71–80 of 94 posts
Is this article just an analysis of the Lost City[0] codebase without linking Lost City? [0] https://github.com/LostCityRS
Most of the knowledge came from my refactor of the #317 RS2 client (https://github.com/Jameskmonger/317refactor) though I looked at some other decompiled versions while writing this blog post.
I wish the author got more into the weeds of anitcheat and how it evolved over time. Jagex was banning bots based on mouse movement heuristics in like 2005. 20 years later and there's some JS framework on the front page here heralding that same kind of analysis as some revolutionary new approach. I can only imagine what the modern anticheat engine entails, especially in the era of LLMs that can reliably emulate a hum…
Sadly, the anti-cheat is not something I'm too knowledgeable in. Half of the story is visible in the client: which data is tracked, and when (as well as some visual adjustments to defeat older colour-recognition bots such as SCAR) - as well as the data scrambling I mention in the article, though this was more likely meant to break all third-party clients and packet sniffers.
Knowing how Jagex used this data once they'd tracked it isn't something I have much of an idea about, though.
On the wink: I wrote this article by hand over a couple of weeks back in May; I used AI to provide wording review on some of the more technical sections, and to create the SVG diagrams from my specs.
Ultima online released in 1997 and required only a 28k modem. I also would argue it was a more complex game.
Ultima Online is one of very few games (probably Star Wars Galaxies and that's it) that actually merit the label MMORPG. It's kind of insane when you think about it, that the MMO that most closely came to fulfilling the promise of a "shared, persistent, virtual world" was also the ~first one.
I wish the author got more into the weeds of anitcheat and how it evolved over time. Jagex was banning bots based on mouse movement heuristics in like 2005. 20 years later and there's some JS framework on the front page here heralding that same kind of analysis as some revolutionary new approach. I can only imagine what the modern anticheat engine entails, especially in the era of LLMs that can reliably emulate a hum…
The evolution for Old School RuneScape was to just make cheating a built-in feature. It only takes a couple clicks every ten minutes to "play" the game.
I don't understand how RuneScape managed to get the traction it did. 2004 was the same year World of Warcraft came out!
The other comments hit the big ones (didn't have to download, had a free tier, didn't have significant irreversible character choices, had meaningful solo or quasi-social activities, etc), but I think a major contributing factor was it appearing on miniclip.
I think I did end up paying for a RuneScape membership but even then it was only $5 a month.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I farmed tens of thousands of us dollars in modern RuneScape by unhooking the mousehook. It worked for decades. Find call to `SetWindowsHookEx` -> Find dword (`HHOOK`) it returns -> Inject module that calls `UnhookWindowsHookEx((HHOOK)(module_base + hhook_rva));` -> profit. Jagex has done some interesting things, but without fail, there is a blunder accompanying each.
You suck for farming gold btw
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I farmed tens of thousands of us dollars in modern RuneScape by unhooking the mousehook. It worked for decades. Find call to `SetWindowsHookEx` -> Find dword (`HHOOK`) it returns -> Inject module that calls `UnhookWindowsHookEx((HHOOK)(module_base + hhook_rva));` -> profit. Jagex has done some interesting things, but without fail, there is a blunder accompanying each.
Short of hardware-enforced secure boot chain TPM anticheat there will always be a way around it. It's cat-and-mouse, not a single permanent solution.
booting is so quick today that its hardly a friction point as it used to be.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Short of hardware-enforced secure boot chain TPM anticheat there will always be a way around it. It's cat-and-mouse, not a single permanent solution.
Honestly, I dont know why "xbox mode" isn't this for PCs. Instead of anticheat, reboot into a stripped down mode just for playing the game that has a secure boot chain that the app can attest and report to the servers about and then reboot back into normal windows. booting is so quick today that its hardly a friction point as it used to be.