Encryption, upgrades, and VO.3 release

in #drugwars5 years ago (edited)

There were so many of them and the noise was unbearable. Gunshots came from almost all directions and left marks in the walls. How lovely, he was out of bullets. His young protege ran and hid behind the kitchen counter.

"For f@cks sake, shoot Marty! Shoot! I'm all out!" How the hell did they get here so fast? He purchased better weapons at the same time they did and he knew they did not pay for it as much as he did. It made no sense.

"Do you want me to get you more bullets boss?" Marty was still safely hiding in the kitchen. Talk and no action, so predictable and so annoying.

"No Marty, I want you to get me a cup of tea. Yes Marty, bullets!" Where was that bazooka guy he hired yesterday? Probably screwing the waitress in the basement. Hopefully, he heard what was going on and will be here soon...

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It is time for another announcement of some upgrades we are planning for you. You can expect them to take place in the next couple of days. Lord Architect is working on them as we speak and should have them ready by next week. There are three things that will be improved; purchasing upgrades, transactions, and the big 0.3 release of the game that will bring much happiness to everyone. All of them will serve as another great addition to the game quality and as stepping stones for much more that is to come.

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Up until now (and for a few more days), players who would purchase instant upgrades with steem were missing a crucial benefit. No matter how you would upgrade a certain building, the level of it would rise and you would have to wait a certain period of time before doing it again. For example, you have a building at level 3. When you upgrade it with resources, it will go instantly to level 4. When you upgrade it instantly with steem, it also goes to level 4. The word "instant" is redundant and that kind of system is not fair to players who are investing steem and purchasing upgrades so it is natural that we are going to improve it.

Instant will mean instant only for instant upgrade

The improvement will bring a huge benefit to players who are purchasing instant upgrades with steem. Their upgrade will continue to be instant. Clicking on the "instant upgrade" will raise the level of your building instantly. For players who will buy an upgrade with resources, that will not happen anymore. They will have to wait a certain level of time and then the level will change. It is not that different from before, time periods of waiting will not change, the order will. Before, the system was made so it goes upgrade first, waiting second and now it will be waiting first and upgrade second.

We are aware that this will not be well received by everyone but we do want you to have something in mind. Players who are purchasing upgrades with steem are investing in the game and making your daily payments possible just as they are paying for the improvement of the game. It is not only fair but quite logical that those who invest more, get more. We want our game to be accessible and enjoyable to all players but we do have a certain responsibility to those who are making the game possible.

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People can now get the information about your attacks easily. All they need to do is look at the blockchain and see what has happened. It is pretty clear. It will not be so clear anymore, not clear at all. Let's look at an example. Now, you can see almost everything that goes on:

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In this next image, you can see that the information that was once available, will now be encrypted. Other players will know that you did something but what that something is will be a mystery. They will not know who you attacked or how many troops you have sent.

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This will also create a level of certainty that transactions came from our client.

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And here comes our biggest announcement... Are you tired of pushing that F5 button all the time? Soon, you will know it only as the thing from DW history. We are proud to announce that we are working on the 0.3 release of the game where there will be no need to refresh the game because it will refresh itself after a certain action. Everything will go smoother. The game will be faster and there will be no pending time after the battle, just a small preparation time. The playability of the game will increase and we are sure that 0.3 will give you more reasons to enjoy your time in the DrugWars world.

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If any issues arise during the deployment of the new release, we will be there to fix them for you so be sure to let us know in our helpdesk channel if there is something we can help you with.

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Marty threw him some bullets across the floor but they stopped rolling just a couple of feet away from him. Perfect, Marty was a complete imbecile.

"Would it kill you to put some muscle into it, Marty?" why did he keep him around anyway?

"I think they came because they know who you are boss. Could we somehow mask your real identity?"

"That is not a bad idea, Marty. Not bad at all." That is why he kept him around. Sometimes, Marty had good ideas...

Sort:  

Man. I had high hopes that these sudden unannounced changes that completely upend gameplay were a thing of the past.

soniamdisappoint.gif

Is it possible to please stop doing this? Give people a chance to consider these kinds of sweeping changes, comment, consider replies, and prepare for them? What is the impetus to so radically change battles with no warning?

Really. I'm not even discussing the specific changes being better or not. Just stahp blindsiding us with changes that completely and radically alter the game. Also, do I need to point out that if your encryption was hacked, then keeping it in effect essentially rewards the hackers and harms everyone that didn't hack the game? Don't let hackers win by cheating. It is vastly preferable to simply stop encrypting, or change encryption immediately. Even just stopping encryption when it's hacked penalizes the hackers, because they sunk all that time and energy into gaining power over everyone else, that leaving hacked encryption in place delivers to them.

I'd appreciate it.

Well I wouldn't say I would be penalized by stopping the encryption, because it only took me like 15 minutes. I also haven't used it anywhere as I play very passive and don't attack . I also didn't release the whole decryption code to anybody else.

But yeah otherwise I completly agree with you :)

Well, hey, 15 minutes is something. I am happy to hear your interest wasn't in taking advantage of your cryptographic skillset, and also that you didn't enable any potential bad actors by releasing the hack.

Thanks!

It's more like a fun version of sudoku :D

Well I can't make sure that others haven't found the same and abused it...

But meanwhile the encryptions has been changed :) And it's now on a per user base. So it shouldn't be possible to read other peoples activity :)
(You could however automate your own activities, but I guess there is no way around that :/ )

So they fixed the encryption issue? How did you hack it?

@valued-customer, I am sorry you feel this way. As for our upgrades, they have been announced a couple of days in advance. We started announcing it in that way a week or so ago. I personally go over all the comments on every posts, all the messages in discord and DMs and keep a notebook of players wishes and ideas. The architect is in-check with players too. We are aware that not all upgrades can be liked or accepted by everyone but we are trying to find solutions that will make at least most of you satisfied.
The encryption is being worked on. We appreciate your feedback and the time you spend thinking and providing us with your ideas and thoughts. It means a lot to us. Thank you.

I was paying pretty close attention, follow @drugwars account, and never saw these changes explained prior to the announcement they were live. I will grant that I am fallible, and don't discord. It's possible you are speaking the gospel truth and my inattention was my own fault.

I also appreciate very much your engagement in comments. It's a great sign of folks that aren't interested in simply parasitizing wallets, but are intent on creating a community.

I get that feeling ya'll are the latter kind of folk, and those are generally folks I don't mind keeping company with.

Thanks!

I take the credit for that ;)

Wasn't even difficult. Maybe you need somebody with better ideas for encryption in your team? 😋

!dramatoken

:) Hi Twinner

Lmaooooooooo

!dramatoken

Ayyyy

!dramatoken


You have DRAMA!

To view or trade DRAMA go to steem-engine.com.


Here's your DRAMA. Don't spend it all in one place!

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You have DRAMA!

To view or trade DRAMA go to steem-engine.com.

you're right, pal @ twinner and @mwfiae

Bitch you dont have any drama tokens, go buy 10 on steem-engine and then you can fucking give out free money you fucking Bitch

How?

Won't share until the encryption is removed/replaced with something better :)

Every such action is pushing us to be better and to improve. We are open sourced and in each hack, we see a challenge. We are already working on the next level of encryption ;)

In the meantime, leaving the hacked encryption in place makes the hackers extremely powerful. Why are you empowering cheaters? If you immediately drop encryption when it gets hacked, the hackers pay a penalty equal to the time and treasure they spent to cheat.

Leaving it in place lets them profit from cheating, and penalizes all their victims.

C'mon.

Btw. I haven't cheated with it, was just a little fun side project. I also haven't anything automated ingame.

And it only took 15 minutes of my time. (yes thats how bad the encryption was)

DIdnt hear about the hacking. What are the hackers able to do if they get pass the encryption?

Well it wasn't hacking as much imagine it. (ie breaking into the server and beeing able to change stuff. )
Basically all that it means that the custom_json that drugwars writes encrypted into the blockchain can now be read again. Basically bringing us back to the time before the encryption update.
So while others would only see glibberish, I would be able to exactly tell that you build 400 bouncers. For example.

But they cant write in a million Drugs in their account.. Right?
My technical knowledge in this regard is very limited.

Nope we can not change how the game works or what ressources/units we have.
That would require access to the database/server which wasn't compromissed in any way :)
(But I can check if they used the same password for that as well. that could be funny. )

Nope we can not change how the game works or what ressources/units we have.

I assumed if hackers can do that in AAA games. Change how the game works in multiplayer that it wouldnt be difficult to do in a game like Drug Wars.
I might be wrong.

Shouldn't you guys just be encrypting everything with the @drugwars public memo key and decrypting it with your private key? The answer is already built into the platform and can't be hacked.

yep that would be a good idea for security. But it leaves another problem... we (the players) can't verify whats is beeing done in the game. Therefore ruining the blockchain character of the game (why post some bs on the blockchain if nobody can use it? Why not only use a normal database? )

We need a way to verify the transactions, otherwise all the "assets" ingame are practically worthless as an admin/whatever can just cheat any amount and then profit of that.

Why not only use a normal database?

At this point they should be, but they are in too deep and they are basically using the witnesses to create this information that is validated by posting key encryption.

Regardless, you are right, at this point the entire game can be taken off chain if they develop a way to let us sign transactions with our posting keys and send them directly to the server.

This is why the game shouldn't even have a centralized server to begin with. It should be run with a decentalized open-source nodes that all sync together just like a real blockchain would.

Easier said than done, I'm afraid.

My money from winnings is not being loaded into my account..Im used to waiting a bit, but its been about thirty minutes... Please advise

I invested some steem at the start, but have been playing 'off the proceeds' since. I have wondered why they were both instant upgrades. I think it will improve the playability going forward.

It's fun to be a part of even outside the actual game. Thank you for that.

Thank you for your feedback, we are happy to receive your input. Keep on enjoying the game ;)

so please let range units have a range advantage vs. melee units..
something for the next updates?

Different units will have different advantages and they will be implemented soon so your strategy skills will be put to the test ;) We are looking forward to seeing so many new upgrades being implemented that will expand the game further. Stay patient and keep enjoying the game. Thank you for your feedback.

THX a lot for the prompt reply and the info

We are proud to announce that we are working on the 0.3 release of the game where there will be no need to refresh the game because it will refresh itself after a certain action.

Proud... If someone offered that as a solution on a team I headed, I would seriously consider firing them. That is at best a hack job to momentarily fix a problem that you should continue work on. The entire purpose of the whole ajax thing that's evolved into what we have today was to avoid loading entire websites just for tiny little things. I can't even explain how much I am facepalming right now. I'm sure people that aren't devs won't understand...but that's embarrassing. I'm sure you have a lot on your plate, so it's not a priority...but don't frame it like it's some great thing. It's not.

I really hope it doesn't take as long as a standard reload with this update...

I thought the same thing when i read that line. Kill the SPA architecture and just refresh the page on each action.

Reminds me of a messed up project where they refreshed the page in a angular application because they couldn't figure out how to wire it up properly.

I somewhat agree with you but I'm a bit more shy about shitting on him/them over it. Maybe you know more about them than I do but for all I know, they could be students who are still learning and shitting on them is just not going to be helpful.

Well, mostly I had a disagreement with the way it was framed. Hopefully the coders didn't frame it in such a excited perfect light.

Believe it or not, I actually toned down what I was going to say a lot. I blame their previous missteps. I don't seem to have that much patience left.

From those missteps, I would actually assume the coder doesn't have a lot of experience in some thing.

but don't frame it like it's some great thing. It's not.

Every new implementation and upgrade is a great thing. Progress is a great thing. We have no intention to stop moving forward and developing the game. Step by step, little by little, one line of code after another and yes, we will keep being proud of everything that has been accomplished so far with happy smiles on our faces and an eager expectation of what is to come.

Every new implementation and upgrade is a great thing.

No, no it's not. This is an example of a tiny temporary patch that is actually kind of embarrassing. These kind of patches should be framed like "We've temporarily patched DrugWars to auto-refresh after certain actions until we can patch all of the issues causing users to have to refresh the page." There are MANY updates and upgrades in software that aren't great. Some of them actually make things worse. But you make your choices in what to do with an application given what you can figure out to do in the time that is given.

Will Drug Wars be offering refunds to everyone who broke their F5 key playing this game? Mechanical keyboards are not cheap and those switches can take a lot before wearing out.

:D
We are sorry that your keyboard took such a hard hit by your enthusiasm of playing the game and wanting it to refresh. As for the funds, we are more inclined to making the game better and better and reimbursing you in that way ;)

lol F5 is that how you do it. iv'e been logging out then back in

And what about people that play on their phones? We need to get something as well

Posted using Partiko Android

always those Bazooka guys... :-)

anyway...

No news about implementation of FUTURE deposits/payments/rewards ?

What do you think about a marketplace where resources can be swaped and traded by the users ?

The implementation of Future is being worked on and we kindly ask for a bit more of your patience. It will be added in the game soon. As for the marketplace, thank you for that idea, we will take it into consideration.

Yeah, a market and a transfer action to other users would be great especially to support newcomers to build their empire and to counter the character of a p2w a little :-)

Because right now the prices to me seem very high for people starting to play to level up...

There should be some contribution by new players to the reward pool but it should stay affordable to them ...

There is still a thing that needs to be clarified.
How much should we pay for this instant update of HQ for example, 2.8 STEEM or 6.36 STEEM?
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The 2.8 is what you are paying in translated to dollars the 6.36 is STEEM

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Hello @erikaflynn thank you for your interest in the game, you pay 6.36 STEEM (2.8 is the value of STEEM in $)

I think to clear this up it: instead of the dash ( - ) it should be (or)

Clear things up further, don't include the USD price

I think it should be replaced by the equal symbol (=) ;)

Woow, until now I understand that. Thanks.

Youre right, even i was very very confused bythis in the very beginning, because theer is no = sign... This does NOT look like $2.8 OR 6.36 steem.... it is NOt clear @drugwars and you BETTER change it and put the word "Or" oin there so people KNOW .... also why even show the dollar amount? This is steem so lets just have teh STEEM amount and maybe show us dollar amount when you hoverover BITCH

It seems we were heard:-) Now it looks not so confusing
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I have a question @drugwars .

Maybe people that are blacklisted from @buildawhale will not receive the upvotes, or it is just a feeling? Can you clear it? Thanks!

Are you advocating turning this game into @markymark's personal fiefdom? What has a bidbot got to do with @drugwars? How about we blacklist players with 'crypto' in their name? Or Steemit accounts?

Are you just pandering, or is there some actual reason for DW to base their actions on a bidbot's users?

I just asked, would be a shame if it is connected to markymark's game. So, was just asking because i didn't receive a single vote before today :D nothing else.

Posted using Partiko Android

Hmmm, I was not aware of this (but then again, it is morning at my place), will check it out with the rest of the team. Thanks for telling us about it.

Why does a bidbot's blacklist have an impact on DW?

Not grasping this - except that the bot is owned by @markymark, who has spent a lot of Steem in the game. If you start pandering to Big Steem, I'm out.

I won't be alone either.

I like Marky. Hes fun in a aloof kind of way.... That being said, it would be pretty stupid for a game to go with his bid bot ban list. For most part the list is solid but the danger is there for him to just fill it up with folks he doesnt like.

Hes just some guy with a bidbot and a lot of steem that when confronted with the question:

"Why is Bernie not banned, he boosts 3 word posts to the top of the trending page.

His response was:

Original content.

So really, im not sure taking his word on who should or shouldnt be banned is a good idea. lol

Are You know, that 35% of your share reward comes to drugwars? Some times upvote is much smaller or even no up vote, but tbey receiving 35% beneficial reward :)

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