Due to the way multiplayer RTS games are designed these days, attempting to create units or extra resources will just desync the game and cause the hacker to disconnect.  A "map-hack" to reveal the entire galaxy would certainly be possible, and I'm sure there are ways to intentionally crash the game, but that's about all that a hacker could achieve.

Hate to bring this up again, but wouldn't Z-Axis be considered cheating? We all want a fair game, no?

Its only cheating because the vast majority of the community considers it distasteful. That is a far cry from spawning additional units or something.

Exploits are not explicitly "cheating".  Definitely this would be considered very low.

Very low. I'll agree to that.

We should be thankful that ya can't play ICO wit the dev.exe, right?

...

You can't play ICO with the dev.exe, right?

Right?!

Well if you could it would desynch the game and volia. Game over for everyone.

No you can't play with the dev.exe against other players using the normal exe.

well, i just tried out the multiplayer...holy (insert bad word here) that took a long time, i played 3 matches and won twice. and only because pirates spawned to quickly and bounties were put on me. There are lag issues, and a lot of drop-outs but i havnt found any hackers. You wont find hackers unless your in a game like Command & conquer Generals. anyways thanks for all the supports with my questions, maybe we should play a game sometimes? i dont care for wining just as long as im not getting rushed by pirate >.<

Most online games created by experienced players have pirates disabled. Seems all the new players haven't quite gotten that memo yet. Usually its your neighbors you have to worry about rushing you.

Which is a pity. I think its just an under used (and under developed) feature.

-Lord Ryat of the Distant Stars pirates has spoken.

Ah, but your pirate cousins are always misbehaving Ryat. When you're putting all your effort on preventing an enemy Sova or Starbase on your homeworld, the last thing people need is to divert their attention with a pirate raid. They're nice for roleplaying, but that's about it.

The first pirate raid at the 15-minute mark is basically a game-ender if someone gets hit in a bad spot, and after that they're horribly insignificant.  Pirates just don't play very well in competitive multiplayer.

i think pirates just need to wait longer for their first raid, i mean had the raid gone on someone else i could have been more capable of defeating them. Im just suprised that the enemy didnt take advantage of them

Which is why I also said they are underdeveloped.

Well, i have made a special random very huge multistar map who use your mod... 10 solar system, 10 player ( one in each system ), 2 pirates base by system ( usualy the only way for reach the system sun )... have take me, 5 hours for destroy the pirates base in my system... none of the AI was able to clean the pirate base from their own system...

For single player, pirates add something to the challange... in multiplayer, they are a annoyance who make game longer to play...