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You mean, when someone reverse engineers their massively multiplayer server scheme and rewrites an entire server wrapper for a game that follows the client/serv

by criley 14y ago

You mean, when someone reverse engineers their massively multiplayer server scheme and rewrites an entire server wrapper for a game that follows the client/server paradigm? This isn't a case where a client-only software package is locked by a remote server. This is a case where core game logic is stored on servers and will have to be reverse engineered or emulated on some level to play truly offline.

PeterisP 14y ago
It wouldn't be the first time where such game-servers are actually reverse engineered and emulated.
- daeken 14y ago
  Hell, that's how I got into reversing a decade ago. I spent years reverse-engineering Everquest to work on server emulators, as well as an open-source client replacement. Quite the gateway drug.
astrodust 14y ago
It took years, but this was done with Battle.net for some older Blizzard games.
- nwh 14y ago
  Mainly because it Battle.net is just IRC.
  - astrodust 14y ago
    I mean of the actual game back-end for things like Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft II. There was a complete replacement for Battle.Net that, unfortunately, ended up mired by legal concerns.
deoxxa 14y ago
I kind of started poking around at the backend protocol this morning. It's all websockets over HTTPS (very trendy stuff) and is hosted on EC2. I'm yet to dig much further than "let's see what this looks like in wireshark", but the behaviour and some of the errors I've observed in-game point to some kind of sync-every-now-and-then architecture. I wouldn't be surprised if it was really easy to do up a custom server for it. I'm going to keep poking at this thing, so I'll document what I find here: https://gist.github.com/deoxxa/5111644 https://gist.github.com/deoxxa/5111644 - feel free to join in!
- goatforce5 14y ago
  Which makes it surprising that they didn't design it so they could spool up more servers as required, and gentle shut them back down once interest in the game wanes.
  - deoxxa 14y ago
    More surprising again is that they actually have three completely active (as far as I can tell) environments that are just sitting there unused.
- nwh 14y ago
  The "hidden" servers are probably due to the game not being released in Europe yet. I'm assuming they are reserved capacity for when hundreds of thousands of new users join.
  - deoxxa 14y ago
    That makes a lot of sense, I hadn't thought about that.
samstave 14y ago
Yes. Whatever the case may be. Ultima Online was completely reverse engineered and then re-deployed to host the cracked version at a state where lots of players liked it. Prior to the devs breaking the way some users preferred it. Do I doubt this will happen, No. Do I expect it to happen tomorrow? No. But I expect either this to happen, or EA to fix this problem. When its fixed, I'll buy the game.
nwh 14y ago
There's absolutely no need. The game runs for 20 minutes with no internet connection. All the logic runs locally, and will be cracked. The only thing that needs to be emulated is the save/load system.
lcampbell 14y ago
I'm pretty sure the core game logic is not on the servers, as widely reported -- I was playing from 9-12PM CST last night, and the servers were supposedly completely down from 10-12PM -- I was able to continue playing in my city, and wasn't kicked until I attempted to interact with the region. Granted, anything having to do with the region (imports/exports, shared upgrades, etc) was defunct. Additionally, when you exit a city, there's a long pause where your client sends the city state to the server to be persisted (or so the UI tells me) -- another indication that the simulation is not run on the server. My current impression is that the entire city simulation is done on the client, and the server is simply responsible for intra-city interactions and persisting game state.
- deoxxa 14y ago
  100% agree with this. I got kicked out of a game because of "network issues" last night and when I logged back in, the city I'd spent a good 40 minutes starting up was nowhere to be found. It did, however, remember that I'd claimed that city.
Semaphor 14y ago
Not sure how it changed after the release, but I remember there being alpha or pre-alpha WoW servers.

by criley 14y ago

PeterisP 14y ago

It wouldn't be the first time where such game-servers are actually reverse engineered and emulated.

daeken 14y ago
Hell, that's how I got into reversing a decade ago. I spent years reverse-engineering Everquest to work on server emulators, as well as an open-source client replacement. Quite the gateway drug.

astrodust 14y ago

It took years, but this was done with Battle.net for some older Blizzard games.

nwh 14y ago
Mainly because it Battle.net is just IRC.
- astrodust 14y ago
  I mean of the actual game back-end for things like Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft II. There was a complete replacement for Battle.Net that, unfortunately, ended up mired by legal concerns.

deoxxa 14y ago

I kind of started poking around at the backend protocol this morning. It's all websockets over HTTPS (very trendy stuff) and is hosted on EC2. I'm yet to dig much further than "let's see what this looks like in wireshark", but the behaviour and some of the errors I've observed in-game point to some kind of sync-every-now-and-then architecture. I wouldn't be surprised if it was really easy to do up a custom server for it. I'm going to keep poking at this thing, so I'll document what I find here: https://gist.github.com/deoxxa/5111644 https://gist.github.com/deoxxa/5111644 - feel free to join in!

goatforce5 14y ago
Which makes it surprising that they didn't design it so they could spool up more servers as required, and gentle shut them back down once interest in the game wanes.
- deoxxa 14y ago
  More surprising again is that they actually have three completely active (as far as I can tell) environments that are just sitting there unused.
nwh 14y ago
The "hidden" servers are probably due to the game not being released in Europe yet. I'm assuming they are reserved capacity for when hundreds of thousands of new users join.
- deoxxa 14y ago
  That makes a lot of sense, I hadn't thought about that.

samstave 14y ago

Yes. Whatever the case may be. Ultima Online was completely reverse engineered and then re-deployed to host the cracked version at a state where lots of players liked it. Prior to the devs breaking the way some users preferred it. Do I doubt this will happen, No. Do I expect it to happen tomorrow? No. But I expect either this to happen, or EA to fix this problem. When its fixed, I'll buy the game.

nwh 14y ago

There's absolutely no need. The game runs for 20 minutes with no internet connection. All the logic runs locally, and will be cracked. The only thing that needs to be emulated is the save/load system.

lcampbell 14y ago

I'm pretty sure the core game logic is not on the servers, as widely reported -- I was playing from 9-12PM CST last night, and the servers were supposedly completely down from 10-12PM -- I was able to continue playing in my city, and wasn't kicked until I attempted to interact with the region. Granted, anything having to do with the region (imports/exports, shared upgrades, etc) was defunct. Additionally, when you exit a city, there's a long pause where your client sends the city state to the server to be persisted (or so the UI tells me) -- another indication that the simulation is not run on the server. My current impression is that the entire city simulation is done on the client, and the server is simply responsible for intra-city interactions and persisting game state.

deoxxa 14y ago
100% agree with this. I got kicked out of a game because of "network issues" last night and when I logged back in, the city I'd spent a good 40 minutes starting up was nowhere to be found. It did, however, remember that I'd claimed that city.

Semaphor 14y ago

Not sure how it changed after the release, but I remember there being alpha or pre-alpha WoW servers.