MPTournament.biq

Rommel2D · January 12, 2004, 00:51

Where do I find specifics on what the 'tournament' game mode setting does?

BigFree · January 20, 2004, 05:11

From what I understand it is a file that can't be edited and thus no one would be able to cheat by editing the conquests.biq to give your Civ an advantage.

Rommel2D · January 21, 2004, 00:31

So normally any player can edit the .biq file before they play their turn and reset it before passing the turn on? Would it be better to ask about this in the creation forum?

BigFree · January 21, 2004, 05:37

I think the .biq is kept with the save file. In MP play, there's no effective save file so everyones data depends on their local version of the .biq. To save on amounts of data transmission, .biqs are only loaded once when the game is started and is not viewable by the other players. The person who set the game up or is the host is the one that can cheat in this fashion.

Rommel2D · January 21, 2004, 12:57

I should mention I'm concerned with how this would affect a PBEM game, which is a MP game with a save file. From what I see, the bic/x/q file just sits in the main game version's file folder.

If I'm understanding the file's functioning, Octavian X's changes in the C3Ctournement games didn't affect the .biq file, right? Otherwise, we would have needed a new .biq in our scenario folders. I don't see how it could be passed with the save each turn.

What makes you say that the MPTournement.biq file can't be edited BigFree? All I can find on the subject is a short blurb in the C3C manual.

BigFree · January 22, 2004, 03:22

First, the "MPTournement.biq " is not a file in any of your folders for Conquests. IIRC, it is kept on a server and relayed to the players in any MP game. I may be mistaken or the information I remeber is wrong. It could be that the file is embeded in the .exe that starts the game. Is is a special type of .biq which prevents anyone from cheating. Now, when you start a PBEM and you want to mod it, the .biq that is modded is carried in the .sav file. So, evertime you send the game onwards, your are sending the original .biq the game was set up with. Now, if the original .biq used was altered in anyway, you might not be able to tell from the game itself. A person could set it up so that his Civ has traits you don't know about. He could give his UU abilities that you also don't know about. He really couldn't mess with it's basic stats because you woud see that as reported on the screen. But, he could give, Siphi's for example, the amphibious ability or the ability to build roads. Take your pick. Someone who wanted to cheat could do so very easily. But that's where Firaxis came up with the Tournament style game.

Rommel2D · January 25, 2004, 00:37

Let me take another stab to see if I understand this...

MPTournement.biq is useful only to online MP because all players are logged in and can see the host select "tournament" from the staging screen. In PBEM, whether the first player chooses the "tournament" game mode or not, the other players will see nothing to indicate this. So there is absolutely no point to using the file in a PBEM game?

BTW, there's a 'MPTournament.biq' file in the scenario folder and it looks just like all the other scenarios in general size and contentl.