CHEATING, CHEATING... AND CHEATING AGAIN

[schnetzler]

I have been an experienced player for several years. Today, half of the players cheat by intervening on the code or the settings file. It is unbearable.
It is difficult to be sure when you are not experienced and do not know what is "normal", but three anomalies are detectable and should alert you:
- astonishing scores in attacks (very difficult to make the part of chance); this becomes clear on the Eastern front in 1941 where the German player succeeds in all his attacks without losses and advances without ever being slowed down; then, his units acquire a very high level of experience very quickly
- an income that is too high at the beginning of the game (difficult to detect when it does not exceed 10%)
- an abnormally high level of research (this becomes visible between the middle and the end of 1941: the opponent has reached a level 3 in several domains where you cannot invest 2 chits and he is already advanced to a level 4; this can only be confirmed by consulting the statistics after having given up)

All this is subjective, you will say. So here is the cheating record (few days ago), absolutely indisputable:

End of turn 3. Italian have :
- an income of 210
- spent 160 on units
- at the end of turn 2, spent 300 (sic) on the anti-aircraft defense and infantry weapons
- at the end of turn 3, reached 19% and 19% in these two domains

These cheaters are often quite weak players in other respects. Regardless of the technical solution to this scourge, perhaps weaker players should be offered the possibility of handicap games. For my part, this is the reason why I do not buy the other games in the series.

[Hubert Cater]

Can you share the ChallengeID of a game in progress that you are concerned about so we can take a look?

[Hubert Cater]

You can also send us the ChallengeIDs of any games that you have concerns about as well that may have already finished.

[mdswift]

I have been playing SC (all versions) since initial development/publication. I am currently playing a match in which my opponent has chewed through my Soviet defenses in an abnormally effective manner (little to no losses on German or Finnish units) and complete destruction of fully entrenched Soviet units in multiple cities. A fully entrenched Soviet army at the Dugavpils fortress was knocked to 4 with no losses of German forces. Similarly a full strength British army entrenched in the mountains of Greece, with HQ support was destroyed by Italian, Romanian and German troops with almost no losses. Would it be possible to verify? The challenge ID of the match is 466289. Thank you.

[BillRunacre]

Hi

I've taken a look at your game and recreated the situation where Daugavpils is attacked. By first striking it with the German rocket artillery that was 2 hexes to the southwest, then hitting it with a Medium Bomber, I removed all its entrenchment.

I then hit it with a Tactical Bomber, Tank unit, and two Armies, and it was destroyed with no losses to the Germans.

This does appear to be correct - the German units have normal readiness and morale, certainly nothing amazing, but they do have good HQ support, good tech, and the defending army had neither.

The first turns of Barbarossa will undoutedly be painful, not just here, but it does look as though things are as they should be.

We will of course be happy to look at later turns, i.e. when the Axis are deep in the USSR, and have lost their initial advantage, should you wish us to.