Recommended turn order based on play times:

Personally, I understand and support the judges' decision to keep the lid on the details of the cheat. The knowledge of how to do it (and even the knowledge what "it" is) may encourage more people to cheat and may discourage some people from playing if they are afraid the integrity of the game may be compromised. Neither of those things sound good to me, so I'm with Hiliadan on this one.

What does strike me as odd is SeeR's ban. I obviously don't know the details of the situation, but punishing him on account of "we believe he was very likely aware of the cheating" doesn't sound fair to me. The judgement of DarkRider is being based on proof (even if it's being kept private, I believe the judges that they have enough proof to reach a conclusion), but the judgement of SeeR seem to be based on a sheer suspicion and that doesn't sit well with me. Especially if you consider the fact that whether or not he's innocent, he's already being punished by getting out of the tournament on account of his teammate being disqualified. Also, IIRC, there was a precedent of cheating in another team game, which didn't lead to any disciplinary actions against the teammate of the cheater. So I can't help but wonder what's different this time.

I will once again ask, please provide proof.  Transparency is a valuable tool to earn trust.  This situation is no exception.  Right now, it looks like an unfair process.

As a side note, I want to know what the cheat is and what to be on the look out for.  I don't like having others judge what is best for me to know and what not to know.  I will trust your decision and process more if you provide this information.  It is better for the community to know what it is, not worse.

In short, I make a formal request for:

1.  What is the cheat
2.  What should players be on the look out for
3.  How did Darkrider execute the cheat
4.  How did Seer know about it

We are a community, place your trust in that.

Thanks for the feedback Olop, Gilafron and Zytozid.

We are three judges on this tournament: Fistandantilus, Markymark and me. If someone believes all three of us are corrupt, doubt our integrity and/or believe we are ready to ban players without proof just because we don't like them, then I don't know what to say . Maybe one judge can be like this (and of course, this is not the case even for 1 judge). But the three? We all saw the elements in this case and all agreed there was 100% chance of cheating.
Judges are indeed all powerful, and that is transparent in the rules, but that is because participants are supposed to trust the judges. Trusting the judges to take the right decisions is what underpins the tournaments. Of course it is possible judges make mistakes but that is why they are 3, so that the mistake from one is countered by the others. In some cases, like this one (see paragraph just below), the players agree to put their trust for decisions "for the greater good" to be taken by the judges. That is because in some cases, asking the opinion of other players would make matters worse.
For a decision like this, we clearly did not take it lightly and made sure to have a very high confidence to know what happened.

Olop, you ask if we shouldn't explain what cheat occurred and how to identify it. If we explained that, we would basically be explaining to everyone 1/ how to cheat and 2/ how to avoid being detected (knowing how to be identified is also knowing how to avoid being identified). I do not think that is a good idea as we surely do not want more people to try to cheat or to learn how to be harder to catch.
If you have doubts about someone cheating, please report to the judges and we will give you indications on things to monitor so that we can catch him.
If you are really concerned about this specific case for DarkRider and SeeR, we can understand that, then please contact me by PM or on the chat and we can further discuss that and I can probably convince you .

I recognize the role of SeeR in the community and he was also in my first AoW3 games (and first tournament) and SeeR and I had planned to comment together the Arena tournament (if it ever happens some day; and actually we can still comment it together if SeeR is OK) and I am really sad to have reached that ban from ranked games now. As I said in my previous message, we have not detected cheating from SeeR, however, we believe he was very likely aware of the cheating (given what we saw and what we asked him).

Then to answer some of the elements provided by SeeR and DarkRider:
- the inquiry in this case started a very long time ago and we have been collecting proofs and testing hypothesis for about a month. We have exchanged several emails with the devs. It is not a rushed judgement and this is not a "mess" that needs to be sorted out.
- we were 100% sure of cheating around Monday and sent a PM to SeeR and DarkRider on Tuesday to give them a last chance of explaining or recognizing what DarkRider did. Both were online several times until Friday and we got no answer. I also sent a message to SeeR on Steam Friday without answer. Apparently the message DarkRider sent us was not sent, well, I could not know, but that doesn't change much as we already had 100% sure proof.
- "I usually keep all videos but due to space constraint I deleted the old ones": well, that's an issue. Interestingly, you also removed the video you provided us from YouTube. At the time I write this message, we are discussing by PM to put it back with only people with the link able to see it (or with sharing to Google accounts).
- "This is really sad because just a quick decision destroys our reputation": as I pointed out, it was not a quick decision, we worked on it for a month. The PM you sent us does not explain all the elements I mentioned in my PM on Tuesday as I will show you when we have the video again.
- "Judges also don't like the fact and Seer was giving me gold" this is wrong. We do not have an opinion on that and it is fine to give gold to your team mate.
- "If you wish to witness our teamwork practice in effect in a demo vs AI EMP": this is not about the success of your strategy, we do not challenge it.

EDIT:
Also, I forgot to mention that more than a week ago, we asked both teams to send us ALL they had (logs, screenshots, videos, anything) about the whole game as we were investigating the game. gabthegab sent us the videos of all his turns (actually turns 1 to 6 but we can get the rest when we finish watching these 6 hours or so of video). We had 1 turn from Tussel, the only that was recorded. We got NOTHING from DarkRider (except the video from his crash we had on turn 3) and SeeR. So again, this is not a rushed investigation.

I hope this get's clarified. The judges definitely should sort the mess out with Seer and Darkrider. Please everyone collaborate on this, do a skype call or whatever and talk through what the judges claim you did and then explain yoursef to them. I hope this will come out as a misunderstanding and we all can just continue playing.
But if there was an exploit or something, then this defninitely needs to be sanctionized, I am sure Seer and Darkrider agree to this, as they woul also wanttothers to be sanctionized if they played unfair.
Everyone, make a common effort to clear this up and let's continue having fun games in the future!

We  (the judges) do not ban any Players when we are not sure.

Maybe  finding an answer for the most  inconsistencies but not an answer for all inconsistencies, some are just not possible!

Hilidan> The details of the cheating, etc. won't be communicated to avoid inciting other people to cheat.

I understand you don't want others cheating, but this make you 
all powerfull (you being the judges).

If you cannot provide the evidence, then you cannot ban a player.

Otherwise, you can ban anyone that happens to cross you and their
is no repercussions.

> Please note that we have ways to find cheaters,

Since you are able to identify how the cheat occurred wouldn't it be
better to explain the cheat and how to identify it?  Then everyone
could monitor for the cheat.

> so let's all play fair!

When I started playing, $eer was in several of my first games.  Many
of the games I have played since then have included $eer.  I highly
doubt he is a cheater.  I suspect the same is true for DarkRider.

As Gilafon said, If there is cheating, proof has to be provided.

If there is cheating, proof has to be provided.  Otherwise, $eer and DarkRider are being inappropriately blackballed.  As Hil previously said, he can catch it.  So please provide your proof to backup these allegations.

I think there is serious misunderstanding here, Judges asked to explain my scout movement which happened more than  1 month ago. I swear I replied to that, but for some reason the message didn't transmit back i.e it is not in outbox. Even Seer reminded me to reply I said I replied.  I didn't even realize that it didn't go so I was waiting to hear back, meanwhile judges thought since I didn't reply I accepted the fault. But now I have sent my explanation. If detail explanation is needed we need to get inside the game and I can try to remember what happened 1 month ago, but it will be hard to remember each and every hex movement that happened 1 month ago.

I usually keep all videos but due to space constraint I deleted the old ones and unable to prove based on previous and next turns. The mistake that I did is publish that video publicly, so someone could be opponent challenged it. If we could challenge such scout movements I could challenge lot of other player's scout movement (including some in the same game by opponents).

This is really sad because just a quick decision destroys our reputation there is not even follow-up on through messages that this is going to happen.

We were being told that they are investigating a different crash that happened to Seer.

Judges also don't like the fact and Seer was giving me gold, as team mate one team mate is supposed to help others , it is part of our strategy that is why we have team game.

Just for the information I am not the one who is always winning all games, if I had cheated the I am happy to retire, I had enough on this game and my friends know about my gameplay and strategy.

$eeR quitted!

Ouch thats pretty nasty Hiliadan , Im not aware of any cheating by Darkrider , we worked very hard on our teamwork strategy , and i did explain it to you in private when you asked me on steam chat.

Please explain to me how you think he cheated ?


I still have the game paused on my turn , and invite you to review the map further if you so wish.

If you wish to witness our teamwork practice in effect in a demo vs AI EMP , we can perhaps make a video for you....it is a strong tactical gamble that has paid off so far and got us to the final ....review my final scores from other games posted....maybe it make slightly more sense then.

I do not appreciate being labelled a cheater.......

I've tried through the year to be somewhat of an unofficial ambassador for AoW3 welcoming new live players , taking the time to teach them , hosting the first ever pbem tournament.


Again i stress absolutely no knowledge of any cheating....and request u remove my ban.

If you find legitimate evidence that DarkRider did somehow cheat then i would like to know.


even ask some of the Regular live players , i often use similar strategy in live MP team games...... Griffith or Castaneida or Lightform can confirm this, among others.



As you probably realize , i am definitely not any kind of tech guru or computer hacker.... and when i messaged you with the black screen - crash , was the one putting forth the suggestion that something had perhaps been tampered with in the pbem save.

 
anyways i did not cheat and protest this harsh judgment.

== For all PBEM tournaments and all PBEM ranked games ==
DarkRider was discovered cheating on his 2vs2 Tournament game vs gabthegab and Tussel. The three judges, Fistandantilus, Markymark and Hiliadan, all reviewed the proofs and concluded to cheating by DarkRider. It was also judged that his team mate, SeeR, was very likely aware of the cheating, especially since the judge repeatedly asked questions which should have led SeeR to monitor his ally.
The details of the cheating, etc. won't be communicated to avoid inciting other people to cheat. Please note that we have ways to find cheaters, so let's all play fair!
As a consequence, both DarkRider and SeeR are disqualified from all PBEM tournaments and are banned from participating in ranked PBEM games. More to come later on how they will be replaced.
For ongoing ranked PBEM games, I advise players to consider continuing the games and report DarkRider and SeeR as quitters at the end of the game.
We are very sorry about this situation...

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
About 25.5 days left before the end of the round.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
About 21 days left before the end of the round.

== Balance ==
@Zytozid: not the Cosmic Events' heroes without MCI were not abused that much I think, also because the number of games reaching such late game stage is limited (basically that's only the 8 player large maps).

== Misc ==
New poll launched! In what types of AoW3 videos are you interested (e.g. on YouTube)?

Really now, heroes appearing in cosmic events did NOT have mind control immunity? Woah. Never noticed. Was this abused a lot?
Sounds terribly unbalanced to me

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
About 30 days left before the end of the round.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
About 26 days left before the end of the round, except for the match between Coup de Grâce and West Coasters, which will get an extension due to delays in judging procedures.

== Balance ==
First, I'd like to argue in favour of a change as some veteran players seem opposed to it:
GC52
A new setting is available for “Defenders Strength”: “Strong with Normal rewards”: Treasure sites do not give +50% reward value any more

=> the idea behind this change is that when we choose Strong Defenders for tournament settings in the first place, our aim was to make clearing harder, with stronger defenders, all things being equal. We did not anticipate that the rewards would also increase with the defenders. So the current situation where treasure sites (i.e. most sites, except Gold Mines, Mana Node, Magma Forge and a few others which are Resource Sites; I'm not sure about Visit structures like Shrines) provide 50% more reward than they're supposed to leads to a power creep in terms of items, mana, gold, research, and even spells, that was not planned and that is bad for balance. It gives an advantage to players good at clearing that is bigger than what is necessary (to reward clearing skills). This has two additional negative induced impacts: 1/ it increases the snowballing effect: when you start to clear high level sites, it becomes easier with each sites cleared as the rewards are huge (e.g. 500 RP from Sphynx Temples instead of about 330 RP; 2 T3 from Dungeons instead of 1 T3 and 1 T2; etc.), 2/ it makes mind-control strategies independent of the economic strength of the empire because you can just clear your way out of lack of gold; with -33% gold (we are at 150% reward now so it's -33% to get back to 100%), the gold income from clearing and selling would be reduced.
Overall, the game has been balanced by the devs for incomes associated to standard Defenders, not Strong ones. Bringing back the rewards to where they should always have been will help solve several problems (though it is of course not enough in itself, but that's part of the small little things that add up to a solution when taken together) such as mind-control strategies still too strong vs production strategies, the persistence of a few pre turn 20 rush strategies and the "no city economy" issue.

Then, please note more feedback is needed for these changes, considered for v1.23:
GC33a
Combat Healing starts with an initial 3 turns cooldown (was 4 turns).

GC49
Public Bath costs 120 gold (was 150)

GC40a
Spell upgrades for heroes cost 4 (was 5), except:
– Chaos Rift (stay at 5)
– Chain Lightning (stay at 5)
– Last Stand (stay at 5)
– Slayer’s Doubt (stay at 5)
– Stiffen Limbs (stay at 5)
– Repair Fortification: costs 3

GC40b
CP upgrade costs for heroes are reduced to 5+5+5+5+6+7+7 = 40 in total to get to 85 CP (was 5+5+7+7+7+9+9 = 49)
Destabilized Mana Core costs 60 CP (was 50 CP)

GC51
Heroes appearing in Cosmic Events have Mind Control Immunity


== Misc ==
Last 3 days to vote: How user-friendly and effective do you think each of these sections of the Battlefield website are?

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
About 41.5 days left before the end of the round.
Round 5 will use v1.22 of the balance mod. Round 6 might use v1.23, depending on the progress on this version when that round will start.

== PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament ==
An extension of 3 weeks is granted to this tournament, as it started during the summer holiday period (end of July).
Round 6 will use v1.22 of the balance mod and round 7 will very likely use v1.23.

== Balance ==
Reminder: you can check what proposed changes become "priority" or are confirmed here: http://aow.triumph.net/forums... (please check the last messages only)
Please also remember to read the news and this Player Pool on the BF as all changes and the planning of release are announced on these locations. ==> PBEM and Single Player Balance Mod v1.22 released and available in 3 languages!

== Misc ==
A new live multiplayer (not PBEM!) tournament is being organized: Live MP Beginner Tournament 2017 4 slots left and supposed to start very soon so join fast!

Also, please remember the poll (only 10 respondents so far...): How user-friendly and effective do you think each of these sections of the Battlefield website are?

Do we know when v1.22 will be moved to Main branch?

Wodokan joined !!

Nemesis_Zero quitted!

I see and yo uare right Hiliadan. It's the lesser of the two evils. You're doing this well.
Keep up the good work (:

== 2017 PBEM Duel Tournament ==
v1.22 is ready on the beta branch. Matches can start (if both players sent their class/race, we're still missing the ones of Skuns and AlX as far as I know), so @all the hosts, please host the game with the beta branch (not the main branch as usual) and post the settings as screenshots as usual and let's start ASAP. I'm going to update the counter to the end of round on the Tournament page so that it lasts 2 months from now: https://www.the-battlefield.c... />
@Zytozid: yes, it is somehow unfair to those who already played Dread and didn't benefit from the boosts. However, boosts to Dread were announced a while ago on the news on the BF (+ on different other channels, e.g. the official forum has a discussion dedicated to boosting Dread) and anyone willing to understand the incoming balance changes could have planned that well in advance.
The rules clearly states that the judges can decide to use the latest version of the balance mod as the tournament progresses and that is mostly what I expect us to do until the end of the tournament. In my opinion, it is much better to be a bit unfair to games played in previous rounds than to destroy the interest of a tournament's latest rounds by not implementing critical balance changes. That is somehow what happened in the previous Duel tournament where everyone had to play Necro to win, as the tournament was not using the balance mod. The key in my opinion is to communicate the changes sufficiently in advance and to give indications of the broad lines of the future changes, so that everyone has the same information and can plan accordingly (and there is no "insider trading" with some people benefiting from having the information before the others).

I'm out but...isn't that unfair to those who picked dreadnought before?