[Gandalf Parker]

I don't think he's suggesting that the server checks everything inter-actively - just that all the rule verification is done by the server, and not by the clients.

The game would still be the same, but you would get rid of hex-edit cheating - as all the information in the turn files would be just player orders that the server would examine for legality (as opposed to just checking for validity and correctness.)

But it does that now. It does quite abit of math to decide if the turn that the player turned in can be legally accomplished. I know because I have been able to bump up against such checks frequently. It takes alot of time and effort to figure out what changes you can make in a 2h file that wont be caught when the host runs.

More checks could be added (and it looks like they will be) but there is ALOT of variation in this game as to how anything can be accomplished so such checks are hard to implement without a rash of (rarely friendly and understanding) Posts by players that they were declared to be a cheater when they werent. Of course any checks will make it even more time consuming to hunt for the way around it so it will serve some purpose. But as a security person my view is that nothing ever stops anything. The best effort is to only make it as hard as possible for as many as possible for as long as possible.