4.09 Dedicated Server Security & Distribution

[Gryphon_]

Hi,

I am a server admin / map-maker for an online server. As this is my first post here I would first like to thank Oleg and his team (workers and volunteers) for the exceptional sim we have enjoyed for many years. I have played the game for hundreds of hours and enjoy it very much. As we have nearly a year to go (?) before SoW it is important to keep the online game alive. Like many others I was hoping that 4.09 would close the door on the hackers at least for the online game. I have a few suggestions:

I have been watching the debate over the hacks for some weeks now. The division in the IL2 community seems to be between those who want to play 'hack-free' online, and the rest: those who want to play online or offline with hacks or mods. Both parties would be content if there was a dedicated server available that could exclude those with modified files from playing online.

If 1C does not have the resources to produce a new dedicated server application that gives greater security, I suggest that you ask trusted third parties to volunteer their time to repackage the current version and add some additional security functionality. You may also wish to make the dedicated server only available with a new EULA that clearly makes it a breach of your copyright to alter the code or delete the new security functionality. As a server admin and map maker, I would rather wait and get a dedicated server that keeps out hackers, than play 4.09 online next week with a dedicated server that doesn't keep them out.

In the long term, 1C needs to look at how products can be sold, updated, and kept free from hacks. In the future I expect most games will be downloaded and then continuously patched in a manner similar to the Valve/Steam server/client network. Valve/Steam networks aren't perfect, but it makes it much harder for the hackers if the executables and data files are continuously being altered by the developer. The Ubisoft system used for the Pe2 upgrade - 'Boontybox' - was poor - but if it had been developed more, it might have allowed you to make multiple small changes to your code and perhaps prevented the mess we are now into.

Hope this helps.

[Petrosky]

It is a mess!

[JG27_brook]

Passing on intel on players using hacks will help

[LEXX]

Petrosky::

It is a mess!

Sadly true. We get what we paid for, happy to stay dependent on Oleg's Offline play customers paying for our "free" cheat-free anonymous public server gameplay -- a very messy situation we made four ourselves over the last four years.

[ElAurens]

You know Lexx, every time you mention that onliners don't pay for their sim, which is every freaking time you post, I am left wondering WTF you are talking about.

You have been going on like this for years now, and frankly it makes no sense. None.

I, like every other online player has paid, and paid, and paid again for every version since the beginning.

So drop this schtick will ya?

You are clueless about online, as by your own admission you don't fly online, and you have not played the sim at all since 4.04.

Your observations are odd to say the least.

[LEXX]

I observe honest Online players, for example the Online player at simhq that poasted about 2 years ago...

If not for the Offline base, we'd all be paying 12$ a month to fly.

[Brain32]

Well if the game was pay to play, it would be online only and there would be no offline AT ALL so it is US(onliners) who payed what you get for free.

Do you see how easily can it work in reverse?

[LEXX]

It could work in reverse if this sim were Pay-To-Play, but the sales and revenue have been primarily provided by the Offline play customers.

Now, if the sim were Pay-To-Play, then we would be paying a Monthly Fee to the publisher, and we would not be dependent on Offline play customers.

[ElAurens]

Just who is the "we" you speak of?

If it was pay to play and online only, you wouldn't even be here Lexx.

And come to think of it neither would I. I don't have $120+ a year to chase pixels across a monitor screen. For that kind of money the software would have to be a free download, and there would have to be additional free aircraft and other content on a very regular basis, the netcode would have to be a lot better than it is now, and there would have to be a massive developer run server capable of putting thousands of aircraft up at once on a map the size of oh, the world.

Can't see that happening in a niche market like WW2 flight simulation.

[LEXX]

hmmm....I would be interested in an immersive dynamic Online War hosted through the publisher, but...

ElAurens::

...the netcode would have to be a lot better than it is now, and there would have to be a massive developer run server capable of putting thousands of aircraft up at once on a map the size of oh, the world..

...which describes exactly what Oleg would do -- perhaps for BoB And Beyond. Although a Channel map would be sufficient for the first releace, and for later theaters, later maps, all sized less than, "oh, the world."

Can't see that happening in a niche market like WW2 flight simulation.

It already has, to some degree, and profitibly so, although not done by Oleg Maddox, which would be key to generate my interest in something like this.

The only issue I may have is that Oleg has said he thinks dynamic campaigns are arcade by being non-historical, while a true Online War is a dynamic campaign. UBI or 1C could pay me a Monthly Fee and I still would not join a static Online War with a never changing fixed outcome that cannot be affected to at least some degree by the playing sides.