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Re: server assumption...

To: REALbasic Games <realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: server assumption...
From: LMSpam at neuropop dot com
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 15:21:48 -0500
Delivered-to: realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com
References: <1DFBDB08-5B49-11D9-8C7F-000A95688BEA at neuropop dot com> <C1D9FA85-5B56-11D9-8A9B-000393101B4A at mobleybros dot com> <D526232B-5B56-11D9-A1C3-000A95688BEA at neuropop dot com> <DB219982-5B63-11D9-8A9B-000393101B4A at mobleybros dot com> <ED00D965-5B5E-11D9-B7A4-000A95688BEA at neuropop dot com>
I'm using mySQL as the engine for my web site - it keeps user preferences as well as conducts the searches for matches. So I'm thinking...

Add a "bananas" column to a user's profile - either a list of who they've awarded bananas to or who has awarded them bananas, still undecided....

Then, when a player joins, read that list into its properties and when an "Award a Banana" message comes to the server, filter it out if the awardee has already gotten a banana from the sender. Sending back a message of "You already gave them a banana"

It then becomes a question of the speed of "instr" or "StrComp" and of course, executing the initial SQL query?

is there a faster way, perhaps?


On Dec 31, 2004, at 2:05 PM, LMSpam at neuropop dot com wrote:

My server is an RB app using a ServerSocket as the way in... If I recall, ServerSocket can't listen in SSL mode...?

Never used rotating keys... Would the theory be to use the session ID as an encryption key? I'm already compressing the data, so that wouldn't be a stretch to add.

I'll rethink where I'm at over the weekend and move more logic to the server. At least at this stage it seems the only issue regarding cheaters would be the banana awards, and those are very small routines, so filtering that from the server-side shouldn't be a problem. I've also been using Joe's Renegades code as my base engine, so changing stuff (which I do often) is proving relatively painless


On Dec 31, 2004, at 2:40 PM, Phil Mobley wrote:

On Dec 31, 2004, at 10:07 AM, LMSpam at neuropop dot com wrote:

Anyway...... shooting people is really for fun rather than points.

OK. I had a thought... you can have people shoot rubber-bands and throw paper airplanes at each other (of course the paper airplanes would have random flight paths).

however, I *can* see that if I implement a ratings program where you can award people, songs, or artists banana points, gaming and hacking the protocol could become an issue...

With MMORPG games, a person could build up their character very fast by cheating like this. Since they can do what ever they want without consequences, they usually start attacking other players. And since the other players worked hard to get where they are, they get very upset when a cheater comes along.

If players can get ahead in your game by cheating, then you might want to consider what I wrote before.

The site has an "ignore this user" feature which should be easily ported, and I also have a "cookie"-like security system, so each time you log in the server sends back a session ID. Then *every* time you issue a command you have to send this session ID along with your log-in email address to verify who you are.

You don't need to do this.

That is a lot of data being transmitted back and forth. You only really need the session ID to identify the sender. But I would use the SSLSocket (if you have the Pro version of RB) to automatically encrypt your data. If you don't, then you can use a rotating key encryption system.

So in theory, the only people on the system would be logged in, registered users, and so by extension, they should be easily smacked down (so long as others reported any abuse...), right???

Sure, but it is better to avoid the situation before it becomes a problem. But encrypting the network data would also prevent a lot of cheaters.

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