In addition to NETtrek, I am amazed at how often people overlook MUDs. Since all MUDs are multiplayer by nature and have roots dating back more than ten years, you can learn much from them with respect to IP security.

In all my years programming, I have learned two things.
1: Locks only keep and honest man, honest. They do nothing to deter a determined thief.
2: Keep the rules simple or you will get tangled in them yourself.

What this means is that all the wonderful schemes in the world to stop piracy and hacking, are going to be spoiled. You must weigh the extra cost of development complexity and time versus the potential threat. My basic database security training applies here, protect what you can as simply as possible, and then regularly backup your data so that damage can be erased through restore. You're never going to be able to code your game and outdo the hacker that only has to decode your game. Simple workload equation and nothing more. The upside to this is that thieves don't break into open houses. Its no fun when there isn't a challenge.

Kressilac


Edited by - kressilac on 2/22/00 9:12:13 AM

There is no such thing as a completly secure encryption algorithim. It''s a basic tenent of cryptography. Usually the goal of cryptograpy is to make the encrypted data so difficult to get at, that the time cost does not justify the effort. While all these people posting here are making some great suggestions about how to make your game difficult to hack, I prefer a completely diffrent approach.

Rather than make the game hard to hack, why not employ an akido mind set, and make the game simple to hack. Simply make it meaningless to do so. For example, let''s say I am given the Diablo source. I rebuild it, and use my ''akido anti hack''. Rather than having damage scales built on linear relationships, I''d have damage computed using a logrithmic scale: a Dex of 20 gives you (made up numbers here) -50% chance to hit. a DEX of 200 gives you 95% chance to hit. a DEX of 2000 gives you 98% chance to hit, etc. Why not ship a character editor with your game, and simply have the moster''s stats adjust themselves to the PC''s? There are many ways that just require some thought put into design that can make cheating meaningless. Don''t think about the problem like a programmer, think like a game designer. Stop and think, "Why do people cheat?", and build your game accordingly.

Best Luck

Roger