Neverending Story - Scout Glitch / Trick. What's your opinion about it?
Posted: 03 Jan 2019, 02:36
On 18th of March 2010 we legalized the the "Scout Glitch" with the Amending Act projects, then a democratic Poll: viewtopic.php?f=58&t=1692
It was mostly accepted, because the Ministry of Game Affairs was unable to control and punish players at that time. The Multiplayer server was powered by Gamespy. I could kick players out of the lobby using unauthorized methods, but still that would require to verify a lot of reports and playbacks everyday.
With time, after Unofficial Patch 1.5 release I realized how bad the Scout Trick is for the Multiplayer community, and started fighting with it by adding all possible fixes to prevent players from using it.
The "Act I: LoSG - Legalization of "Scout Glitch" - Scout trick" has been officially cancelled on 13 of July 2017.
Legal basis:
[156011] (13 Jul 2017):
Why is Scout Trick still bad? Look at the video:
It shows KayOne using it AFTER update that disables the Patrol ability for scouts. It means that scouts were forced to move out, it was impossible to set the patrol on the building, and still this rule was broke by mouse clicking spam.
At the moment we have no law regulations for the Scout Glitch, except that host can decide to not start game with the first scout.
A while ago I added a notification on the Multiplayer Lobby join:
However, I still think we need to regulate this problem with a new Amending Act.
First of all I would like to get opinions of players in this topic, especially from the Ministers.
What are we going to do with the Scout Glitch?
Possible solutions:
- Allow in all games where Scout is allowed in Basic "Starting Forces Citizens"
- Force players to host fast-pace games with ceasefire using the "no Scout" suffix.
- De-legalize totally, even punish for using it in medium pace games.
etc.
I personally have no clue what option is the best. One thing is sure - whole 2018 with Anti-Scout-Glitch fixes was much better for the community. Games were much more friendly, without territories-grabbing, and even worse players were able to enjoy games.
All posts are welcome. Please remember this is just a discussion topic, the Amending Act topic will be created later, when we know what to stand on.
It was mostly accepted, because the Ministry of Game Affairs was unable to control and punish players at that time. The Multiplayer server was powered by Gamespy. I could kick players out of the lobby using unauthorized methods, but still that would require to verify a lot of reports and playbacks everyday.
With time, after Unofficial Patch 1.5 release I realized how bad the Scout Trick is for the Multiplayer community, and started fighting with it by adding all possible fixes to prevent players from using it.
The "Act I: LoSG - Legalization of "Scout Glitch" - Scout trick" has been officially cancelled on 13 of July 2017.
Legal basis:
Gov. Act III: UP1.5 - Unofficial Patch 1.5 Act : viewtopic.php?f=58&t=1716$1.5 The act applies since 1st April 2011, until it's removed by any other Act.
Unofficial Patch 1.5 versions history with Anti-Scout-Glitch related changes:$3.2 b) The information about rules is included in the description of Unofficial Patch 1.5's install program and is visible in the Official Patch 1.5's Download Topic.
$3.3 Unofficial Patch 1.5 includes changes and new features described in the Official Download Topic.
[156011] (13 Jul 2017):
[156013] (12 Sep 2017):- Partially fixed "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Scouts are now forced to move out of the construction site area. Unfortunately Scouts can still block or delay buildings construction if the opponent spams the move orders on the construction site area. This fix causes crowns powers affecting Spies to also affect Scouts. The "Scout Trick" was legal in Empire Earth 2 Multiplayer, since 1st of April 2011, legalized by: 'Gov. Act I: LoSG - Legalization of "Scout Glitch" - Scout trick': viewtopic.php?f=58&t=1692
[156014] (25 Sep 2017):- Improved the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Scouts have no longer the Patrol ability. It's to prevent abuses in Multiplayer games (issue claim by the Department of Control).
[156017] [156018] (07 Nov 2017):- Reverted the last partial fix for the "Scout Trick", because it sometimes caused AI players to hang when scouts were unable to Patrol.
[156019] (07 Dec 2017):- Improved the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Scouts have no longer the Patrol ability. It's to prevent abuses in Multiplayer games. The similar fix was added to Minor Update 156013, but was reverted in 156014 because of AI players hang problems.
- Improved the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Players who use the Scout Glitch will now be punished (building and repairing time for all constructions will be significantly slowed down). It's to prevent abuses in Multiplayer games.
[156031] (01 Sep 2018):- Improved the last patrial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch") - punishment effect radius reduction.
[157000] (26 Oct 2018):- Improved the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Reverted scout-related changes from updates: 156019, 156018, 156017. New anti-glitch method, without "punishments": The normal Scout unit will be temporary replaced with a non-blocking "Temp Anti-Glitch Scout (1.5)" unit with aircraft move ability (and no attack ability). The normal Scout will be automatically recreated, after player produce a new citizen. It's to prevent abuses in Multiplayer games.
[157003} (11 Dec 2018):- Improved the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch"). Replaced the fix effect "EffectIncredibleDeath" with "EffectCauseDamageOverTime" due to detected issues with the previously used method.
As you guys can see, I took the Scout Glitch problem seriously, but my patience has limits. When I detected that the newest Anti-scout-glitch method reduces game performance (a bug where many citizens were selected) it was the best signal to cancel it. I care about performance issues the most, that's why all fixes (except forced-auto-moving) were reverted. Motivated and "pissed off" I explored a method to add new Basic Citizens options without the scout. Long story, but it was done by assembly of the game .exe file with extremely hard methods.- Removed the partial fix for the "Scout Trick" (aka. "Scout Glitch") and reverted scout-related changes from all previous updates (excluding 156011).
* Old fix data is still present in game files for compatibility reasons (old game saves, playbacks), but not used in new matches.
* Kept the change: "Scouts are now forced to move out of the construction site area".
* Fixed a bug where "Scout" and "Temp Anti-Glitch Scout (1.5)" units could respawn multiple times (reason unknown, area effect fixes didn't work as expected).
* Fixed a huge performance degradation (game mouse lag) when a group of citizens or scouts was selected.
- Added new "Starting Forces" -> "Basic" Citizens options: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 75, 100 with "no Scout" suffix.
* It allows you to start a game without the first Scout which was used for the abusive "Scout Glitch" in Multiplayer games.
* The player who hosts the Multiplayer game can now choose if "Scout Glitch" is allowed in his game by selecting the "no Scout" Basic Citizens option.
Why is Scout Trick still bad? Look at the video:
It shows KayOne using it AFTER update that disables the Patrol ability for scouts. It means that scouts were forced to move out, it was impossible to set the patrol on the building, and still this rule was broke by mouse clicking spam.
At the moment we have no law regulations for the Scout Glitch, except that host can decide to not start game with the first scout.
A while ago I added a notification on the Multiplayer Lobby join:
Seems like most of players respected this rule. There were no scout-glitch usage reports directed to the Department of Control and Complains.✔ Update 157003: Anti Scout-Glitch fixes have been removed due to detected performance degradation. It's now required to host the public Multiplayer fast pace games with ceasefire enabled, using the "Starting Forces" -> "Basic" -> "Citizens" -> "no Scout" suffix option selected.
However, I still think we need to regulate this problem with a new Amending Act.
First of all I would like to get opinions of players in this topic, especially from the Ministers.
What are we going to do with the Scout Glitch?
Possible solutions:
- Allow in all games where Scout is allowed in Basic "Starting Forces Citizens"
- Force players to host fast-pace games with ceasefire using the "no Scout" suffix.
- De-legalize totally, even punish for using it in medium pace games.
etc.
I personally have no clue what option is the best. One thing is sure - whole 2018 with Anti-Scout-Glitch fixes was much better for the community. Games were much more friendly, without territories-grabbing, and even worse players were able to enjoy games.
All posts are welcome. Please remember this is just a discussion topic, the Amending Act topic will be created later, when we know what to stand on.