Urgent. Host Cheating: Problem and Solution.
Dominions I and II have a serious flaw that allows host-based cheating, such that it is currently impossible to have a cheat-free game, unless a 3rd-party provides hosting (generally unlikely).
The method:
The host copies the game data to a new folder, and force-hosts. He is able to attack every adjacent province to see exactly what the opponents have, or even build a large army and conquer the entire map, seeing everything - capitol locations, pretenders, theme choices, army locations, lab locations, and so forth. He could even patrol vigorously in every province to find stealthy units or stealthy armies. The simplest information to find, of course, would be opponents' next turn orders... negating the possiblity of sneak attacks. Even on the first turn, the host could try attacking each adjacent province to see if a victory was probable.
The solution:
In the game settings screen (Indy strength, site frequency, world richness, etc) a "Force Host" option could be present, and default to "enabled". A cheating host will ALWAYS be able to see one turn ahead, if he so desires. However, if "Force Host" and "Master Password" are disabled, so that the host could never force-host, one future turn is the maximum he could see... which is a huge, but not insurmountable advantage.
Hopefully this will be integrated into 2.07+, so that semi-secure games are possible...
-Cherry
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