questions

In your opinion, using dumpers to get energy would that be considered cheating in any kind of way ?

Why would it be considered like that? O.o It's your skill and your own capability to play this game in different ways. Just my opinion.

At this state of the game, no.

using (strong) dumpers to score on your bot vs. attacking (broken) whores with your bot itself you mean?

or do you mean getting energy by deafeating easy targets in general (so both of those ways)?

i think both ways are kinda the same (if anything the latter should be considered worse in ways of 'cheating') and i dont think there is anything in the rules about getting easy energy. tbh isnt that the entire point of the game? optimize scoring of energy i mean

as an alternative you could suggest that an opponent has to be a certain strength/build compared to your own bot, so you can never win 100% of the time, but like 60% at most (else you are back to scoring off easy targets again). i doubt tho when people have long fights with just a reasonable chance to win, that people will be very triggered to play (if its not easy, why try says the lazy humankind ^^)

Is Dumping cheating? No. Is creating whores cheating? No. Both are well within the rules, and the basic idea behind both is the same; To create a reliable energy source for you to obtain. Both methods generally involve attacking yourself, although whores can easily be drained by anyone, and if you're dumping, you can always transfer that energy onto others, like fellow clanmates. In my opinion, dumpers are just a safer, more reliable means of transfering energy. Whores can be drained by anyone, but dumpers are good builds, and typically can't, and even if they could, it wouldn't be at all viable.

I see it as two sides of the same coin. Create whores for you to attack with your "main", or create dumpers to attack your "main" with. The basic principle is the same. Creating bots for the sole purpose of gaining you energy...

Definitely not against the rules, though they have wound various people up over the years.

Dumpers are more effort and maintenance for a stable, secure energy source.

Whores are very little effort (or none, if you use other people's) but they can be drained by opponents just as easily as by you.

It's a trade off, but big winning months normally comes down to who can dump the most. All energy from whores is routinely drained, leaving people who solely rely on them with very little to do to push forward.

Others have already made this clear, but in the interest of providing "official" input on the "is this cheating?" question, the answer is no, dumping is not considered cheating. The cheater punishment thread has a non-comprehensive definition of what constitutes cheating.