Cease Fire?

[weapon2010]

Does anyone undersatnd this procedure?My opponenet says they hit cease fire in a pbem, but I get no indication in my turn.I thought I remeber in CMBO you got a notice saying your opponent has requested a ceasefire.In CMFI the only way I know is he told me via email.

[womble]

That's about the size of it. I was confused by this the first couple of times it happened in HvH. My opponent knew how the system works and sent me an email/H2HH chat that they'd offered Cease Fire. I thought "Cool, I'll accept when the notification pops up," and continued processing turns; I had gained the impression from somewhere that it could take a while for the Cease Fire to take effect. A little later, my opponent surrendered. There's no in-game notification that Cease Fire is being offered, which is a shame, as is the lack of an in-game chat/message function in PBEM mode. All that 2D real estate at the bottom of the screen either side of the unit info/command pane could be used for such things. Would need basic text editing functionality, too, though.

[SlowMotion]

Even if both players select Cease fire, the game doesn't always end immediately. Why this is so in PBEM (keep exchanging turn files until it really ends), I have no idea.

[agusto]

Even if both players select Cease fire, the game doesn't always end immediately. Why this is so in PBEM (keep exchanging turn files until it really ends), I have no idea.

That is to prevent abuse of the PBEM game modes mechanisms.

[womble]

That is to prevent abuse of the PBEM game modes mechanisms.

?? How do you mean? What could be abused?

I thought it had been "officially" explained as there needing to be a lull in the fighting before a cease fire could come into effect.

[agusto]

Depending on the amount of files before a suggested cease fire becomes active, there would be several possibilities of abuse.

One example: If, in theory, the cease fire became active as soon as the second player, the one who receives the cease fire request from his opponent, accepts the cease fire, then he would have the possibility to accept the cease fire, view all his opponents units, and then reloaded the turn, decline the cease fire and play on. So the game mechanics need to be crafted in a way so that a requested and confirmed cease fire can only become active (i.e. units are shown) in a situation were reloading and declining the cease fire is not possible anymore. That is why you have send a few more files back and forth after clicking cease fire:

turn n, player 1, file 1: cease fire request

turn n, player 2, file 2: request accepted

// if the cease fire became active as soon as player 2 clicks accept, player 2 could abuse the situation and gain an unfair advantage.

turn n+1, player 1, file 3: request acception confirmed

turn n+1, player 2, file 4: cease fire activated when player 2 opens file 3. file 4 can now be sent to palyer 1 so that he can view all units as well.

// Now player 2 isnt able to take advantage of the game mechanics and gain unfair knowledge.

I thought it had been "officially" explained as there needing to be a lull in the fighting before a cease fire could come into effect.

EDIT: in my experience that doesnt matter at all. I had cease fires in situations where there was still a lot fighting going on, me and my opponent just negotiated a cease fire because the decisive action had been over.

[womble]

...possibilities of abuse...the possibility to accept the cease fire, view all his opponents units, and then reloaded the turn, decline the cease fire and play on...

Ack. Yes, good point. It's a bit saddening that people are sneaky enough to do something like that, but I suppose you have to cater to the over-competetive... :-/

[agusto]

From a game developers point of view it is probably always better to rely on hardcoded mechanics that prevent foul play than instead relying on peoples honor. It is just statistically too likely that out of a couple of thousand players a few are willing to play unfair.