RT3 Game Cheats - Do You Use Them?

[OilCan]

The poll on game controls is revealing an interesting pattern: most RT3 players on this forum leave the game conditions alone for the most part. Only one out of three of us fiddles with the game controls as a practice.

But, there is another way to change the outcome of a game...using cheat codes. A simple google search can bring up a list of about 17 cheat codes for RT3.

The above poll is meant to canvass us about how often we use cheat codes (choose ONE of the first three options) and what KIND of cheat codes we use (choose ANY or ALL of the remaining four options). You can vote up to five of the options in total, if so needed (1 for how often, 0-4 for what kind of cheat).

Since I am one of the fiddlers of the game controls, I do not use cheat codes. So my vote shows 'never use game cheat codes'.

[Hawk]

Well, I'm #2 for never using cheats, except when I'm working on a new map.

[Gwizz]

I'm assuming your poll is for contest play.
When playing for a win,, I never use the cheat codes.
Which is how I voted.

But if I'm just playing for fun with no plans to try for a win; Then, I will sometimes add cash and not worry about game win rules.

More often I will go into the editor and make changes to fit how I want to play the map. More often, the changes I make are drastic changes, that can totally change the nature and direction of the game. I might add rivers, flatten mountains, add or remove towns and/or cargos, even change the events or add more of then.

I always use cheat codes to speed up the testing of a new map.

I have been thinking about making a map for Socialism. But RT3 may not have the flexibly to event the map properly. I may have to make the map in RT2 since it has greater flexibly in writing events.

[Gandar]

I voted never use cheat codes but of course I haven't played Trainmaster yet, from what I have been reading, its quite possible that my morals will come under heavy pressure.
waiting for the final release.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I'm in the same boat as Hawk. Only use them when testing, but NEVER (or only once in a blue moon) do I use them when in competition.

[arop]

I often use the cheat codes when playing, but ONLY to use terrain tools to smoothen out bumpy track in trying to make it look like a realalistic railway and, sometimes, when playing with AI´s to correct their track, when they are building too silly. It is only because I hate to see unrealistic grades and track looking like a washboard. I NEVER do economic cheats. On the other hand I use all the cheats frequently when I am building maps.

[Sugus]

I voted 'never' and really do so, because - also when testing a new map - the behaviour over all would not be the same. This is something like developing a program in debug mode and finally send it to your customers in release mode: it's simply not the same story!!! (Microsoft will apply some optimizations - hahahaaaaa?!?)

[BikerTim]

I have done so a few times in the past, but not for a long time. They just seem to take too much fun out of the game.

[JayEff]

I commonly use the cheat codes when I am testing a scenario. If I want to test a load haul, I want to quickly build the railway and use the fastest train. That way I don't have to play the whole game just to test a group of events.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Seems sort of silly to include using cheats as a tool when map building as part of 'using cheats'.

[Gwizz]

It greatly speeds up the testing.
After all A map may require dozens of tests
and a builder my just get tired of testing and not finish a map.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

It greatly speeds up the testing.
After all A map may require dozens of tests
and a builder my just get tired of testing and not finish a map.

Sure.

The problem occurs when a Poll question has a yes response for both people that use cheats during game play and those that use cheats as a tool in scenario design.

When both yes responses are valid it essentially renders the results of the poll irrelevant. I can't really do anything with the resulting percentage figures. Suppose I then find that 60% of players cheat at RRT3, since I have no idea how many of those actually mean they use cheat codes as tools for scenario building versus how many figure, hey their playing solitaire and they can get a cash bonus if they want to, I don't really know what to do with these percentages. If its happened to be true that most, or at least a great many, RRT3 players cheat to give themselves more cash then that is telling me useful information. It says that I should probably include some kind of a cash bonanza event at the start of my scenario, maybe on an option because it would make my scenario more fun to play for many players. On the other hand if, actually, very few players like the cheat code that gives them more money and whats really happening is that scenario designers are using the codes in scenario testing then I should not waste my time on a cash bonus event in my scenarios.

Mix the two possible results up in a poll and the poll itself stops telling us much of anything at all.

[OilCan]

I don't think it is that hard to figure out.

19 people responded to the frequency of cheating. 12 of the 19 (63%) said they never use cheat codes - although some prefaced this by saying they only cheated when testing a game map in production - which I think we all agree is not really cheating, its testing. Only 2 of the 19 (10%) said they cheat fairly routinely and 5 of the 19 (26%) said they cheat every now and then. So, about a third of the folks cheat in some form or fashion. I'm astounded by this, considering how game cheat codes are seen by many, if not most, as just another tool in a game. Indeed, cheating has permeated almost every aspect of N. American society as an acceptable means to accomplish the ends. The 2/3rds who do not cheat at RT3 speaks to the 'older' set of players of RT3, myself included, who probably still view any kind of cheating as something negative, something which diminishes honesty and integrity. We carry our social values into the games we play.

This is interesting by itself but becomes more interesting when we look at the second half of this poll.

Of the 7 who said they cheat, only 3 listed how they cheat. These are weak numbers, but they are real numbers. 100% of the cheats were for money, with the need for company money twice as important as personal money. No one cheated to make the trains run better and faster or to automatically win. It was the need for money which prompted the cheats.

Let's talk about game what this means for game designers. First, this is encouraging news because the vast majority of RT3 players play a game exactly as the designer crafted it. They don't try to change it with cheat codes. They follow the designer's story and game view - no matter how zany, how hard or how long the story is. They enjoy the designer's masterpiece.
Secondly, the only reason people use game cheats is for more money - particularly for money to build their RR company. This points to players usually starting with too little cash (usually $100K) at the start of a game. The first years of waiting for a company to grow are not fun. I'd think this tells game designers not to overload a player early in a game with events which negatively stress the company. Frustration occurs when this happens. Options to help grow the company early in a game would probably be very welcome.

[Gwizz]

When both yes responses are valid it essentially renders the results of the poll irrelevant.

With no disrespect to anyone I think the above is true. But, the poll did make me think.

I Believe a different result would be had if the game played as designed, was separated from testing and
if competition play was separated from non-competition play.



Too often I find that a game map and/or the win goals seems to drag at the beginning and drag again at the end.
When this happens, I will play just for fun and seldom complete the game.
I often will set mini goals for a map and often make simple changes in the editor that dis-regard the original win goals.


Because of my style, many of my older maps RT2 & 3 do have an extra loan amount that gives a player the choice of either going through the early years of a map, without adequate capital or taking another often bigger loan through an event that is paid back after a few years with another event. I had stopped doing this; but, with this pole I may start doing this again.

Many players do like the struggle of building capital. In real life this is how small businesses grow when capital is not available.
While others simply want to get on with building the Railroad and prefer to borrow money or use cheats.
Borrowing money in real life is the more normal method of raising capital for something big like building a railroad.
I doubt any major railroad was able to start up without the backing of major capital to get them through a period of negative profit.

[OilCan]

Jeremy's and Gwizz's comments started me thinking that we need a new poll which combines game editor 'cheats' and cheat codes, but discriminates between using cheats to play a game and using cheats to test a game in production.

Then we need a second poll which asks what kinds of cheats are used. These two polls might be very useful to game designers.

I'll try to post these two polls tomorrow.

Here's the questions which could be used in the first poll. Suggestions for improvement are needed.

* I never, ever, ever cheat by using the game editor or game cheat codes
* I never, ever cheat on the first play of a game, but might cheat to test a trial version
* I only use the game editor if I want to cheat on the first play of a game
* I only use cheat codes if I want to cheat on the first play of a game
* I use both the editor and cheat codes if I want to cheat on the first play of a game
* I might 'modify' an already played game using only the game editor
* I might 'modify' an already played game using only cheat codes
* I might 'modify' an already played game using both the editor and cheat codes

Here's questions which could be used in the second poll. Again, suggestions are needed.

When I cheat while playing a game for the first time, the reason is to...
* automatically win
* give me, the player, more money
* give my RR company more money
* give my RR company access to territories
* change chairmanship rules
* change mergers &/or multiple company rules
* make my trains run faster
* make more locomotives available to buy
* stop train wrecks &/or breakdowns
* make cargo be produced faster
* change unconnected track rules
* change the gold metal requirements
* to change AI player settings

[RayofSunshine]

Fellas,

I am sorry to say that I do use some cheats sparingly, but only when I am just wanting to play for the fun and the enjoyment of the game. When playing to the medals, I do not use cheats, "UNLESS" the scenario is taking the trend of not being possible for me to obtain the gold. THEN, I will use the cheats, to play, just for fun. If a medal then is obtained, I go into the "high score" data, and erase it from the record.

After all, the game was created to have fun, and not to pull out some of the few strands of hair we have left. LOL

Ray of Sunshine

[rognas]

Yes I do use cheats when I'm like y'all is looking around a new game/scenario to see what the game is about. But when it's for real? nope. not a chance, dude. What's the fun with playing a game then?? It's more fun/interresting/challenging to see just how good I'm in this game with NO cheats...

A few years ago, I was sitting beside guy and studied him when he was playing another game (think it was Age of Empires). He played against his best friend. He used cheats all the time and his friend was loosing all the time and never could get it. I had to tell him later that he cheated on him. His friend wasn't that happy over that... He was a little bit... irritated one could say.. But I totally agreed with him, you DON*T use cheats when playing against others!

//rognas

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

I remember when I first discovered the cheats, I was like9 or 10. I used them all the time! But then my disk got messed up, we bought a new computer, and I only used the "fat cat" cheat since I rebought the game a few weeks ago. Other than that, I think the cheats take away from the real value of the game. It's a strategy game, and being OP in strategies takes away the point.