[Mito [PL]]

Now, let's not be too ridiculous. Bumping up the difficulty level by raising enemy stats to stupid levels is just distasteful. That's why it's more fun to improve the AI, as done by the OP, instead of just giving stupid enemies vastly better armor and weapons.

[Colonol Dekker]

Better trained soldiers are better than more soldiers with better guns. 

But then I'm biased 😜😜

[Asteroth]

(I'm going to add an event called "PUMPKINEATER --> while --> player-is-cheating" to check for cheating and set conditions "and --> is-event-incomplete" for every mission in order to advance through a campaign, in my FSO campaign. Possibly also send a message from command about what a loser the cheater is.)

Please do not do this. You can make fun of cheaters all you like but there are several legitimate reasons why someone may need to cheat through some missions. Notably for bug hunting, if there's a bug that only shows up in the campaign (and so you cant play it through the techroom) you may need to cheat through the missions quickly to get to where you need to. You may need this very thing yourself while testing, and its going to be a giant hassle constantly turning it on and off.

Everyone is here to have a good time and isn't going to ruin their experience on purpose. This isn't a competitive game, there's no reason to prevent cheating. If someone is cheating, they probably have a good reason.

[QuakeIV]

(I'm going to add an event called "PUMPKINEATER --> while --> player-is-cheating" to check for cheating and set conditions "and --> is-event-incomplete" for every mission in order to advance through a campaign, in my FSO campaign. Possibly also send a message from command about what a loser the cheater is.)

Please do not do this. You can make fun of cheaters all you like but there are several legitimate reasons why someone may need to cheat through some missions. Notably for bug hunting, if there's a bug that only shows up in the campaign (and so you cant play it through the techroom) you may need to cheat through the missions quickly to get to where you need to. You may need this very thing yourself while testing, and its going to be a giant hassle constantly turning it on and off.

Everyone is here to have a good time and isn't going to ruin their experience on purpose. This isn't a competitive game, there's no reason to prevent cheating. If someone is cheating, they probably have a good reason.

I kindof skimmed earlier and didn't notice that.  I agree, there should be a path to cheat your way forward if so inclined.

[Colonol Dekker]

Also,  if it was in retail, it should kinda persist.

[Novachen]

I think the other way around would be better.

Proceeding only with cheating   .



Well, it was standard in FS1 that you were unable to continue with cheats on difficult levels that were higher than Very Easy. Actually i never got it, why that behaviour was changed in FS2. There you are even allowed to cheat on Insane  .

So an event that make everything invalid with "is-cheating" would make sense for skill levels that are at least set to Easy actually. If some one want to cheat, Very Easy is traditionally the skill level for it... what actually make sense as the player is punished with a very low score anyway and does not gain much for it like a promotion (and as Medals can be given by skill level too, you can even ensure that someone on Very Easy gets nothing). It was always a difficulty to have some fun without consequences, but also with nearly no gain apart from the story experience, which is however enough for some people already.

So i am actually open to some kind of cheat-protection. But simple not for every difficulty. Medium, Hard and Insane would be enough i think. However, if you want to restrict the default difficulty Easy as well, feel free to do that.
But i would never put such thing in effect for the lowest difficulty as there are may some reasons why someone is playing on it and may even need cheats (Accessibility for disabled persons comes in mind i.e.)
And because of the latter, i would even never make fun of cheaters, especially in a single player game. A simple recommendation that is saying, that cheating is only allowed on Easy/Very Easy is enough.

[zonination]

Notably for bug hunting, if there's a bug that only shows up in the campaign (and so you cant play it through the techroom) you may need to cheat through the missions quickly to get to where you need to.

Oh damn. You're right. I never thought of that.

Okay, I've switched it to just a plain ol' event called PUMPKINEATER that just calls it out via wingmen or Command.
It's simply a random comic message:

• Better hope you know what you're doing with those cheats, my dude.
• Watch out with those cheat codes - you could break something with that!
• While you're cheating, do you think you can give me enhancements in the "love department"?
• You know, the last pilot who cheated had to explain to command why he ended up with Shivan Super Lasers on his fighter...
• While we don't condone cheating, Terran Command has allowed it to slide since you're all-powerful now.

[QuakeIV]

Seems relatively tasteful

[Iain Baker]

I decided to do this myself as a learning exercise, and to basically mess around and have a laugh.

Take FS1. Add glide, horizontal, vertical and reverse thrusters to all fighters and bombers. Give afterburners to the fighters and bombers that lack it. Increase the RoF and projectile speed of most cap ship turrets. Give all fighters, bombers and missiles a 20-25 MPS blanket speed boost so they don’t feel sluggish. Rebalance some primaries. Give everyone “Fury-on-crack AI” (BP2’s AI mixed with Bem Calvalgar’s) and see what happens.

The effects are ‘interesting’ to say the least. Ever had a Manticore fly backwards whilst shooting your wingman in the face? I have now and it’s glorious. Moar tweaking needed of course to balance things out a bit but it’s hella fun 😎