SoW Anti-Cheat & Automation Policy

Updated: November 15, 2025

Secrets of War is built on strategy, competition, and fair play.
To protect the integrity of the world we’re rebuilding — and to honor the spirit of the original game — we enforce a strict anti-cheat policy.

This includes botting, macro automation, unauthorized scripts, packet injection, exploit abuse, third-party tools, or any system that gives a player unfair, non-human advantages.

We don’t expect perfection.
We expect honesty.

Why This Matters

Secrets of War is a competitive strategy game.
If one player automates actions, resource loops, or combat, the entire economy, PvP balance, and map environment becomes distorted.

To maintain fairness and keep the game fun for everyone, we take cheating seriously — and enforce it proportionally.

Cheat Detection & Actions

We use a tiered “slap system” based on repeated offenses.
More infractions = harsher consequences.

This system is meant to correct behavior, not instantly destroy accounts — but persistent cheating will escalate penalties.

Tier 1 – Short Temporary Ban

Penalty: 24-hour ban
Intention: A warning shot.

We assume you made a mistake, tested something you shouldn’t, or didn’t understand the rules.

You return with no long-term damage to your account.

Tier 2 – Longer Temporary Ban

Penalty: 72-hour ban
Intention: Space to stop exploiting automation.

This tier signals:
“You are knowingly breaking the rules now.”

Your account remains intact.

Tier 3 – Extended Ban + Base Defense Dropped to 0

Penalty: 7-day ban
Additional Sanction: Your base defense is forcibly reduced to 0.

Why?
Cheating creates unfair defensive or offensive advantages. Resetting base defense restores balance.

Your:

Assets (Resources, Mines, etc.)
Base
Army (attack and defense)

…all remain intact.

Tier 4 – Extended Ban + Liquidation + Moniker

Penalty: 14-day ban, liquidation of base defense and strength, all technology items, and all banked resources + global announcement.

Base Penalties:

Base defense set to 0
Base strength set to 0
Both values converted into basic resources (metal/energy/etc.)
All technology items are converted into basic resources (metal/energy/etc.)
All banked resources forcibly transferred back to your base (unbanked)
Public announcement of the ban and liquidation
Profile marked as "cheater"
- Moniker "Cheater"
- Removed from all leaderboards
- Permanent -1% strength and defense bonus (stacking)

This fully resets your strategic footprint while keeping your account alive.

Why?
At this point, you have repeatedly introduced unfair advantages into the game.
This penalty restores fairness without deleting your account.

Final Notes

1. The Slap System Resets Over Time

Players who stay clean may have their tier reduced.
We want good players, not permanent enemies.

2. Severe or High-Impact Exploits May Skip Tiers

You may jump directly to Tier 3 or Tier 4 if you run:

Map-wide bots
Economy disruption bots
PvP combat automation
Mass multi-accounting
Scripts that attack our servers

Extreme cases escalate immediately.

3. Appeals Are Allowed — But Be Honest

Appeal respectfully.
We’re reasonable.
Logs do not lie.

4. The Goal Is Fairness, Not Punishment

We built this game for the community.
Cheating undermines the competitive spirit — and we will protect that spirit fiercely.

Play fair. Play smart. Play human.

Severe Technical Misuse (Attacks on Servers, Systems, or Infrastructure)

We take attempts to attack, disrupt, or compromise Secrets of War’s servers very seriously. This includes DDoS attacks, packet flooding, unauthorized penetration attempts, exploit probing, API abuse, automated scraping, or any action intended to overload or destabilize the game infrastructure.

Our Response Policy

We reserve the right to issue an immediate permanent ban for malicious or harmful activity.

However, we also recognize the value of learning from attempted exploits, security testing, and community-driven discovery of vulnerabilities.

Leniency for Good-Faith Actions

If a player:

Acts without malicious intent
Does not cause widespread service disruption
Comes forward promptly and honestly
Provides useful information about the issue

…we may choose a more lenient outcome (temporary bans, warnings, or none at all), at our discretion.

Zero Tolerance for Malicious Intent

Permanent bans will be issued immediately for:

Repeated attacks after warnings
Attempts to compromise user data
DDoS or large-scale infrastructure disruption
Exploits executed with intent to harm the game or community

Responsible Security Testing

If you are interested in stress-testing or probing SoW systems for learning or research, you must request permission first.

We welcome curiosity, transparency, and collaboration — not surprise attacks.

In short:
We appreciate good-faith explorers.
We remove malicious actors without hesitation.