Risks of Continuum

[Requiem.]

Hello all, I have a friend whose dad won't let him download continuum without knowing of the risks involved.

He tried contacting the webmaster of getcontinnum.com (I didnt even know we had a webmaster. lol)

 

Can anyone tell me any risks involved? Just so I can gve this link to my friend who can send this to his dad? I would really like to see him back in continuum, as he is from the VIE days.

 

Thanks all,

 

-Req

[CRe]

I don't see any risks in using Continuum. Yeh I still get email directed to me from getcontinuum but I have a gmail filter set up so it goes to my trash.

 

My son wants to download and run subspace…

 

Some time ago we went through problems with subspace … like virus infections and the like and I told him no way ….

 

Long story short what assurances if any can you give me that we won’t have any issues like that again if I let him run this on my network

[Hakaku]

Honestly, there's very little to no risk in running Continuum. At worse, it could be possible for a virus to be downloaded with the installer if you don't download the game from a reputably safe source (i.e. http://www.getcontinuum.com), but this is very unlikely to happen. The only other case I can think of is Windows Vista users disabling the UAC (User Account Control), which does technically render the operating system a little less secure, though there is an alternative method from using this which has been mentioned in quite a number of threads before, so ultimately this one would be the user's fault and not Continuum's (though the UAC is highly overrated).

 

But in all these cases, the problems are external to the game itself, so there is no risk in running Continuum itself. If you do get a virus while Continuum happens to be installed on your operating system, you should in all seriousness consider that the virus (malware, spyware, adware, trojan...) came from a different source (e.g. Via browsing the web, downloading other content, etc), or was the result of a different security problem.

[kasa]

risks are

continuum is highly addictive to some kind of people

especially for that 2.000 people that plays around the world

 

if you don't use an ignore.txt ss has some really big suckers in its population and since they suck swear and insult all the time without even a reason he may be affected psychologically or learn some new swears

 

for computer security it has near no risk at all as far as anyone knows it has been tested over the years

Edited April 19, 2009 by kasa

[rootbear75]

especially for that 2.000 people that plays around the world

really? since when? last i remember we barely topped 1K daily

[»doc flabby]

Don't just take our word for it, several websites have tested continuum for viruses and spyware and found it to be 100% clean.

 

http://www.geardownload.com/games/continuum.html

http://download.cnet.com/Continuum/3000-20....html?tag=mncol

 

Btw cnet is missing continuum 0.40 someone should upload it again.

 

really? since when? last i remember we barely topped 1K daily

Remember Thats people playing simultaneously, I think approx 10k people a day login and play.

Edited April 19, 2009 by doc flabby

[kasa]

1 k usual time to time 1.5 k rarely it gets higher than approaching 2 k if I don't recall wrongly

[rootbear75]

really? since when? last i remember we barely topped 1K daily

Remember Thats people playing simultaneously, I think approx 10k people a day login and play.

im pretty sure it's only the highlighted one... maybe 3/4 of those people actually play at one point.

[Guest DCVoltZ]

Hello All I am the dad and after reading all of the posts here I just wana say we got a virus and it infected the my whole network and it was not on a download of the game it was on auto downloading of maps. agreed it was along time ago but it still happened and you all know the old saying fool me once.... what keeps a admin from running a bot or a side app on one of the servers.... what keeps the clients safe from angry players wanting revenge???

If I do a search on Google for subspace continuum "cheaters" I get alot of hits????

[Hakaku]

Hello All I am the dad and after reading all of the posts here I just wana say we got a virus and it infected the my whole network and it was not on a download of the game it was on auto downloading of maps. agreed it was along time ago but it still happened and you all know the old saying fool me once.... what keeps a admin from running a bot or a side app on one of the servers.... what keeps the clients safe from angry players wanting revenge???

If I do a search on Google for subspace continuum "cheaters" I get alot of hits????

Hmm, well I can't say much concerning your previous experience, but there have been no other reported cases of viruses being sent via the download of a map in-game (the client should crash if a map file is corrupted). Though if this was way back then, then you were likely using the SubSpace client, today we use the Continuum client, which was designed with security in mind. Although I was never around at that time, I do know that it was technically possible for VIE zone staff members to silently retrieve a file off a player's computer or put a file on their computer; this feature has long been removed from the server. On modern Subgame servers, uploading/downloading files is strictly restricted between the system operator and the server. In ASSS (A Small Subspace Server) zones, it's the same situation as the latter, but the zone may permit players to send files to each other : in order to receive a file you'd have to first accept it (i.e. non-silent).

 

And I think you need to make an important distinction here. Technically zones have and still do run bots on their servers or on separate servers that connect to the zone. But these so-called bots are basically false players, they're designed to perform long and repetitive tasks in a very short amount of time, such as hosting games and events, or checking around for cheaters. Players can technically load their own bot into a zone if it permits it, but it won't be able to do anything a standard player can't do unless it's otherwise given specific priviledges. And as bots are essentially players, they can't cause any harm to a player's computer, nor can they even conceivable attack the game client itself. So if a player really wants revenge that bad over an antiquated 2d game, then they'll take their anger to the playing field

 

Cheating though is an entirely different issue. No game goes without eventually being broken by kids with a lot of free time; it is afterall what partly caused the original demise of VIE SubSpace. Continuum has over the years been pretty good about this, since the client was designed to improve what VIE failed. And as with pretty much any online multiplayer game, there exists several banning methods for both zone and biller staff, thus eliminating problematic players. These cheats pretty much just consist(ed) of manipulating the gameplay, such as gaining weapons, going through walls, firing unlimited weapons... But they're not very difficult to detect, and with the most recent client release, 0.40, many of these issues were greatly reduced. It's kind of like comparing the Olympics, there's still people trying to cheat the system, but at least we got the methods to denounce their use of drugs on the gaming field.

 

I hope this all makes sense and addresses some of your concerns. Let me know if you've got other questions or concerns.

[Requiem.]

Edited April 20, 2009 by Requiem.

[I\/Ir Beefie]

Microsoft is a thing of the past, go Mac and never worry about a virus again..

[»doc flabby]

Microsoft is a thing of the past, go Mac and never worry about a virus again..

http://www.osnews.com/story/21331/First_Ma...in_DDoS_Attacks

[»D1st0rt]

Microsoft is a thing of the past, go Mac and never worry about a virus again..

I\/Ir Beefie, ladies and gentleman!

[Samapico]

Basically, the worse thing that can happen when playing Continuum is being the victim of a cheating kid who keeps blowing up your warbird, or being the victim of an angry operator who bans you from SSC.

 

Oh, you can be called a "noob" too.

 

I don't doubt that there was a bunch of huge holes in the ol' Subspace though.

 

But yeah, all those "cheating" programs and techniques for Continuum cannot harm other uses in any way, except the previously-mentioned ship blowing up from time to time They can only play around with the local variables, it doesn't give them any special powers over the server.

[PoLiX]

Hello All I am the dad and after reading all of the posts here I just wana say we got a virus and it infected the my whole network and it was not on a download of the game it was on auto downloading of maps. agreed it was along time ago but it still happened and you all know the old saying fool me once.... what keeps a admin from running a bot or a side app on one of the servers.... what keeps the clients safe from angry players wanting revenge???

If I do a search on Google for subspace continuum "cheaters" I get alot of hits????

 

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but downloading of a virus through continuum I have NEVER heard of. If you got this, you are the 1st person ever in all the years this forum has been around (~7yrs / 1yr short of the life of the continuum client itself). So really, I'd have to say you were mistaken where this virus came from. Though Continuum itself, and some its files will show up on Virus scanners as a Virus, due to the way it is packed, a lot of viruses and spyware programs are packed the same way. It just keeps them from being modified/mutated, or someone else taking credit. In our case it keeps it from people being able to cheat easily or modify their client to do harm or putting a modified harmful one out. Also helps keep the protocol secure so no variation in the server itself can be made to send files without the clients knowledge, which in that case, has to be acted upon by the client.

 

Bots are on the servers, yes. But bots again cannot send files. Continuum supports no file sending to clients. That was all removed years ago when we still used the SubSpace client. Now if your are still so worried about this, just tell him to not play on any servers without the "SSC" prefix (IE: SSCU or SSCC) or not on "SSA", "BlueT", or "PSS". The "SSC" zones are on secure professionally hosted servers, and are specially voted on/qualified to be connected to the "SSC" player database. The SSA server is SSCA's zones not on the SSC biller, through the fact they have not met player base requirements, and BlueT and PSS are smaller servers, but are hosted by 2 trusted players. Most other zones are on people's computers, or smaller servers I have yet to hear of personally, though some are secure, not all can be known.

 

Again, Players cannot harm your client. They can crash servers, or go around bans with effort, but it has no effect on you or your computer.

 

Google ANY game and the word "cheaters" or even better, Google many popular games and "Hacking" or "Viruses" or anything of that nature. Hell, do it on any program you use to connect to the internet. The browser you are using to read this is less secure than our little game. We're off most anyone who knows what they are doing's radar, and we have made many efforts to keep cheating out. Most cheating is done with universal programs that are used on all games. It just speeds up your CPU clock, modifies your memory or registry, etc.

 

Again, I have never heard of ANYONE getting a virus through Continuum, and I have ran these forums since their birth and admined the ones before we combined as SSForum. So odds are as I said, your scanner thought a Continuum file was a virus when it was not (has happened many times with new versions of our game and we get virus scanners to fix that normally pretty quickly), or a file was downloaded from a website with a virus and extracted into the continuum folder. There was some of this once happening, you just never download anything someone you don't know tells you. This is true of anything he uses on the internet, or any website he visits. The official Zone/Game sites check all their files, and most just post the same files everyone else has on the major websites. So really, beyond players posting links to stupid crap, I haven't seen a link to a virus or a cheat in quite a few years now. But again, just don't visit anything from anyone you don't regularly play with or talk to or trust. Internet 1.0 right there.

 

Hope this answers all yours, and anyone in the future's questions.

[Samapico]

It could have been someone on their network trying to get a bot up, but the bot was actually a virus, or something like that. In the subspace days, I'd bet there was a lot of people putting up fake bots with viruses... So it wouldn't have come from the game, but from the network directly.

Today's bots are open-sourced though, and I have never heard of such a thing happening in the "modern" era of Continuum.

[Aceflyer]

[»Lynx]

Microsoft is a thing of the past, go Mac and never worry about a virus again..

 

You can never worry about playing Continuum, too... (Unless they finally release Darwine 1.0)

 

Also, Parallels doesn't count, because playing Continuum on it fucking sucks, and Bootcamp isn't Mac - it's Windows so effectively useless, and I've got Continuum loaded via Darwine, and it's unplayable. (Reiteration of how much you can forget about Continuum on ze Mac)

 

-L

 

Also, a quick edit:

 

I'm sure that Beefie wasn't saying that 'On a Mac it's impossible to get a virus' - but saying something more along the lines of 'You'd need to be a fucking moron to get a virus on a Mac'.

Edited April 25, 2009 by Lynx