[PhilD]

Originally posted by Johan K:
The problem with releasing info on the save files is that the 'con' part is very very much easier to do than the 'pro' part. Doing an external AI for Dominions 2 would be a humongous task. That said I believe the most common use for this info would be cheating.

The "right" way to do things is to have the game files (.trn, .2h, ftherlnd) signed, rather than encrypted, to make it possible to read them, but not change them.

As in, have most of the files be in a public knowledge format, with a fingerprint appended. Then have the dom2 program refuse to use files that don't have that fingerprint, or that have the wrong fingerprint. That way, one can examine the contents of files if needed, but only the game (or programs that know the fingerprinting validation mechanism, which means programs that Illwinter makes) can create/modify these files in such a way that they can be used.

That would also remove the incentive for people to figure out how .2h files are encoded (which, if they manage to do it, will let them cheat, even if it's not the primary motivation for trying to figure it out). From looking at the god files (yeah, I tried to figure the format myself, but didn't try very hard), I don't think the files are encrypted, just not in a publicly described format (it's pretty easy to figure out which byte describes the nation, etc). This, IMHO, is the worst solution.

Edit: formating

[ May 14, 2004, 12:46: Message edited by: PhilD ]