before battles with favorite units. It was not fair, the way the combat bug was affecting my game. It just isn't fun when it's not fair.

 

[Sarisin]

Well, no. Especially not using the Worldbuilder. Even if you fail to discover Rok or FotL first you will still get the disciple from the tech. But if someone loses 99% battle and reloads I don't see that as bad, even not as cheating, I just don't feel like reloading lately.

Yes, but you cannot build the Song or Tablets wonders then, can you?

The other thing is I have found on numerous occasions the disciple, acolyte, etc. you get isn't always successful in spreading his religion. Then, you have to hope it spreads to your civ another way.

I realize there are some conflicts between religions (The Order and AV, for example), but if you have ROK in your city, you would think a Disciple of Leaves would be able to spreak FOL to that city. It doesn't always happen though.

There are clearly big advantages to being the one who founds the religion and I feel the AI elves and dwarves get the benefit of AI cheating on doing it.

 

[it-ogo]

I do not like to use WB in game. But usually i set "NEW RANDOM SEED ON RELOAD" and sometimes use save\load method. And like to found and to use different exploits.

 

[attackdrone]

I cheat by opening up the world builder and ensuring that each civilisation has a viable starting position. As I prefer to play on huge pangaea maps with 16 civs, there are almost always one or two who have truly pathetic starts in tundra, or on a peninsula completely blocked by another AI. I also sometimes swap a flood plains desert with a grasslands or plains square for my starting city. I do hate to build on a flood plains and waste that square.

 

[Great Oleander]

I cheat by opening up the world builder and ensuring that each civilisation has a viable starting position. As I prefer to play on huge pangaea maps with 16 civs, there are almost always one or two who have truly pathetic starts in tundra, or on a peninsula completely blocked by another AI.

Yeah the same counts for me. Sometimes I also reload when I lose those 99.x% battles with high-exp units, especially if it is your hero who dies.

 

[Thennorin]

Yes, I may cheat sometimes (by loading a save game) if I lose a hero on 98%+ combat odds. I may also restart a map to get a competitive start position 10%-20% of the time.

The key factor is whether or not it's going to make the game less fun if I don't cheat. In a game that takes many hours, it's lousy to have the fun factor plummet halfway through over the unexpected loss of a cool unit.

 

[Lurch]

my computer takes too long to reload in the late game for me to cheat...

 

[Aeon221]

my computer takes too long to reload in the late game for me to cheat...

I know exactly what you mean! Gah!

I'm not sure how you can do anything considered cheating in a single player game. I mean, news flash, no one else will care if you add 800 nukes to your civ and destroy the world. Your game, your rules.

Of course, you could also be a creepy masochist who takes pleasure in knowing that he rocked the ai without once ever even reloading or something. And... thats good too...

 

[Pocus]

I allow me one reload every 100 turns played, and only when I lose a combat odd of 98.0% + with an important unit. I call that 'spending a destiny point'

rant on: There is one thing I hate in Civ4: AI don't use Fog of War. I'm rather pissed to see the lone AI chariot move 4 tiles into your territory to capture a worker.

 

[Caradoc]

I screen starting position with the WB. I'll do a batch of them and then go back and take one at random, so I don't have any foreknowledge of the map, but I know the map will be worth playing.

Also, whenever I make a manual error, such as brushing a worker and starting an unwanted road, if it matters much (say a Barbarian kills it because it didn't run) I'll reload.

And, I know this is really cheating but I can't help it, if I miss out on a Wonder on the last turn before finishing it, I will go back and juggle my production to make sure I get it.

 

[Sarisin]

I screen starting position with the WB. I'll do a batch of them and then go back and take one at random, so I don't have any foreknowledge of the map, but I know the map will be worth playing.

Also, whenever I make a manual error, such as brushing a worker and starting an unwanted road, if it matters much (say a Barbarian kills it because it didn't run) I'll reload.

And, I know this is really cheating but I can't help it, if I miss out on a Wonder on the last turn before finishing it, I will go back and juggle my production to make sure I get it.

hahaha, I like that last one, and I have done it too!

Here's an unexplained mystery dealing with that subject:

I was researching the founding of The Order. Sure enough I was beaten to it by one turn by the Balserphs, of all people. I went back to the last auto save, adjusted my science and was able to get the religion first.

Now the strange stuff really hits the fan:

A few turns later I get the message that the Ashen Veil has been founded in Jubilee - the Balserphs really pulled a tricky there, didn't they?

Yes, I am sure it was the Balserphs in both cases.

 

[Thennorin]

I was researching the founding of The Order. Sure enough I was beaten to it by one turn by the Balserphs, of all people. I went back to the last auto save, adjusted my science and was able to get the religion first.

Now the strange stuff really hits the fan:

A few turns later I get the message that the Ashen Veil has been founded in Jubilee - the Balserphs really pulled a tricky there, didn't they?

Hmm, that doesn't make any sense at all but at least you can say it's in character Especially if Perp was leading. Maybe it's an undocumented feature of the Insane trait

 

[jwin]

Obviously, Perp just reloaded to try to beat you to Order. When he couldn't beat you to it, he reloaded again from an early autosave and switched to Veil.

To avoid having the urge to reload after combats, I have unfirtunately switched back to .22 where the combat odds work better. I miss hex's movies, though.

 

[Antheanian]

I don't cheat. I don't like opening the world builder, knowing all the map before even moving your first scout! Or adding units, techs, ressources, etc...

I also don't like reloading. I do it rarely. If I missed a wonder by one turn, of course I am pissed, but then I enjoy the extra cash, upgrade units and get them to the city who completed the wonder! Boom! I got it!

I also missed RoK (my favorite religion so far) by a few turns, and decided to convert to it anyway. Then I made a huge army and eradicate the dwarves to get the holy city.

I really think that unfortunate events should be used to make a history out of your game, instead of cheating around it... Imagine if Hitler could have reloaded the battle on the shores of Normandie.

 

[Sarisin]

I really think that unfortunate events should be used to make a history out of your game, instead of cheating around it... Imagine if Hitler could have reloaded the battle on the shores of Normandie.

Maybe you would be speaking German there instead of French?

Just kidding, you make very good points about not cheating.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

More often than not when I cheat it is because I just made a minor change to the game and want to see how it effects it.

 

[Blakmane]

I occasionally reload if I lose ludicrous battle odds with heroes, but I see that as more of a combat odds bug rather than cheating- losing with 99% odds three or four times in a row is not just a case of bad luck, especially when it happens as often as it does in FFH.

Apart from that, I often will use my great people for more than one bonus (say, give holy building AND join city) using the queue bug. I've got no excuse for that I just can't resist >.>

Also if I play a fractal map, which I do often, I'll quickly look at the worldbuilder (trying not to see my start location) to make sure there's no isolated island starts. If there is i'll reload (I hate sea maps because the computer AI is so horrible at them).

 

[Chip56]

really think that unfortunate events should be used to make a history out of your game, instead of cheating around it... Imagine if Hitler could have reloaded the battle on the shores of Normandie.

I dont think Hitler lost with his tanks against a spearthrower.
If he would have loost dozens of tanks against spearthrowers in open field, he would probably have commited suicide much earlier.

As i see most people only reload for "impossible" events and not for unfortunate events.
For example i played the world war2 scenario as england:
I had a too weak defense in the north and germany made a sucessful landing.
My own fault, so i continued and retook it.
I lost dozens of infantery on the defens of cities. No problem.
I lost tanks and artelery on the offense against a heavy fortified city. no problem.
I lost two elite tanks against a single heavy dameged lvl 1 infantery in open field in allied territory.
No way!

 

[onedreamer]

No grey areas here. Either you cheat or you don't.

However, if you do cheat and admit it like me, feel free to justify how and why like I am about to do.

1. As mentioned in another thread, I quick save now before what is becoming most battles. I never used to do that before, but it just pissed me off that I was losing so many high-XP units in battles that I should have won. Now, I quick save, and re-load as necessary. I am a cheater.

You aren't, you are a victim of AI cheating. I am now convinced that the AI cheats. I know that it's totally irrational but believe me, don't even try to convince me of the contrary. I have written down numbers and proven to myself that when an AI higher in "power" is in difficulty in war vs me, it will start cheating...: in particular, I will loose an incredibly higher number of 95+% battles than I normally do. If the AI isn't higher in power however this doesn't happen. So I am now happily convinced that the AI cheats... but you are of course entitled to keep believing that the AI is just code, and not a ... well... living being

 

[onedreamer]

losing with 99% odds three or four times in a row is not just a case of bad luck, especially when it happens as often as it does in FFH.

Aaah man, how right you are. And there are the fanatics of the club "Men just see patterns where there aren't, and you just tend to remember incredibly losses rather than incredible wins". It's just that when I reload 3 times in a row a 99% win, and lose 3 times in a row, it's not a matter of patterns or bad memory, it's a matter of cheating... of AI cheating, that is.