Admiral Kirk

Alright, found the problem with ASSS. I was told by several people that the Arena Login packet should be 10 bytes if no sub arena was specified, and 26 bytes if one was specified. According to ASSS's source, it expects the Arena Login packet to be either 26 or 27 bytes (27 bytes in the case of a Continuum Arena Login packet) and doesnt accept a 10 byte login packet, although SubGame accepts a 10 byte arena login with no problem. However, it seams it also accepts a 26 byte arena login even when no specific arena is specified. So I just changed it to 26 bytes period, and that should fix at least THAT packets compatability with ASSS. Itll probably be a few days or a week or two before a new version comes out. The current build isnt stable because im working on implimenting the New User Registration form but once thats ironed out ill be releasing a new version with that packet fixed for ASSS.

Ok, trying to add New User Registration functionality to SubChat2. Ive gotten most of my information from MERVBot as far as the packets definition. Now, hop back a few packets, to the password Response packet. According to my do!@#$%^&*entation, the 19th byte is a boolean which should be 1 if the server is requesting a Registration Form. It seams that every time I login with an unkown user name I get the response code of 1 (unkown player) but the Registration Form Request byte is 0 (not requested) which is the same as it is when I login with an existing login name and get a response code of 0 (good login). Going beyond that, I just decided to send the Registration Form whenever I got a response code of 1, but the server seams to completely ignore it. I dont know if its because it didnt request it (no idea why it didnt) or if the Registration Data is malformed. Any information from anyone who has gotten the registration form to work would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in Advance. Kirk

Mabye im old fashioned, but back in the day when I used to admin zones, people actualy had to bring _something_ to the table besides a very vauge idea and promises of "This is realy awsome trust me!" to interest people in working on thier stuff ^^. That hole post up thier just reads to me like "Hey! Ive got an idea but absolutly no ability to pull any part of it off, but hey! Thats ok, I just need everyone else to do basicly everything for me so I can take credit! Thanks!" I mean, im not trying to be mean or anything, mabye your idea is a realy good one (not that I could tell by your descriptiong of "just like half of the other zones out thier but not like anything youve ever seen before"). But I guess im just a synic ^^

I assume the ASSS zone in question is connected to the SSC biller? If so, can you add the name "Admiral Kirk" to the VIP.txt so that I can test the client thier? PM and let me know, thanks!

24 packets/sec or about one every 40ms. Sounds good to me, thats close to what im using now at 30ms (about 33 packets/sec) also i seriously upgraded the BigChunk sending and recieving routines to be more efficient. So hopefully thatll help.

NOTE!: This is a VIE Encryption only client for now. Must be on VIP or Smod+ to use it! Anyway, ya, shameless plug, I need more input from beta testers to make it better but not many people use it at the moment, I think. Anyway, have at ^^ Kirks SubChat2

Ya, I figured since BigChunks came in reliably that they went out reliably as well. I just cant seam to send the packets as out to subgame as fast as it sends them to the client without running into problems. When the send rate reaches around 20KB/s (about the spead SubGame seams to send to my client and to Continuum) many people report the file does not reach the server or the server doesnt acknowledge its reception of the file. Perhaps BigChunk sending speed is adaptive based on lag or connection type? I wouldnt think that 40 packets per second wouldnt be all that much to contend with ^^. And im not quite sure why SubGame might not be recieving the files on slower connections since thier sent reliably.

Ah yes, I remember what another questions was. Should Big Chunks be sent reliably or not?

Thier arnt many people who will probably know the exact answers to these questions, but hopefull I can get a response or two from those that do. Just so the answer-ee's are aware, these questions are related to better improving the compatability of SubChat2 with current versions of SubGame. 1) MachineID: At the moment, im using GetVolumeInformation to get the 32bit unsigned value of the serial number of drive C. Then if the unsigned value is greater than 0x7FFFFFFF (Negitive if it were signed) add 0x7FFFFFFF to it (Makes it positive if it were signed). (Avoids netban #1, or is it #0? cant remember). This is the same method Merv uses, but is it the same as Continuum uses? My goal would be for SubChat2 to generate exactly the same MachindID as Continuum for the purposes of tracking identification and bans. 2) BigChunk sending, namely, *putfile file sending. The chunks are obviously smaller than 520 bytes in size (500 bytes just to make things even in SubChat2). How often should they be sent? At the moment thier sending one every 80ms or so. What kind of data rate is too fast for SubGame? Does it realy matter? Can they be sent safely every 10ms without causing a bottleneck. I believe if I remember correctly that SubGame is single threaded and has to handle all incoming packets of all clients. Im sure it probably uses an infinite while loop with a blocking call to winsock for data reception, but still. With 500 byte chunks at 80ms per packet, it takes awhile to upload a good sized LVZ. 3) PermisionID: What in the holy heck should this be based off of and what is its purpose? At the moment its somewhat random using a few constants and TickTime at every client connect. Is this something that should be generated once and used repeatedly? Does it matter? Is it used for ban identification? My purpose here is to make sure that no one can byp!@#$%^&* bans (namely net bans) by using the client. Although why anyone would add someone to the VIP.TXT who has been netbanned and not to a local banfree is well beyond me ^^, but im a perfectionist, what can I say? Thats all I can think of at the moment, I think there were a few other things that were left uncertain in my understanding of the protocol, but I cant remember what they were. If anyone has any resources where I might find the answer or would like to answer in a reply I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance. Admiral Kirk

Ive still got it on archive, and ya, I _can_ throw it back up... buuut... Im working on LogicBot2 (shhhh, dont tell anyone) give me a month or two and you might have some 100 times better to use ^^ But if you realy need a copy of LogicBot let me know I can email it to you. Edit: Removed quote of entire previous post. --Smong

You can download SubChat2 from: http://kirk.sscentral.com/downloads.php

Actualy, thats even a possibility, Ive been thinking of picking up the ole code hammer again, and I might even have time to do it if im lucky sometime in the near future. Not to get your hopes up or anything ^^ so check back every month or so and mabye one day youll be surprised to find an update

gathering dust because no one can seam to get me a user/p!@#$%^&* that will work for login....

Ok, I finaly got my lazzy as all -*BAD WORD*- -*BAD WORD*- out of my chair and put up the site again. http://www.metalgearctf.com/kirksbots Ok, its all thier. And pretty soon I plan on putting up a CVS archive with ALL the source from both LogicBot (complete including alias/ban code) and SubChat, either that or ill get lazy and just post the source as zips Expect it soon (aka sometime this year ) dont loose interest now!

I pretty much dont have time to Devel this project anymore, but I wont let it die, Dustpuppy has requested the source to work on it and I'm hoping to find a few other voluntears who might feal like coordinating with Dust on working on it. I realy wish I could work on it, I loved coding, but I just dont have the time anymore, and it realy sucks. But oh well, such is life ya know? Anyway, keep up the good sugestions, hopefully theyll eventualy get implimented once I can get some Devel rolling on this project again, some way some how. But as always, nothin ever happens fast with me It takes me weeks to actualy do something but when i do it it i do it quickly, but considering how long it takes me to do it in the first place I might as well be slow as a snail Anyway laters ^^

Interesting thing about subchat, since its based off the core of a bot. When you connect, it begins the reconnect routine actualy, and itll never bother to tell you if it couldnt connect, itll just sit thier and keep trying for eternity, until various buffer overflows cause it to give up entirly..... What you described right thier is what subchat does when it cant connect to the server. I know ME's IP Stack was replaced with a half !@#$%^&*ed version of win2k's and xp's code. ME is an odd duck. Can you connect with regular continuum? If you can then its probably a code issue with ME (i hate me, never tested on it) if you cant connect with Continuum either well then thier ya go, problem solved, sorta...

Gotta be on VIP.TXT or SMOD.TXT or SYSOP.TXT to get into any Continuum-Only zones with SubChat since it uses the dated SubSpace 1.34 client code.

Subchat also randomly generates its MachineID which means that sometimes you can end up overlapping a local/net ban. If that happens, shutdown the program, then start it back up and try again.

Are you trying to enter a Continuum only zone? Are you on the VIP.txt.

This is finaly an Alpha worth making an anouncement about. Pretty much all the new features have been Implimented now. Ignoring works both Temp and Perm (works for all msg typs, including ?chat and interzone). And the big one everyones been asking for!!!!! Client Commands now work in the Auto Field!!!!!!!!!! well ok, mabye not THAT big a deal but anyway. Its out thier, so go upgrade if you want. You know where to report the bugs. (Oh, and just to please the critics and the people infected with PEBKAC, I have coded the client to NOT send blank messages)

Even if you completely close out the program and re-open it after the map has been DLed? If thats the case then the bug is not quite where I thought it was... Sigh.. stupid bugs... Well, tell me anything else you can think to, specific as you can get is best for me thanks And ill try my best to hunt the -*BAD WORD*- thing down. Ill keep you posted.

Major Bug #1: XP Users, delete the SubChat.manifest file if the program doesnt run correctly (as in you attempt to open it and XP tells you to go to -*BAD WORD*-).

Well.. thanks knight ^^ But I wasnt realy ready to make any anouncements over it. Its just an Alpha release, its got more bugs than i care to shake a stick at, and quite a few of the features arnt even fully implimented yet. But whatever, feel free to play around with it, but dont expect it to work very well, it is by no means a Stable release.

Very simple Pixel, if you dont like the way my program works, dont use it. Your not paying me to write it, you in no way contribute to my cause in any way. I get no donations from you, nor do I get any sense of satisfaction from someone who complains that the client doesnt do what they expect it to. And I am particularly not interested in responding positivly to someone who is impolite.

Ya, it goes like this. Change Arena, map downloads, new checksums are NOT loaded, you get kicked. Shutdown SubChat, go back into the zone, go back into the arena (asuming you previuosly successfully DLed the map for it) and itll work fine. Thiers something about downloading the map for the first time on an arena that it doesnt like cause it wont load the checksums, im still looking into it.