Somebody explain to me how enabling offline play in a game makes the online part easier to hack.
I've seen comments like "Offline is a good testing ground for hacks!" or "you can edit character info offline and submit it online!" both arguments are, I apologize, ludicrous. When I say offline play, I mean that you can never take that character online. Ever. Good luck submitting that edited character online.
As far as testing ground for bots, well answer me this. How will a bot designed for the offline client hold up when used on a server? You think Blizzard is just going to say "HAY GUYZ NO BOTZ" then trust our word? Obviously they have some kind of security in place to prevent the like, so how will perfecting a bot offline make it any easier to get it online.
With offline play, everything is available for the player to look at, this does make it easier to create hacks that you can then use online. With Diablo 3, a lot of key data is stored server side, at the very least this will slow down the progress of hacks and make it easier for Blizzard to detect their use.
With offline play, everything is available for the player to look at, this does make it easier to create hacks that you can then use online. With Diablo 3, a lot of key data is stored server side, at the very least this will slow down the progress of hacks and make it easier for Blizzard to detect their use.
This is the general reason it's harder. According to Blizzard, people would need access to files that are stored only on Blizzard servers in order to design hacks and bots that would work effectively. It's not like WoW where people were able to make bots solely through macros, as there will be nothing like that in this game. A bot or a hack would require a separate program that modifies Diablo 3. It's very hard to code something like that, when you can't look at what you're trying to code for.
With offline play, everything is available for the player to look at, this does make it easier to create hacks that you can then use online. With Diablo 3, a lot of key data is stored server side, at the very least this will slow down the progress of hacks and make it easier for Blizzard to detect their use.
This is the general reason it's harder. According to Blizzard, people would need access to files that are stored only on Blizzard servers in order to design hacks and bots that would work effectively. It's not like WoW where people were able to make bots solely through macros, as there will be nothing like that in this game. A bot or a hack would require a separate program that modifies Diablo 3. It's very hard to code something like that, when you can't look at what you're trying to code for.
Which is why this situation boggles my mind. The important data you'd need to have a hack work online is stored server side, not client side, so how could offline mode make it easier >.>
In order to have offline single player, all that stuff that is server side now has to included client side, which opens it up to poking and prodding of anybody that has the knowledge to do it.
With offline play, everything is available for the player to look at, this does make it easier to create hacks that you can then use online. With Diablo 3, a lot of key data is stored server side, at the very least this will slow down the progress of hacks and make it easier for Blizzard to detect their use.
This is the general reason it's harder. According to Blizzard, people would need access to files that are stored only on Blizzard servers in order to design hacks and bots that would work effectively. It's not like WoW where people were able to make bots solely through macros, as there will be nothing like that in this game. A bot or a hack would require a separate program that modifies Diablo 3. It's very hard to code something like that, when you can't look at what you're trying to code for.
Which is why this situation boggles my mind. The important data you'd need to have a hack work online is stored server side, not client side, so how could offline mode make it easier >.>
Well think about it. What's required for the game to work offline? Offline play requires all data that's processed server side (ie: at blizzards servers) to be processed on your own PC. This means you can actually observe all processes on your computer, and from there figure out how these are handled in online play.
Without this information from offline play, it's a lot like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with the picture facing the table, and the grey side up.
Without this information from offline play, it's a lot like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with the picture facing the table, and the grey side up.
I think a more accurate description is you have a jigsaw puzzle, but a lot of the pieces are missing, so you have to create them yourself.
Somebody explain to me how enabling offline play in a game makes the online part easier to hack.
I've seen comments like "Offline is a good testing ground for hacks!" or "you can edit character info offline and submit it online!" both arguments are, I apologize, ludicrous. When I say offline play, I mean that you can never take that character online. Ever. Good luck submitting that edited character online.
As far as testing ground for bots, well answer me this. How will a bot designed for the offline client hold up when used on a server? You think Blizzard is just going to say "HAY GUYZ NO BOTZ" then trust our word? Obviously they have some kind of security in place to prevent the like, so how will perfecting a bot offline make it any easier to get it online.
Hm.. lets say offline play didn't contribute to hacking and you couldn't bring your character from offline to online. I'm assuming Blizzard just doesn't want to deal with the stress of making it offline enabled at this point considering from what I've been reading the game (like WoW) is on your computer with your character and everything but the dynamic environment including monsters are all on their servers. It'd be a considerable amount of work to change that and still release in 2011 so people who wanna play offline should be quiet and stop trying to delay our game! RAWR lol
But in all seriousness think about the work that would take for them for a minority fanbase and also remember they've been emphasizing the co-op and online features for a few years now so it's not like this is a surprise. Ya'll shoulda seen it comin, I know I did. Sorry mate, good luck next time
Can't have offline play without storing everything client-side. A lot more has to be changed to allow offline play; it's not as simple as just saying "Characters are stored on your computer instead of ours."
Since everything is on Blizzard's servers, not only is it harder to hack, it's harder to test too. This means hackers either have to:
1. Create their own emulation of Diablo 3, which is very hard to do since it's an online game. WoW for example is 7 years old, and still struggles to have anybody "truly" emulate the game without being ridden with bugs, lag issues, etc.
2. Test it on Blizzard's servers, which is very easy for Blizzard to detect and ban.
So yes, it does make hackers have a much more difficult time to mess up the game.
Question, lets say you have your stuff saved client side for single player, when you go on multiplayer couldn't it just compare your client side files with server side to see if anything is .... not quite right, out of place, or hacked/changed?
basically instead of keeping everything stored server side, when you did go to multiplayer it would do a comparison with the files it would normally have used for server side single player, and see if anything is wrong.
Can't have offline play without storing everything client-side. A lot more has to be changed to allow offline play; it's not as simple as just saying "Characters are stored on your computer instead of ours."
Since everything is on Blizzard's servers, not only is it harder to hack, it's harder to test too. This means hackers either have to:
1. Create their own emulation of Diablo 3, which is very hard to do since it's an online game. WoW for example is 7 years old, and still struggles to have anybody "truly" emulate the game without being ridden with bugs, lag issues, etc.
2. Test it on Blizzard's servers, which is very easy for Blizzard to detect and ban.
So yes, it does make hackers have a much more difficult time to mess up the game.
Question, lets say you have your stuff saved client side for single player, when you go on multiplayer couldn't it just compare your client side files with server side to see if anything is .... not quite right, out of place, or hacked/changed?
basically instead of keeping everything stored server side, when you did go to multiplayer it would do a comparison with the files it would normally have used for server side single player, and see if anything is wrong.
Hackers could just easily delete all traces of their hack before they log on. Also, if they are testing their hacks on singleplayer they may have already made it undetectable with the aid of single player. This would also cause a lot of false bans for people that play mods on Diablo 3 as well.
That would still get the people who like to mod banned and they wouldn't be happy about it.
Thing is that Blizzard by following the example of WoW handling things (everything dynamic being server side) and without macros allowed, they're creating a perfectly controlled environment where everything out of the ordinary will stand out and be easily detected and dealt with.
At least at first anyway. The new battle.net is far more complex and hasn't been so easy to hack yet. Duping is not an issue for WoW and map hacks are easier to be detected on StarCraft II aswell.
All in all, I'd say what they're doing has so far been a success. Thinking how the majority is playing online anyway and how they want to promote battle.net play aswell, it makes sense for them to follow that road. Some will be alienated, sure. But the majority will play anyway and enjoy the game.
I've seen comments like "Offline is a good testing ground for hacks!" or "you can edit character info offline and submit it online!" both arguments are, I apologize, ludicrous. When I say offline play, I mean that you can never take that character online. Ever. Good luck submitting that edited character online.
As far as testing ground for bots, well answer me this. How will a bot designed for the offline client hold up when used on a server? You think Blizzard is just going to say "HAY GUYZ NO BOTZ" then trust our word? Obviously they have some kind of security in place to prevent the like, so how will perfecting a bot offline make it any easier to get it online.
This is the general reason it's harder. According to Blizzard, people would need access to files that are stored only on Blizzard servers in order to design hacks and bots that would work effectively. It's not like WoW where people were able to make bots solely through macros, as there will be nothing like that in this game. A bot or a hack would require a separate program that modifies Diablo 3. It's very hard to code something like that, when you can't look at what you're trying to code for.
Which is why this situation boggles my mind. The important data you'd need to have a hack work online is stored server side, not client side, so how could offline mode make it easier >.>
-Gerahben
Well think about it. What's required for the game to work offline? Offline play requires all data that's processed server side (ie: at blizzards servers) to be processed on your own PC. This means you can actually observe all processes on your computer, and from there figure out how these are handled in online play.
Without this information from offline play, it's a lot like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle with the picture facing the table, and the grey side up.
I think a more accurate description is you have a jigsaw puzzle, but a lot of the pieces are missing, so you have to create them yourself.
Hm.. lets say offline play didn't contribute to hacking and you couldn't bring your character from offline to online. I'm assuming Blizzard just doesn't want to deal with the stress of making it offline enabled at this point considering from what I've been reading the game (like WoW) is on your computer with your character and everything but the dynamic environment including monsters are all on their servers. It'd be a considerable amount of work to change that and still release in 2011 so people who wanna play offline should be quiet and stop trying to delay our game! RAWR lol
But in all seriousness think about the work that would take for them for a minority fanbase and also remember they've been emphasizing the co-op and online features for a few years now so it's not like this is a surprise. Ya'll shoulda seen it comin, I know I did. Sorry mate, good luck next time
Since everything is on Blizzard's servers, not only is it harder to hack, it's harder to test too. This means hackers either have to:
1. Create their own emulation of Diablo 3, which is very hard to do since it's an online game. WoW for example is 7 years old, and still struggles to have anybody "truly" emulate the game without being ridden with bugs, lag issues, etc.
2. Test it on Blizzard's servers, which is very easy for Blizzard to detect and ban.
So yes, it does make hackers have a much more difficult time to mess up the game.
basically instead of keeping everything stored server side, when you did go to multiplayer it would do a comparison with the files it would normally have used for server side single player, and see if anything is wrong.
^All of this, exactly.
Hackers could just easily delete all traces of their hack before they log on. Also, if they are testing their hacks on singleplayer they may have already made it undetectable with the aid of single player. This would also cause a lot of false bans for people that play mods on Diablo 3 as well.
Thing is that Blizzard by following the example of WoW handling things (everything dynamic being server side) and without macros allowed, they're creating a perfectly controlled environment where everything out of the ordinary will stand out and be easily detected and dealt with.
At least at first anyway. The new battle.net is far more complex and hasn't been so easy to hack yet. Duping is not an issue for WoW and map hacks are easier to be detected on StarCraft II aswell.
All in all, I'd say what they're doing has so far been a success. Thinking how the majority is playing online anyway and how they want to promote battle.net play aswell, it makes sense for them to follow that road. Some will be alienated, sure. But the majority will play anyway and enjoy the game.