What exactly is cheating in XCOM?

[Cristao]

What exactly is meant by cheating in XCOM? We have people using mods, taking advantage of bugs and exploits, save scumming etc

[Meridian]

Is that a theoretical question or are you asking within some specific context (which you forgot to mention)?

If just theoretical, then there are no in-game cheat codes, but there are two things, which come close:

1. debug mode (for developers)... which you can enable in the configuration file and then use certain keyboard shortcuts to do things like: uncover entire battlescape, kill all aliens, etc.

2. editing a saved game... the save is a human-readable plain text file... and if you don't like having 50 retaliation missions at once, you can just delete them... or you can give yourself 100 billion dollars if you wish, etc.

[Solarius Scorch]

...or having 6 lifts in your base.

[Hobbes]

...or having 6 lifts in your base.

What would be the gain in giving the aliens 6 additional entry points?

[Dioxine]

What would be the gain in giving the aliens 6 additional entry points?

FUN?

[Cristao]

Is that a theoretical question or are you asking within some specific context (which you forgot to mention)?

If just theoretical, then there are no in-game cheat codes, but there are two things, which come close:

1. debug mode (for developers)... which you can enable in the configuration file and then use certain keyboard shortcuts to do things like: uncover entire battlescape, kill all aliens, etc.

2. editing a saved game... the save is a human-readable plain text file... and if you don't like having 50 retaliation missions at once, you can just delete them... or you can give yourself 100 billion dollars if you wish, etc.

Theorectical - Is it cheating to make the game more enjoyable e..g create mods, better weapons, increased psi ability, super aliens

[Hobbes]

FUN?

lol, yeah but cheating is usually considered to take steps to make the game easier, not harder

[Meridian]

lol, yeah but cheating is usually considered to take steps to make the game easier, not harder

Having 6 additional facilities (even better 6 entry points) would've made this mission a lot easier ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh9vgXFO1qM

[Cristao]

Is it possible to get that Saved Game i.e. Base D. That is a very interesting scenario.

[Meridian]

You would have to ask NeptunesNookGames, it's his playthrough.
You can contact him either here on the forum: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,3524.0.html
or on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/NeptunesNookGames

[Cristao]

I will do so wrt the savegame. I downloaded the mod and 'cheated*' immediately.

* Created my own set of Kagetron weapons, tank and better (not super) soldiers. I want to give this Redux Mod a try. I also increased the speed of the drone.

[the_third_curry]

What exactly is meant by cheating in XCOM? We have people using mods, taking advantage of bugs and exploits, save scumming etc

Personally, I think using straight up glitches would count as cheating, as would editing save files. If by exploits you mean things like heavily using the psi-amp because it's overpowered, then I don't think that's "cheating" per say. While no game is without glitches, the burden of balancing a game's basic weapons should fall on the development staff; players shouldn't have to impose limits on themselves to make the game more fair.