Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

120 snipers are easy to detect..yes ? At games end you can review what your opponent had and when you find 120 snipers you can then decide if your opponent is worth engaging in any future games with.

How do you easily detect dozens of Captains and Majors running around commanding rifle sections when they are mixed in with normal companies?

Don

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

That wasn't really the point I was trying to make; but at the end of the battle when you look at the map and enemy units, I would think an unusual number of '0' units would stand out.

My point was more that opponents who want to cheat, be gamey, or exploit the game will always find a way. I'd rather play a decent opponent without game security, than a cheat on a 'secure' game.

Cross

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

True the number of '0' units would stand out on the review screen at the end but still not in the same obvious way bumping into multiple snipers at every engagement during the battle would.

My point is you would have to suspect something was wrong that would not be as obvious during the game and someone sneaking in a few extra major's would fly under most players radars.

I'm not sure where the "security" aspect was introduced into the discussion before this. The problem has NOTHING to do with PBEM security and any solution we might decide on, which could be as simple as changing the '0' units colour in the review screen to make them more obvious to reducing the rank of any company sized unit that is reduced to the command squad or any number of other ways this could be made either more obvious or impossible, would NOT involve PBEM security in any way.

Don

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

I see your point in lot harder to detect than hordes of size zero units but if it flew under your radar why would you bother checking I dont unless I feel something strange is going on.
Heres another from a few years back thought his mid to long range fire is unnerving esp opfire. A rookie probably wouldnt have picked it up but I thought whats going on & eventualy thought to check prefereces. He had set the game up with training off & his side boosted to 100, okay he gets less units but I lost quite a few before figured out why I was a sitting duck.
That said I would much rather implementing what you suggest than removing the flexibility we currently have sometimes its nice to build say infantry heavy teams by swaping one platoon for a tank one esp in campaigns for ease of deployment. Its easy enough to keep the Command Ratio for the entire purchase correct to within a couple of units.
In this case the first time its come up in how many years its simple Shorebreak realised something was up doesnt really need to know what all he has to do is decide to play a silly game vs his friend or do what everybody else does & stop playing him.
Fix this & he will probably just look for other exploits do you really want to check every game to see what hes tried now.

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

Don,

I wasn't talking about PBEM security.

A paraphrase of that sentence could be:

My point was more that opponents who want to cheat, be gamey, or exploit the game will always find a way. I'd rather play a decent opponent without exploitation countermeasures, than a cheat on a game with exploitation countermeasures.

Sorry for the confusion.
Cross

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

I think the real reason of the this thread,is to stop exploiting the game.

It causes others to do the same,then you got a bunch of numbnuts doing the same thing,Thus ruining it for everyone.

Mulptile CO's would be very hard to detect.

The cat's out of the bag now.

I hope this issue will be fixed next patch,until then i will suspend playing pbem, unless a tournament or 3rd party set-up.

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

To be more specific,

I applaude anyone who uses legit tactics on winning, in fact i learn something from it.

But cheats and exploits just undermine the spirit of the game:(

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

The easiest option would be to diable the option to "sell" platoons on the purchase screen, unless you sell their company HQ first. However, this would also reduce flexibility for various legitimate purchasing techniques which involve buying a company, selling one of the platoons and then buying another one as replacement (eg. substituting one of the platoons on a mech infantry company with tanks).

Another option would be to not make any changes to the purchasing rules, but instead make players pay extra for their company commanders. Currently, the company commanders cost the same as any other similar unit in their formation. How about making them cost say +25 points extra for their abilities?

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

I don't like that idea at all, especially the fixed price putting cheap units commanders in disadvantage.

Re: Company commander bug/exploit
 

neither do i, they would cost 2 or 3 times what a regular squad costs, and they won't really make a difference unless they have good rally.