PBEM SECURITY (?)

[PeterF]

Three questions from a competitive Combat Mission player who hasn't played a IGO-UGO wargame PBEM:

1- I understand that the game keeps track of the number of times a player has loaded the game. So far so good. But what's to prevent the first (German) player from repeatedly initiating a new game till he 'gets it right'?

2- Does Matrix envisage adding a 'Tournament Save' option, that would prevent rather than discourage relodaing?

3- It seems that the ideal number of MP participants is 4. Is there a provision for the computer to take over a side from a player who drops out?

[Dalwin]

I can't answer your questions but have a related one.

What prevents a cheater from reopening a copy of the turn he has just sent off, this time as the country that his opponent is playing. Granted the intel he gets this way by circumventing fog of war will be one turn out of date, but I am not sure I see a way to prevent this form of cheating other than not using fog of war.

I have seen other games prevent this by use of a password. This would mean that only the Russian player could open a copy of the Russian turn since only he would have his password. Is that the way it is done here?

[IDrinkBeer]

I have seen other games prevent this by use of a password. This would mean that only the Russian player could open a copy of the Russian turn since only he would have his password. Is that the way it is done here?

Yes, each PBEM player is prompted for a password on his/her first turn. It is then used anytime that player's turn comes up...

[PeterF]

Yes, each PBEM player is prompted for a password on his/her first turn. It is then used anytime that player's turn comes up...

Well. IDrinkBeer, the problem is turn #1. All subsequent turns are secure. The theory is that the German player can generate any number of turn #1s. It would take a player with the rectitude of George Washington to transmit a turn where, by sheer outrageous bad luck, he failed to force a surrender on France.

Of course with my habitual email correspondents this kind of security would be superfluous.[;)] But there are some ferocious competitors out there.

[aletoledo]

I think most of turn one is a gimme to the germans anyway. denmark, norway and netherlands rarely lose a single man. france usualy is one or two damaged and yugoslavia is 3 or 4.

I suppose they could replay it till they received no deaths, but it would honestly take probably a dozen tries to achieve this. if someone goes to that degree of trouble to save 7-8 production points, perhaps you should let them and just note their name to question playing with them in the future. I personally wouldn't risk losing future opponents to 7-8 production points!

[dobeln]

Just curious - where do you see the number of loads / player? Could be useful in my just-starting-up PBEM:s

[Paul Vebber]

One of the things the game does to discourage "reloading" is to pre-roll units attack dice (ie fix the random number seed).

So if you replay turns just to get a good result, you will find it fruitless. There are always ways the nefarious will find to get an advantage.

Playing via chat with a per turn time limit will keep most attempts at "replaying turns" to a minimum.

I'm not sure about how the load save counter is supposed to work... The "Console" number on the open ile screen tells you something. the loads and saves are supposed to appear after that, but I have never seen anything other than "blank" (ie 0)

[PeterF]

One of the things the game does to discourage "reloading" is to pre-roll units attack dice (ie fix the random number seed).

Turn #1 is the problem, Paul. And there may be no easy solution.

[traemyn]

turn #1 is the problem, Paul.

The solution is that WaW implements an TCP/IP patch that would include creating the game while all players are present. I think you guys are really nit-picking though and the only reason to worry is if your are playing in a uber competive setting.

I don't think its worth the time and effort to have them implement this feature for a very small part of an already small community. Maybe down the road but its fine the way it is for now. As Paul says people will always find a way to cheat if thats what they like to do.

IF they go the TCP/IP route then I spose this is something they should think about.

[PeterF]

I think you guys are really nit-picking though and the only reason to worry is if your are playing in a uber competive setting.

You're right.[:)]But my early intuition is that WaW lends itself nobly to this setting.

As posted in another thread, the only workaround may be the 3rd party option; a 1st turn setup saved by a non-particpant and mailed to the German player. The German player reveals the 3rd party's password at the conclusion of the match.

Bottom line: the UGO-IGO format poses thornier security dilemmas than WEGO (Combat Mission) or RTS (HOI).