Oops. After reading a little more, I know what the EB bug is. It was not what I was thinking of before.
In SMAC, one of the exploits that came under scrutiny was the tech accumulation carry over. Or, Leap-froging. It was put on the CMN options list of disallowed tactics. I think something like that would be called for here (I mean the list). Acessable to all, thread debateable prior to game starts.
The rules list was set up like a check list, that was completed by the person making the challange to other players (in this case, the host). that was posted in the thread offering slots. if someone didn't like the rules, then there was no need to request a position. This eliminated the problem that seems apparent here. Most people that view a certain tactic as gamey, is because either they would not use it (so what, personal choices are not gamey), or they did not know about it and other players in the game did. In smac, we found out most things viewed as gamey were of no consequence once everyone knew about it, and if disallowed was stated prior to game start. If a tactic is not disallowed, or specifically allowed, and a player by choice decides to not use it, then any other players that do are NOT cheating.
I will give it a shot.
GAMEY: cheezy, can't believe you did that, ur an arsehole for doing that, I am pissed cause I didn't know about/think of it first.
Example: Using captured "other breathers" to colonize/re-colonize red-dot planets. (some might view this as gamey, don't flame me)
Exploit/Cheat: Using a tactic that allows something in the game to work beyond how the game was designed.
Example: (not a true example) If you figured out a way to re-order the build queue without losing accumulated construction, that would be an exploit/bug. Currently, this is not allowed in-game.
(tho I think that should be allowed/fixed)
And one more quick comment..... WHO gives a flying hoot what people do in a single player game? in SP, there are not any gamey/exploits tactics. the only person you have to please is yourself. If I choose to re-load a game 15 times until I get a combat result in my favor, that is my choice. Provided of course I am not using final scores in a MP competition. After all, in that situation, your not really just in a SP game.
