Getting rid of two other common cheating patterns

[Instr]

Two other common cheating patterns are:

 

-Arranged non-nuclear slotfill; where the attackers and defender conspire to give the defender enough time to get out of nuclear anarchy

-Botched nuke timings; where the timing of the nuke can determine whether or not the player can survive the round due to the huge NS damage dealt to planes.

Easy, if ugly ways, to get rid of these two problems are:

 

-Remove the ability to nuke on the last day.

It over-politicizes the game if the winner is the one where the nuke timing is favorable or unfavorable; for example, Lazaraus45 lost the flag in round 14 because OP got upset at him for some reason or another and nuked him at 11:59:59. It's also pretty cheap when players coordinate so that they get hit early in the day so they don't have to worry about getting nuked at all.

 

-Remove nuclear anarchy on the last day of the round.

Now, I've won rounds by getting people past the radar and getting them a last day collect, but TBH the sheer potential for abuse is too great. My memory is foggy, but I do believe the attackers of the winner on Round 7 informed me a couple of years later that they HAD in fact performed a nuclear slot-fill by refusing to nuke the winner, purportedly because there was someone in front of him that was slot-filling. In Round 17, something similar happened, where the attackers conspired to make sure the Round 17 winner could get a final collect out of nuclear anarchy. Here, my memory is a little fuzzy, but I seem to recall they were so brazen they actually went non-nuclear for not only 1 day but two in order to enhance the final back collect's quality.

By removing nuclear anarchy on the last day of the round, it will remove the thrill of being able to sneak nuclear back collects, but it definitely puts everyone on an even playing field. It also weakens the advantages of people who manage to dodge wars at the end of the round; since no matter what happens everyone will get a last day back-collect.

[paul711]

No, no, no just no.

[Instr]

For someone who was complaining about slot-filling by friends this round (and I am aware of incidents like this), you sure seem awfully opposed to the nuclear option.

This, certainly, would not resolve inadequate-type slot-filling, where an attacker attacks with insufficient force and can still do all attacks, except they don't matter, in either the nuclear or naval realm, but it would help even the field and lessen the damage.

And you must remember, I am one of the heaviest users of Methax / Immortal Turandot tactics. Most others plan to do the same thing Samwise did this round and enter "hell week" with heavy warchest and boost up at the end. This type of change hurts me more than anyone else, then it hurts the people who opt to hide out of war at the end of round (as though that worked for anyone, ever), then it hurts the least the normal conventional flag runner.

Edited June 15, 2013 by Instr

[Forward]

Despite the potential (?) improvement to the flagrunning system this would create, it seems far too unrealistic to implement - would there just be a banner reading "This nation cannot be nuked on the last day of the round"?

 

And, I'm not even sure that this will improve flagrunning conditions anyway.

[Instr]

Implementing it wouldn't be that hard; just put in a check "Is today the last day of the round?"

If so, then make it so that #1, the subroutines that control whether or not the nation experiences nuclear anarchy penalties are not utilized; #2, all nuclear weapons are disabled for reason of being "last day of the round".

The original idea was to enforce an overtime 1 day after the last day of the round giving everyone the chance to collect out of nuke anarchy, but this is a more elegant solution (not as though it's still intrinsically ugly).

===

 

The tactics and strategies enabled by last-day bullshit are myriad and interesting and add much to the game, but like I said before, this is the nuclear option. If players cannot be trusted not to collude and cheat over a flag / flags, and there seems to be no action over the collusion / cheating, then take away the option to collude / cheat. Back-collects, war-dodging, all of these have been great and interesting tactics but it appears that the TE memberbase can't be trusted with it.

[Forward]

Sorry; I meant that it would be unrealistic as something that would never happen in the real world, and such a banner as the one I mentioned above would seem extremely strange to players unfamiliar with the reason that this rule was implemented.

 

Otherwise, when it comes to cheating - I agree, which was why I posted my suggesting to delimit defense slots (or, as it has now become, expanding them); but, this makes no sense whatsoever outside of being a gameplay tactic.