Can you define bushido breaking cheats/glitches??
In my mind it’s anything that “breaks the frame” of gameplay: using console commands, rule- or stat-altering mods, anything involving data manipulation outside of the save/load interface.
Console commands are obviously meant primarily as dev/debugging tools. We leave many of them in there for player curiosity, personal debugging, and goofing around but they aren’t intended for use in normal play. Mods are obviously manipulating how the game works; that’s the whole point. Using mods for any sort of ordinary play is fine, but they’re banned from the Ultimate because they’re against the spirit of the challenge. Similarly, hopping out of the game to back up an Ultimate run save game is against the spirit of the challenge.
However, forerunning a parallel save game with an identical character build and progression strategy isn’t against the spirit of the challenge.
Let me ramble for a while about personal challenges and standards.
When I was young, I lazily attended some taekwondo and kyuki-do classes. For a brief period, I was somewhat disciplined about going to kyuki-do and eventually I was ready to test for my green stripe (fairly low-ranking belt between yellow and green). Side note, but my friend Jeremy was testing for his blue belt (IIRC) and eventually went on to be a 2nd Dan black belt because he’s epic.
Anyway, there was a regional test in Janesville and the grandmaster of the federation showed up to run things. Naturally, he was a stonefaced older Korean guy. Second side note, but Troy Denning, of Dark Sun fame, was also on the review board because he’s a black belt in kyuki-do. Jeremy and I joked about wearing Dark Sun patches on our uniforms even though it would invariably mean doing 100 pushups (Korean martial arts… strict).
Before the tests kicked off, there was a red belt or black stripe who had to do a ceremonial opening. And you know what? This dude did a really bad job. Sloppy form, mumbling, inattentive. About 80% of the way through, Grandmaster Kim stopped him and said (paraphrased), “This is not how you do this. Do it again.” He wasn’t mean, but he was very clear and direct: there is a standard, and you are not meeting it.
When the baby belts (like me) did our tests, Grandmaster Kim was pretty chill and applauded everyone because it’s like, okay the test was to see if you could do the martial arts equivalent of tying your shoes and you did it, great.
When it came to the advanced belts (blue and higher), I noticed that Grandmaster Kim applauded people who did exceptionally well. If they met the bare minimum to pass, he would nod but he would not applaud. If they did not do well enough to pass, he would calmly tell them what they needed to improve on and continue with the other tests. I don’t recall him ever being harsh or mean-spirited, but he was firm and consistent: there is a standard. You are an advanced belt, so you know the standard. If you greatly exceed the standard, I will applaud you. If you meet the standard, I will acknowledge you. If you do not meet the standard, I or your instructor will tell you what you need to do to meet it during your next test.
Because I was a low-ranking belt but was friends with someone who eventually became a full black belt, I was aware of the time and effort it took to achieve that. For a while I “woulda shoulda coulda”’d about reaching higher ranks but the fact was that I simply didn’t put in the time and effort. There was an external authority to recognize if I did, but also, internally, I knew that I had not met the standard because I did not do the work.
When you’re playing a single-player game, there’s no one there to judge you for how you play (and I took measures to remove judgmental language from difficulty modes), but I think people also understand the spirit of playing the game - especially when it comes to optional challenges. If you opt into Trial of Iron, you’re doing so because of the challenge it poses, the change in the experience, and the satisfaction you will get when you complete it. If you manually backup your save game, you’re blunting the impact of all three of those things, especially the satisfaction at the end.
When we (Obsidian) review submissions for the Ultimate, we are an external authority verifying (or disqualifying) those submissions. We’re doing that because we intend to hold those players up as exemplars of extraordinary planning and perseverance for the rest of the community. When we first got the woven patches for the Ultimate, someone at Obsidian asked me if I made any more than the 50 for the first 50 to complete the challenge (for those keeping track, we have verified that 10 people have completed the Ultimate).
I said no, of course not. Why would I? He said well, so you could keep one for yourself. I had never even considered that because the patches are only for people who have completed the Ultimate. If I wanted a patch, I would have to do the work, the same as anyone else.
There’s always room to debate what is or is not fair play, but I think most players implicitly understand essentially the same standard.
