How can I identify edits to the game?

[DamianJMcGrath]

I contribute to an online community about FM and there are the occasional bragging posts, and it would be good if there was something we could get such as a screenshot that would indicate whether the gamer has edited their game in any way.

If people achieve amazing things, then we want to celebrate that and weed out the liars and attention seekers.

Is there any screen we can ask for a screenshot of, that would show evidence of someone reloading their game after losing, or giving themselves money or players, or "cheating" in other ways.

There are some ways we can tell, for example, if they've saved their game 150 times in one season, we can assume reloading, but nothing concrete and nothing to evidence the subtler cheats.

Does anyone know of any way to prove cheating or not? It would put an end to pointless and inaccurate brags

Thanks

[magicmastermind124]

Best way to sort out bragging rights is to play MP. That leaves no room for cheating as the host has control over the save and options in the game allow you to disable use of the IGE.

Failing that I noticed that posting social media updates can be a way of limiting cheating, by setting up automatic Twitter posts. I noticed one person losing the CL Final, before winning it with the same team 5 minutes later. Of course, you have to see this before any tweets are deleted.

[DamianJMcGrath]

It's a shame there no field on the Game Status screen to say "Editor used=Yes", or something like that. Or some fields that say "Quit without saving = 11 times". Obviously wouldn't take much to add those, and would help us identify the silly braggers to the ones that actually are good at the game and have valuable insight.

[forameuss]

Probably too limiting to say, but does it really matter? People will always brag about achievements, whether they've "cheated" or not. If it's not already obvious that they have, and they say they haven't, can't you just suspend some disbelief and accept it? Each to their own though.

When this is brought up it always seems like an easy idea on paper that would grow legs. I've used the (pre-game) editor on every single save I've started to alter leagues and add new ones. Would that say I'd cheated? The in-game editor can be used for plenty of non-cheat purposes. What if someone wants to change the name of their stadium? That would get flagged up as cheating.

The saving one is also pretty shallow - seeing that someone had quit without saving doesn't really tell you much in terms of whether they've cheated. You simply can't definitively tell whether or not someone is saving and reloading.

[Siobri]

Probably too limiting to say, but does it really matter? People will always brag about achievements, whether they've "cheated" or not. If it's not already obvious that they have, and they say they haven't, can't you just suspend some disbelief and accept it? Each to their own though.

When this is brought up it always seems like an easy idea on paper that would grow legs. I've used the (pre-game) editor on every single save I've started to alter leagues and add new ones. Would that say I'd cheated? The in-game editor can be used for plenty of non-cheat purposes. What if someone wants to change the name of their stadium? That would get flagged up as cheating.

Same - I use both the pre-game and in-game editor to amend things for the sake of realism rather than to benefit me - in fact, in my most recent Tottenham game I used the in-game editor to make Harry Kane WORSE after my pre-game editing to improve him had a greater effect than I'd anticipated.

If you think someone has cheated, isn't that enough rather than demanding a way of being able to prove it? And in any case, if they have cheated...who cares? Unless there are prizes at stake, no one loses out. The only obligation anyone has is to play the game in the way that's most enjoyable to them - if that involves cheating, good luck to them.

[milnerpoint]

You could ask them to post a screen shot of their hall of fame, or whatever table it is Steam generates to show who is the better player. If they have used the editor, they wont be able to provide a screen shot.

[louissiscool]

You could ask them to post a screen shot of their hall of fame, or whatever table it is Steam generates to show who is the better player. If they have used the editor, they wont be able to provide a screen shot.

But that also cancels people like me out who just downloads a file to give everything its correct name even though i am not cheating it still counts as editing.

As for the OP you can tell hw many times someone has a saved a game on the game status screen so if it is excessive they are more likely to have cheated, it think it also says if the in game editor has been used and im sure there is a screen that says how many database edits there are.

[DamianJMcGrath]

You could ask them to post a screen shot of their hall of fame, or whatever table it is Steam generates to show who is the better player. If they have used the editor, they wont be able to provide a screen shot.

So, is the hall of fame not available to people that have used editors? I didnt know that.

That doesnt stop them from reloading after every loss though does it?