Controversial topic : CHEATING, oooouuuuh!!

[Starchild]

With the hardships of the expedition 7, many players are boasting their cheating abilities. So what do you think? Personnaly, I never needed to cheat in NMS, but I have used a mod now and then to smooth some "wrinkles" in certain games (ex. Inventory in Skyrim, fishing in Stardew). So I get it, but tell me, how much is too much and can one truly boast about not being able to play a game? Ouuuuh!

**Update : Wow, you guys are awesome! You read all these little arguments in the forums about cheating, but here you just put down your opinions on the topic in an enriching, intelligent conversation. Thank you all! I don't know about you, but my view on the subject has been widen.

[SuperTech]

"Cheating" is relative. Is it cheating to fix a bug with a mod or save editor? Is it cheating to make the game look better to you with a mod? Is it cheating to use a mod or save editor to overcome a real world handicap you may have? Play the game you want as long as the game developer has no issues with it then neither should you.

[Metal_Bard]

They do them. I do me. And I completed this expedition legitimately, and out of the box. Died only the two required times. Though the first was unintentional due to glitchy striders. Had many close calls and of course the adrenaline hit from them enhanced the experience.

No funny business and no cheating. I am proud of my achievement and now this file will be my survival save. It is a trophy of some of the best play I have ever done on this game. And whenever I log in it will remind me of such.

[Faceplant]

This is not a competitive game, so how do you define cheating? It's a game, and the goal is to have fun. If you feel like you're "cheating" yourself out of some aspect of the game, then don't do it. If it enhances your enjoyment, then do it.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Cheating implies there is a competition or a player has created an unfair advantage over someone else. That does not apply to this game. You can cheat yourself out of the full enjoyment of the game by giving yourself everything.

People modify the game and saves to suit their puposes. Want a squad of living ships for wingmen? You can make that happen. What to copy your base into another save? You can do that. It doesn't impact my game if someone gives themselves riches or items. If they like the result, it is a win win.

[Brew]

Well I think it can imply shortcutting game mechanics. Which can't harm anyone in solo play. One can get advantages with respect to intended game mechanics, whether you're playing with someone else or not.

I can't envision myself ever using mods. I have used consoles to work around bugs though (where applicable).

[Dirak2012]

Who cares, do what you think it's fun for you.

[knighttemplar1960]

It depends on what each player considers cheating. Is it cheating to back up a permadeath save and then reload it if you die do to a programming glitch? (Falling through the geometry to your death on a planet, frigate, or your freighter, taking damage from a pirate ship when you are inside a space station, one shot killed by lightening while inside your starship in atmosphere, getting stuck inside the geometry of a POI after the autosave so that your save can't be recovered even though you didn't die, getting killed while trying to tab out of text that you can't insta clear but doesn't pause the game, etc.)

Did the devs cheat when they increased costs of modules and blue prints by 10x to make the expedition more grindy and you compensated by using the save editor to eliminate the grind?

Those are questions that each player has to answer for themselves. For myself I just play and take what comes as it comes. In the last 2 years I haven't lost a permadeath character to an error on my part they have all been due to game bugs (which is why the longest any of my permadeath saves has been ~250 hours). On this expedition I tried to play just like always, no outside programs or mods and I died to falling through planetary geometry on the last step of iteration 4. I'm holding off on replaying expedition 7 for about 4 more weeks to see if the devs can patch out some of the problems then I'll give it another go and if I die that time to a programming bug I won't attempt to finish expedition 7.

Most of the awards for completing expeditions are cosmetic and the game can still be played successfully without them.

[cfteague2]

In a PvP game, cheating is bannable
In a ranked or competitive game, cheating is bannable

otherwise, "If it harm none, do as ye will"

[Jaggid Edje]

The difference between "cheating" and "using a mod" is 100% your perception, and nothing else. I use a mod that removes the filter from the scanner so that when I look through it everything is still in full, normal color. Is that cheating? I don't think it is....someone else who considers view clarity as something that impacts difficulty might disagree.

My point is, it's a matter of perspective and viewpoint whether something even IS cheating. Technically, changing the game in any way is cheating. That's basically what cheating is.

People love to argue about it, and bring up things like it needs to give you some kind of "unfair advantage" or you need to be playing "against other people"...etc. etc. But you are only getting into perception and semantics at that point. At the core, if you changed the game mechanics, in any way, you cheated. So mods are cheating.

But ... who the f cares?

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Did the devs cheat when they increased costs of modules and blue prints by 10x to make the expedition more grindy and you compensated by using the save editor to eliminate the grind?

To be fair, I'm fairly certain the devs did not decide to "stick it to the players" by increasing the cost of upgrades. I have to believe that their intent was to discourage buying most upgrades to fit in the PD/survival theme.

After completing the expedition, I decided what was fair to me was to farm up the "normal" cost of upgrades and the "save editor" them to me. I'm not going to waste my life griding for hours just for the sake of grinding.

In the expedition, I limited myself to the provided resources, and did not even get any expedition upgrades (golden vector, etc), which I think enhanced my enjoyment, but now I'm treating it like a normal save.

[knighttemplar1960]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Did the devs cheat when they increased costs of modules and blue prints by 10x to make the expedition more grindy and you compensated by using the save editor to eliminate the grind?

To be fair, I'm fairly certain the devs did not decide to "stick it to the players" by increasing the cost of upgrades. I have to believe that their intent was to discourage buying most upgrades to fit in the PD/survival theme.

After completing the expedition, I decided what was fair to me was to farm up the "normal" cost of upgrades and the "save editor" them to me. I'm not going to waste my life griding for hours just for the sake of grinding.

In the expedition, I limited myself to the provided resources, and did not even get any expedition upgrades (golden vector, etc), which I think enhanced my enjoyment, but now I'm treating it like a normal save.

Then why increase the costs at all? Isn't permadeath and survival all ready supposed to be more difficult due to smaller inventory sizes, doubled drain on hazard protection and life support, and having to avoid using things like grenades that bounce?

Most of the player base doesn't play permadeath and the devs made this mode harder (and more grindy) by increasing the costs. That's why there's lots of rage quit threads.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

To be fair, I'm fairly certain the devs did not decide to "stick it to the players" by increasing the cost of upgrades. I have to believe that their intent was to discourage buying most upgrades to fit in the PD/survival theme.

After completing the expedition, I decided what was fair to me was to farm up the "normal" cost of upgrades and the "save editor" them to me. I'm not going to waste my life griding for hours just for the sake of grinding.

In the expedition, I limited myself to the provided resources, and did not even get any expedition upgrades (golden vector, etc), which I think enhanced my enjoyment, but now I'm treating it like a normal save.

Then why increase the costs at all? Isn't permadeath and survival all ready supposed to be more difficult due to smaller inventory sizes, doubled drain on hazard protection and life support, and having to avoid using things like grenades that bounce?

Most of the player base doesn't play permadeath and the devs made this mode harder (and more grindy) by increasing the costs. That's why there's lots of rage quit threads.

It's only grindy if you buy the items that they're discouraging you to buy. If you notice, the construction terminal says something like "Essential Items".

Edit: Rage quit? Like I "rage quit" after the first expedition that bored me to death? It's one out of (currently 7) FREE expedition updates that are optional, and you can save editor any of the content that you missed because you "rage quit".

[Brew]

I think visual changes could be "cheating" if it was done that way as part of play balance. Being hard to see could hypothetically counterbalance some other benefit. One can imagine how unfair it would be to see through walls in pvp, although it is just a visual change. If not, and it's purely cosmetic, then I don't think you could call it cheating. I don't think changing colors in the analysis visor is cheating; the whole point of it is to help you see things, not to hide them.

[Jaggid Edje]

Totally agree with you @Brew, I was just pointing out that there are people that would disagree....which makes it all relative. Hence why worrying about what is cheating and what isn't in a game that has no actual competitive mode is rather pointless. There will never be consensus.

[Studdza]

Achieving something that was hard has always been more satisfying for me than achieving something that was easy. Is life without challenge interesting or boring? Your call.