Multiplayer Doppleganger Empires Exploit?

[eMouse]

In order to address a current issue in multiplayer I've been joining new games as an observer to check on players' starting empires.

In two of the games I've noticed something odd, Doppleganger empires. Empires that are exactly identical, right down to the ruler name. Usually accompanied by one of the two players leaving the game at start.

I'm seeing no other known exploits going on in the empires.

I can guess that maybe Stellaris gives some diplomacy bonus for being identical? Is there any sort of other exploit being used here?

Is there some special client being used to do this? This is on 2.2.3, so it's not someone cross-platforming, they'd have to be on two Steam launches of Stellaris.

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

So you're suspicious that someone is cheating without any evidence of cheating? Or you're wondering if two people having the same exact empire creates some kind of bug that gives an unfair advantage?

I figure the best way to test that out is to start a game with a friend and try it out yourself. I don't think there's a point in shooting in the dark without experiencing the thing in question yourself.

 

[eMouse]

It's a pattern of behavior that I'm trying to understand the reason for.

Two(?) players join a game with identical empires.
Game starts, one immediately drops, leaving their empire as an AI.

I understand this behavior in one narrow context, but I'm not seeing it done in that context.

 

[eMouse]

I just saw what appeared to be it again, only in this case, the 'dropped' player was still in the game but got booted to being an observer. One of the other empires got duplicated into what should have been his spawn. The player tried to rejoin, but the game indicated there were no empires available, even though one was an AI.

So is this possibly a bug in spawning rather than an exploit? Is there a known issue with having an observer causes spawning to bug out?

I'm going to try to test spawning the game with and without an observer, but need to get a handful of people to do it.

 

[Little Red]

Only issue I'd see with this is if the empires were fanatical purifiers, as same-species purifiers get a massive opinion bonus and can make an extremely powerful team. Otherwise I don't see the issue. Identical species get no xenophobia opinion malus, but conversely no xenophilia opinion gain.

 

[eMouse]

Only issue I'd see with this is if the empires were fanatical purifiers, as same-species purifiers get a massive opinion bonus and can make an extremely powerful team. Otherwise I don't see the issue. Identical species get no xenophobia opinion malus, but conversely no xenophilia opinion gain.

The purifiers are the case where I've been seeing it intentionally exploited to troll games.

These other cases I've observed aren't FP, which is why I was puzzled. But if this is some sort of spawn bug that happens with an observer at start, it would explain why I'm seeing it so regularly with non-FP species.

 

[Stars_and_Bars]

I'm more interested in where these public games you keep joining are? Do you find them on the forum or through steam?

 

[eMouse]

I'm more interested in where these public games you keep joining are? Do you find them on the forum or through steam?

In the WSC Discord, which you can find at http://wsc.gg

 

[Jiav]

it can be treated as an exploit if you so will

the player could in theory just easily conquer the exactly identical AI empire and have an easy time, due to faction similarity, also the game will treat both pops as the same, meaning if you pick psi ascension for example the AI empire pop will count as your main pop (both will get ascension), if they are named the same which from my understanding they are

not really big a exploit but it could help him (depending on the spawn locations)

 

[klopkr]

I think this should be considered an exploit but it's really not a major one.

Just make humans and you'll accidentally cause this with any other human players.

 

[The Founder]

Effects of identical Empires:
If one is a Xenophobe - including fanatical Purifier - they can still do unhindered diplomacy with that other empire.
This also locks out using the Xenophile bonus towards one another.
The Pop ethics would be similar if conquest takes place

As strings are generally a terrible data type to process, I do not know of a single script code that uses them to find someone or something.
A lot of code that sets them to initialize a country/fleet/leader. But no code that uses them to find a Empire/Fleet/Planet/Leader. Country/Leader/Planet Flags are used to find something important again.