Is reloading cheating?

[Bamspeedy]

Hey chill out man.... I believe I've kinda heard that reloading of this kind is allowed on GOTM or HOF, and in that context I ask. Thank you

I never heard re-loading was allowed for syping purposes in either one of those contests. In both, you can re-load if your finger slips and you move a unit to someplace you had no intention of moving it to, or the game/computer crashes.

There used to be a rule, don't know if it is still allowed or not, (for HOF, only) that if you accidently triggered domination too early, you could re-load to prevent it (for milking the game to achieve a higher score). But now since we have mapstat, that is not necessary. And there is also Apollo to help prevent an early culture victory.

 

[kingjoshi]

Originally posted by Mephisto
i think i can forsee some crazy deity dudes shouting, no, i've never cheated! so i am gonna do some damage control....

kingjoshi, suppose some players do switching modes like you described, who are they cheating? exactly, themselves. even when i won my first deity game, i still 'knew' that i could not beat the deity. so even if there are people who are blind enough to cheat themselves, the only victim is only themselve, not us. in which case, i can't care less.

neh, i am not gonna venture to analyse more deeply, there are people cheating themselves everyday in the real life, and all the philosophers out there still could not reach agreements on pretty much anything. i'll stop here.

I do philosophize too much. But I don't know if I can help it. there are ways, but I like it.

You might be cheating yourself and an AI that doesn't care if you do. Just as in any other game that has cheats, the AI never cares but you're still cheating it. I don't care if everyone is cheating the AI and enjoying the game. I hope some people do try different things and learn from it. I hope that some people do play through adversity and learn through that. I hope people find enjoyment from the game and even learn some things from talking to others in the forum (history, geography, etc). But that has nothing to do with whether if you reload, it is considered cheating. In most cases, it is. I was just answering the question that is the title of the thread and defending my position, maybe too much... But I just don't understand why others don't "get it". Maybe it's something I'm missing...

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by SirJethro
Why is this thread necessary? Aside from GOTM and other instances where there are rules about reloading....who cares?

If you want to do it...if you want to play through your bad decisions, way to go. The thread has come and gone many times in the past, and it really serves no purpose. Just play the darn game.

To slightly change the topic...I like to drink beer while I play. Is that allowed during GOTM?

I just asked because I'm really new at this game and use it a lot...but I didn't expect to have four pages of the debate. The second response was good to satisfy whether it is cheating or not...

 

[Mephisto]

kingjoshi, i guess i don't wanna call it cheating b/c then i would arrive at the conclusion that cheating may be ok sometimes. but you are right, i may be just messing around w/ the definition. so for some people, i prefer to call that learning; but if i do that, i'd call myself a cheater.

at the same time i also respect what you & richard iii think. when one reload once, he could have the tendency to continue reloading even after he's learned the game. i think one should have almost an moral obligation (hate to use this phrase! ) to himself to eat the mistakes in these cases.

 

[SirJethro]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
And there is also Apollo to help prevent an early culture victory.

Bamspeedy....(off topic, but I need to clarify this)....are you referring to Apollo because a spaceship victory would replace an "early culture victory" or does the Apollo small wonder actually do something to cancel out a culture victory? Is there something I don't know about Apollo?

 

[Bamspeedy]

Apollo is the name of a utility you can download from the utilities forum that tells you when you will achieve a cultural victory (assuming you don't build anymore culture improvements/wonders).

 

[SirJethro]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
Apollo is the name of a utility you can download from the utilities forum that tells you when you will achieve a cultural victory (assuming you don't build anymore culture improvements/wonders).

ahhhh... :grad:

 

[stalin006]

no, is not cheating...........is like having a time machine and going back in time to change the present!!!!!!

 

[one_man_assault]

Cheating in my opinion is altering the game in any form from its original to your benifet, realoading is somewere in the gray of that beacuse realoading dosnt give u god mode or anything but it gives u the power to go back and correct your mistakes. In a way it is cheating but in a way it isnt. I know seasoned veterans turn auto save off when they play on diety. Only newbies really need auto save I remember using it countless times before I figured out how fun it was not to play with it. Its more suspensfull and forces u to think long term and plan everything with a chess mentality of 4+ turns ahead. I find it more enjoyable this way...even though its a pain when u become too liberal and disaster occurs...

 

[hbdragon88]

It's a Civ III crack. That could be cheating. But who am to say when, on another game, I downloaded four program cracks and used them to my advantage.

 

[Civddict]

So question is: do you like to be winner on deity cheating, or winner on warlord without cheating?

 

[Aggie]

Of course!!!!!!
But I do it all the time, I'm just not good enough..
Respect for all of you that don't reload....

 

[hbdragon88]

Warlord without cheating would be much more satisfactory than winning under Deity with reloading. But I haven't yet beat the game under Chieftain, so it's going to be a while...

Besides as long as you just keep it to yourself (i.e. don't post score on a forum or anything) reloading should be all right.

 

[Zarn]

Yes, reloading is not satisfying. I don't reload for anything. I don't do it for the U.N. elections or goody huts.

 

[Reboot]

Reloading is cheating - but it also depends. If you reload to change a few moves made by mistake, or an error in your calculations, its not a big thing (I think). But if you reload every other turn to make sure your warrior can consistently bonk fortified spearmen in the enemy's cities, then its definitely a cheat.

After visiting this forum I don't reload anymore unless I make wrong moves. (Ugh! Stoopid worker, move LEFT, not RIGHT! Who told YOU to come up? I thought that Archer's next in the queue?!)

Reloading does create "perfect games" though. Some experiences I have with my "perfect games":
- reloading to 4000BC once you know the general map of your continent and the locations of your enemies and goodie huts. [BIG cheat, I think]
- reloading to make sure every civil disorder does not happen.
- reloading to prevent AI winning a Wonder race. [Depends]
- reloading to win every battle. [BIG cheat, I think]
- reloading to avoid flips.
- reloading to get tech from every goodie hut. [BIG cheat, I think]
- reloading to get Great Leaders.
- reloading to ensure that Revolutions for your non-religious Civ will still take one turn. [BIG cheat, I think - but then again there are Revolutions that go for 10+ turns... urgh.]

Of course, this gets easier with the random seed unpreserved.

Reloading's kind of boring though since all results are assured. I recommend doing it only if you want to see how "perfect" your game can be.

 

[hbdragon88]

I like to get enjoyment in my game, but felt a little nagging doubt about reloading. So I asked here, and got four pages worth of responses. I don't do any of those "BIG cheat" thingies you mentioned, at least.