More anti-Cheat. Cheating. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. More cheaters, more countermeasures, more days of work wasted, more delays for the iOS and Android versions of the game and for further productive development.
Perhaps surprisingly, the anti-cheat system is slightly more lenient now and works under a “three strikes” model, with progressively longer periods of banning each time you cheat. However, the official policy is still that cheating once gets you permanently banned, and it may be applied to exceptional cases (for example: cheats that cause additional maintenance effort on my part, destructive cheats that can also affect other players, or simply me getting up on the wrong side of the bed that particular morning).
Also, some measures are now taken against exploits and wave farmers. There are two aspects to this:
- The “Unoriginality Penalty” rules are now slightly different, and the penalty is now applied to all of score, keys, and food gained during a mission.
- Missions that have been played in an exploitative way can now be disqualified.
The exact rules are not made public, both as a matter of policy but also as a matter of practicality (as they are always changing, with new rules being added or tweaked as the need arises). It is important to note, though, that cheating and exploitative play are two different things. Sure, some of your flown missions might be ignored, but exploitative play will not get you banned.
Amazingly, there was enough time to cram two gameplay-related changes in this update: reworks for the Laser Cannon and the Accumulator booster. Check the changelog for details.
More information about this update can be found here: https://forum.chickeninvaders.com/t/ciu-version-130/27314
Changed files in this update