Urgent. Host Cheating: Problem and Solution.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Ahhh... I see. Essentially, the game would have to be locked as "Quickhost Only" (when all turns are in) or "Autohost Only" (at a specified time) when the game is created. Hmmm... for Autohost Only, the only cheating mechanism would be to play with the computer clock, which is a lot of work and can cause problems, unless you dedicate a computer for Dominions cheating and avoiding time-limited software demos. But "Quickhost Only" should work flawlessly... for net games.

Now you're opening the opposite problem. Your game is now potentially COMPLETELY SOL if somebody goes AWOL: No master password, due to fear of host cheating, means this player cannot be AI'd. No force host means you can't simply skip him: If you lose one player, your game is FUBAR.

Now you've expanded the potential to ruin the game from the host deliberately attempting to cheat, to anyone, deliberate or not. This is almost, but not entirely, like cutting off your nose to spite your face.