Is it possible to change settings in a started game?

[Ruatha]

I'm running a PBW game with "Player can see allied scores".
Is it possible to change that to "Player can only view own score" without disrupting the game.

I was thinking a bit, it ought to be saved as a flag in the GAM file, so it ought to be changable with a hex editor.
I could search for it by saving a test game with the different options, but if someone already knows where it is you could save me the effort.

(edited - setting e-mail notification)

[ November 21, 2002, 18:18: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[Ruatha]

I thought I found it as the 12:th byte, but when I alter that in my test game the program chrashes. it could still be right but then there is propably a checksum.
Well, if we've played this far with scores on we can propably do it in the future too.

[Ruatha]

I think I'll mail Malfador Machinations sometime this week and ask them if it's possible.

[Captain Kwok]

I don't think you'll get much help from MM about hacking into the savegame.

[Fyron]

The game has protections against such illegal hacking.

[Ruatha]

It's not like I was trying to hack the game, just changing an option...
I've mailed them anyway, I hope I could send them the gamefile and they could change the option for me.

[Ruatha]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
The game has protections against such illegal hacking.

According to Swedish law there is nothing illegal in trying to alter or ipsofacto altering my own savegamefile. And altough I'm not an expert on US law I find it hard to belive it would be any criminal activity there too.

Morally it might be another thing, and yes, if I tried to alter the setting from "Can only view own score" to "Can view all scores" in a game I was playing with others that would be bad.

But in this case that is not so, but the other way.

This is the first PBW game I ever hosted. And this setting allows the players to see who is weakest and attack them.
This was a mistake when I created the game.

I previusly played VGA planets where there were many utilities, among other password crack utilitys. These came in handy when you had forgotten your password. I played VGA and later Winplanets for many years and never had any suspicion that anyone cheated. I don't think ceating is anything that is wanted by the players that play these kind of games. The cheaters in my experiance are those who wants immidate satisfaction and therefore play games that happen in real-time, ie RTS or FPS games, not PBEM or PBW where you play for months and years and get to know those you play with.

Call me naive if you want but this is what I think.

[geoschmo]

Ok, you're naive.

"Illegal" probably wasn't the best choice of words, you are correct. But the savegame files are encrypted to prevent people from cheating, and people do cheat. Although for the life of me I can't figure out why they would. We've had to ban two people from PBW that we caught cheating, and we have made lots of suggestions to Malfador for security improvments that have been added to recent patches.

To allow a utility to be able crack the .gam file so you can change options Malfador would have to open up the encryption. ANd once that was done there would be no limit on what mischief people could do.

Now, what could be an option would be Malfador allowing game options changes to exsisting games. Some can be changed. The game owner can reset a player password if it's lost or forgotten. And the automatic savegame every turn can be turned on and off by the game host. The view score cannot currently, but perhaps that's something he can add. I wish he would add the ability to change the game master poassword. That would be helpful at times as well.

Geoschmo

[Ruatha]

Oh master,
I'm your humble servant.
I shall listen and learn the ways of life at your feet.

Actually, I'll try to remain naive, the world is a nicer place then