How often do you think people use cheat codes when playing RPGs in single-player mode?

Certain codes are easy to counter, such as black sheep wall (and obscuring things to protect from map hack), but Power Overwhelming is tricky. I really don't want to have a player unit constantly being attacked. I think it's very distracting.

My main concern with Power Overwhelming is that it could allow a player to break through defenses and enter an area and see things they're not supposed to see yet. It would break up the progression of the storyline, and also possibly some trigger systems. The revelation of secrets is essential to this map's gameplay.

I use triggers (such as immobilizing or moving) or barriers to prevent them from going to some places, and this is feasible in some situations, but in others it breaks up the flow of the map too much.

When I'm playing a map that interests me, I never use cheat codes because I want to figure it out myself. Of course, if the puzzles are ultra challenging, the temptation grows stronger...

Also, how much do people talk about the details/secrets of maps they've played?

ALSO.

With a crazy RPG with secrets, people can simply open up a map in an editor and find a bunch of stuff out. Might be harder if the person isn't experienced and the triggers are complex, but still.

I'm NOT going to rehash the protection debate here. I'm simply going to ask, how often do you, or people you know, open an RPG in an editor and look at the inner workings and the "secrets"? And if/when you do this, does it enhance your interest in the map, or do you lose interest?

Maybe it's enough just to have commentless triggers, and if anyone actually takes the time to figure anything out, then take it as a compliment...

I never though about cheating in singleplayer on a singleplayer map. It's a bad idea anyway, it steals all the fun.

Uh, make it impossible to play on single player. Check the wiki.

Allow cheats on single player, but severely handicap the player. Compensation.
Or prevent bonuses to be unlocked if they are enabled.

With power overwhelming:
It's not that your units don't receive damage anymore, it's that computers are not dealing damage anymore.
So just let 2 computer units attack each other and check if they die.
If not, the player cheats

Every once in a while, but if the map is complex enough, no one gets what the heck you're doing when they open it anyway, so it's all good.

Beating single player cheats is simple: when you use Center View in multiplayer, it immediately goes, in single player, it scrolls over and acts like a wait, another method is to run the Pause action, if they're in multiplayer, it will do nothing, otherwise the game will be paused and they'll just be stuck.

This is definitely good to hear.

True. I just hesitate to do this because of the 3-minute limit on saving the game, and the fact you can only pause three times per game. This is the type of map that's supposed to be played over a longer period of time, in multiple sittings, with time to think and mull it over in between. You'd get more out of it that way than one long marathon session. So I want to encourage frequent saving. And if you need to, say, answer your phone, or take a leak, or go eat, or go to bed, you want to be able to do that immediately, but in MP, if you've already used all of your pauses, you have to wait three minutes until the next save opportunity, then save your game, then quit (and load it when you're ready again).

Is there a limit (other than the 3-minute delay) on how many times you can actually save a game in multiplayer? I tested it up to 6 saves.

Haha, true That's definitely an option. And it might fit into my map's theme as well. And actually, you're right about preventing bonuses, I'm definitely going to lock them for the important stuff.

Ohhh yeah huh! I forgot about that. That DEFINITELY makes things easier. Thanks NudeRaider. On the other hand, will having a computer player constantly attacking another computer cause lag? I already have a lot of units moving around.


Cool. My map is pretty darn complex. But, as I just realized, some of the secrets are units themselves, and their names and their stats. So a player could simply open the map and look at the Unit and Hero Settings. On the other hand, seeing the stats for an incredible unit doesn't bear the same satisfaction as acquiring and playing with it. Or encountering it and fighting it.

And if it's a puzzle map at heart, well, maybe looking at its triggers is another way of figuring out the puzzle... So maybe mapmakers who love the challenge of figuring out a trigger system can have fun with it in their own way. Hmm. What do you all think?

The small amount of people on starcrraft that can absolutley understand map triggers and know what exactly they're looking is so small that I wouldn't worry about it. Especially with complex maps like Falkoner said, its even harder. Another idea to do is protect the map so that noobs have an even harder time getting in. Truthfully not that many people would cheat in an RPG because you know what is next and thats no fun. So if I were you, I wouldn't be worried. Just protect your map, make it complex, and when you're done if you have time make a blank comment for every trigger. Anyone who hacks into maps with 100% blank commented triggers just say "screw this I'm not even going to try."

Think of it this way, if this is a single player rpg, and if cheating will severely screw up the storyline, then the player won't enjoy the game as much; their loss.

Very true. Besides does it bother you that much that a player cheats on your map? It's not anythings going to happen whether they do or not.

No limit.

It's no option. There's no way you can balance power overwhelming or show me the money. Except if you price items in the millions which degrades your map to a "who-can-type-show-me-the-money-to-most-times-per-hour" contest.

Don't like it. A map is supposed to be fun to play, not fun to analyze. That's my opinion.

Power overwhelming does not disable your own forces from killing themselves. Hint.

Two zerglings or something shouldn't cause problems.

@Marine: Good point. Hope you're right.

@stickynote: Definitely true. That's what I'm banking on.

@Fwop_: I guess the main reason I wouldn't want them to cheat is that they might blab about the puzzles and ruin it for other people. But I guess that's going to happen anyway, if people figure it out legitimately... But at least then, you know someone actually put in the effort to unlock them.

Alright.

I was thinking he meant, if a player DOES use cheats, then give him a handicap. Let him keep playing, but make him miserable. It could be funnier and make more of a statement than just kicking the player out. Depends on your map style.

Okay. That's cool. That's what I think too. Hopefully most people agree.

A triggered pause simply does not run when you play in Multiplayer, it won't subtract from their pauses.

Have you ever heard of the map The War of Emperium?

Try as hard as you can to crack that map, and it won't budge. OSMAP, Unknown Unprotector, all of them don't work. This guy is a genius (it's also a Korean map)

I do that when I'm stuck.

There's a few protectors out there that can beat any protection, SCM2 has the best protection and the best unprotection, it can unprotect everything, but it needs a password to unprotect things that it protects.

I cheat on those Campaigns on Campaign Creations, they're like godly hard, seriously

But yeah, sometimes theres cutscenes so the map won't work properly.

And sometimes there a bonus cutscenes that only work when you enable cheats.