Cheat codes?

[Z]

Hello,

I'm currently checking out the demo, and it seems pretty cool. But before I order it, I have to ask if cheat codes are available for use in single player games.

I know this sounds lame,but for me, I have discovered that I always get a lot more enjoyment out of games with cheat codes available than those that don't. After several major disappointments where I came to regret purchasing certain games without availble cheats, I've come to the point where I generally avoid purchasing any games that don't offer cheats.

What kind of cheats do I mean? I suppose the stuff you can do with the Age Of Wonders 2 cheat codes would be great, but I'd probably settle for ones that let you add gold and gems, mid-game. Actually, even the ability to hex-edit values in save games would be OK, but I suspect the save file is checksum-protected.

Why do I want cheats so much? Well, it's not as if I need/want to use them constantly, but I find them useful in many cases. They make experimentation within the game a lot easier (and less risky). They can let you recover from a massive strategic (or accidental) blunder (rather than starting a game over, which I hate to do), which for this game seems to me to be particularly necessary, because it doesn't let you preserve older turn save files that would let you restore to an earlier point before a screw-up. Cheats can also let you tailor the game difficulty to your own tastes. And occasionally it's just fun to just relax and kick butt in the game.

So anyway, from a quick search if the forum, I get the idea that no cheats are available, but maybe I'm wrong? Is there any chance support for cheats might get patched in?

Thanks
-Z

[Norfleet]

There are no cheat codes. You can use the .map and .mods to stack the game in your favor, but there is no inherent support for cheating in the game: There are, in fact, safeguards designed to explicitly prevent cheating, since Dominions II treats all games as if they were multiplayer games.

[Gandalf Parker]

Sure there are.... There are called MAPs and MODs. Basicaly you can do anything you would want that would be a cheat code in some other game. Most people do them for balance, or to make the game harder, but I guess you could do them to make things easier

[Arryn]

Gandalf, he's referring to cheats so he can win already-started games.

{rant}
I'll never understand the rationale for going through the bother of playing a STRATEGY game, which is designed to make you THINK, and then use cheats so you don't have to think your way out of problems. What's the point of playing a strategy game if you cheat at it? It results in very hollow "victories". You learn best by making mistakes, and then working around them. (I learned this lesson 35+ years ago at chess.)
{/rant}

[mivayan]

{silly}
Strategy game? Thinking? The point of playing dominions is to make cool super-duper-combatants and have them them kill armies. And to cast lots of big spells. The strategy is just tiny detail that makes the killing seem meningfull
{/silly}

Ai games often reach a point where you are powerfull enough to do pretty much whatever you want, without cheating.

[Z]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Gandalf, he's referring to cheats so he can win already-started games.

Yes, I want to fiddle with things mid-game, rather than just at the start.

{rant}
I'll never understand the rationale for going through the bother of playing a STRATEGY game, which is designed to make you THINK, and then use cheats so you don't have to think your way out of problems. What's the point of playing a strategy game if you cheat at it? It results in very hollow "victories". You learn best by making mistakes, and then working around them. (I learned this lesson 35+ years ago at chess.)
{/rant}

(As an aside, let me point out that I don't always use them, so not all my "victories" are "hollow")

More to your point, though, if I *really* wanted to master the game, and if I really felt that victories proved something to me, then I would likely agree with you.

But, to be honest, I have a career, a wife, and 3 very young children at home, which all means quite limited playing time available to me, and *very* few games (of any type, not just strategy) capture my interest enough to motivate me dedicate the time and effort required to aspire/reach the mastery level of play. For the majority of the rest of the games, this isn't really a knock on them; it's just a function of my personal tastes and available free time. And it's for this majority of games that cheat codes let me enjoy/explore them at my own pace, without needing to dedicate myself to "master" them, and without needing to feed my ego over "victories", which I have no desire to do for those games. To put it another way, cheats allow me to get some semblance of "my money's worth" out of a lot of games that I would otherwise return to the store (back when stores took returns) or just abandon (making it a huge $ waste) from lack of interest, if they didn't have cheats.

Here's an example: I bought the RTS game "Battle Realms", based on some very positive reviews. When I got it home, I quickly discovered that I really didn't like for its particular specifcs of play (even though I am a big RTS fan in general). If cheat codes were available for it, I would have used them to more or less cruise through the game at a level of difficulty that matched my interest level, and to be able to watch the cut scenes and follow the story, and been relatively satisfied with the game. Instead, I discovered on the Battle Realm forums that the company refused to provide cheats, and that many posters there royally flamed the heck out of anyone who asked for them just for single player games. (I do appreciate the maturity here on these forums!) So, anyway, the next day, I returned BR to the store.

Nowadays, returns aren't generally allowed, and I've been burned so I've decided that premptively
verifying that cheats are available for a prospective game is my best bet.

Anyway, Dominions 2 seems quite deep, and potenially even be one of those games that might capture my interest long enough to want to work towards mastering it. But, I don't know that for sure, and can't decide it based on a couple of days with the demo.

Wow, that was long! I hope it lends some understanding, even if you don't agree.