18.11.2009, 09:46
I guess i disagree with some of the premises. For one, i've never been a big believer in "security through obfuscation". If the info is out there (and it is - reading the russian forums, especially starting from a couple of years ago, when QTim's entire threads were trashed by the admins, but not before being archived by others), the "bad guys" will undoubtedly find it. And i'm quite sure they have, have built on it, and will continue to do so. Though i doubt that *those* particular "bad guys" actually went on to cheat in on-line games - they have either simply shared their exploits with other hacker-y friends (not such a bad thing), or went on to write "cheat mods" - most certainly without sharing source code, so that IL-2 equivalents of script kiddies could patch their IL-2 installs (*the* bad thing).
Sorry about the rambling run-ons - the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Bear with me.
It's also a mystery to me how keeping *some* of the file structures obscure improves on-line security (help me here - scrambling TARGA files? Hiding .mat files? burying default skins?).
What i'm trying to say, in too many words, is that it might make everyone's lives easier if info was *readily* available, rather than existing all over the net in bits & pieces. That way, people who write mods could both write better mods, *and* have time left over to improve on-line security.
I'm not trying to start a debate which would be pointless & unwinnable by either side. Simply airing some thoughts. All in all, I think IL-2's a gem - it's the only 'puter game I've played more than a couple of times since first DooM came out, and the whole ma & pa company i used to work for stuck around after work & played on the company's LAN. I just have this infantile need to tweak stuff - i enjoy it even more than actually flying the sim.
-d
Sorry about the rambling run-ons - the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Bear with me.
It's also a mystery to me how keeping *some* of the file structures obscure improves on-line security (help me here - scrambling TARGA files? Hiding .mat files? burying default skins?).
What i'm trying to say, in too many words, is that it might make everyone's lives easier if info was *readily* available, rather than existing all over the net in bits & pieces. That way, people who write mods could both write better mods, *and* have time left over to improve on-line security.
I'm not trying to start a debate which would be pointless & unwinnable by either side. Simply airing some thoughts. All in all, I think IL-2's a gem - it's the only 'puter game I've played more than a couple of times since first DooM came out, and the whole ma & pa company i used to work for stuck around after work & played on the company's LAN. I just have this infantile need to tweak stuff - i enjoy it even more than actually flying the sim.
-d