Syncing games with each other

[??????]

I actually care because I want it to be played fair, although it's not really important to encrypt it, and put the data on a server instead and load it. I actually care about the cheaters, because I hate cheaters and prefer playing a game fair, so I want this played fair too, as it will be used on other games and on the forums from those games. It's more like a game network

I used to be of the same opinion.

Eventually you realize cheaters will find a way around any protection you could imagine..

For a perfect example, take the recent GTA5. Excellent game , played by millions, hacked within a few days of its release!

Think of the SIZE and EXPERIENCE within their team of coders. They have numerous various methods of encrypting / protecting all their data, yet they failed.

You really think that your coding alone will stop people finding a way past it? - Chances are it wont - nobody's will. Its really just that simple

Its a shame really...

 

[Tsukihime]

I actually care because I want it to be played fair, although it's not really important to encrypt it, and put the data on a server instead and load it. I actually care about the cheaters, because I hate cheaters and prefer playing a game fair, so I want this played fair too, as it will be used on other games and on the forums from those games. It's more like a game network

In that case, encryption is not going to help you because anyone can attach a debugger and then just read your encryption algorithm.


You are right that having the server manage this data is much better. However, your implementation is still vulnerable to various techniques to intercept data and modify them on the fly before it reaches either the client or server. If I can simply modify save files on my end and send them to your server without any checks on your end, then I've successfully cheated and you've accepted it.


You will need to be worried about the http library you're using and make sure that it is not vulnerable to easy things.


here's just a simple list of issues that I've come across that online game companies are not doing correctly, and it's not limited to the scope of your game.


http://www.himeworks.com/protecting-your-online-game-resources/


There are some games where the devs have properly secured their data, thus preventing me from taking all of their resources in 5 minutes, but maybe there are techniques that I haven't found out. I've seen numerous ways that devs have tried to be clever, and most of them have been cracked. I don't read machine code, so I just pass that off to people that do, but a lot of things I can do on my end, I just do it.


So if you care about fairness, you're going to have a lot of things to think about.

 

[??????]

http://www.himeworks.com/protecting-your-online-game-resources/

Pretty informative article you got there

 

[Zeriab]

So you have a singleplayer game. No leaderboards or anything else, right? I'll assume that is the case.

Just compress your data. The included Zlib has a nice an easy interface for using the DEFLATE algorithm.

# Exporting your data (...)compress_data = Zlib:eflate.deflate(save_data) (...)

# Loading your save data (...)save_data = Zlib::Inflate.inflate(compress_data) (...)

Now you have some save data that is highly unlikely to be human readable by looking the files. As a bonus compressing saves is good practice.

Ps. Remember to compress before encrypt should you decide to add further encryption.

*hugs*

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

You cannot really stop them from hacking it... Employ a few things to secure it, but don't really go too deep, else you're just giving yourself an unnecessary headache. Plus it's a single player game right? Just let them be, cheating is a choice they make. And chances are, using even just the normal marshal.dump or Zeriab's method above will be enough to keep "ordinary" people from cheating.

 

[iRonan]

You cannot really stop them from hacking it... Employ a few things to secure it, but don't really go too deep, else you're just giving yourself an unnecessary headache. Plus it's a single player game right? Just let them be, cheating is a choice they make. And chances are, using even just the normal marshal.dump or Zeriab's method above will be enough to keep "ordinary" people from cheating.

I won't go too deep, as it won't be played by much (unless many people start supporting it). It is single player with a leaderboard (if I can manage to get this syncing), I'll apply Zeriab's Method, so enough people will be prevented from cheating.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Wait, why would you need synching to do the leaderboard? or will it be something like an online leaderboard?

 

[iRonan]

Wait, why would you need synching to do the leaderboard? or will it be something like an online leaderboard?

Yeah, an international leaderboard.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

then it's better be server-side something, which will be quite more work than just synching thru local files