The Underscore Archives

On 14 Dec 2009, at 09:27, Steve Kirtley wrote:

> Anyone have any clever ideas to stop anyone just monitoring the  
> network
> activity of the game and just posting a score of their choice to the  
> same
> script?

One trick is to have savepoints in the game, so the user's score is  
submitted periodically throughout. By checking that score timestamps  
are within the expected ranges (and possibly having a non-obvious  
point-specific string that's sent with each savepoint too) you should  
be able to spot most cheaters.

It's also worth encrypting the data you send - even though someone can  
get at your encryption key by decompiling the flash app, it'll put off  
the casual cheater.

As ever, it depends on what it's worth to cheat: if you're giving away  
a laptop to the highest score, put in loads of measures. If it's just  
a fun game, you don't need to worry so much.

Oliver.