Orbiter and "Cheating"

[Juanelm]

I was considering how possible would it be for me to create some sort of addon that would create single player missions, and the stats would be uploaded and compared to those of other players. But the big problem is that it would be just too easy to cheat: Scenario Editor, Editing the scenario file, Starwars Physics MFD, Jump Drive MFD...

I've been thinking how this could be avoided. Maybe the scenario file could be encrypted, and then decripted just before use. Maybe we could monitor the vessel's positon and speed and detect FTL. But how could we prevent users from using things like Starwars Physics MFD?

Any ideas?

 

[Eagle]

A short question is how important is it to prevent cheating? If you're not having global high scores why put forth the effort. (mission generator itself would be an excellent addon to procure first before worrying about cheating)

An easy way to manage this is to a) restrict modules on launch, and b) use a hash to ensure integrity of save files.

 

[Kyle]

Cheat on Orbiter you get a CTD.

 

[Ark]

How about just...letting users do whatever they feel like? This is Orbiter, not CS:S.

 

[Juanelm]

How about just...letting users do whatever they feel like? This is Orbiter, not CS:S.

Hmm.. I think competitive game = rules = you cannot do whatever you feel like

A short question is how important is it to prevent cheating? If you're not having global high scores why put forth the effort. (mission generator itself would be an excellent addon to procure first before worrying about cheating)

An easy way to manage this is to a) restrict modules on launch, and b) use a hash to ensure integrity of save files.

I hadn't considered that. Thanks.

I guess you could always change the name of a module to trick the system, but as long as its not too easy to cheat its ok.

 

[Hielor]

Just require the person to also submit a playback with their entry. It will be very easy to see if any cheating happened.

 

[insanity]

How about just...letting users do whatever they feel like? This is Orbiter, not CS:S.

I would like a CS:S for Orbiter addon though. A spot of gungame on the moon sounds pretty nice.

 

[computerex]

Hello. Cheating is hard to prevent with Orbiter...Restricting the modules on launch is too easy to bypass. I suppose someone can intercept the prime cheating methods such as AddForce, but that might cause legitimate add-ons to stop working.

What you can do is log the user's progress. For the ORL stuff, the MFD generated a log file showing the vessel's stats. The log file is hard to modify because it has no line carriages, but that could be fixed easily. You can even store the log file in an encrypted format, then create a reader so that you can view the logs in it. You can also make the user submit the playback files, that'd make it easy to see if there is any cheating going on.

Check out the attachment. Rename the file's extension to html to view it in a browser, the forum won't let me upload html files.

 

[Juanelm]

Hello. Cheating is hard to prevent with Orbiter...Restricting the modules on launch is too easy to bypass. I suppose someone can intercept the prime cheating methods such as AddForce, but that might cause legitimate add-ons to stop working.

What you can do is log the user's progress. For the ORL stuff, the MFD generated a log file showing the vessel's stats. The log file is hard to modify because it has no line carriages, but that could be fixed easily. You can even store the log file in an encrypted format, then create a reader so that you can view the logs in it. You can also make the user submit the playback files, that'd make it easy to see if there is any cheating going on.

Check out the attachment. Rename the file's extension to html to view it in a browser, the forum won't let me upload html files.

Thanks, I'll check that.