Is "logging in" with another nation considered cheating?

[Gnostek]

If, instead of pressing the "continue button", you go to your save games, you can try to load up the game as some of the IA countries. I logged in as some nations that interest me, to see what they were up to, debts, claims, and whatnot (I couldn't see them, I haven't discovered them yet, and clicked them through nation hopping, from manchu to ottomans to europe).

This way, I was able to see that the BI happened in 1478, that Aragon lost catalonia, etc... do you consider this cheating?

After "logging in" as them, I had to Alt-f4 and could resume my game normally

 

[De_Genius]

I suppose that it kinda depends on yourself. I sometimes do it to make the AI do something that it would make sense for it to do, or to trigger an event I am unable to trigger myself.
Looking around just for some extra information which has no or little impact on your gameplay is not cheating in my book.

 

[Råttan]

In Ironman?
Yes, that is cheating, as is all metods of gaining an upper hand outside the rules...

 

[Tyrberg]

In Ironman?
Yes, that is cheating, as is all metods of gaining an upper hand outside the rules...

Agree. In ironman it's cheating to tagswitch. If you ain't playing ironman it's legal. Just remember to tagswitch twice the same game. The country you left may go into a freeze situation (have I heard). When I tag switch in a normal game I mostly do it in the end of a session, after I saved my game and on pause, just to prevent that I change other things than my knowledge of how things look.

 

[Gnostek]

I don't tagswitch, again, let me explain what I do.
Start up as some other tag, check whatever I want to (how many loans they got, their truces, and whatnot) and then kill the process. I then resume the game normally, and the country proceeds as usual.

 

[Ironside121]

I don't tagswitch, again, let me explain what I do.
Start up as some other tag, check whatever I want to (how many loans they got, their truces, and whatnot) and then kill the process. I then resume the game normally, and the country proceeds as usual.

Which is literally tag switching then going back. There is zero difference between that and using the console. And it doesn't matter anyway because you can actually check 90% of that stuff through the ledger.

 

[Martynios]

How does one tagswitch in ironman?

 

[Ironside121]

How does one tagswitch in ironman?

As far as I know, you can't. Editing the save kills the ironman, and you can't change when you load. So anything considered cheating doesn't really matter all too much since you can't in Ironman

 

[TheMeInTeam]

In Ironman?
Yes, that is cheating, as is all metods of gaining an upper hand outside the rules...

If that's the only standard, the game breaks its own rules frequently. In fact anybody who is doing major conquests on another continent will watch the game break its rules every time they play, without exception.

I'm referring to the UI lying about why you can't take a province in a peace deal, and then turning around and allowing you to take provinces you can't core after the peace deal routinely as well. It blocks you from taking land you could immediately core, allows you to take land you can't immediately core, and provides misinformation actively. As this is a confirmed issue for over a year that gets straight out ignored in bug reports, maybe it's intended?

So maybe tag switching is too, if you can find a way to do it. I have no respect for rule sets that don't respect their own representation. Any bypass I avoid doing is out of a desire to avoid trivializing the experience for myself.

Otherwise I'll be doing what the game lets me and cheerily point out that any line a player "should" draw in this regard is arbitrary, frequently irrational as well. Self-inconsistent mechanics that are misrepresented by the UI get that level of respect ^_^.

 

[Martynios]

As far as I know, you can't. Editing the save kills the ironman, and you can't change when you load. So anything considered cheating doesn't really matter all too much since you can't in Ironman

Ah, phew. I thought OP was doing it in ironman.

 

[pikaemperor]

I'm referring to the UI lying about why you can't take a province in a peace deal, and then turning around and allowing you to take provinces you can't core after the peace deal routinely as well. It blocks you from taking land you could immediately core, allows you to take land you can't immediately core, and provides misinformation actively. As this is a confirmed issue for over a year that gets straight out ignored in bug reports, maybe it's intended?

As it has not been fixed until now, it can be concluded that it's definitely intended as to piss off the player. That bug has been known for ages and no attempt has been made to fix it, ever.

 

[siegeforvictory]

it's only cheating if you think so, it's not possible in ironman anyway.
I've done it a few times to test out some strategy, where at the last moment something crucial went wrong because the AI wouldn't do what I wanted(for example, I wanted to try making yeren maya, to see if I would be able to reform. but korea attacked, won, and wanted a bunch of provinces that isolated some of my provinces inside korea, so I couldn't give them to haixi in another war to get rid of them)

 

[Romaoplays]

If, instead of pressing the "continue button", you go to your save games, you can try to load up the game as some of the IA countries. I logged in as some nations that interest me, to see what they were up to, debts, claims, and whatnot (I couldn't see them, I haven't discovered them yet, and clicked them through nation hopping, from manchu to ottomans to europe).

This way, I was able to see that the BI happened in 1478, that Aragon lost catalonia, etc... do you consider this cheating?

After "logging in" as them, I had to Alt-f4 and could resume my game normally

Not really, you could check all that in the ledger anyways

 

[Sfan]

Nope, you can only check ledger for nations you are aware of. Read what OP said, he does it for nations he can't see.

For me this is no cheating at all, this is curiosity. This is not like you were also collecting the informations to improve your game, rather your experience, right? And anyway not ironman so you could cheat.

 

[Velorian]

In my book it's only cheating if you use it for the personal gain of the country you are playing. If you just use it to satisfy curiosity about another part of the world you have gained zero benefit, if you "cheat" to help a nation achieve something it ought to have achieved it's not really cheating unless it puts you, the player, in a better position.

You don't need to go through all the trouble of logging in and such though. Just use the console.

"tag FRA" logs you in as France, for instance. To see each country's acronym you can type in "debug_mode" in the console.

 

[ruzen]

You can also create multiple saves for iron man too(copy-paste-delete). There are few exploits to break iron man while getting achievements.
But honestly why bother? I have zero interest if some random person cheats or not just because he wants to feel good about him/herself. Hope Paradox doesn't spend time on fixing these few cheesy things; they are slow on real issues as It is.

 

[Red John]

Cheating in SP is subjective. Some people consider using in game functions as cheating, while others don't.

You shouldn't care what other people label as 'cheating', in a single player game. All you'll end up doing is restraining your own enjoyment.

 

[Zubrowka]

Yes. It is cheating. As if the ledger isn't generous enough!

 

[Wagonlitz]

In Ironman?
Yes, that is cheating, as is all metods of gaining an upper hand outside the rules...

IIRC you can't tag switch in ironman; neither with the tag command not with the nation chooser.

I don't tagswitch, again, let me explain what I do.
Start up as some other tag, check whatever I want to (how many loans they got, their truces, and whatnot) and then kill the process. I then resume the game normally, and the country proceeds as usual.

That is tag switching. You might not use the tag command, but you obtain the same. It's just slower albeit you don't get the problems with the AI falling asleep which using tag can give (can't remember if that was changed, though IIRC it was WAD that the AI slept for a year).

Though not sure I'd call it cheating necessarily; I'd say it depends on the situation. Sometimes countries can be trapped in perpetual wars due to a bug and tag switching can enable you to end said war and hence fix the bug. There's other legitimate reasons for tag changing too.

 

[Sfan]

Yes. It is cheating. As if the ledger isn't generous enough!

Well the ledger isn't generous enough. Early game you onky have intels for your part of the world.