Some players reads enemy chat while playing

[guerringuerrin]

 

I translate spanish parts of the chat so everyone can understand. I'll just put the important lines

(Ally) <mr.michael> juarca(1341) 1337rtslegend(1039) is a good player, just need good communication with him
(Ally) <mr.michael> anyway, I will attack your border first
<s0loooy0(404)> [...]
<defc0n> anyway, I will attack your border first?
(Ally) <mr.michael> how does he knows? I sent it privately
<defc0n> how does he knows? I sent it privately
<s0loooy0(404)> [...]

 

I publish these images with the express permission of mr. michael because he does not use the forum and does not speak English well. So he asked me to do it for him.

Somehow or another the known player defc0n was reading the private chat of the enemy team during a game while he himself was playing. In principle, we can all draw the conclusion that this is cheating. It remains to be understood why at the same time he published the messages he was reading in the public chat of the same game. He just was jokin? Disturb his rival? To point out how easy it is to read these messages? Maybe prove it to a third party?
It is clear that the real solution to these problems is to improve the game's information transmission mechanisms.
Until then, how should we proceed?

I think at least defc0n owes us an explanation.

Idk if he's active on the forum.

Edited March 23, 2023 by guerringuerrin

[Lion.Kanzen]

@Stan`

[rossenburg]

15 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

 

I publish these images with the express permission of mr. michael because he does not use the forum and does not speak English well. So he asked me to do it for him.

Somehow or another the known player defc0n was reading the private chat of the enemy team during a game while he himself was playing. In principle, we can all draw the conclusion that this is cheating. It remains to be understood why at the same time he published the messages he was reading in the public chat of the same game. He just was jokin? Disturb his rival? To point out how easy it is to read these messages? Maybe prove it to a third party?
It is clear that the real solution to these problems is to improve the game's information transmission mechanisms.
Until then, how should we proceed?

I think at least defc0n owes us an explanation.

Idk if he's active on the forum.

 You may want to check https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/106621-chat-extractor/#comment-547846 before considering this cheating. If it's not fair then i guess that mod needs a patch or somehow be removed? I already made a comment about exposing enemy chats and a patch was needed before being distributed to everyone

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by rossenburg

[guerringuerrin]

hey @rossenburg I think I'm not following you. I read the other thread. U mean this answer?: "i think it does on both sides. When enemy or your teammate uses /ally both the Net messages are logged so it's kind of literally reading enemy messages too. I'm not against the whole idea but telling you so incase you can make a patch around it before giving it out to everyone. Won't be fun to see enemies messages"

In that case I agree with you. Are you saying defc0n was testing Helicity's script?

[guerringuerrin]

Okay, I've seen your profile. Are you defc0n, right? I didn't knew that. 

So you saying you were actually testing Helicity's script

Edited March 23, 2023 by guerringuerrin

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

This script from @Helicity is different. I think it is only accessible from replay storage, not live. If defcon can do this in game, it is absolutely cheating.

[rossenburg]

19 minutes ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

This script from @Helicity is different. I think it is only accessible from replay storage, not live. If defcon can do this in game, it is absolutely cheating.

hey @BreakfastBurrito_007, it's no different and its not accessible from replay storage unless you don't know anything about coding. Your chats are logged on your local storage, the code extracts the chat and display it on a console. @Helicity didn't make it intentionally to display enemies chats but my point is once we are logging observers, allies and public chats, anyone that uses /allies ( allychat ) regardless of enemy or your ally will be logged too. The whole point to prove that the script that has been released to everyone has the potential of promoting cheating. I'm not against it , it just needs a little bit of a patch.

Edited March 23, 2023 by rossenburg

[rossenburg]

24 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

So you saying you were actually testing Helicity's script

yes and to raise awareness of what its capable of

Edited March 23, 2023 by rossenburg

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

If the script can do this it needs to be changed to not do this.

[BeTe]

Random question:

I was told that people can somehow install cheats. I know for option in lobby, but can they do it without that option? How can I prevent that?

[guerringuerrin]

31 minutes ago, BreakfastBurrito_007 said:

If the script can do this it needs to be changed to not do this.

Unfortunately the script code has already been published so anyone can access it and use it for better or worse. It would be good, at some point, to be able to create a patch on further releases that prevents certain information from being accessed only by the corresponding clients and not by everyone in the game.
Btw, you don't even need this script. U can get same info with tail command under linux or similar software under windows

[G.O.A.T]

Reading  chat  while playing game directly in-game is definitely different approach what @Helicitypresenting at his case. 

On screenshot it is clearly visible that player responding to ally chat.  

 

I'm not here to defend @rossenburg, he just could be honest and admit he has ability to read it in-game. He did not and his answer simply tries to move your focus to different topic even very similar.

I can confirm that is very easy read players (even enemy) chat by simply changing  single condition in specific file.

I would call for messaging in-game redesign as developers already knows for many years it is not secure. 

as workaround (not always possible) you can try use voice chat with other 3rd party apps.

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by G.O.A.T

[Yekaterina]

The purpose of my script was to extract the player chat history in order to report certain rude players. It cannot be used in real time to read enemy chats.

[Lion.Kanzen]

The question would be, how to change this situation? 

 

[alre]

cheating in 0ad is easy, there is no anti-cheating at all and basically anything can be done unless it breaks the game rules.

Helicity's script is helpful, and so are rossemburg's comments, as for promoting cheating. I guess patching the mod could discourage cheating somehow, but this kind of public display seems pointless to me.

[rossenburg]

3 hours ago, Helicity said:

The purpose of my script was to extract the player chat history in order to report certain rude players. It cannot be used in real time to read enemy chats.

well then it simply means you didn't understood the code you wrote yourself @Helicity. The code extracts chats from mainlog.html file and display it on a console. In mainlog anything observer, allies or normal chat it logged and anything "/allies" (regardless of being enemy chat or not) is also logged. Everything is in real time unless you close the game, mainlog keeps logging as far as the game is opened. In python you can simple clear a file by opening it using "write" mode and immediately closing it or simply truncate, so if you want to clear mainlog without closing the entire game that's the approach to take. Overall , i do know the intention of the whole script wasn't for promoting players to be able to read enemy chats but that's the current situation now. I'm sure @Stan` and other devs are well aware of

Edited March 25, 2023 by rossenburg

[Yekaterina]

19 hours ago, rossenburg said:

. Everything is in real time unless you close the game, mainlog keeps logging as far as the game is opened.

That means, you don't even need my program to cheat! You can read the mainlog.html file in real time by opening it in an browser and refreshing whenever you want to see the chat log!

My program is only making the html file neater to read by removing irrelevant information and grouping strings into a format similar to the in-game chat.