fog of war

[bud]

had an experience as to where i took a hard look at the data files.
no way to police a player who wishes to change any stat on research and other items. console and player save show no action in either category. this can be done by the german player on the start of ANY scenario. since every one wants to play fog of war i must warn non-german players of this flaw. if the moderator would respond to my e-mails i would elaborate further. great game but i warn all players against fog of war... especially if insisted on by the german player.[&:]

[RTDouglas]

Although I am not a very computer literate guy myself and therefore cannot verify what you have stated, I am very curious about the security of the game as well. I hope some thought is addressed to this problem. Some friends and I are contemplating starting an online WaW club where we can play rated games like we do in Axis&Allies, however there seems to be several flaws to the PBEM structure. Perhaps when we can play head to head online that will solve our preoblems, but personally I very much like the convenience of PBEM. I do not know how much thought the designers put into security but i hope some of the questions being raised in the forums can be answered.

I haven't played the AI and I didn't buy the game to do so. Really, what is the point. I bought it so I could play other humans. Unfortunately as many of us in the gaming community are aware the are FAR too many idiots out there who feel they have to cheat to feel good about themselves I guess. This alone I wouldn't care about, but the problem is that once some punk starts finding a way to cheat, then all games and all circumstances are looked upon with suspicion. This destroys the competitive and fun play that many of us "old timers" desire.

PLEASE MATRIX - if you can please help us and do whatever you can to adress this unfortunate reality in the online world.

[Fazman]

Wait for tcp/ip version before contemplating a league i think. Unfortunate but human nature can get in the way of an otherwise enjoyable game.

Funny how some get more joy/satisfaction from the win than the actual game play.... so silly.

[pyrhic]

fog of war doesnt disguise research levels above a full point. Fog of war also doesnt mask units on the board, so if you start a game and the germans have an abnormal number of units, or an abnormal research level, you can catch them right there.

[bud]

ger and jap -- can also add units and supply to production line for years down the road at no cost --just some has to not over do it -- cant see that -- and on 1st turn can add 1 to many reseachs with tipping his hand --- this has to be address asap

[5cats]

A good point, it is not only possible but really easy
One way would be to allow a COMPLETE replay of the game, with no FOW, so you could easily see anything the enemy did. If you check his research on turn 1 and find 30 points worth, you know he cheated!
Right now, it's hard enough to get a turn to replay properly...

[bud]

perhaps when a player clicks on a email game to start there get be no access to the data files then -- hope thats possible for matrix to change fast ---

[Fazman]

( is this something that is possible only at game start?)

if it is i might have a stop gap procedure?
Have the German/Japanese players first turn save and then just like drug testing an athlete, he must submit his password at games end... would this work?

[Joel Billings]

We're aware of the possibility for abuse and it's on our list to deal with in a future patch. I'm not sure what approach we'll take to try to minmize this problem. In WitP, Mike indicated whether you were playing an official scenario and if so, whether it had been modified. At this time all efforts are on getting the Online version of the game into test. If you have a suggestion on how best to deal with the security problem, feel free to post it here. In the meantime, submitting passwords at game's end to then go back and check out the first turn's save to make sure everything looks ok seems like a possible workaround.