Re: Cheating in OS games?

[Francesco Orsenigo <xarvh@lombardiacom.it>]

Steve Baker:
>  If you argue that what you'd be doing under those circumstances is OK -
[cut]
I'd give the patch to all my enemies.
If i want a game i can easily win i play vs. AI.

I was just trying to point out that lots of games come out with unnecessary 
and frustrating restrictions: this may result in players 'cheating' to avoid 
what i'd call programming flaws.

A fair solution to some cheats would be:
1. Take all info on the server.
2. Give the client the less info you can, but enough to show the world 
correctly.
3. Make your game so that a cheater cannot spoil the excess of info you give 
him.

eg: Nearly invisible entities.
If you send the client 'man with gun at XYZ, render 50% transparent" the cheat 
is obvious.
Instead if  send just 'antropomorphic entity somewhere around point XYZ in a 
radius R' and let the client interpolate all the successive positions to lock 
the entity position, is just better.
If the entity is still, it will be nearly invisible (not enough points), if it 
moves, the player is more likely to find it.
Of course, "antrophomorphic entity" is parent of  "man" wich is parent of 
"with gun" in your entity tree...
You can't see well?
1 or 2 lower more on the entity tree!
Let the client show the info as clear as possible, if someone wants to improve 
your interpolation algorithm he's welcome!

Well, that's just and idea.
Francesco Orsenigo