All running DOM games with Norfleet
 

I would like the opinion of the Dominion experts on the forum.

Let me summarize what we know so far:
Fact 1 - Norfleet was caught cheating.
Fact 2 - Norfleet has left the community 'forever' for undisclosed reasons.
Fact 3 - Norfleet was currently playing in several games with other players.
Fact 4 - Norfleet just turned himself to AI in all(?) those games. He just did this in my one game with him, and I beleive the other ones too.


So...
I was wondering if the AI player left behind is going to be a problem for the human players in those games (like me being a newbie and all).

Since no one either knows or is unwilling to say how Norfleet got all those free gems he had, then there is a possibility that the AI inheriting the Norfleet spot in those games could still be receiving the cheat. I mean, suppose Norfleet simply put a permanent command at the start of the game saying something like:
GIVE ME 200 FREE GEMS EVERY TURN OF THIS GAME
If this were the case, then the AIs will inherit this power (or whatever the heck that power was in reality) for the rest of the game.

Alternatively, Norfleet could have done it on an occasional basis by entering a command (hacking a file or whatever) like:
GIVE ME 200 GEMS OF EACH TYPE RIGHT NOW
In this case, the AIs have a nice start and will certainly be no pushover. But not overly powerful and likely will be quite beatable in the long run.

And there is one other thing. Norfleet likely was not using his cheat to full advantage to try to keep from getting caught. The AI has no such compulsions. If it is getting those gems every turn, it will try and use them and have no sympathy whatsoever for us poor humans.

If there are enough games on Moses with master password enabled in which Norfleet just became AI, I would like to see several checked (by someone like Moses or KO) to see just how many gems are currently in the AI treasury in each instance. This will at least give all of us in those games a warning about possible AI power and know what to expect.

What do you all think?

Re: All running DOM games with Norfleet
 

The devs have said that he most likely edited the turn file before he sent them. To put in a permanent change that would continue after going AI would require changing the program that hosted the game. As long as you are fairly sure that its not being hosted on Norfleets computer then things should be fine.

Re: All running DOM games with Norfleet
 

Thanks for the reply, Gandalf!

I am glad that the developers are investigating this. It is great to see that they care about their fan base. Hopefully they can strengthen the cheat detection. Of course, there can always be new ways to cheat, as I well know.

What this info tells me is that, even if the AIs (who were formerly Norfleet) have large gems treasuries right now, it is a one time thing. They will be strong for a while, but will quickly flame out like a streaking meteor.

I like this in that it means I will probably lose to a human instead of suffering the indigination of getting whipped by the AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif