13 ms·

I played a little bit years ago. I didn't like how the map was zoomed in so far, I wanted to zoom out more. I messed with the source code to let me zoom out m

I played a little bit years ago. I didn't like how the map was zoomed in so far, I wanted to zoom out more. I messed with the source code to let me zoom out more and shared how to do it. They told me I was cheating so I never played again.

ifdefdebug 10y ago
Well that's rude at best. If your patch gives you a better game play to the point of being considered "cheating", then maybe it should be made part of the game. Because now cheaters can use it silently and lough about other players stuck with their narrow view ports...
- matheweis 10y ago
  It used to be part of the game, not 100% sure why they ever changed it but iirc it had more to do with technical limitations than game dynamics... also not sure why anyone would call it cheating if they understand the game well. I would have never banned you from my servers. Lots of people call anything cheating when they aren't good enough to win. All the more reason for neutral game servers rather than biased player hosting.
  - nol13 10y ago
    but now im disadvantaged because i don't have huge 5k monitor
  - robotjosh 10y ago
    Yeah, I was told the game had to be shitty because some players still had pentium 3s. This argument was ridiculous as I was playing on a eee-pc (single core intel atom) with an external 19" monitor. My hardware was too good it wasn't fair? I started playing because it was open source, I thought players would be encouraged instead of discouraged from patching the source.
- ptero 10y ago
  Agree. IMO in general, putting limitations that can be easily, invisibly overcome by either a local patch invisible to other players or multiple instances running in VMs is counter-productive.
Qantourisc 10y ago
in 2017 you should be able to view the entire map imo ;) The cheating part however is true, the limited view creates extra challenges. The best solution is allowing servers to set the desired allowance.
- voidpointer 10y ago
  Not sure how this is designed in this game, but if you want to make the game only show a certain portion of the map to clients at a given time, you need to make sure that things that the player should not see are never sent to the client. Otherwise, you are always opening the system up for this sort of "cheating". With the game being open-source, it is easier to do but also with closed-source games, this is what things like "wallhacks" etc are based off: making information that is available to the client visible to the user.
  - chongli 10y ago
    I don't know how you're supposed to do that and maintain acceptable performance for scrolling the screen around the battlefield. It's one thing for a game like DotA 2 to only send position updates for units that aren't obscured by fog of war, it's quite another to constantly keep track of the scrolling screen of the player and only send them the objects in that rectangle.
    - cerved 10y ago
      SC2 does it not problem
      - chongli 10y ago
        Not true. Map hacks have existed for SC2 since beta. They would not be possible if this technology was used.
        erdevs 10y ago
        What do the map hacks accomplish? Can you see full unit information across the map? I doubt this is the case, except for the game host. For clients, I'd be surprised/disappointed if this were true as it is not costly to filter the information from clients if FoW visibility has already been calculated.
Kiro 10y ago
This comment made me lose all interest in this project.
edem 10y ago
You can fork it and set your own rules. Then you can say that everybody else is cheating. :)
mastax 10y ago
Supreme Commander is the king of zoom :) Planetary anhillation even has solar system scale zooming, but is otherwise not great.
- cschmittiey 10y ago
  I didn't realize how much Supreme Commander had spoiled me until I went back to AOE2, with no zoom, rudimentary at best pathing, and not as much complexity. I like both a lot, and I know one is older, but Supreme Commander 2 (with a couple mods) reigns supreme in my heart.
- Ralfp 10y ago
  Little known fact: zooming out to see whole map appeared first in Mechanized Assault and Exploration 2 from 1998.

ifdefdebug 10y ago

Well that's rude at best. If your patch gives you a better game play to the point of being considered "cheating", then maybe it should be made part of the game. Because now cheaters can use it silently and lough about other players stuck with their narrow view ports...

matheweis 10y ago
It used to be part of the game, not 100% sure why they ever changed it but iirc it had more to do with technical limitations than game dynamics... also not sure why anyone would call it cheating if they understand the game well. I would have never banned you from my servers. Lots of people call anything cheating when they aren't good enough to win. All the more reason for neutral game servers rather than biased player hosting.
- nol13 10y ago
  but now im disadvantaged because i don't have huge 5k monitor
- robotjosh 10y ago
  Yeah, I was told the game had to be shitty because some players still had pentium 3s. This argument was ridiculous as I was playing on a eee-pc (single core intel atom) with an external 19" monitor. My hardware was too good it wasn't fair? I started playing because it was open source, I thought players would be encouraged instead of discouraged from patching the source.
ptero 10y ago
Agree. IMO in general, putting limitations that can be easily, invisibly overcome by either a local patch invisible to other players or multiple instances running in VMs is counter-productive.

Qantourisc 10y ago

in 2017 you should be able to view the entire map imo ;) The cheating part however is true, the limited view creates extra challenges. The best solution is allowing servers to set the desired allowance.

voidpointer 10y ago
Not sure how this is designed in this game, but if you want to make the game only show a certain portion of the map to clients at a given time, you need to make sure that things that the player should not see are never sent to the client. Otherwise, you are always opening the system up for this sort of "cheating". With the game being open-source, it is easier to do but also with closed-source games, this is what things like "wallhacks" etc are based off: making information that is available to the client visible to the user.
- chongli 10y ago
  I don't know how you're supposed to do that and maintain acceptable performance for scrolling the screen around the battlefield. It's one thing for a game like DotA 2 to only send position updates for units that aren't obscured by fog of war, it's quite another to constantly keep track of the scrolling screen of the player and only send them the objects in that rectangle.
  - cerved 10y ago
    SC2 does it not problem
    - chongli 10y ago
      Not true. Map hacks have existed for SC2 since beta. They would not be possible if this technology was used.
      - erdevs 10y ago
        What do the map hacks accomplish? Can you see full unit information across the map? I doubt this is the case, except for the game host. For clients, I'd be surprised/disappointed if this were true as it is not costly to filter the information from clients if FoW visibility has already been calculated.

Kiro 10y ago

This comment made me lose all interest in this project.

edem 10y ago

You can fork it and set your own rules. Then you can say that everybody else is cheating. :)

mastax 10y ago

Supreme Commander is the king of zoom :) Planetary anhillation even has solar system scale zooming, but is otherwise not great.

cschmittiey 10y ago
I didn't realize how much Supreme Commander had spoiled me until I went back to AOE2, with no zoom, rudimentary at best pathing, and not as much complexity. I like both a lot, and I know one is older, but Supreme Commander 2 (with a couple mods) reigns supreme in my heart.
Ralfp 10y ago
Little known fact: zooming out to see whole map appeared first in Mechanized Assault and Exploration 2 from 1998.