Bi
Frank
It's a tricky thing as both sides have a point. Using a secondary account as customer, especially one never intended to actually use it, generating income (or less loss) and to block others, especially own league, from using the engine is not how the game in general and this feature is meant to be played and thus by definition cheating by using an exploit.
However this game mechanic doesn't work. Having some random, especially inactive, teams clogging up customer slots can't be how it's supposed to be. Forcing an engine manufacturer to take into account that an opponent is allowed to use the engine doesn't really work either. It's too much of a drawback for a manufacturer having to life with the disadvantages during developing the engine and forced to be stuck with it at all times while the non manufacturer can just select the best engine at any time isn't exactly balanced. For the non manufacturer it doesn't really work as the manufacturer can change the engine at any time without notice or costs and I'm pretty sure checking out why fuel in that no-refueling race is off to find that big Acc bonus suddenly became FE is not what a customer is looking for. (Or with lvl 30 and TE the weakness FE instead of reliability/braking).
I'm sorry Frank I totally disagree.
Are you saying offline players are cheaters simply because that's not how the game is meant to be played???
As long as the devs have not put in place a method to accept or reject customers, it's totally absurd to expect a manufacturer to share his/her engines with anyone, especially a league mate.
This is not an exploit but a design flaw and quite frankly find it annoying the blame is being put on the players.
Of course not, as offline play is meant by the game and pure offline while not intended it's not circumventing any game mechanics either. Something different would be using automation scripts and bots running a team semi-offline, though.
I'm also aware I tend to be both more strict in applying those terms than most but also use them more loosely as it doesn't mean I consider it neccessarily unfair or breaking a rule. Some exploits, like to get over design problems, I deem OK and use myself, like those placeholder accounts to keep leagues going, some I think are OK but deny myself the use, like using different accounts to generate and transfer competition drivers. Then there are things I don't think are OK, like secretly using two accounts in the same race to gain an advantage. Using them to block engines I think is borderline OK, as I agree this part of the engine manufacturing doesn't work, but think people were too quick to declare something they don't like a flat out design flaw and justify a grey zone solution despite gaining an advantage, minor as it is, through it. Personally I rate it into OKish but don't do myself category.
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