Re: cheating

[(Scarrow)]

>   Who really cares about cheating anyway?  This game isn't
> like netrek where cheating makes it easier for you to kill
> other players.  By and large, you're competing against 
> the computer, not each other.  cheating isn't therefore such
> a big deal, IMHO.

I disagree.  In any sort of a multiuser game where actions of one player
can influence another the decision of what should reside on the server and
what should reside on the client is critical.  Why open up yourself to
problems before they exist?  LOS calculations are not so excrutiatingly
intensive that they _must_ be farmed out to the clients.  If my client
gets object A, and thus prevents you from getting object A, and my client
was computer controlled, you'd be upset.  Now, I may be able to get object
A before you do because I can see that "tile X" is really a destructable
wall, or just because I can see the staircase leading up to the area where
object A exists.

>   If someone wants to ruin the game for themselves by cheating,
> let 'em.  They'll soon get bored and quit.  What are they going to
> do?  Brag about how they cheated to get to the end of a quest?
> "Gee, I did this quest!  Kiss my ass!  (Of course, I cheated)"

>   If they do cheat, it doesn't really hurt anything or ruin
> the game for everyone else.

They'll cheat more, they'll kill your characters with the items they got
cheating, they'll brag about solving a quest without telling you they
cheated (what, are you expecting honest cheaters only?).  This works akin
to the idea that ignoring a bully will make him go away.  Sorry, some
people like the attention, but some just like to make people feel pain.

>   Move LOS to the client!

Move anything the player should know or that is essential to the client to
the client.  LOS is not so computation expensive as to require being
embedded into the client, so don't, but since I'm not going to write it
and since I currently play crossfire about one hour per week, I don't
care. :)