This "cheating" or just poor sportsmanship?

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1679041

Didn't realize until he dropped 90+ reinforcements on me that the map was set to give obscene bonus armies for Korea, Japan, and Hawaii.

I don't feel I should be checking every map I ever play for sneaky crap like that. Yeah, I blacklisted him, I won't play with him again, and I'm not here to whine and complain, but I am curious what the rest of y'all think about it.

It's amusing. But it's also a bullshit coward move. You should have checked the map. He should have made special note.

Yeah, that's a knucklehead move.

However, a good rule in Warlight--as in life--is *caveat emptor*.

You can get the information you need in the Overridden bonuses field under army settings.

To me it is a form of cheating... really the only form of it that exists in multiplayer.

The nice bit is that the game setting has two windows which show all the unusual variations applied to the map so it makes it easier to spot such dubious methods.

Hmm, take a look at the number of reinforcements each player gets after each turn:

5 vs 5
35 vs 5
98 vs 8
102 vs 12
109 vs 19
126 vs 19
133 vs 19

Pretty impressive huh? Well, let's look what happens when we subtract the "cheat" bonuses:

5 vs 5
5 vs 5
8 vs 8
12 vs 12
19 vs 19
36 vs 19
43 vs 19

Despite having a 30-army advantage for one turn and a 90-army advantage for three turns (300 armies total!) it still takes until the sixth turn before [Syrius](http://warlight.net/Profile.aspx?p=856871526) manages to conquer enough bonuses to gain more "real" income than Ravenholm. Do we have awards for incompetence, because I just found someone worthy of a nomination. ;)

RvW,your analysis is flawed because you fail to take into account that the "non-cheat" bonuses were taken with troops deployed from the "cheat" bonuses. The more troops you have to deploy, the more territories you can conquer, and the more quickly you can get bonuses.

i don't think its cheating because you both still have an equal chance of getting the "extra bonus" territory.

Actually, I see now that I misread above. Ignore me.

I did some game against a guy named "Garbonzo" once, where he made Antarctica a 50 bonus. The name of the game was copied from the auto-games.

http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1494784

I noticed in time and blocked him from taking Antarctica. The point is, if you notice, you can surprise the guy. But it isnt a game worthy remembering anyway. It got somewhat a taste. Though blacklisting bores me to death. I would play him again anyday.
Much more than these childish tries to rig the game, I dislike when your team member just bails out on you. That is really frustrating and then I really consider never playing with this guy again. Even if he is on the opponent team, there is no fun and I feel strongly urged to vote to end.

gryph, yes, you misread, but there is a valid point that neither of you had mentioned before.. the latter measurement isn't accurate because he had used non-cheating armies to gain those cheating bonuses, and to get towards those cheating bonuses.. without that he would of been more concentrated on getting the non-cheating bonuses and it would of shown in his bonus ratio..


this discussion has been had many times.. not cheating precisely, but underhanded definitely. what would of been ultimately worse would of been if he had slightly modified the entire map, so that the cheat was less obvious until too late, as it is it is easily noticeable in the overridden bonuses section of the settings.

Ravenholm, I highly encourage you to look into the settings of *every* game you play.. I personally like doing really odd settings in my maps, the odder the better, but will generally mention them in the personal message, and sometimes even in chat, as a cheap win is worse then a loss, imho.

This thread creates an interesting concept :

The bonus a player receives should be based on the experience of the player.

If you are a total newb, you should get more armies, compared to an experienced player, who will get less.

That way, experienced players and newbs can mix in games relatively easy.

I believe in competition. If the newbie would be smart, he would notice that spoiling him will drastically lower his learning curve. He would stay a newbie for a long time, because he would not feel such an urge to adjust his strategies. He wouldnt even notice how unwise his current strategies are, because they would be working quite well.

I remember my first game, which was against TheLollipopGuild. It was wildly desperate playing on my side, I know now. What would it have been done good to me, if I would have managed to hold my own with my complete fail of playing the game?

Yeah. I should have seen it during the territory deployment screen. Ah well. It's amusing in a way, haha.

I checked the history of the game after browsing the posts, so I was fairly "meh" about it all. That was until I read the chat and started laughing. The sheer, unbridled outrage and bewilderment simply followed by the "nice map" sign off was priceless. Good effort!