There have been cheaters in the past. Once a ranked week is over, you can look at other peoples runs from the highscore list. If the run is identifiably cheated, it usually gets reported to me and promptly removed.

Originally posted by krajzeg:

There have been cheaters in the past. Once a ranked week is over, you can look at other peoples runs from the highscore list. If the run is identifiably cheated, it usually gets reported to me and promptly removed.

The problem is that there are subtle ways of cheating,that do not pop-up...like for example a gentle injection of cash,after the first month of the year and spend it...which will not show up anywhere...and I'm sure there are other things you can do...the score can steamroll fast...sadly the game lacks actual anti cheating tools and that is a bummer...one person can ruin it for everyone...this is not a criticism of you...just facts

Sterngaze I posted my (semi-literate) comment about cheating mainly because you are one of the top players (I've watched your videos for tips) so if you, and other good players, are beaten by a huge margin by someone popping up out of the blue I then suspect something is amiss.

Originally posted by Maybot:

Sterngaze I posted my (semi-literate) comment about cheating mainly because you are one of the top players (I've watched your videos for tips) so if you, and other good players, are beaten by a huge margin by someone popping up out of the blue I then suspect something is amiss.

I play other games with ranked plays,and I'm always suspicious when something looks to good to be true (and in the case where the devs have a deep analysis of the game save,they are often proven cheaters)...the player might as well be a bona fide genius,or a dude with no life (making that kind of convoluted mess functional is time consuming)...or just a strait up cheater...impossible to say...the stats that we see at the end of the week are just cliff notes of a play...a lot of things can be added in between and/or are not visible...the game has no anti cheating tools/mechanics of any kind and I don't think the dev has either the desire or the time to address it properly...there are still bugs in the game that are yet to be addressed (very rare to be fair,but still bugs).

3rd place week #212 on tough "Unknown player" invented Orbital Labs tier 1 as their first tech, then proceeded to invent Solar Superconductors Tier 0. The Vattori perk that allows this was not picked so seems like exploit/cheat?

Originally posted by krajzeg:

(tagging you).

No, you can choose a level 1 technology to start with. You can then choose a level 0 technology.
Afterward, level 0 will be locked, just as if you chose two level 0 technologies.

Choosing a level 0 technology is not mandatory.
Normally, except for the last two levels, you can choose two technologies from a level before it locks.
But you can move your technology choices.
For example, you can take three level 1 technologies if you only take one level 0 technology.

It's actually very easy to cheat in this game. Since everything runs locally and only the final score and end-screen image are uploaded to the server, all in-game activity can be freely manipulated. Like Sterngaze mentioned, players can just boost their gold after turn one and snowball resources from there. With basic software you can scan for the memory address storing your money and modify it in real time—there's no server-side validation to stop it.

I used to love playing competitively from week #1 through to around #150 (Sterngaze, my old nemesis!). Once I realised how easily the system could be exploited and started seeing those crazy high scores, it really took the joy out of it for me.

Awesome game weekly. Not much replayability outside of ranked though.

By being a little vigilant and comparing scores with regular players, we can spot anomalies.
Of course, some types of cheating can be harder to spot; some cheaters are even worse than legitimate players.

If in doubt, we can report it, and in the worst case scenario, we can simply compare ourselves to regular players we know are legitimate and ignore the others.

I can assure you that I didn't cheat to finish first the last three weeks. Well, I certainly played several games and took pictures to optimize.
Even if there was still some optimization to be done. ;)
However, if I decide to try to finish first again this week, I will have to make some significant changes to my strategy.

Even outside of ranked games, there's enormous replayability: sector type, modifiers, racial bonuses, and random technologies...
I like the imperial hub or the isolated sector one with gifted council.


Come try your luck this week in tough conditions and I'll give you a free ticket to a hotel in one of my Tourist Resorts.*



*Ship ticket not included.
Just kidding, I don't have a Tourist Resort, it's not part of my current strategy anyway.

Dont have much to add to the discussion about cheaters (rarely play/finish the weekly) other than it has been a problem since the beginning but krajzeg always seemed to take care of it.

Originally posted by Drawar:

Even outside of ranked games, there's enormous replayability: sector type, modifiers, racial bonuses, and random technologies...
I like the imperial hub or the isolated sector one with gifted council.

I agree, IMO the game offers a lot of different stuff to combine and check out, before one might settle on some favorite paths. I f.e. still havn't got a good overview of all the end game stuff which kinda spirals out of control.

You also have to be careful not to lock yourself into one gameplay style, even though everyone is free to play however they want.

Sometimes you might be surprised by the effectiveness of other paths, which can also depend on the map's composition.

There are so many combinations.