Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

I just fired up a new game with my son and two friends. The first turn, I get an error message for 3 of the races:

"[race] has cheated
[race] has a God that is too powerful considering current Dominions 3 rules. This might be caused by cheating or by using the wrong mod when designing the God. The offending God has been reduced in power. "

My (non-dormant/non-imprisoned) pretender is absent.

What could cause this? I know that no one is cheating. I believe everyone is using the 3.21 patched version. (I know I am, and my race was one of the "cheaters").

We are using the Arduria map, modified for Dom 3. Could that be a problem?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=32801
Any advice would be appreciated. I'm leaving for a week on Friday, and would dearly like to get the auto host set up before I depart.

Thanks!
DB

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Using a mod that alters pretenders, like CBM, on a non-CBM game or vice versa.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Thanks for the quick reply. I do not think any of us has installed a mod but I will ask my players to confirm. Any other possibilities? The .map file does indicate dom 2, but it was altered to work with Dom 3 (and I was able to play SP for a bit without triggering the problem). I do note that one of the 4 players does not show up as having "cheated". Could he be the cause, and if so, what could he have done wrong? (I'm sure we're all using different CD Keys).

Thanks again!
DB

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

It has to do with mods, or real cheating. The game specifically mentions pretenders being too powerful, that's a check that was added in one of the last patches. The map does not have to do with it. You could check the pretenders with the catgod tool, if it is obvious that they are designed to be too powerful (magic 9 in all paths or something).

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Thanks for your reply. But, I am really puzzled. I was one of the ones caught "cheating", and I know I didn't cheat. Also, this occurred on turn 0. I created my god on the same computer, using the same dom3.exe. (The other players -- all good friends and trustworthy) are running from other computers, but they all say they see 3.21 in the lower left corner when they begin.)

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Not all mods have graphics to indicate they have been enabled. Mods stay on after the last game you played. It will still say "Dom 3.21" in the corner. If you have a mod on in the game by accident, and the gods were not designed with that mod on, then the gods can have too many points used. Or if you had a mod on by accident when you did your god design, and don't have that mod enabled in the game, the same thing can happen.

Pretty much what lch said, I suppose.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

To expand on what vfb already said, for games the mods that were activated when it was created are being saved into the game files and required to be present for auto-loading when opening the game files. For pretenders, this is not the case, you could have used a pretender that was designed with CBM on, and try to use it in a game without CBM.

Try to redo the game creation. If the pretenders still fail the check, you might want to make them available for inspection.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Also, while most maps don't do it, it's possible that the map file changes the pretender. I think that spesifically bypasses cheat detection (to allow for special scenarios with ultra-buff pretenders), so in this case it shouldn't be this.

If the host computer is different from the one you are playing with, make sure the host doesn't have any mods enabled either.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

It doesn't bypass cheat detection. I saw my first ever "cheat detection" message recently when out of curiosity I started a SemiRandomized map with a human player where one of the AI nations ought to go. I was curious whether the pretender I designed manually would override the choice built in to the map. It didn't--I got the "cheat detection" error message, although it didn't say anything about downgrading the pretender, and my dominion and bless effects were different than I would have gotten with my choice. (For some reason my pretender was apparently still set to Imprisoned or Sleeping because I couldn't see him.)

-Max

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Thanks for the clarification.

Map commands can't affect the awake/dormant/imprisoned status of the pretender AFAIK, so that won't change from what your original design set it to.

I'll have to see if the map-command created pretenders will be downgraded or if they are just reported. I hope they aren't downgraded, because that'd make it harder to play special scenarios like the Black Coven from the first Dominions.

P.S. I almost wrote "EA Dominions" in there. :D

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

The cheat notification comes up from time to time when no-one has done anything bad. It's a bug, I'd say. Mostly when it comes up in MP games I tell players to ignore it.

One thing that can cause it is capturing an enemy fort which had build orders. When you cancel the orders you get gold back - the game can't work out where the gold came from, so you get the cheat warning.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

This is different, though. It happened at the first ever hosting, and it specifically said that the pretender data wasn't right. The error message maybe should have stated, WHICH pretenders were the ones that are suspected of cheating, in order to check it. Or just look at every nation that got it.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

The way the cheat detection interacts with pretenders assigned in the map file has been ecplained in detail in the mapedit.pdf in the docs folder. Look it up. It's in the God Commands section.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Thanks for all the feedback. However, none of us has ever downloaded a mod. In fact, we don't even know how we would do that. We've always played the vanilla game. Three of us in fact installed the game from scratch on new computers to play this scenario. We just patched to 3.21, downloaded the Arduria map I listed above, and I set up host. And, to make matters more mysterious, I played my pretender on this map before, without triggering cheat protection, but I was one of the three players who showed up as "cheating" on turn 0 (i.e., before any of us issued any orders). One of the players is playing on a Mac. Could that be the problem??

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

It shouldn't be. Could it be that (some of) the pretenders were made in an older patch version? That's the only thing I can think of.

You could just play it safe and turn cheat protection off. You can change it from the same page as independent strength. Since you're all family and the cheating isn't simple to do in any case, it shouldn't matter.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

You didnt load off the same Dom3 CD did you?

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

This is a good one. If you loaded a saved god that you made before applying the patch it is possible that the game might think it's cheating. If you think this may have happened, try making a new game and make new pretenders for it.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

yes, the various "cheating" players may have loaded old gods that are no longer legal under a new patch, or else the one hosting the game isn't on the proper patch.

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

I think the problem may be that one of my players may have screwed up patching his Mac version of Dom 3 to 3.21. He said it required many steps. Is that correct?

I've posted this query separately in case some Mac user has advice:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...063#post661063

Re: Please help: Cheat detection problem
 

Guys, thank you for all the sage advice. Turns out my son created his pretender and *then* patched. Not sure why this didn't show up when we ran a 2-player test.