Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safari doesn't block ads and won't allow adblockers. It owns you.
(Safari has adblockers.)
Oh what, been using this so long that I've gotten used to the lack of extensions. No uBO, but I'll gladly install AdGuard.
1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
81–90 of 189 posts
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
IRL it was not simple. The game usually worked, but occasionally things would go out of sync. The biggest downside is mentioned in the article: If one person lags, everyone lags. In an 8-player game, the chance that at least one person lags was pretty high. I used to play on the Mac version of GameRanger, a small community. That was 2008, when reliable internet wasn't as common. Players had personal reputations, and…
Man, this brings back memories. People fighting over char in the lobbies, some derivative of “laggy” used a slur to try and get someone you don’t like to leave the game before enough people joined, etc. fun times!
When the game lags, the witch hunt begins, and the red ping or turtle shows on your name despite it not being your fault.
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone waits for your client's next step. Your client can basically pause the game whenever it wants, giving you time to do something. But there are bigger exploits. IIRC, the client sends separate actions for buying a unit/tech/building and paying resources, and the other clients don't enforce that they go together. This allows malicious clients to buy without paying. It's been seen a few times even in the ranked…
> Nowadays they should have something else IMO. Finally found a genuine use for the blockchain, since the server is only used for the lobby! Mine virtual AoE gold and record it in the distributed ledger. Primitive path finding is also AI, so now you just need some investors!
DE seems to use a relay server. Old version relied on P1 setting up port forwarding and always being present in the game, not an issue anymore.
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In age II, it was CRC checks of game state that prevented cheating! Games would get out of sync if there was a mismatch, which could happen for various reasons. I worked at MacSoft during the Age2 and Age3 days. The ports were faithful to the windows versions, but cross platform hadn’t been solved at the time because of this problem. It also made long game play sessions longer because the calculated state kept gettin…
In the Definitive Edition, there has been observed cheating in online ranked mode where players give themselves infinite resources. Evidently there's a way to do that without going OoS. This was probably the same in the original. This is besides the less complex cheat, removing fog of war. Seems the only thing stopping most people from cheating is, they don't want to. Also, I used to play the Mac version a lot. It wa…
You can call the command creation functions yourself, making the game think it's part of the simulation [1]. These types of cheat have been around ever since the original game, and the HD edition [2].
[1]: https://redrocket.club/posts/age_of_empires/ [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tl8AjDfnBk
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
As long as users are running the game on their own computers, preventing that type of read-only cheating is not possible. "Solutions" to this problem come in the form of invasive spyware, such as Warden (Blizzard), Easy Anti-Cheat (Epic), Vanguard (Riot), etc. These are programs that run with the highest possible priviledge, inspect all memory/storage/devices/input, and report what they find to a server.
Ok, so option 1) is to make internet multiplayer run on a game server, not peer to peer, but that's not exactly running the game on their own computers. Another option would be for the peers to only send data that the other should know (fog of war), but that's a lot trickier. Because you then need to figure out how to validate the unseen data wasn't cheating, too. You might be able to do something with this today, be…
Yes, not having the entire game state on the user's computer in the first place is a solid choice. And for many games, that's exactly how multiplayer works. They run all the logic on a server, "never trust the client" (that is, validate all the input that clients send to the server), and only send data the user needs to know.
However for something like an RTS, the amount of data in game state updates can be prohibitively large to transmit to clients. The deterministic lockstep networking model described in the article is a solution to that problem. In that system, the only data transmitted is input, and each client updates locally, so it does require them to have a copy of the entire game state.
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
In age II, it was CRC checks of game state that prevented cheating! Games would get out of sync if there was a mismatch, which could happen for various reasons. I worked at MacSoft during the Age2 and Age3 days. The ports were faithful to the windows versions, but cross platform hadn’t been solved at the time because of this problem. It also made long game play sessions longer because the calculated state kept gettin…
But CRC checks wouldn't prevent things like revealing units through fog of war right? The presentation of the game state couldn't be CRCd because each player has a different view of it. And the cheat client doesn't have to modify the actual game state to get that information out.
The game actually tracks this too, what is visible for each player, which gets slightly complicated with diplomacy changing. Of course this doesn't prevent you from just patching other parts handling this, but you cannot just simply modify this value, it will desync as well.
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand what was said. I'm saying that sucks. I don't really care about the tiny minority of people who care about the skill ceiling within a super low level micro. RTS entices people into a strategy game. But the games are so similar that everyone but the top 1% of players will do better by simply following a predefined strategy and executing it as tightly as they possible can. And that sucks. Nudging guys a fe…
If you get as chance give AOE2:DE a shot, I feel like it's what you are describing. It's impressive how many randomized game parameters it has... they even included a randomize button. https://i.imgur.com/xbbXKdq.png Additional you can add mods such as 'Random Costs' where units and buildings have random costs so standard build orders are impossible. Because the game is still being updated, people are making new maps…
The randomize button was added in UserPatch, which was the de-facto version people played (on Voobly) until DE2 came around, it just took that over from there.
Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#88Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand what was said. I'm saying that sucks. I don't really care about the tiny minority of people who care about the skill ceiling within a super low level micro. RTS entices people into a strategy game. But the games are so similar that everyone but the top 1% of players will do better by simply following a predefined strategy and executing it as tightly as they possible can. And that sucks. Nudging guys a fe…
> I don't really care about the tiny minority of people who care about the skill ceiling within a super low level micro. I'd argue that most people that kept playing aoe2 online and kept it "alive" all care about that. > I'd like to see RTS games that randomize game parameters each time, requiring you to actually strategize. aoe2 already has randomised maps, I think that's why you actually get less strategy (in a sen…
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Re: 1500 Archers on a 28.8: Network Programming in Age of Empires and Beyond (2001)
#90This site used to be Gamasutra didn't it?
They renamed it because they decided being a pun on "Kama Sutra" was just weird and unprofessional. (Same for the NIPS conference. But oddly not for the science journal PNAS.)
Shame that. Sutra is a word all on its own. Gamasutra was a nifty name. It works.
One day sex positive triple-breasted feminist whores of Eroticon Six are all the rage the next you're sunsetting harmless Sanskrit puns. Y'all strange.