Stag Shot

If zones don't use this as a catalyst to switch to ASSS, it's hopeless..

Thanks for the lesson, I've been around the hacking/RE/security scene for almost two decades..And I have no respect for a DDoS attack; exploit a server vulnerability or develop a trainer if you want to impress (i.e., demonstrate true talent). Obviously nobody is getting extradited over this, but when you attack any community you have to fear a response. Lastly, PB has been idle for months and the shutdown had already been planned.

To those responsible for the attack on PB's server, a little warning. The owner of the server is a corporate level IT security specialist with decades of experience. You are also interfering with business services as well, which indicates far greater damages beyond disruption of a "game server." We both have contacts in multiple federal agencies, and I have family with Federal Bar privileges. I sincerely hope this does not trace back to a domestic IP address for your sake. And by the way, if you ever logged into PB in the past, we have the full client data on your machine (which has forensic value).

Not necessarily true.. http://www.powerballzone.com/cont/

Thanks for all your help brother! Best of luck to you.

Trust me, I'm the first to lead a revolt..But until somebody replaces Cont (I dont have the time/resources), we are stuck. I've probably heard of half a dozen attempts in the past decade, but nothing has materialized. I'm at least trying to get people off SG once and for all..But it's not easy. PS - Nothing would make me happier than to be free of our dictator =P

I guess my last post wasn't quite clear, so I'll clarify. Once we get full billing on our new server, I'm going to re-enable peering for asss and SG-fixed zones. There will be no inflation, as legacy SG zones won't be included (unless they can get their fix.dll updated). As for our server environment, it will function just fine as is. Zones rarely need something requiring root access anyways. And yes I agree with numpf that Snrub was just attempting to acquire source, and has ulterior motives..

It's only because we are on a new server and haven't gotten billing access yet..Once things are back to normal, we'll enable it again for asss or SG-fixed zones. PS - Any asss zone looking for hosting is welcome on our new server, it is more powerful than you can imagine =)

Well it seems obvious prickt has no interest in updating zones/fix.dll. PB is waiting for billing approval of our new IP, and then we are inviting any asss zones to jump on our server (full shell access, some other perks =). Looks like we will have trisector, devastation, and hopefully EG on board; CZ disabled peering, so that leaves no "inflators" left..Then we can all move on from the SG handcuffs

ASSS is what you make of it. You can no longer argue about stability, it's core is stable these days. Like others mentioned, the disincentive for the remaining SG zones is that it would require WORK just to get to the point they're at now. There would be some settings changes, bot migration issues (*commands, no longer having src), and a learning curve. Then there's the question of whether they have developers capable of modifying/creating modules. This is where things become sensitive, and zone stability can become an issue. A poorly written bot will just crash it's core, poorly written modules recycle zones! And another problem is manpower, from the failed EG transition to asss, they relied on one person to port the entire zone. It's no surprise that he burnt out and bailed after a month or two. But like someone mentioned, free hosting and laziness probably keep zones on SG. For those interested, PB is moving to a new server soon, and we'd be glad to host ASSS zones (bandwidth permitting). I usually provide a shell account and do the first compile to ensure things are working, then you can do whatever you want. Numpf and I may also help here and there if you get stumped =)

If we had access to SG binaries, I might be motivated to fix counting bots too.

Answer to 1st Q is it's zone based, and since it's asss, you can modify the behavior as you like. As for the 2nd Q, yes player count (even w/o peering) has always been inaccurate. To be TRUE, SG/asss should only be counting Continuum clients. I recall hearing stories of some zones having 30+ bots logged in at a time!

You mean like peering? I bet it's good in theory but riddled with problems...=P

Yes, you have succinctly nailed it. And I'd say we not go off on the source tangent, that's not going to happen. We can't even get the guy to change a freaking DLL. As for releasing fix.c, he won't do it as it contains Cont encryption as well..

This comes down to the PB philosophy, it's what we have done for the past decade. We FIX bugs, create bot cores, add new features (to SG or asss), take risks. We were the test ground for asss; we added replays with ball support and fast-forward capability. We have a ban system more powerful than banG. We have also been lucky to have great hosts (SSCX) and talent (including Ekted up until ~5 yrs ago). But most of all, we had motivation to innovate. Where is that drive anymore? And yes people have questioned my judgement in the past. PB was once the only zone that enforced Cont 0.39pr3 when 39pr1 was the current "build." Other zone ops said I was just killing my player base and it would backfire. But I had done analysis on pr1's security and found cheating was not only possible, it was easy. It didn't take long for others to realize, and any lamer with a generic memory modifier was able to cheat. So if you think we are radical, it's probably because we have information not readily available (I did warn other zone ops). I've been fixing prickt's bugs and neglect for almost a decade, and it's tiring. Let's move on with that which we can control, which is SG/asss. If our livelihood depends on a single free server which we have no control over, we have nothing. So when that reviewer asks "why are the numbers on the main screen fucked up?", what is the real answer? Do you tell him that we have a 9 month old fix that we can't upload?

I don't know this to be true. I fixed the dll for both DSB and EG, but only DSB was able to implement it. You need to be able to stop SG and upload the file then, which is not possible on the main SG server.

Reverting to the status quo ante is unacceptable at this point. We need progress and forward thinking, and this whole fiasco is a great example of how it shouldn't be. You complain that a reviewer harshly berated the game for having broken metrics, but what about development. When asked about our client and server structure, do we say that we are slaves to an apathetic programmer that has kept the client/server static for years. And if one of our zones goes down, we have to rely on email contact to restart it. Why don't we focus our energies and push for some change. Why are zones denied access to binaries that are over five years old? What is he protecting, cont's protocol was pretty well characterized and published by snrub. Client dev is at a standstill, but theres no reason for server development to be held back. I know there was even some work done on extending SG functionality through a plug-in system. I guess I'm asking for a revolution, while others are asking for 2008. Push the server op for access until he can't take it anymore. He will either yield or shut it down, either way it's progress. Haven't you had enough, is free really that valuable?

It be broke thanks to jeffPrickt.

No, it's a great feature that's being marred by a ridiculous policy that handcuffs several zones. You realize some of these zones are running SG versions from 2004? It's ridiculous that development isn't even an option for these zones.

So if you were to set up a server, would you use WinNT or say Win Server '08?

I hope this can be fixed, it's literally one line of code in fix.c (pop += peerpop). I suppose the better question to ask is why SG binaries are off limits to the zone ops. It's not for security, the Cont protocol is pretty well characterized at this point..Passwords are hashed for all SG zones afaik, so pw stealing is no longer a worry. Speaking of security, I've also heard that TW (prickt's unofficial zone) is running some sort of bot interface that probably represents the greatest security breach since twister.. So why the limitations? I heard ops can't even reset their own zones. That's extremely prohibitive, and counterproductive. Heck, when SSCX was run out west (~2004), we had a little web interface to restart zones/processes. SG zones on prickt's box are the least of the security concerns; you do realize anyone running asss on SSC can still run in the old billing mode with plaintext pw's (PB was inadvertently running this way until ~2 months ago) . So it seems like this security "model" is not only antiquated, but actually backwards. Sorry for the progressive mindset, but I've never accepted limitations well. We don't want the keys to the castle, but leave a door open at least =P

Update: DSB has implemented a patched fix.dll (patch is 2 bytes btw), and all appears well so far. Population bug fixed! Now, can you guys on prickt's box find a way to update the file?

So a bot that interfaces with ping packets and switches arenas/names..and you call the current system a hack. I guess I should expect this type of reaction from so many years in the SS community. Yes, PB had nothing but malicious intent when implementing this feature..If you believe that, you don't know PB nor me. Why everyone is so protective of this population count is beyond me. The # has little fidelity anyways, EG/TW run tons of bots, and asss zones can manipulate at will. The onus is on prickt to "allow" this to be fixed. Either he can change the 1-3 lines of code in fix.dll, or allow access to the binaries (in which case I will provide the binary patch). I want to fix this. And PB had no choice but to include the "peered" count, otherwise you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Who knew this would generate so much heated discussion..As for the "bug," it is an unfortunate side-effect of the new feature. And yes fixing it would probably be trivial in subgame/fix.dll (I've added commands/features to SG, back when PB still ran it). But the zones hosted on prickt's box don't even have access to the binaries, so who knows whether any changes can even be implemented. I really don't have the drive to keep hacking up SG, most serious zones should've converted to asss by now (I understand hosting is the big problem). The BEST solution is to have prickt modify the few lines of code in fix.dll to fix this. And we know he is still "semi-active," as TW received a SG update as recent as September. As for the philosophical debate, I don't care to get involved in it. It's a voluntary system, every zone controls whether they want in or out. I wasn't aware of any *sendto problems..I know the ?redirect cmd in asss zones is unaffected.