Posts from Even if he cheats, he won't find anything here. Auto-translated

On the 1st day, a man arrived with 50,000 angels; there are no screenshots from that time, but I took a screenshot later.

It’s as if he cares about you posting information on the forums :D I doubt he even knows what the forums are. And as for cheaters, there are many in Heroes.

The lobby administration maintains a list of unfair players: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rvcaZWDB2fWYxHbUUOVIibKr51MtKa66w3b8jmD-i2Y/edit#gid=0

Screenshots and save files proving cheating or other violations by a player should be sent to hotaleavers@gmail.com. Then the cheater will likely be banned. Unfair players can also be added to the blacklist, which reduces their reputation in the lobby.

Reports about cheaters in the lobby are unlikely to be reviewed here, on HW.

1700+ :smile07:

By the way, I received a RO (report offense) as a result of complaints from two complete noobs who asked to join the game, but I got tired of playing with them (and explaining why, so as not to engage in ATG-style insults). And the admin with the nickname parovozovoz is generally a very unintelligent person; it's completely unclear how he became an admin. Everything is just great, in short.

With all due respect, you are wrong in this case. Judging by these episodes, you treat unknown players in the lobby as bots, with whom you can behave however you want – if you’re in the mood, you play; if you’re tired, you quit. This is fundamentally wrong: their interests are just as important to the administration as yours. The rules are the same for everyone. If you start a ranked game with someone, be kind enough to finish it or surrender. If you get tired of playing and you definitely don’t want to continue (and your opponent doesn’t agree to simply end the game), surrender. Otherwise, it’s a rage quit and bad manners, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s done because you’re tired or because you want to farm points. So, the RO (restriction order) is quite deserved, and if similar episodes repeat, it could even lead to a ban. Of course, it would be stupid to get banned in this way. But that’s your fault, not the administration’s – it should be obvious that you shouldn’t behave inappropriately. In fact, you can remove this RO – to do this, you need to upload saves with those players and surrender in them (or finish the game). Or somehow resolve the issue so that these players write to the administrator that they have no complaints.

There are only a handful of players like me in the entire history of Heroes, so I couldn't care less about all your "rules."

No hero in the entire series has ever had such a sense of self-importance as I do, so I couldn't care less about all your "rules."

Fixed it, you're welcome.

Fixed it, you're welcome.

My ego is fine. The situation where a person asks to play, starting the conversation with something like "hi, legend" (already funny, right?), and then "plays" until the last castle and hero are gone, losing every turn in a long timer (obviously doing something pointless) – well, excuse me... Am I supposed to admit defeat just to get out of this mess? And am I wrong and should I be banned if I just leave without explaining anything? Yes, please, ban me completely. I'm just fundamentally wrong and a conceited narcissist. It's ridiculous.

If a player, after losing, intentionally prolonged the game to force you to quit, then that should have been addressed immediately. When you are accused of something, you need to defend yourself based on the facts, not by referring to your uniqueness (and especially not by saying that you will resolve everything and then fail to do so). I think you can check the save file to see how justified he was in expecting something else from the game.

My self-esteem is fine.

It's normal to get angry at a player who is behaving inappropriately (if that was the case). Saying, "I am unique, and the rules don't apply to me" is not normal.

You know, each of you is partially right. Situations like the one described are certainly annoying and need to be addressed somehow. What if you wrote directly to such a player: "Either you think you can beat me – then come and beat me NOW, or you see that you're losing – then surrender, but don't drag it out! Because while I'm wasting my time with you, I could be playing a more interesting game for me with an opponent of my level." (The last part is optional – only if the young man doesn't understand what you're unhappy about.) In general, such behavior by weaker players shows either their young age and, as a result, their inability to admit defeat, or complexes ("pride prevents them from admitting it").
But simply abandoning the game without explanation (even to a schoolboy) is not right. Only if you're playing without rules outside the community – but then your opponent could suddenly "disappear in an English manner" as well.

Regarding cheaters, I wanted to suggest something earlier: we need to fight this somehow! More than 1700 "smart alecks" is a lot! :(
In an ideal world, you could make manual registration only after passing a qualification (here's a save, win in 1-2 minutes with a screen demonstration). This would weed out obvious degenerates like the one with 50,000 angels (and CheatEngine?), and those who only started playing yesterday and don't even know the game. Or make login through social networks. Or link the account to a phone number. In a more extreme, fantastical scenario – login through a government services portal! :) Then a banned player wouldn't be able to simply create a new account, and then – the 10th, ... 20th, ... 100th...
And also, maybe it's worth adding a button somewhere in the menu on heroes3.tv in a prominent place: "List of cheaters / Wall of shame"?

Amazing. You wrote so much, and almost all of it is wrong. 1) "Each of you is partially right." Not at all. SAV is completely right on every point mentioned here. Lizard might be partially right – probably about his uniqueness. 2) The suggestion to attack right now has nothing to do with assessing the chances in a game. The player might be standing at the entrance to a well-explored super treasure map, which he plans to collect and then attack. Suggesting that he attack now is absurd. 3) The fact that "it's not necessary to write it last" is precisely what should be written to clarify whether the opponent understands this or is only thinking about himself. However, if there's an ego-driven person on the other side, then it's clear that he won't even understand what's being said. But this at least reflects the essence of the situation. 4) There should be no problem with leaving and disappearing. The gaming community (in this case, the HotA lobby) should have adequate rules for these cases. A technical loss for the leaver is the only reasonable default rule. And that's exactly what's in effect. We could consider giving Lizard (if I understand correctly that he won against Reddi in the CIS region – there are very few players in the history of Heroes who have been able to do this) a special medal that gives him the right to leave against noobs without receiving a technical loss. Leaving without explanation is normal. It's just a game. Close it, stand up, and walk away. Technical loss, and that's it (or a medal with the right to leave for exceptionally valuable players). 5) Making a qualification system is a wonderful idea. Maniacs, cheaters, and endless rows of noob gamers will pass (partially with the same cheats), and normal players will outshine them and send them to hell. 6) Registration through the state services portal for residents of other countries is another wonderful idea. Attaching it to a phone number is practically feasible, but the complexity of the implementation will most likely be absolutely disproportionate to the real benefit (is it a big problem for an obsessed person to get a new SIM card?). 7) Attaching a list of cheaters makes sense only in the lobby itself, and nowhere else – directly in their profiles and in the lobby list, where they should not be present in the general chat. What else is there to discuss? Who is interested in browsing a list of 1700 nicknames (and it will grow infinitely) in search of an opponent? This list is, of course, necessary so that it exists somewhere, but it is not needed at all for practical, everyday purposes! All the tools, all the information should be right in the lobby, in front of your eyes, when you see a specific opponent, right in his profile. p.s. p1 – not sarcasm, seriously. p4 – sarcasm, but also seriously.

I don't understand why there's so much complexity. The cheater clearly won't stop and will keep creating new accounts. Wouldn't it be possible to implement a more robust protection system that permanently blocks the user?

Players are not permanently banned for a single offense. After all, leaving a game once is not such a serious crime that it should prevent someone from playing altogether. The list is simply needed to keep track of how many times each player has violated the rules.

Of course, cheaters are much rarer.

Permanent bans do exist, however.

I don't see any problem with someone getting frustrated and not wanting to communicate with their opponent anymore (including becoming uncooperative). This is most likely some kind of neurosis that may lead to a more serious problem over time, but it may not, and in general, it's not inherently a major issue.
But one thing is, in my opinion, definitely unacceptable in this situation: if playing with password-protected saves, one of the opponents doesn't share the password with the other after the game ends. This should happen explicitly, and in a specific player's history, it should happen a maximum of 3 times. Twice as warnings. The third time – a permanent account ban. In my personal opinion, not sharing the password (without any discussion or connection to any other issues where different viewpoints might exist) is absolutely unacceptable and rude behavior.
There's nothing to discuss here – the game has ended, so you share the password. If it's possible to automate this to completely remove the "personal" element, so that the server shares the password instead of the opponent, then it would be ideal to automate it. In the past two years, this situation has happened to me twice with different opponents (this was in tournaments; there were also cases in seasonal games). In one case, the opponent at least made it clear that there was something "personal" going on, even though he considered it beneath him to explain what exactly. In the other case, I saw the opponent for the first time; we didn't talk much on ICQ, and in the game, he just appeared out of nowhere, attacked, sacrificed his main hero against my hero and army, immediately left, and disappeared silently. It was completely bizarre.

In my opinion, this situation is directly related to the topic being discussed, because every "cheater" is interested in preventing the opponent from being able to analyze the saves after the game. And if they can unnecessarily sabotage the ending and deprive the opponent of this opportunity, they will do it.