Re: Game Loop and Simulation

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Erik wrote:

> >> a) is unstopable (in theory). Only if you can find a way to ensure the
> >> client player uses the correct client, OS, drivers, hardware, etc. can you
> >> guarentee cheating wont happen. In practice various levels of obfusication
> >> may help for various periods of time. (Like binary only releases,
> >> encrypting the datastream, hiding the decryption key in the binary, etc).
> 
> ok, so I packet dump the authentification sequence into a file, modify the
> binary, packet dump the auth sequence again, look for the difference, and
> 'edit' my version so it sends the same info as before...

Well, that would be easy enough to circumvent, have the servers send each
client an encryption key at the start of the game, have each client encrypt
the data stream using that key.

Since the data stream would be encrypted differently each game, you would
be unable to take the data from one game and "look for the difference" in
order to re-use it on the next.

However, there are plenty of creative ways to cheat - so the point remains,
that unless the entire OS is binary-only and too complex to dis-assemble,
cheating can happen.

> I think in the end you have to trust no one will cheat enough to cause a
> problem. No matter what security measure is in place, it can be subverted. The
> goal isn't to make something un-cheatable, it's to make it so it's not worth
> the effort.

Also, play with people you trust.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
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