sv_minguidage ??

(bani) #1

does it work or not?

(bani) #2

bump

(O2.iceman) #3

How does it work?

What is it supposed to do?

(Lekdevil.NL) #4

I’ve tinkered with it for a bit, but so far it seems to do exactly nothing. It’s a read-only cvar, but it can be set from the server startup line. Still, it doesn’t seem to influence the PunkBuster behavior, though.

My best guess is that the PunkBuster feature that will control this cvar is not implemented (yet). Its obvious use would be to allow only players with GUIDs of a certain “age” onto the server. This would prevent people from obtaining a new GUID after being kicked/banned and reconnecting to the server immediately. This is pure guesswork on my part, though.

(O2.iceman) #5

So if this is supposed to be the solution to stop people you ban getting back on just by obtaining a new GUID, then how does it work?

Does it use IP address? Cause again, this changes all the time.

Coming from a game like wolf which had such great admin facilities and you just know that banned people stay banned, i’m not looking forward to having to deal with the intentionally lame people who will so easily be able to get around bans and ruin people’s game.

It’s a real shame that SD and PB didn’t put more thought into this.

(Lekdevil.NL) #6

The GUID string contains a timestamp that indicates the time of issue by the master guidauth server. The game server can use this timestamp to determine the age of the GUID.

And, I’m sure the guys put a lot of thought into this. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do when the game does not come with an unique, non-repudiatable shared secret like the CD keys of RtCW. A “real” CD key is truly unique and losing it means you cannot play the game any longer. Obviously, it’s very hard if not impossible to implement something like that for a game that’s freely downloadable. Without it, there is no guaranteed way of uniquely identifying players and having the ability to uniquely kick/ban them.

(Spookstah) #7

I dont agree that it is to hard to implant such a system into a free game, you do refer to a valid cd-key, while ET doesnt use a cd-key you can still build in a unique ID one way or the other (maybe its already in it).

This is partial how for instance Office or Windows XP activation works, it identifies certain hardware IDs and/or codes and generates an unique ID which allows you to activate your OS/Office and “blocks” you from installing it on several systems.

I think this or a simular methode can be used by ET, when you install the game it identifies certain hardware ID`s (cpu ID for instance) of your system and generates an unique ID which will be used to validate your profile/installation when you connect with a server.
This can be done without harming your privacy if implanted well.

(SCDS_reyalP) #8

You can also go and download a program which changes your windows GUID in about 2 seconds. You can also get a new one by re-installing windows.

CPU ids don’t work, because users are allowed to disable this feature, and many CPUs don’t have them at all.

MAC addresses do not work, because they can often be adjusted via software, and some connection types do not use a MAC address at all.

What makes CD keys effective is no only are they unique, they also cost money.

(Spookstah) #9

I know those things can be changed but to have a certain system to block 50% of the abusers is better then ahvening nothing :slight_smile:

But they also could bind an unique ID to your ingame nick/name so when you change the ID you cant use your name/nick again or bind the ID to a legal email adress and i can think of 10 more systems, ofcourse everything can be cracked/hacked etc.

(bani) #10

the only perfect guid system i can think of would be one which costs money.

wouldnt be hard either. evenbalance/id/activision/sd could let you pay $10 for a guid online, that would deter most lamers as being lame would cost money – they would have to get a new guid everytime they get banned.

and it means evenbalance/id/activision/sd would make some money off ET. that cant be a bad thing.

(O2.iceman) #11

I can understand why they’re not shipping a CD with a GUID, the distribution and promotional costs alone just wouldn’t be worth it if they only charged $10.

But as you say, if you could simply pay online to get a CDKEY then it might work, but you’re also limiting your audience - it’s a lot easier for kiddies to go down to their local EB and buy a game, than to get permission from mum and dad to use the credit card online.

(bani) #12

excluding them whiny twit preteens from the game wouldnt be a bad thing imho.

(Chiller) #13

** bump **