Uh oh.. found a way to cheat.

[davidonabus]

CommanderData,

I've found a way to cheat. I have zero interest in cheating, so I'm hoping that there is a fix for this type of thing.

Mid game, clicking the home button on your touch/iphone exits the game and, I assume, creates a save point.

However, if you hold down the home button for an extended period of time (5 seconds, I think) then the touch/iphone forces a quit of whatever application you're running. In our case, Rogue Touch. The issue is that no save point is created when the user performs a force quit. So, the next time a person loads the game they start back to wherever their last save point was. At this point.. they already have the knowledge of what lies ahead of them in the dungeon and can use this knowledge to avoid, or prepare for, any sticky situations.

I'm sure that once a user actually dies a save point is created, so this cheat wouldn't work to ressurect a dead character.. but if the user performs this cheat when, say, they're down to 1 hit point, then they can essentially go back in time.

Yikes!! As far as I'm concerned, the leaderboards are very likely compromised.

The only fix I can think of is to save the game whenever there is an encounter. Not sure if this will slow down the game significantly though.

Has anyone found this "cheat" besides me? Maybe they have.. and just haven't told you about it? Some people like to cheat.

David

[Jim2wheels]

You could well be the first to find that one mate. Personally i wouldn't use it, as it takes away the rewarding feeling you get from massive continuous runs. I even dislike the switching between levels once you get past level26 to build up on experience and gold without facing harder monsters which i know most of the top scorers have done, the give away is number of steps to level number - you all know who you are! But that in my opinion is not cheating.

Saying that, if i drop through a pit then i will go up a couple of levels before heading down again to compensate.

[CommanderData]

A very interesting problem, and it's one I had not considered. It is enabled of course by my "auto-save" each time you go up or down a floor. The auto-save was my way to compensate for some of the crashing bugs we had before, so that you did not end up having to start over at the beginning if a crash occurred.

If I manage to fix the last few crash bugs, I could disable auto-saving. That would mean anyone who force-quit the game to cheat would end up with NO save game, and would need to start over again

I'm also a bit disappointed with the floor dancing used to gain massive levels and equipment... I will probably close that loophole in an update, but add in the ability to find *much stronger* equipment as you dive (a form of reward/compensation for pushing you forward). Alternately, I'll just double (or triple) the stats of every monster if you've descended to that floor before

[Jim2wheels]

A very interesting problem, and it's one I had not considered. It is enabled of course by my "auto-save" each time you go up or down a floor. The auto-save was my way to compensate for some of the crashing bugs we had before, so that you did not end up having to start over at the beginning if a crash occurred.

If I manage to fix the last few crash bugs, I could disable auto-saving. That would mean anyone who force-quit the game to cheat would end up with NO save game, and would need to start over again

I'm also a bit disappointed with the floor dancing used to gain massive levels and equipment... I will probably close that loophole in an update, but add in the ability to find *much stronger* equipment as you dive (a form of reward/compensation for pushing you forward). Alternately, I'll just double (or triple) the stats of every monster if you've descended to that floor before

You would have to ensure people who drop through trap doors are not penalised if they are heading up towards the surface. I have had a few instances where i have fallen through a trap door on the same level more than once - which happened to be during my ONLY good run during the CDs Angels comp! You would also have to clean up the leaderboards, which is unfortunate as i have quite a few honest runs up there

[Nighthawk]

Make the Amulet "sticky," so that once it's picked up it can't be dropped. That would solve all the other problems with "level dancing". Be careful in how much you pump up the equipment in floors 27+; lack of balance would render any "deep dive" competitions meaningless as skill would not be the overriding factor.

Additionally, as the Amulet grants "levitation," I thought many of the older Rogues made it impossible to fall through a pit trap once you acquire the Amulet?

[Jim2wheels]

Make the Amulet "sticky," so that once it's picked up it can't be dropped. That would solve all the other problems with "level dancing". Be careful in how much you pump up the equipment in floors 27+; lack of balance would render any "deep dive" competitions meaningless as skill would not be the overriding factor.

Additionally, as the Amulet grants "levitation," I thought many of the older Rogues made it impossible to fall through a pit trap once you acquire the Amulet?

If the Amulet was sticky what would you do if you had to pass over it to progress deeper, or picked it up by accident? I do think your on the right lines though, perhaps it becomes sticky once you have ascended once? As for pumping up the equipment, not too sure if i would like that. The great thing about rogue is that you WILL die at some point - sooner rather than later usually! If you start messing with the weapon frequency a skilled player could probably go on for ever, or games would end up becoming marathons lasting weeks or months. I'm already on a game that i started 5 days ago, albeit i dip in and out, i am sure i have committed over 8 hours on the bugger.

I think sticky amulet is the way forward...

[jhawk]

i have previously level danced, but at some point in one of the last few updates you almost nerfed it, at least from what it was before

the cheat can also be a rather bad disadvantage and have had numerous occurances where non saving has compromised my character, but something should probably get mended about this

[Elric]

Boy I never even think of these things (Level Dancing ect.) I just forge forward until I grab the amulet then head up...So my scores on the list are done with no dancing.

[davidonabus]

I didn't think I'd care too much about this "cheat".. but, I haven't played a single game of Rogue Touch since posting this email. Just knowing that the cheat is there.. and how easy it is to use, leaves me not wanting to play. And I don't even really care about the compromised online leaderboards.

Hopefully we see a fix for this eventually.

d.

[Jim2wheels]

With regards to floor dancing, myself and Mike I believe have actually proved that you can get much higher scores without this. Having talked about our two huge runs, it was very clear to both of us that floor dancing doesn't hold the massive advantage that it appeared to have. What it actually showed us was it is all about your striking ability (attack being the best form of defence), blessed and freezing being the weapons of choice, combined with the spartus armour. As mentioned previously, the step count shows up any "dancers".

Davidonabus, it's down to the player. It's like the old tomb raider games. You may complete it with a guide, but did you get you monies worth? Did you get that feeling of reward when avoiding death on instinct? No game gives you any joy if you flex the rules! Personally I like to think most gamers play as it was meant to be played.

Get yourself back in that dungeon man!