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Re: server assumption...

To: REALbasic Games <realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: server assumption...
From: Phil Mobley <phil at mobleybros dot com>
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 10:06:56 -0800
Delivered-to: realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com
References: <1DFBDB08-5B49-11D9-8C7F-000A95688BEA at neuropop dot com>
On Dec 31, 2004, at 8:29 AM, LMSpam at neuropop dot com wrote:

I'm working under this assumption right now...

Player A shoots Player B and sends a message to the server this has happened.

The server simply echoes "<cmd>SHOT</cmd><data><who>Player B</who><by>Player A</by></data>" to all connected machines who then can either deal with the message or ignore it.

My assumption is that it's better to have the client machines do the parsing and decision making, and leave the server primarily as broadcast communications hub...?

I do not know if this matters to you or not...

The more you permit the client to control the game play, the more likely it can get hacked. This has been a big problem with MORPG industry, so it is usually best to start out with the server handling all of the logic.

It is not even about hacking your executable/app, but just the network protocol. All I need to do is learn how you send your commands to the server and then send the commands that I want. Looking at your example above, it would be a piece of cake to write another app.

Then while I am playing your game, and someone makes me mad so I put their name in my app and send the command to your server -- I could kill them without even being in close proximity to their character (if the server let me). I could also send commands like "give me 100000 gold" or "increase strength +3" and so on.

So it is best if you limit the commands to the client (move here, shoot there, click this) and then return the results (discovered trap, missed, got lightning gun). It would have a higher server load, but would be worth it.

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