Does It Constitute As Cheating If...

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

...I go in to the game files, and swap the midnight black paintjobs with bright pink?



Technically, tampering with game files is cheating.

But cosmetics aren't supposed to give you an advantage. So it doesn't matter...?

Dilemma!

For clarification, I'm not going to do this!

 

[babelfisch]

Technically it's cheating because it gives you an unfair advantage.
Technically it's not cheating because micro transactions don't give you an advantage.

Is it Schrödinger's Cheat?

 

[zimms]

It's not cheating, but it's manipulating game files which will get you banned just as well.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

It's not cheating, but it's manipulating game files which will get you banned just as well.

But then HUD colours, and graphical tweaks...

 

[Jmanis]

Is it cheating if I'm taking illicit performance enhancers??

(That's a joke, btw... or perhaps a prompt for a deeply philosophical debate)

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Is it cheating if I'm taking illicit performance enhancers??

(That's a joke, btw...)

Not at all, because you can't walk to your cargo hold to take them.

 

[sollisb]

...I go in to the game files, and swap the midnight black paintjobs with bright pink?



Technically, tampering with game files is cheating.

But cosmetics aren't supposed to give you an advantage. So it doesn't matter...?

Dilemma!

For clarification, I'm not going to do this!

Interesting... If I buy a red car and paint it blue, I'd be well within my rights.. However..

When you buy a paint job is it a licence to use that paint job or is it yours?

 

[Morbad]

...I go in to the game files, and swap the midnight black paintjobs with bright pink?



Technically, tampering with game files is cheating.

But cosmetics aren't supposed to give you an advantage. So it doesn't matter...?

Dilemma!

For clarification, I'm not going to do this!

Before NV I'd have said yes. Despite being "cosmetic", there were significant advantages to having a neutral or darkly colored vessel in some scenarios.

Now, not so much.

 

[Jmanis]

Interesting... If I buy a red car and paint it blue, I'd be well within my rights..

Except you'd void your paint warranty

 

[Jukelo]

I would expect that, on account of them making money from cosmetics, Frontier would take a very dim view of tampering with those files in particular.

 

[Alec Turner]

Having a very broad statement on policy about what constitutes cheating in Elite gives Frontier the ability to tackle infringements on a case by case basis. In theory (if I remember the wording correctly) even using EDDB could THEORETICALLY constitute a breach. We know it doesn't really equate to cheating in any meanigful sense and Frontier know it doesn't so nobody need panic about that but equally, if someone comes up with a bit of software which allows tampering with game files for cosmetic reasons and then someone else adds a "transparent paintjob" to that mod' then suddenly that mod' becomes something FD might concern themselves with where previously they might not?

 

[Moriarte]

Yes, this is serious business, Cosmic. (Infinite shield) cheater will just buy new account and thus create profit for FD. Paintjob “hacker”? That’s -1.99 right there!!! Deifinitely a candidate for execution with subsequent public shaming..

 

[Phil JMac]

They could simply ban you for having poor taste?

Unless its a pink Clipper for Officer Elvis of course

 

[znôrt]

They could simply ban you for having poor taste?

nope. it's a british game.

Spoiler

 

[Chris Simon]

...I go in to the game files, and swap the midnight black paintjobs with bright pink?



Technically, tampering with game files is cheating.

But cosmetics aren't supposed to give you an advantage. So it doesn't matter...?

Dilemma!

For clarification, I'm not going to do this!

By the way - AFAIK if you change your game file to change the paintjob that appears on your ship, only you will be able to see it. Other players will see the original PJ as their game client displays your paint job according to its code. You only changed what that code means for YOUR game client.

Also no. Not cheating, but definitely against the TOS.
The problem is - it's your modified client and nobody else is affected, so nobody will know unless you rat yourself out like you did.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

You are basically frauding the online store, by cheating in game what they could have sold to you.
You not only cheated - you owe real money now too.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Technically it's cheating because it gives you an unfair advantage.
Technically it's not cheating because micro transactions don't give you an advantage.

What advantage?

Is it Schrödinger's Cheat?

We won’t know until we look, and when we look we’ll alter the result by observing.

Did you hear about the time Schrödinger was stopped at the boarder? When boarder patrol checked his trunk they asked him:
“Did you know you have a dead cat in here?”
Schrödinger's reply: “I do now.”

 

[War Eagle]

...I go in to the game files, and swap the midnight black paintjobs with bright pink?



Technically, tampering with game files is cheating.

But cosmetics aren't supposed to give you an advantage. So it doesn't matter...?

Dilemma!

For clarification, I'm not going to do this!

I wouldn't call it cheating I'd call it stealing - paint is something you have to pay for, unless you've paid for both then it's nothing but skipping the livery.

 

[aRJay]

Is it cheating if I'm taking illicit performance enhancers??

(That's a joke, btw... or perhaps a prompt for a deeply philosophical debate)

The word illicit suggests that it would be cheating.

 

[Ian Skippy]

People have been doing it for ages AFAIK. Not for an advantage, but to have custom ship. Noone else can see it and noone is harmed, so I dont care. And stealth is dead via night vision so that argument died as well. I am sure it aint allowed though, so do so at your own peril etc.