Home » Stars! Clones, Extensions, Modding » FreeStars » FAQ
| Re: FAQ --- keywords: cheating, encryption, compression, file format |
Wed, 10 November 2004 22:22   |
|
 edorfaus |
 | Crewman 3rd Class |
Messages: 8
Registered: March 2004 | |
|
- How do you intend to stop people from cheating by messing with the files?
First of all, the files are XML and open format. This means that editing it and putting in some "wrong" values will be quite easy. To deal with this, the server will do all the processing, and will check *everything* - it won't trust the clients to do anything right on their own.
This is the only known working method, closed-source with closed file formats doesn't help. Security through Obscurity - which is what that is called - simply doesn't work. *Someone* will figure out the file format, sooner or later, so we might as well have it open from the start and deal with it accordingly.
- What about cheating by looking at your enemy's files?
Getting a hold of other people's files is not going to be a problem, as we're intending to encrypt them(after compressing them). The exact details of this has not been figured out yet, as it will not be needed until the game is done and being played, and in the meantime it would just hamper us.
We will probably use some sort of public/private-key system, meaning that you are the only one that can decrypt your turn files, and the host is the only one that can decrypt your submitted turns.
When we get to that stage, we will look at and evaluate the various options, and select (at least) one that works for us.
- What if the host is changing my files?
Stopping a host from messing with your files is, frankly, impossible. The host must necessarily be able to read the files, and can therefore change them too - no matter what we do. Even if we put in tons of checks, the host can just modify the source(take out the checks) and recompile. This problem is common to all multiplayer games, not just (Free)Stars, and there is nothing you can do to avoid it; even with closed-source modifications are possible(hence the cracks of commercial games).
Because of this, all games will need a host that all players trust, in our case probably something like AutoHost. Of course, in a game of friends that trust eachother to not cheat, this is not a problem.
- If you're using XML, won't the files get very big?
Compared with today's HDs and bandwidth, I'll have to say no. Assuming you're not dealing with huge games with multiyear turns, the file size will probably be around a couple hundred KB per turn early game, and maybe up to a few MB lategame, of uncompressed XML. And XML, being pure text, compresses quite well (as a quick example, we have a 41KB TestGame.m1 file, compressed with bzip2 it gets to 5.7KB - 14% of the original size).
Nevertheless, we are intending to compress the files. As with encryption, the exact details haven't been hashed out yet, as we're not in that stage yet and it will just be a bother now. A couple obvious contenders are zlib and bzip2, but we will look through our options and evaluate them when we get to that stage(not before).
Report message to a moderator
|
|
|
|
Current Time: Thu Apr 25 15:45:48 EDT 2024
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
