anti-statwhoring code & other stuff

n54 · Post by **n54** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 4:18 pm

ok this mainly goes for armagoshdarn but i guess it will apply to all armagetron servers:

- i'd like some code that takes away the ability to change name during a match. why? well... :

Code: Select all

Rank     Player          LadderScore
1        stat whore      1969.8

- might be just as well to tweak the client code to avoid console use online as well, ppl can change their colors and edit their chatkeys offline

- in addition some ppl name-spam by connecting with a blank name or . or something, making the game list the entry message a bunch of times, wish that would get fixed.

maybe it's a bit strict?

Post by **Tank Program** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:39 pm

- i'd like some code that takes away the ability to change name during a match. why? well...

I'm sorry, but I really don't get why you want this... As for the name spamming, etc., that can be done with the server I think... But I just don't get why people should not be allowed to change settings during the game. That would be a pain in the ass to new players.

n54 · Post by **n54** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 5:45 pm

to avoid statwhoring....

statwhoring is when players change their names depending on wheter or not they are going to win. in this way they can avoid losing points and so they phuck up all intentions behind stuff like the ladder.

btw the "code" snippet above is taken from the armagoshdarn ladder page on the 13th of january.

as for the issue on changing settings in midplay, it can be a real lag-creator (discussed in another post on the forum). as to the pain in the ass bit i disagree, most noobs just get confused trying to edit bike/trail colors with the console, especially if they do it online when it takes a while for the changes to be applied - better they do it offline and/or using the configuration file, saves us all the hassle.

Post by **Tank Program** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 7:16 pm

I think the "stat whoring" is something unusual as when a user requests a name change they still lose the ladder points, and their name is changed at the end of the round. (At least on 0.2.6.0... I think.) But yes, prevention of name changing during a game does sound like an OK idea... (I was confused at some point...) As for the complete locking out of changing settings... From what I've seen that can't be done with the server alone, and I haven't been able to build a win32 client yet... So for now, it will just have to stay the same. (We can lock out name changing via the server though, because the client has to interact with the server to do that, at least, I think we can prevent it.) But still, I must say, that there have been times during games that people have wanted to change settings for a legitimate reason, such as camera view...

Lackadaisical · Post by **Lackadaisical** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 7:29 pm

I might be wrong, but didn't the 'stat whore' just got all those points by playing in four player mode, changing the name of player 1 to 'stat whore' and the other names names to match those players with the most points (ie player 2 = Z, player 3 = Communist, player 4 = Agix). When that is done the stat whore enters goshdarn when its empty and he lets player 1 (under the name of stat whore) win all the time.

at least.. thats the way i would do it if i were him.

n54 · Post by **n54** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 7:48 pm

ok i don't know, anyway hope the admin of armagoshdarn takes away the statwhore person and installs 2.6 soon.....

Lackadaisical · Post by **Lackadaisical** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 8:41 pm

well, you could just change your own name to stat whore and give away the points by losing every round..

Post by **Tank Program** » Tue Jan 13, 2004 9:07 pm

Good point.

n54 · Post by **n54** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 4:44 am

seems someone did just that or the server admin (whoever the hell that is) read this topic, anyway thank you (i'd still like the changes though but other code is more important i guess).

stat unwhorer · Post by **stat unwhorer** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:47 am

Yes, we've been able to get rid of stat whore's score by taking over his name. It turned out that he (or she?) is a sneaky bastard and put not one, but three spaces after his name. The spaces don't show up on the scores page, so it took a while to figure it out.

iceman · Post by **iceman** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 12:05 am

lets hope that he/she dont decide to use one of the many alternate "space" characters (codes > 128)

that would be a real pain

n54 · Post by **n54** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:17 am

on the topic how does one get special characters in armagetron? (i see Supertard's using them)

and shouldn't the code be made not to accept command keys in chat? (or is it already?) if not that would be a handy bug fix... (if it is fixed in both client and server that would be best; first line of defense at the client keeps the server from having to waste cycles on it).

iceman · Post by **iceman** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:22 am

well im not sure about supertard but what i did in the past is to open the user.cfg file and edit my name in there.

this is off topic but do you think i should change my hideous picture

n54 · Post by **n54** » Fri Jan 16, 2004 2:49 am

yes, if you want to use a picture of yourself i'd go for the normal one, or maybe your iceman logo/address? or all three combined

Z · Post by Z » Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:35 am

Hey all

Actually, the way that stat whore got his score up so in54nely high is that he waited until the server was empty, and then signed in with a BUNCH of cloned 'tron instances, each of which had 4 players all named the same thing (i.e. stat whore). This way, all he/she has to do is survive with one of the "stat whore"s, and he gets all the points for the other stat whores. The trick is that it tries to calulate the change in score for many people of the same name at the same time. So, it essentially takes 10% of every other stat whore's survivor ladder score and adds the resultant total to stat whore's score. However, when it does this, it only gives stat whore the reward! The penalities do not come into effect, likely due to some overlap in the calculations that becomes messed up due to multiple instances of the same name-- I haven't even looked at the code yet but I imagine it's fixable without too much difficulty. Thus, each time he racks up points, he essentially adds to his score a value = ((number of stat whores) * .1 * (stat whore's score))! I'm sure you can see how this number would reach very high values really really quickly (heck, only 10 stat whores would double the amount of points he had-- and I've had almost 40 sonics in at once before). Just a heads up to you guys if you think this is something that needs dealt with. Although, personally, I've never thought too much of the survivor ladder anyways

This also brings in another point you may want to consider- while some servers successfully limit the number of connections that can be made, none I have been on successfully limit the number of players - In darn, I was able to bring in about 40 Sonics, and I believe L7 and a few others helped bringing in a dozen or so of their own cloned bots. Believe me, it makes for an interesting experience

Kind of impressive that the game can handle that many (and that my pos computer can handle 8 or so instances of armgt without dying, hehe). Anyways, this may be something else to consider in dev.

This summer I might try to help- about time I start doing something with my education ;p Anyways, see you all on the grid, and sorry if this is old news (or if I confuse y'all, lol)!

~Z~

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anti-statwhoring code & other stuff

anti-statwhoring code & other stuff

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special character codes

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