Scripting Ideas? Combat Meters. DCS2

[Amira Langsdorff]

So there's this wave of cheating going around in all sims with mostly all meters where fighters are using outside scripts to kill their opponents in SL. In SL it's referred to as "using Macros". I had a thought, and I am wondering if there is a way to log keystrokes of an avatar. Say an av is GIVEN a scripted prim that would register their keystrokes and/or speed of their strokes and set off the mic as a warning - would you say this script is feasible? I have a few thoughts, but I'm open to more opinions. Seeing as how the keystrokes are generated outside of SL and could be funneled into SL using different methods, I don't really know is stopping it is possible. I just want a way to catch them and draw a line. Since these cheaters are making real money using this, I would say it's become a bit of a problem. Any other ideas would be helpful. Thanks :)

[GothGirl Demonia]

Depending on the way the system works I believe there is a way for the actual creators of the meter to add a hit detection system to the game to detect all weapons that damage the person, this means that if a person is stacking weapons, or using macros, such as a battle channel if it uses such to spam to avoid damage, or things like deal extra damage to another player with an outside script then the meter itself would log it therefore if a person gets cheated it would be easy for them to copy paste/snapshot a log. These cheats also might be easy to detect but its a bit hard you have to know your advanced SL functions for that. However these cheats usually on dynamic channel meters are either.

One Object + 1 Script, or One Parent Object + One Script + One Child Object + Script, then a key like F5 on they keyboard to use the cheat to make it deal damage this is just an example.

If the object was a physical object actually dealing damage anyone could log it with a hud but I think its just script base making it not possible

It may also be possible to over extend your damage with a cheat like off setting hit box, lagging a bit ,or moving the weapon a inch or so out for example/modding it not sure on this never tried it.

I am not sure if this is possible if you are not the creator of DCS, You could always try asking one of the creators of the system or support there.

 

[Ela Talaj]

There is no LSL method known to me to register keystrokes except for those listed in llTakeControl() method

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlTakeControls

 

[Duckie Dickins]

As an ex-lead developer of DCS2 I would have to say it's not really possible to stop people from using macros without major changes to the system being used. For example, with DCS, sim owners are allowed to set the damage per second rate. Typically this rate is set at 0.5/sec which allows for 2 hits in a single second. Changing that rate of course slows down the amount of damage done but it also tells the meter that if the half second isn't up yet to ignore the attack attempt. So if you're button mashing or macroing, you still will only be able to get those 2 strikes in per second.

One method to combat macros and button mashers would be to add a negative affect to swinging too often....maybe it costs you some stamina everytime you swing before the next allowable swing...so if you swing your weapon 3 or more times in that 1 second interval, you'll hit twice and lose some stamina for the extra swing.

Many of the macro issues aren't necessary problems with the system but with the configuration. If your powers don't have an adequate cool down time between casts or if there is some type of combo of powers that locks down the opponent too much, like being able to cast a silence spell over and over again before the silence wears off, basically keeping them silenced from casting powers the entire battle, then you need to really look at your powers and configure them appropriately.

Finding out the channel the system uses is one way people try to cheat, but DCS also uses encrypted messages with a timestamp so repeating an encrypted message won't work either. The embedded time stamp will have expired after so many seconds so the meter will disregard an expired attack message.

Weapon stacking was also handled pretty well in DCS2 as well, as only the last weapon attached is active, so it doesn't matter if you try wearing 3 copies of a sword...DCS will only acknowledge the last copy attached.

In any case, there's not much you can do about macros other than make sure your configuration is well balanced enough that there really isn't any advantage to spamming powers at people.

[Scott Tureaud]

DCS2 isn't a physical system it all based on the meter listening to chat, and sensors dectecting targets.

From past SIM rules even arrows aren't physical anymore.  Bows and Arrows  are pretty darn annoying in DCS systems,   they're litterally better meele weapons than swords are.   Essentially you can account for something like a 3-5 meter radius splash damage in a complete circle, compared to  an arc(usually 90 degrees to 180 degrees) the same size on a sword. 

__________

I would probably say stamina system is probably the best proposal.   Essentially you can have the stamina damage come from enemy meters when hit or from your own meter.

From your own meter this means that you can't have interferance from cheats, but it discludes the ability for bows to damage stamina.   Essentially you can account for arrow/bow damage coming from further than 10-20 feet(whisper/say range), since bows are still required to to use channel 20 to damage people(usually still sensor+splash damage but that's just part of DCS silliness).

You could go for the enemy meter damaging your stamina.  You're going to have the same issue you're facing now eventually, if you get any amount of popularity.  You're relying on more channel usage which means you're going to take more script time building, string-to-listing, and testing strings than above.

A last ditch effort would probably be listening to mouse clicks, but not every click is a real swing or fire.   Swords are easy to validate, arrows will once again require a reply from the enemy meter.  End result you're better off not bothering decting mouse clicks.

With stamina you also  have the whole GUI issue.

________________________

You can also decide to just go with a global logger and damage reader, that displays a persons DPS and shortest time between swings(after having this information public+known I've seen cheaters actually dealing less damage than real players for fear of getting caught).   Then have users judge who is cheating and self enfource.    This is pretty much the only thing that works with DCS systems, they're so public and so old that users have soo many silly things.