Do you think its wrong to cheat

[Budwise]

I mean really, is it wrong to cheat in this game where the CPU cheats so bad. Just once I wish I had a lost heir or a misterious army upraising when the cpu takes over a province. Hell, I would settle for all the ships they seem to get when I was playing british and sunk at least 4 ships a turn for 23 turns in a row. Or, if your whole Super Country wouldn't mass rebel when you almost win.

LETS NOT TALK ABOUT THE POPE - OKAY

Yeah, I know I am griping but really, I would love this game so much more if the programmers wouldn't add such cheap trick to prevent you from winning.

So I ask, is it wrong to cheat? I am not talking the money cheat either, I mean fast building build or even the heir cheat. Not to mention some of the others.

[Duke of Gloucester]

My view is that you play the game for fun, so in SP mode there is no such thing as cheating - if you think it is ok, then it is ok. Then again, as you will see on this thread, one person's cheesey tactic is another person's good advice. A classic example is training your generals by deliberately fommenting rebellions and crushing them. Some say this is cheating; others say it is what you should do.

Personally I think the AI makes more errors more often than it "cheats". It never seems to build elite armies, and often gets stuck in loops of invasion and withdrawl, building up bad vices for its generals. The difficult thing is to make the game more challenging. I impose limits on myself as follows, playing in GA mode:

never attack an ally
never get excommunicated
always have an objective in any "war" and stop attacking once the objective is achieved
never have an army bigger than one stack (except I do bring a siege train of 4 artillery units and some cheap, fast units like gallowglasses or highlanders) unless it is a crusade.

[Budwise]

Okay
First, I turn of the timer, since when is a battle won or lost due to the time of day.

Second, I turn of restricted camera because you fight it half the time anyways and that way it makes it a little easier. Plus to find whatever one unit hiding near the end. Its not really cheating because you don't have time to look around during the battle

The only cheat I ever really use is that I TURN OFF LIMITED AMMO.

Think about it, you shoot a few arrows at me and I run out, guess whos arrows I will use next. Plus, if my buddy next to me dies off, I will pick up his and use his.

[Budwise]

Good points, I think I will try it that way.

How do you win Glorious Achevements anyways. Does your points ever reach the top. I always win before then.

[Mount Suribachi]

Once you've learnt the game, even on Expert, the game becomes relatively easy, especially once you've passed a certain point around the time you have a ship in every sea zone. Even with its cheating, Papal re-emergences, Mongols, 60% map rebellion the un-modded game is too easy.

I don't use cheats and I don't use cheesey tactics either, there is no need (and I am not even an "expert" player, I would get crushed in MP).

Like Duke of Gloucester I even impose limits on myself (I only play GA) to try and make the game more challenging

Only attack a faction if there is a valid strategic reason to do so or a GA goal such as homelands.

Don't attack an ally.

Try to give titles to "noble" unit commanders only eg don't make the commander of 100 peasants Chancellor of the Exchequer, 5 acumen or no 5 acumen.


There are others I can't remember right now.

[ichi]

The Duke and Suribachi make great points.

Its a game, you bought it and can mod/play as you see fit.

I don't see any point in buying a game and then cheating to make it easier - seems silly to me.

Turning the battle timer off isn't cheating, its just a variation. Turning limited missiles off does make it much easier to hold bridges and some other positions. Unlimited camera isn't really a cheat but it does make the battles easier. When I think of cheats I think of badgerbunny and viagra, or modding to make VG in one turn then playing as the Byz.

The classic example is using pause. If you use pause to help you get organized you won't learn how to control 16 units. Its not 'cheating' but if you never use pause you'll become a much better player.

Bottom line - do what makes you happy.

ichi

[tibilicus]

Its not wrong to cheat its your choice at the end of the day. Its there so if people whan to have A bit of a play around and fun they can.

[Shambles]

Cheat all you want in single player =)
It's your money

But cheat aginst me online at any game and il come rip out ya hard drive :P

[Martok]

The only setting I change is getting rid of the battle timer. I really hate losing offensive battles just because the sun started heading towards the horizon. I don't even like winning defensive battles that way; it's just a cheap way to victory.

I've also tried turning off limited ammo (as I've always felt vanilla archers are a little weak otherwise), but that wound up feeling too cheesy for me. I'd rather my archers be a little underpowered, rather than they all possess Bigby's Bottomless Quiver. I'll leave toys like that to Tolkien characters.

[Quietus]

On SinglePlayer, it's not really a matter of being "right" or "wrong" but a matter of being "fun" or "unfun". I personally don't do it because it takes out a lot of the FUN.

[kiwitt]

...The only cheat I ever really use is that I TURN OFF LIMITED AMMO.

Think about it, you shoot a few arrows at me and I run out, guess whos arrows I will use next. Plus, if my buddy next to me dies off, I will pick up his and use his.

Good point. I will now turn off limited ammo. I found archers to be rather limited (no pun intended). And thought it better to have a reserve of archers and cycle them in when the others run out of ammo.

[Productivity]

Second, I turn of restricted camera because you fight it half the time anyways and that way it makes it a little easier. Plus to find whatever one unit hiding near the end. Its not really cheating because you don't have time to look around during the battle

Do you think any general ever had time to look around the battlefield? What about issuing orders while he is in the middle of a melee? Let's face it, the camera view is completely unrealistic.

Re. finding one unit near the end, why should you be able to? That's why you have light cavalry etc., to act as scouts (among other reasons).

But back to the question. It's not wrong to cheat, I couldn't care less. It's only yourself who you are affecting.

[Es Arkajae]

Turning off limited camera views isn't a cheat, its an option in the game, one I agree with and use.

If one wants to justify it its simple enough, the same one one can use for occasional pausing, an army doesn't operate on the sole orders of one man, it has sub-commanders as well, since I don't really get independent sub-commanders (or get to give detailed standing orders) I use unlimited camera (scouts) and occasional pauses to help me control my army.

Thats my thinking on the matter, disagree with it if you like.

The only 'cheat' I use is the .matteosartori. one occasionally when I want to have a look around and see how all the other factions are going.

[Budwise]

Yeah, I agree with the pause. If I am playing online, I won't need it but sometimes trying to tell everyone to mass rush the enemy defender full of archers is a little difficult without the pause. Nothing wrong with it, the computer never needs a pause - it can do countless calcs a second while for me, it takes a second or two to figure out what to do.

I started this post not to glorify cheating, trust me, I should be cheating in my current campaign when the horde came out of no where and started mass invading my 4 providences. I am not cheating right now, but I just wanted to know if anyone actually did cheat.

[English assassin]

The only one I use is .unfreeze. , and that only if I have an elderlyish king and no heirs. Losing an otherwise fun game just because the computer has decided to give you a king with no lead in his pencil is just boring IMHO. It would be different if you using it every turn to get loads of free elite units though.

Personally I do use pause to give orders to all my units at once. I don't really see this as cheating anymore than speeding the game up when nothing much is happening, though I accept it would mean I would be hopeless at MP. Otherwise, if, say, your infantry in line is approaching another line of infantry, you can't order all your units to attack the unit directly to the front of them at the same time. By the time you have got to the far end of your line giving the orders the end you started at will be heavily engaged.

I know pausing the game is (obviously) unhistoric, but when it come to command the game doesn't try to be relaistic anyway. (eg I can give an order to my unit anywhere on the battlefield instantly (good) but on the other hand without orders they won't do anything at all (bad)). As others have said SP is about having fun for yourself and if a bit of pausing enables you to fool yourself that you are pulling off amazing tactical brilliance rather than just getting good at working the game's interface I don't see the harm in it. But its horses for courses.

[eat cold steel]

We put the cheats in for a reason, to give the player a little extra to do. If you feel it's more fun with certain cheats on then by all mean use it. But do you guys really feel there are too many cheap trick being used? I mean apart from reemarging faction, everything else mentioned apply to the AI factions too, the rules/system for the stratgy map are engineered to stop any one faction from becoming too big.

[Zarax]

Well, in that case there might be some problems...
Usually in my games the french tends to be unstoppable unless i kill them early...
I've never seen england survive to 1230...

[eat cold steel]

That's cool, you win some, lose some. In that case I demand that you update the "have you ever lost" thread on your defeat at the hands of the French AI!

[Zarax]

Well, i said "unless i kill them early" ;-)
It was more an AI balancing itself than VS the human player, with a grand inquisitor and a few dozen assassins even the greatest armies will fall against humans.

[Martok]

Well, i said "unless i kill them early" ;-)

Exactly! If I'm the English, Spanish, HRE, Arogonese, Italians, or even the Almohads, I usually don't leave the French alone for very long. They tend to dominate the western half of the map almost as often as Egypt dominates the eastern half.

It also helps that France gets ex-commed a lot. You gotta love free-for-alls when you're not the target of them.