Forum for Pleiades 16 (#56)

[Posting] PHP Abyss
Thread opener, Player 9 (The Robots)
Posted Sun, 2020-10-04 15:28 GMT

The Privateers and Evil Empire purportedly both "violated the rules of the Echo Cluster" on the first turn. I'm not sure what they did, if it was intentional cheating of some kind or a server quirk. Perhaps Stefan should take a peek?

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Player 5 (The Privateers)
Posted Sun, 2020-10-04 16:09 GMT

The Privateers and Evil Empire purportedly both "violated the rules of the Echo Cluster" on the first turn. I'm not sure what they did, if it was intentional cheating of some kind or a server quirk. Perhaps Stefan should take a peek?

Please see the "faq.html" file for an explanation of this message.

https://planetscentral.com/help.cgi/faq saw nothing on this subject. Exchange of pst files is not explicitly prohibited. but if this is not welcome, we will accept the leadership.

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Thread opener, Player 9 (The Robots)
Posted Sun, 2020-10-04 16:51 GMT

Please see the "faq.html" file for an explanation of this message.

https://planetscentral.com/help.cgi/faq saw nothing on this subject.

Exchange of pst files is not explicitly prohibited. but if this is not welcome, we will accept the leadership.

I think the message from PHost refers to the PHost FAQ rather than the PlanetsCentral FAQ.

From what I read it's what you get when two players in the same game use the same registered copy of VGA Planets.

But I guess we do now know who has set up an alliance before the game even started, and who the rest of us should fight right away... :tongue:

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Posted Sun, 2020-10-04 18:08 GMT

The Privateers and Evil Empire purportedly both "violated the rules of the Echo Cluster" on the first turn. I'm not sure what they did, if it was intentional cheating of some kind or a server quirk. Perhaps Stefan should take a peek?

Both were submitted with the same registration key. How that happened would be pure speculation on my side and would have to be resolved between both involved players.

---

That aside, "is not explicitly prohibited" is not a good foundation for a game that's intended to be fun. It's not "explicitly prohibited" that I edit host files to my (or other players') favor either, you still won't find me doing that.

What is explicitly prohibited is "using multiple accounts to deceive or otherwise cheat other users" (2.1), and multiple turns from the same reg# could be interpreted as an indication that this is happening. (I have a few other clues to check, but I really don't want to throw tons of analytics, geo-IP and stuff at you to detect that.)

Honestly, pre-made alliances sometimes get pretty out of hand here. No, it's not forbidden, but please, keep it at an acceptable level so everyone can have fun. There are legitimate reasons to share results - hey, we'd totally appreciate if you teach the game to your buddy - which is why I don't want to make hard rules outlawing it.

(And remember what we call the Eleventh Commandment in Germany: Though shalt not get caught.)

--Stefan

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Player 7 (The Crystal People)
Posted Wed, 2020-10-07 15:58 GMT

so at0mix left the game. Just out of curiosity: Are there any ways left to get a valid key for vga planets? Tim seems to be hard to contact, though some say that his original email adress is still valid. I know nothing about resellers etc, it all seems to be gone.

so glad I once bought three keys..

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Player 7 (The Crystal People)
Posted Wed, 2020-10-07 16:08 GMT

so at0mix left the game.

aaaand he's back. or was I just seeing things?

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Player 5 (The Privateers)
Posted Wed, 2020-10-07 16:34 GMT

Dealt with the problem. I handed the player my game kit along with the registration key, because I just forgot about it - I haven't played for a long time. As for the promised alliance - yes, I asked a person to try the game for the not the most effective race, in return promised to transfer several of his ships to strengthen this very weak race. By the way, for example, the colonist in this game threw on the first move. From the fact that the emperor or I will abandon the game it is unlikely that anyone will get better.....

[Posting] Re: PHP Abyss
Player 5 (The Privateers)
Posted Wed, 2020-10-07 16:39 GMT

so at0mix left the game.

aaaand he's back. or was I just seeing things?

«I’ll be back!!!!»

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