Map snapshot and AI control can be used for game abuse

[Chanterier]

While map snapshot is awesome for developers and for bug hunting, it has potential to be used by players in a wrong way in multiplayer matches. It takes several seconds to snapshot the game and open it in a map editor to check the enemy presence and unit locations.

Map snapshot and several other development features (like AI control, perhaps there isn't any other and I'm just saying 'several') should require modder to enable them (they should not be enabled by default in Ares).

About AI control: when AI is in control, player gets the multiplier to the income like the AI would, so this is clearly abuse too.

It should most probably be a tag in rules so that if a player modifiers the setting, game becomes incompatible with legit versions.

[mevitar (mevitar)]

I agree regarding AI control, it will lead to abuse, and something should be done about it (also, why would a non-mod developer need it anyway?).

However, I disagree that map snapshot is a problem, because it isn't that much of a use during multiplayer battle - the game doesn't pause while you are checking the map. You can get killed while you are checking the map, and it will take too much effort to get a map snapshot every time something moves. Also, the only units visible in Final Alert 2 will be the modified/unchanged units from RA2/YR, so this method isn't really reliable for mods (especially TCs and mods will lots of new units).

As for singleplayer, i don't think it matters anyway. Even if map snapshots could be disabled, people who would abuse it will either find another method to cheat, or not play singleplayer at all.

[Chanterier (speederyr)]

It's not that difficult to open the map created via snapshots, especially when you play in windowed mode. It's a matter of seconds while you still control the battlefield. Worse if someone has a better setup than a PC with a single screen. There are also players who don't play competitively, but for fun and then there is more time to read from a snapshot. While there are other hacks which are easier to use, I don't think this should be left as a potentially another way to see your player's base and units. Regarding units visibility - I disagree too. It's easy to make those units visible in the editor.

Snapshotting a singleplayer mission gives away all it's secrets, which is also a thing I'd like to avoid.

[Krozalid (krozalid94)]

If I'm not mistaken, D told me before that pD was the one that coded AI control. So, when pD left, no one wants to improve the code anymore. And maybe disable map snapshot in singleplayer somehow?

[Renegade (renegade)]

Maybe we should just not compile in support for AI control in stable builds.

[mevitar (mevitar)]

Personally, I think this will suffice as a fix for the AI control abuse issue.

[Chanterier (speederyr)]

Or you can add two tags to rules for a modder to disable/enable this when required.

[ThePredator (rik-palm)]

Snapshotting maps can spoil the campaign and AI control just makes things so easy it's not considered a mission anymore.
Besides that map snapshot could indeed be used to rip maps.

[Blade (nadia-xy)]

Wait, map snapshotting should be disabled because you can spoil a campaign or rip maps with it? As opposed to just opening the map file in FA2? AI control yes, map snapshotting in MP mode I can kind of get behind, but in single player because it could spoil a campaign or let people rip maps? They can already do that easily!

[Chanterier (speederyr)]

Not if they don't have access to the files in mixes.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

I uploaded a new v02 binary (12.185.206) which contains a new tag to disable these commands. I want to point out that this not a security feature and it cannot be considered a protection against rippers. Also, the dump memory command is not disableable, because it could prevent us from diagnosing certain problems.

--- Copy of the yet to be committed commit message ---

Added the new tag [GlobalControls]DebugKeysEnabled= (boolean, defaults to yes). If it is set to no, the AI Base Plan, AI Control, Dump Types and Map Snapshot keyboard commands are disabled. If they are executed, the language string "TXT_COMMAND_DISABLED" is shown instead.

This tag can be used to prevent users from gaining an unfair advantage in multi-player games, from revealing vital secrets, and from deliberately causing a Reconnection Error in release versions of a mod.

TXT_COMMAND_DISABLED can include one "%s", which is replaced with the actual command name. In Ares, this string defaults to "The %s command is not available.".

[Chanterier (speederyr)]

Works.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

Thanks for testing!