Anti cheat mechanic

anti-cheating mechanic is probably to let other players take care of it. I've never seen that sort of thing go on too long!

:D

Maybe with success there comes a price, and a larger price if the numbers don't match up on a "random" check... Sorta like speeding tickets, the faster over the speed limit you go the higher the fine. So getting caught cheating could knock you out of the game, and knowing there is a random check, it pays to play by the rules. Just a thought.

Kirioni

It's unclear if you're intending people's empires to be brought into different games among a group of friends or if you'll be able to join a game with random strangers.

If the former, having some kind of a a centralized record keeping or leaderboard or somesuch would probably cover it.
If the latter, it's likely not really possible without some sophisticated technical controls and an online database.

And then there is the problem of people using past versions of their empires, which would likely survive any 'probability scrutiny'. For example, say someone has a legitimate and well run empire, then plays a game and it somehow gets trashed. What's to stop that player playing a new game for the older version of his empire?

With the ability to always keep your finest moment, no one will retain any other kind of progression, and this will likely lead to a run-away effect on empire power. This will lead to either 1) new players having no chance, or if there are some balancing controls in place 2) Everyone having 'maxed' empires with no room for improvement. Maybe there is a clever way around this, though. Perhaps making what is 'best' be subjective and depending on the game situation.

Now for a technical solution, you could have some kind of internet recordkeeping. People make an account and the results of the games are verified by all the players of that game. When you want to play game, you can pull the player's stats from the website. This kind of requirement could be a deal-breaker though. (If you are going to put everything online, you might as well just have played the game online too) It also should be noted it isn't going to stop a group of players colluding to feed fradulent data to the website. You could even argue that they even have more incentive to do so if everyone's stats are public.

Lastly, if you run a radiology department, give players an fMRI scan of their brain while they report how truthful the records of their empire have been. Or include a portable lie detector kit.

Can you give a bit more information as to how it works? Do you create an empire once, then have battles which always begin with that static empire? So, kind of like the way you design your stack in MTG, you design your empire? Or does the empire accumulate change with each battle?

In the latter case, there is definitely nothing you can do, since people could create multiple empires, battle them against each other, and contrive the desired empire.

In the former case, it may possible to stop cheating.

Are there any random elements in the design phase? If so, you might want to consider removing them. The fact is, there is nothing you can do to oversee the rolling of dice in the privacy of one's own home. But it would be possible to design a completely non-random empire design mini-game...

Just an example to demonstrate.

Imagine a game of chess where each person makes 10 moves before the start of the game (in private - this is the empire building phase). To ensure the pieces do not overlap at the end of the empire building phase, no pieces may end the empire building phase on the far side of the board. Then, each player can take their chess "empire", and play out a game of chess against another person's "empire".

In this chess game example, the anti cheat mechanic that comes to mind is to record the moves that made the empire in a list, then have each player actually set up the board for their opponent by following the recipe on the list. It works in this example because chess moves are fast to execute and there is a standard notation which is easy to write down.

The point is, an anti-cheat mechanic can be done if the circumstances are right.

I'm not sure this would be a anti-cheat mechanic, but it would be a balancing factor that would render such cheating irrelevant. Figure out a point system for gauging an empire's success. Then when a player want's to take his empire to another game, it will have to be within that other game's point range.

If the player "Cheats" and ups his empire too much, then it will no longer fall into the point range.

But you should also consider using this point system for creating empires at various strengths for different games.

Right, there isn't anyway to prevent people from cheating or trying! Even professional played games/tournaments will have cheaters.

So as you were saying you want people to bring their empires and be able to play against other evenly matched opponents.

The solutions currently in use are to create a template that must be followed. MTG uses deck size or allowed expansions. Many other games assign point values to units and only allow so many points to be used.

Either of these could work for your game. Have them preconstruct an empire deck to play with.

Or give everyone the same Empire Cost sheet and they can allocate their 1000 points towards whatever they want: Technology, Army, Agriculture, Trade, Religion, ect.

Bottom line is players will preconstruct their Empire, whether from a previous game or in the leisure of their own home.

I think the 'new' idea you are trying to add in is having your empire be the same one that you stick with (good or bad) through several (all) games.

There aren't many fans of it for various reasons but playing for 'keeps' could be a way to do it. At the end of any game damages are litterally lost and winnings are acquired. Even with this though someone could 'cheat' and buy a bunch to make their own custom Empire. But if they do buy a bunch then you make more money!

That's my 2 cents.