I'm having some problems with users cheating my online game by using macros to automatically click certain spots on the screen in a certain order to automate various tasks without having to actually be playing the game. Are there any methods that can be used to block this kind of activity without having to plaster CAPTCHAs all over the site and ruin the experience for the honest users?
Edit: I forgot to mention, this is a website-based game, and not using flash.
As a programmer, I say to look for patterns in volume or timing of clicks. Simple bots will hit the exact same spots at very regular intervals and do it much faster than a human would be able to. This makes for fairly easily-identified patterns.
As a gamer and game designer, I say fix your game so it's not so mindless. Although there will always be a few power gamers who will do anything to get ahead, if more than a percent or so of your player base is resorting to this kind of thing, it's probably because you're making them repeat some mind-numbingly boring task a ridiculous number of times. Make playing your game fun and people will be more likely to actually play it instead of having bots stand in for them. Since making it fun typically involves building gameplay that is more varied than just "click these three spots over and over and over and over and...", then this will also naturally make the game more bot-resistant, since there won't be such a trivial pattern for the bot to repeat.
As Dave Sherohman said, make the game more fun.
If you can't do that, there are a few things you could do. It may be possible to change the UI in certain ways so that the bots can't just repeatedly click. If that isn't realistic, you could try to detect the bots by recognizing the patterns, and then alter the UI or give a CAPTCHA, sort of like how StackOverflow does it. This shouldn't annoy users too much, as they should almost never see it unless they are a bot.
Yes, the issue with your game is wrist - killing, mind - numbing, RSI - inducing "non - content".
You can fix the issues easily by making the game fun instead of a terrible grind.
No one should be forced to click the same button over and over again like a monkey to get ahead in a game - and I actually APPLAUDE everyone who fixed this bad gameplay issue by using his brains well enough to use a bot.
Actually, programming the bot is more fun than stupid clicking I guess and causes much less RSI.
Related
Which Roblox/LUAU classes can have malware/scripts hidden inside? Which classes will still be executed as a script? Which classes cannot contain a malicious script? Audio?
Since the complaint has been made that it's not clear what I'm asking, I've added emphasis above and put the title in there, too.
Ok, so I'm trying to learn how to detect and remove malware from things in the Roblox Studio Toolbox. That is a tall order, since I'm still learning LUAU and there are many ways to conceal malware, including obfuscation techniques (spacing, reversed strings, reversed ascii strings, getfenv(), hidden teleports, nested scripts, scripts that were reclassified to something else, like a weld, etc.).
Reclassified malware is the thing I have the most trouble with, although long scripts and scripts split into different files can be a pain, too. I do things by trial and error, like in the case of the Sakura Tree model by TreelingDeveloper (rbxassetid://6787294322). I stripped it of everything except the Trunk and Mesh, Falling Leaves and Particle Emitter, and Leaves and Mesh, and it is still similar, despite removing a couple dozen pieces, including two scripts that were nested inside several welds and claimed to weld the bark on.
Edit: I rechecked the Sakura tree after posting. Deleting all those parts reduced its visual appeal, although not completely. There were a lot of "Bark," "Other" and "Welds" that I deleted, and even the ThumbnailCamera. As it turns out, keeping all of the "Bark" and "Others" adds additional details to the trunk. I can't see a use for the ThumbnailCamera or the welds and "auto-weld" scripts.
It's not terribly hard to use CTRL-SHIFT-F to search for words like "getfenv," "string.reverse," "require," "eriuqer," and "teleport" but it is beyond my level of ability to find everything.
If you have any suggestions or tips on the question or the larger issues of malware in Roblox assets, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!
Antimalware Plug-ins
Thus far, I have reviewed several (~10) plug-ins for detecting malware. None of them have seem to have behavioral or real-time detection. They all seem to use simplistic heuristic detection, often relying on common words and phrases associated with known malware, as well as certain LUAU commands and obfuscation techniques. Those that I thought were worth using, as inadequate as they were, are GameGuard, Guardian Angel Defender, Mirror Egg and Ro-Protect. Unfortunately, they get a fair number of false positives (Mirror Egg, for example, suggests that anything with the name "Fire," including fire effects I added, may be malware). GAD has the best UI and seems to find more than anything else, but it also finds a lot of "empty objects" that I'm not sure what to make of. None of them are real-time, and none are good enough on their own.
Explanation
I'm not artistic, so it really isn't possible for me to develop my own models, meshes and such, and I think people who say those who use the toolbox are lazy and get what they deserve are apparently unaware that not everyone is a master craftsman when it comes to CG.
Roblox Studio's Toolbox is jam-packed with assets, which is great, except many of them contain malware.
Beyond this point is mostly a rant. Feel free to ignore, unless you're going to tell me to contact Roblox Customer Service or go to the Roblox DevForum.
You may ask why I don't post this on the DevForum. I've been there since April and, despite 7 hours of reading and over 1k likes, I still have not become a "regular". I asked customer service about this, but they gave me the run-around, referring me back to the rules to become a regular (which are deliberately vague) and generally being eager to get rid of me as fast as possible without actually helping.
You may ask why I didn't ask Roblox for help.
Having asked both the Appeals team (which had given me a 3-day IP ban and permanently suspended my unlisted, >private< game that is still in development because, they stated, I'd added an "inappropriate model" from the toolbox - a model that I didn't modify, and then rejected my appeal without any valid reason) and Customer Service, which gave me the run-around and did their very best not to help me, and to get rid of me as rapidly as possible, I'm trying to learn how to protect myself. In short, Roblox apparently refuses to take any real steps to deal with the plethora of malware, and help pages DO NOTHING to teach developers how to find malware. I've learned more on my own - which isn't nearly enough.
If I sound irritated, it's because I am. They have some of the worst customer support I've ever encountered in the 36 years of my adult life, and I've got many years of experience in that field, including tech support.
The Roblox tutorial pages have this to say when it introduces the toolbox:
> Anyone can upload an item to the Toolbox, so make sure your game still works after adding an item before settling on it. To learn how to inspect a model before inserting it, see [Item Inspection][1].
The linked page is woefully inadequate, and the page that Customer Support referred me to is, too. [What Is This Infected Model On My Place? help article.][2]
[1]: https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/resources/studio/Toolbox#item-inspection
[2]: https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/articles/203312920
When it comes to things that can execute code, the answer is Scripts and LocalScripts.
Some things to know, Scripts are only active in a few locations. According to the docs :
The instant that the following conditions are met, a Script’s Lua code is run in a new thread:
Disabled property is false
The Script object is a descendant of the Workspace or
ServerScriptService
Similarly for LocalScripts :
A LocalScript will only run Lua code if it is a descendant of one of the following objects:
A Player’s Backpack, such as a child of a Tool
A Player’s character model
A Player’s PlayerGui
A Player’s PlayerScripts.
The ReplicatedFirst service
This doesn't apply for Edit Mode, just when you are testing it in Play Mode.
The thing is, a Script instance can be inserted into the hierarchy of anything. Audio, Meshes, Decals, etc. none of these things execute code on their own, but they are often Trojan Horses for delivering Scripts into the Workspace. And because the Toolbox inserts things into the Workspace by default, it creates the avenue for exploits that you're describing in your question.
This is why I recommended the Venom plugin by pa00, because it allows you to strip out any and all Scripts that might come with an asset. It is an easy counter measure for when you are only looking for simple things. This suggestion falls apart once you start looking for more complicated assets like vehicles, Tools, and guns, where interactions have to be scripted, but it's a starting point.
I know how to program although I haven't done much in C# yet. But I understand every code snippet I read. I mostly script at my job. I have little to no experience in graphical design or animations.
The only thing I have done so far in Unity 3D is the ball rolling tutorial.
I have some questions though as I have a hard time understanding where I should begin. I know co-op 3D RPG is a project with a HUGE scope, but this is what I would like to accomplish to begin with:
Mini world (half the size of a WoW zone)
Populate world with terrain, trees and some buildings. Maybe a cave.
Have a playable character that can move around and interact with some objects.
Could anyone guide me into the right direction? What documentation should I read? Are there any RPG packs or plugins that can help me achieve this? Any nice tutorials you know of?
If 3D is too complicated to start with, I'm also willing to try an isometric game.
PS: Are there any free (or reasonably priced) HD asset packs that include animations? Or will I have to provide those myself as well?
Co-Op RPG's are quite large; Infact most people have tools that would help this speed up production; Although you're asking where to start. Most of my programming knowledge comes from theory and pretty basic knowledge; But I have an idea on where you should start!
A big factor on Co-Op is well.... Of-course CO-OP so something you should play around with first is data and how it's stored but even though you have knowledge of this factor Unity has a good way of storing it from Host to Client!
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UNetStateSync.html?_ga=2.98238303.1333003911.1509902124-1740889112.1506544791
Another factor of -Co-Op is the dynamic spawning that is going to be pretty heavy although their are quite a few ways of doing this I'm sure their are plenty of correct as-well as incorrect ways of doing it!
Personally I would develop a database and call-Events with SQLite though this would be a heavy and complex job to do correctly and efficiently
but unity3d has UNetCustomSpawning documentation that seems to work pretty well for it's inteded use although it takes some heavy tinkering to get right so I would suggest once you get synchronization done you should check out some Spawning
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UNetCustomSpawning.html
With Every Co-Op Action it must be handled and heres how!
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UNetActions.html
How about the actual connection?
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UNetDiscovery.html
Although reading alot of this may help; I would suggest rading through this and giving it a shot.
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UNetSetup.html
and if you find no help or it's doing you some trouble
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/tanks-tutorial
You may hear about "Tanks", alot though I personally am quite stubborn so I couldn't bear to look into it untill I did just earlier this month; It shows a correct way of doing things from Shooting, to spawning, and may other things.
I am un-certain this is a good or bad answer for you as this I believe is quite a personal question but as their are about a thousand and a thousand more ways of doing this I think what I have shown is a great way of starting just to get an idea of how the ball should start rolling!
-Thanks!
I am trying to integrate openfeint with my app.. though it's not actually the integration I am stuck on, successfully able to open the leader-board, but actually the development flow. I mean what is the least we need to do... When to submit score and how? Achievements are bit ambiguous:( .. was searching all around then figured out it'd be the best way to get exact answers to my question. Kindly help.
EDIT:
My main question is that what least should be done in an app to say that it's openfeint integrated.
At a minimum, achievements and leaderboards. But I'd recommend using OpenFeint because it solves a specific problem for you, rather than to simply check off a feature. If you don't have a clear idea, you may not have a clear idea of the game's overall design. If so, you might be better served to come back to the integration half-way in, after you've made more decisions.
Then you can say things like "Oh, I have three different play modes. I'll make a leaderboard for each." Or "This level is really hard – I'll definitely award an achievement if they complete it in x time." And so on.
But you should really reach out to OpenFeint's dev support if you have questions like this – they'll be able to give you good advice on integration.
I have a friend who is a graphic designer & user experience designer who will be collaborating with me to develop an iPhone app. He does not have previous iPhone experience. What is the best way to work with him on developing the user interface, i.e. custom colors for UITableViews, UIButtons, etc? We've looked into Photoshop mock ups, but that depends on me (the developer) implementing what he drew in Photoshop, which might get tricky.
Most of the methods I've thought of have long turn around time, i.e. he uses Photoshop, sends me the image, I develop, send him a test build of the app, he doesn't like it, rinse, lather, repeat.
Do you think it's feasible to set him up with Interface Builder so he can modify XIB files? Potentially, he could build and run the app in the simulator...
Does anyone have experience doing this? Any suggestions?
Thanks much,
-dan
This goes for a developer or designer. The best way in my opinion is to mock up designs in photoshop, debate on what is good and what is bad, then send the final mock ups to the developer.
The reason you want to do it this way is because your designer can't do everything he wants to do by simply using the IB. You need to allow your designer to express his creative freedom without the burdeon of figuring out how to use a piece of software correctly.
You can find plenty of templates of iPhone and iPad components on the web. Having those components will make it very simple for your friend to put together concepts. It will also keep things consistent so you can have an easier time implementing them.
A Great Collection of iPad Resources
iPhone Materials
One suggestion is to start with the elements that do not need graphic design but you know they will be there, this will be things like table views, tab bars, any UI element provided by UIKit or even custom UI elements that you make...I would say you will probably have most of your app made by this approach and will look VERY plain...once you have that basis you should be able to work with the graphic designer and identify where and what he needs to make, it should also be pretty easy for you to integrate it since it will probably be mostly images or textures, things like animations and such will have to be handled by you anyway...just a suggestion, hope its helpful
Omnigraffle is your best bet for quickly mocking out UIs. It produces nearly photorealistic mockups. It's easy for non-artist to use but can also utilize imported images of arbitrary complexity if he needs to do something fancy.
If you want my advice, keep the graphic designers away from the app until it is fully functional logically. They should only be brought in at the end of the process to tweak the UI.
They cause train wrecks if they come into the process early. Everybody in that field has been trained first and foremost to create visuals that attract attention. In an UI, that always translates into flashy, non-standard elements that turn into annoyance with repeated use. A good UI is essentially invisible to the user. Ideally, they should notice it only because they notice that they don't notice it. (It's all very Zen.)
People trained to attract attention in the blizzard of competing images of a media saturated world don't make invisible interfaces. They make "in your face" and "look at me!" interfaces that get old in a hurry.
Don't get me wrong: a good graphics person can really enhance an interface by the skillful and subtle use of proportion and color. Unfortunately finding a good UI graphics person is a challenge. Be prepared for fights over what works transparently versus what looks cool and draws attention the first time you see it.
I was looking at some study i have to do in the future to do with procedural generation techniques and i was wondering what type of content you have:
Developed
Helped Develop
Seen implemented
Tried to develop
and what methods/techniques/procedures you used to develop it.
If you feel generous maybe you can even go into specifics of it such as data structures ad algorithms you have used to develop it.
If this needs to be put as community wiki because it is not me asking for a problem to be solved just let me know.
This is not a homework thread because it is a research unit that i'm not taking yet ;)
Introversion software, the makers of the games Defcon, Uplink and Darwinia (among others) have started working on a game about a year ago which extensively uses PCG for city generation, here is a video of their work, and you can read more about it on the development diary of the game (start from the first part at the bottom of the page!).
This immediately got me extremely interested, and seeing the potential for games I immediately started researching the technology. I have amassed a folder of 18 PDFs about the subject (research papers, SIGGRAPH presentations, etc). Here, I uploaded it for you.
The main approach is to use L-Systems, however, I never got around to understanding enough of that to make something out of this. I tried other, less successful approaches like using Voronois, recursively splitting a rectangular area into more smaller areas and shifting the boundaries a little to obtain a bit of randomness and polygon division.
The last method I had gotten from Mike's Code Blog's posts (here and here). The screenshots shown on his blog make me drool, it is my biggest programmer's dream to ever get something that looks like that. I emailed him to ask how he did it, and here is the relevant part of his reply, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me posting this here:
L-Systems is definitely one way to go, but that isn't what I'm doing. The basis of my method is polygon subdivision. I start with a simple polygon that represents the entire area of the city. Then, I split it (roughly) in half, and then split those two polygons, etc. until I get down to city-block size. At that point, the edges of all my polygons represent roads. I then use the same subdivision method to break the blocks down into building-size lots.
The devil is in the details, of course, but that is the basic method.
I for one still haven't managed to fully implement a solution of which I'm satisfied of, but it remains one of, if not my single biggest programmer's dream to ever achieve something like this.
Here are a few of the leaders in procedurally generated terrain (and to a lesser extent foliage). If you don't get a detailed answer here regarding methods and techniques, you might want to look in / ask in their forums. I have seen some discussions of techniques there.
TerraGen 2
World Builder
World Machine
Natural Graphics
Noone mentioned the demoscene that ONLY use procedural stuff?
So, go search for Werkkzeug, Kkrieger, MilkyTracker to start. Also you can visit the site pouet and see the wonder of well done procedural videos (yes, procedural videoclips! With music and graphics, all procedural!)
Allegorithmic's products are used in actual shipping titles. These guys focus on texture generation (both offline and at runtime).
They have some very pretty screenshots and demos.