Official forums for BZFlag.org

Dexter, We are trying to determine what is need and how to go about the solution. Once we do that we can commit time to making a solution. You have to go about things in the right process. Ask for permission first, find what is need, and create a solution. I am not going to make a solution before I ...

Blast, You are correct that fixing it on the server side is the long term solution. We just don't know how long it will take for that solution to become readily available. It was my understanding that 3.0 is essentially at a standstill and has been for a long time, with no end in sight. Which is fin...

Blast, You may be right but I was thinking more along the lines of what snick was saying in that finding the skill set to manipulate a binary may be a much smaller group of people. I'd take my chances of that. Backengineering a binary would take some time and significant effort as opposed to making ...

Blast, Perhaps upgrading to 3.0 is the way to go. I was not aware that it is ready or available. When will it be? The reason we had moved on because I was under the impression that it wasn't ready and may never be. We don't want to lose the support of the project. We appreciate all the hard work eve...

Excellent post snick. I think we need to talk about what we want GU League BZFlag to be, or what we want another league to be before we can figure out how to get there. Vision: 1) Make BZFlag as fair and equitable to all players of all knowledge levels. 2) Make standards for play such that all can c...

Fs, I know the jump you are talking about and you are correct. It is a common hack used by people considered to be top players. I like where you are going FS. However people will likely hack to send back their false config. Still the best option is to make binaries. If what constituion says is true....

All good points. Maybe what I am thinking is more along the lines of a new league or standard style of play. One with binaries and standards. I think would make for a more interesting league where the playing field would be more equal across the board. I think you'd see more organized team play. Its...

Saturos, I am saying use JUST the observer monitor. Not both. If you do this you can see the direction of the tank. Xell, I said to myself 5 times. What you are failing to see if that there are options not available in the gui. It may not be abundantly apparent to all new players that an edittable t...

Let me point out another flaw, which is why we need a standard binary distribution to "fix" the client for for more equal play. Another situation I just thought of is the ability to use a 2nd monitor to login as a "random" player and the person playing the match would watch the m...

It is not difficult to release binaries for each platform. Just compile on a few major platforms. Windows, linux i386, linux 64 bit, freebsd i386/amd64, mac osx..... Doubt we have people playing on arm, ill even compile a minix version... Kidding. Just turn the config into a cxx file and we have a s...

Easy solution to all problems:

Place configuration into the code such that all configuration is done through the GUI only. Release "GU" binaries for each platform (not that many). It could probably be done over a weekend.

Would solve about 98% of all issues.

smoooth

ttkfad I think you are looking for a solution to the problem. I also think allowing admins to look at configs or do remote screen caps would be nice but it's just too much work to realistically implement. They actually could make binaries and incorporate the config file into the binary executable. T...

Dexter and Redder you have some really good points. Dexter I agree that you have to have practice with whatever config you have but the point is: If you don't ever "get" the advanced config you could be a horrible player forever. Redder is pointing out that it isn't easy or readily explain...

Dexter what you have just said reiterates my point exactly. You had a "bad" config and you sucked until 2 years later someone showed you how to get a "good" config and you got really good. Were you "unskilled" the first two years? No. Same skill. New config. Config make...

Dex -- Well, no I still think the game is generally unfair to new players because the configuration options are not readily knowable to all players. When a new players logs into GU League the first time they don't say "Hey, I wonder if I can open the .cfg file and put a size 50 mouse box instea...

Saturos -- great points. I will no longer harp on the configuration file. It is a neat and unique part of the game and makes it interesting. You convinced me. I think I was trying to make philosophical point about the beginers having a disadvantage but making config changes illegal is no way to solv...

"Let them play how they enjoy the game best." Then how can you say you want 2.0.2 illegal then? Until the league standardizes on a set of defined settings there is no correlation between skill and score. Everyone is not playing on an equal platform. That is why when a new player logs in he...

Little Lep,

I think that is a great idea. It should be incorporated into the gu league site. All players on a team are not equal. It would be nice to know which team members played in the particular matches. The changes to the system shouldn't be too hard to implement.

smoooth

It's an unequal game because you are doing things outside the standard limits of the game, which is the GUI. You are limiting the effect of true skills of common players by that which is only achieved by knowledge of long time players who manipulate the config file to maximum. What I am asking for s...

Maybe we should ask why people are typing "?"; I think what we are leading into here is this: 1. The goal is to have all things as equal as possible and have a true test of hand eye coordination and strategy. This is however FAR from what is going on. What is happening is that people are m...

I will also have to agree with snick on this matter. You have to look at the past and be certain that people have cheated and will likely not be the last ones. In my opinion it is desirable to know when something questionable stands out so we can evaluate what is going on. I think people misinterpre...

Danji, I think you are on the right track. I disagree with Dexter in the fact that I think people would be interested in another large "cup" style match. I think these generally are fun and raise morale for the league. However I wonder if veterans vs. rookies would be a good match up. I me...

Saturos/Foo -- I completely agree with you. There are many things that can cause the discrepancies. The program itself is loosely written and seems to be generally unpredictable. In fact most of the time when people think that I am accusing them of 'something', 90% of the time I don't mean "che...

ts - you're proving my point exactly. How do you "suspect a handy cheat" when the replay doesn't represent what actually happened. You can't say 1. Tank locations and shots in replays are always false. and then say 2. If a tank walks thru all shots on replay then they are cheating. Like sa...

Well these are all very good ideas. However we have to get one thing straight. This is basic logic. Either the replays represent what happened for they don't. If they do not then I can walk thru every bullet and no one can say anything. If the replays do represent what happened then thats where stat...