Sierra shutting down master servers

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Comments

  • It's an authentication system. I have asked several times for you and others to explain how you planned to do authentication securely in any other manner. I have yet to receive a reply.

    You say there are multiple ways to do it, but the only method you described is a shared list of player accounts with no details on how you would prevent account forgery by malicious users. It's not a question of my ego as you imply, it's a question of getting competent answers about your envisioned technical implementation.

    I'm not interested in a personality war, as I have the technical skills to accomplish a system that will meet and exceed the basic needs for an online system for this game for years to come. I am interested in people committed to work out REAL solutions, who do what they say they will do, and don't post armchair criticism like you just did.

    Yes, there are easy ways to cobble together a system that won't stand up to any sort of attack. But security is hard, and doing it properly is hard. I want solutions, not a house of cards. If you have something to offer, I will work with you. If you are just here to criticize without getting involved, and without a big picture plan, I do not want to hear it.

    You had your chance for input when we made an appointment communicate over your Ventrillo server. You missed your appointment, and as my free time is extremely limited, I have to focus on getting the secure system online. If you want to talk about your ideas for the web side of things, I will be open to listen to them after authentication and listing is online.
  • I guess his point is that it doesn't need to be perfectly secure, it just needs to be 'good enough' for this application. Why wouldn't the use of SSL for the authentication simply suffice? Or a simple hash challenge-response to authenticate? T2 account data is not exactly sensitive. Security is important, but it's not an absolute requirement. You don't lock your $2K car into a $20K concrete bunker to protect it from theft.

    Anyway, you implemented it, so you get to pick however you want to do it. I know Java, Ruby, C++, x86 and ARM(9) assembly and have a fair amount of knowledge about reverse engineering on UNIX. If you need any help modifying the linux server binary in the same way drop me a line. :)

    EDIT: I imagine the best way to do this on linux would be using LD_PRELOAD to hook into the binary? I'd personally do communication between the T2 server process and a ruby interpreter via a UNIX socket instead of integrating the interpreter into the binary itself...
  • If you need any help modifying the linux server binary in the same way drop me a line. :)

    I've been told that the best way to run Tribes under Linux is to use Wine... My server and client alike are both run in this manner, and I find it to be much more stable than the native Linux port. ;)
  • I guess his point is that it doesn't need to be perfectly secure, it just needs to be 'good enough' for this application. Why wouldn't the use of SSL for the authentication simply suffice? Or a simple hash challenge-response to authenticate? T2 account data is not exactly sensitive. Security is important, but it's not an absolute requirement. You don't lock your $2K car into a $20K concrete bunker to protect it from theft.

    Anyway, you implemented it, so you get to pick however you want to do it. I know Java, Ruby, C++, x86 and ARM(9) assembly and have a fair amount of knowledge about reverse engineering on UNIX. If you need any help modifying the linux server binary in the same way drop me a line. :)

    EDIT: I imagine the best way to do this on linux would be using LD_PRELOAD to hook into the binary? I'd personally do communication between the T2 server process and a ruby interpreter via a UNIX socket instead of integrating the interpreter into the binary itself...
    The idea is to make impersonation nearly impossible, and my implementation of authentication system is actually rather similar to SSL/TLS -- those use asymmetric crypto too.

    I would gladly collaborate on modifying the Linux server. I'm not as familiar with the shared library loading or the gcc layout of the binary, but it can't be that different from the Windows portable executable.

    Oh and... the Ruby interpreter that I implemented in the Windows version is process isolated. I use anonymous pipes to transfer data between the T2 process and the Ruby interpreter. T2 (at least the Windows version) includes some sort of stack memory manager, and running Ruby inside the same address space resulted in crashes when using more than a few kilobytes of data for interpretation.
  • Time up? The Masters Close Tomorrow, Are you done or getting about 99% done?
  • Haha, even though I don't really play tribes anymore, I may try this out when it is finished.
  • Thyth - many thanks from a grateful T2'r that's been playing this game for 7 or 8 years. It's obvious you have a tremendous amount of time and effort in this endeavor, and probably some dollars as well. If you need reimbursement for your troubles please let us know and provide a Paypal account. I know I can assist.

    THANK YOU

    Spitfyr - originally a seige player on The Pond, most recently a Katabatic Rebels guy
  • Baby come back, you can blame it all on.... shane!
  • Yes, this is all very interesting. Yet I am curious about the white noise being generated about the overly described importance of cryptography and the lack of other topics that are required in a massive, multi-point communications system that, of course, takes security into account. Many languages and systems can do this, and no serious developer would ignore the required amount of security required. Furthermore, offers were extended to work in a cohesive manner, but it's become clear that some want to be first to market, cohesiveness be damned, thus accumulating allot of valuable and possibly misguided appreciation. There are multiple ways that all of this can be done and I respectfully point out that the community has always been fractured. This truly is a shame, as it is primarily driven by self-importance and immaturity. Many will also miss the disassociation between open and closed development that seems to be fueling this, although is it not fully obvious. The truly good news about all of this is that “first” may equate to vaporware, but not to market finances. It may quite likely be that multiple sites agree to shared lists at first, and they are always a backup to systems that have functional problems. And in that realm, files with preset favorites can easily be downloaded from pages that display solid servers and show instructions to get in manually. Then come along active systems that are intended to replace interactive functionality. This is where consolidated efforts would truly go a long way toward consolidating the community. But, alas and as often is the case, personalities can be found trumping principals. And in such cases, although cohesive opportunities are missed, people (players) will get choice. And votes are cast by way of usage. In the gaming community, you can always vote twice (or more) as I am sure many will. Although it would normally be considered that time will tell between systems, it is often the case that for many, friendships, associations and affiliations will happen, and color some peoples vision. Most players will probably decide to use multiple systems, since they really don’t care about who did what when, but today, tomorrow and next year are always new days and new choices. I am especially happy that by all accounts there will still be fractures to bitch about next year ;)

    Wow, that was an incredibly pathetic read. All of your accusations are reversed. EWO/Pnet is the one that's clearly egotistical and stubborn about this. It's pretty obvious when you read Thyth's explanations that he knows what he's doing and it's going to be done well. When you read the other groups explanations... oh wait, they haven't even posted any. Anywhere. The fact that Thyth is being open and your group isn't makes it pretty obvious whose motives are more pure.
  • Ok, looks like I won't be releasing tonight -- there is just too much left to do. But, before I go out for an evening of fun (life takes precedence over slaving over this all night), I'll provide a bit of an update. Here are the statuses of the 10 components from my last status update.

    1) Process isolated Ruby interpreter: 99% done
    2) Cryptographic provisioning written in Ruby: 100% done
    3) Server side identity verification script: 95% done
    4) Client side login/account generation script: 80% done
    5) Client side GUI additions: 15% done
    6) Server side list server interface: 95% done
    7) Client side list server interface: 80% done
    8) Auto update: 40% done
    9) SierraUp drop-in replacement: 100% done
    10) Automatic installer: 20% done

    Client listing, server listing, and auto-update all rely on a network interface which is almost done, hence the major progress in those areas. Auto update is going to be pretty bare minimum -- just enough to update itself to something more advanced after launch. SierraUp replacement basically just launches the game in the same way Sierra's did, but it skips all of the garbage about failing to check for updates -- I put it together to avoid usability issues with the online shortcuts the game's installer makes; those shortcuts will actually work now.

    I'll be delegating the login-related GUI tasks to Krash, since he has started to make some new GUIs for the new account creation wizard and login screen.

    There is still a lot of work to do, so for now I'll aim for an end of weekend release. In the interim, Krash has a micro-master and listing server script which the Construction community has used in prior outages of the Sierra auth/list systems. It's probably as good as what any other team working on an alternate server can whip up (i.e. house-of-cards type temporary solution), and it has already been tested in two prior outages.

    Happy Halloween everyone.
  • Ok, Thyth. A friend posted to me in private, but you did not, although I posted many things to you in private, so I will explain in public as well. My lines will start with ***


    It's an authentication system. I have asked several times for you and others to explain how you planned to do authentication securely in any other manner. I have yet to receive a reply.

    *** I am not sure about the words "several times" and I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt but I publicly stated that there was allot to go over in session, meaning together. I know you touched on that below and I'll touch on that too but, first, the system as a whole needs to take in to account far more than just encryption, such as data (user) storage, player game and server game communication with the master service, connection methodology (XML WebServices, WCF / COM+, tokenized strings on http gets or posts, and decided upon interfaces, use case diagrams, api documentation, list implementation details and far more). The diagram is just the start of what I was describing, and it is also the basis for using users GUIDs, entered into a db, so that the token passed to the user, and picked up by the game, will enforce that the user is who they say they are. To jump ahead, other than the one chat we had, and the fact I apologized for missing the 4pm meeting because of family points (where I gave you my phone number), if you'd even said "hey duud, Np, just don't let it happen again please" or something, anything that made it sound like you were not trying to do this alone. If you do this alone, you personally are fracturing the community because there are many good developers here and you are ignoring the human nature that not everyone agrees with your plans yet has reached out to you. If you ignore us or act exclusive, what are others to think?

    You say there are multiple ways to do it, but the only method you described is a shared list of player accounts with no details on how you would prevent account forgery by malicious users. It's not a question of my ego as you imply, it's a question of getting competent answers about your envisioned technical implementation.

    *** Please see the diagram included, which is a start. And review the PM's I sent because I think I sent you a link to the C# development articles I have published. Again, as I said, along with other good developers out there. It could well be that you develop a system seemingly alone instead of using it most other uses use published lists, or even downloadable files with preloaded favorites (a stop-gap many of us are likely to post). Again, I tried, mostly PM-wise, to communicate with you and missed one appointment, which I apologized for in 3 hours. What I am getting to here is, if you do this alone and too quick, when there are simple methods available, what if you develop something that does not work right for all people at all times? Are some players just SOL? That is not going to help your rep and it will ensure at least two automated methods will be out one day. Vivendi screwed us all and did not give us time. Let's work together, put up shared lists and downloadable, pre-made favorite files, and do this right the first time.

    I'm not interested in a personality war, as I have the technical skills to accomplish a system that will meet and exceed the basic needs for an online system for this game for years to come. I am interested in people committed to work out REAL solutions, who do what they say they will do, and don't post armchair criticism like you just did.

    *** I know you are not interested in a war. I apologize for some of the confusion that has taken place and will eat it. I am asking you, rather than rush something to place, which may work, and may not under the load of many pc's, let's try talking again. I know you want solid solutions, and I am with you 100% duud. I am not, nor would I armchair you, despite that comment. I stand behind each comment I made and will re-iterate... if you rush something into place that many players may or may not even use, we all lose face, because I represent a group of people who can build a kick-ass system as well. I can build a C#/SQL/SharePoint system (that I will call back-end) but I understand you are one of the few people who can write such a kick-ass client side system (when I say that I mean anything that uses T2 script, games and game servers, versus server side in this case, meaning everything that used to be Vivendi supported). And as for cobble to withstand an attack? Well, I suppose I deserved that one for calling you out like that. No, the systems I use will use RSA and more. You may teach me some about the functionality, but then as you implement the systems to encrypt on your end, the systems I use will do the same. We will be on par with each other. I fully agree doing it right is tough, and I credit you for that, I will honestly say that I thought you were doing what you accused me of... really saying nothing. You talked of RSA parts, and how close some of the other parts were to completion, but if it cracked, and a rushing developer should NEVER self test, how is that going to make people view you, your work, or the community? You could be right man... you may be perfect... I'm suggesting we take the weekend to discuss this on voice, and charge others with swapping lists and pre-loaded files.

    Yes, there are easy ways to cobble together a system that won't stand up to any sort of attack. But security is hard, and doing it properly is hard. I want solutions, not a house of cards. If you have something to offer, I will work with you. If you are just here to criticize without getting involved, and without a big picture plan, I do not want to hear it.

    *** Please see above...

    You had your chance for input when we made an appointment communicate over your Ventrillo server. You missed your appointment, and as my free time is extremely limited, I have to focus on getting the secure system online. If you want to talk about your ideas for the web side of things, I will be open to listen to them after authentication and listing is online.

    *** Ok, I'm glad you publicly stated that because that is what I am talking about... I gave you my home number, email, chatted with you the night before and life cropped up? You claim you waited an hour? You don't sound like the kind of person who waited an hour... and how hard was that really? You sit there and wait until I ping you on IM while you work... you really did not stare blankly, looking at the screen, waiting for my message for 60 minutes did you? Forgive me for wasting your time if you can bring yourself to do that, because farther up you sounded a bit more reasonable, but by the time you get to this part you have seemingly shown some colors that I don't think really represent you. Your last words made you out to be something less than reasonable... I'm sure that is not you. Besides, here’s an idea… why don’t you just sit back and build a list while other developers make something that works? Does that feel like what you wanted? Slow down duud, and assume that there are other good people around… you are hardly alone nor must you be a martyr… the community will slow down. But if done right it will again pick back up.

    *** So I will leave it with this... if you rush your product to market, with all of this on record, I'm not sure this will work out well for you. A game community will stand some things in a waterfall methodology and others in an iterative methodology. A GUID based login system should be waterfall, and it has to work right the first time, and if you do this alone and others do not agree, there WILL be more than one system... great for community cohesiveness. But after that, building a player and team (and linking) page on that can be iterative... players will forgive some errors in that system a bit more, so long as the group got the first part right. I am asking... let's talk this over, get this right, and never give the community a reason to mistrust the system... ever. You are not perfect and you are not the only busy person around. If you put something out there without planning, testing, documentation and community backing, I will not use it, and I know for a fact I'm not alone. And I will move forward with other client (and game server) developers, and the community will vote by choice (or use both, or one until the other is ready, it's hard to say). But both of us can muster over twice the developers, testers, web-coders together rather than apart… and the keyless game will re-attract players. I know your feeling… I lived with it for years with another Tribe. I swore that if they did not get a good website up the community would lose people… and you are doing that now. The truth is, we will lose people either way… but a SINGLE, perfect, keyless system will bring them back... I am asking you to think it over and ping me with an opportunity that a few of us can jump in a Vent room this weekend.

    (note - jpeg supplied by Vsf)
    • Login System - 001.jpeg
  • hai guyz i herd u liek mudkipz
  • Ok, Thyth. A friend posted to me in private, but you did not, although I posted many things to you in private, so I will explain in public as well. My lines will start with ***


    It's an authentication system. I have asked several times for you and others to explain how you planned to do authentication securely in any other manner. I have yet to receive a reply.

    *** I am not sure about the words "several times" and I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt but I publicly stated that there was allot to go over in session, meaning together. I know you touched on that below and I'll touch on that too but, first, the system as a whole needs to take in to account far more than just encryption, such as data (user) storage, player game and server game communication with the master service, connection methodology (XML WebServices, WCF / COM+, tokenized strings on http gets or posts, and decided upon interfaces, use case diagrams, api documentation, list implementation details and far more). The diagram is just the start of what I was describing, and it is also the basis for using users GUIDs, entered into a db, so that the token passed to the user, and picked up by the game, will enforce that the user is who they say they are. To jump ahead, other than the one chat we had, and the fact I apologized for missing the 4pm meeting because of family points (where I gave you my phone number), if you'd even said "hey duud, Np, just don't let it happen again please" or something, anything that made it sound like you were not trying to do this alone. If you do this alone, you personally are fracturing the community because there are many good developers here and you are ignoring the human nature that not everyone agrees with your plans yet has reached out to you. If you ignore us or act exclusive, what are others to think?

    You say there are multiple ways to do it, but the only method you described is a shared list of player accounts with no details on how you would prevent account forgery by malicious users. It's not a question of my ego as you imply, it's a question of getting competent answers about your envisioned technical implementation.

    *** Please see the diagram included, which is a start. And review the PM's I sent because I think I sent you a link to the C# development articles I have published. Again, as I said, along with other good developers out there. It could well be that you develop a system seemingly alone instead of using it most other uses use published lists, or even downloadable files with preloaded favorites (a stop-gap many of us are likely to post). Again, I tried, mostly PM-wise, to communicate with you and missed one appointment, which I apologized for in 3 hours. What I am getting to here is, if you do this alone and too quick, when there are simple methods available, what if you develop something that does not work right for all people at all times? Are some players just SOL? That is not going to help your rep and it will ensure at least two automated methods will be out one day. Vivendi screwed us all and did not give us time. Let's work together, put up shared lists and downloadable, pre-made favorite files, and do this right the first time.

    I'm not interested in a personality war, as I have the technical skills to accomplish a system that will meet and exceed the basic needs for an online system for this game for years to come. I am interested in people committed to work out REAL solutions, who do what they say they will do, and don't post armchair criticism like you just did.

    *** I know you are not interested in a war. I apologize for some of the confusion that has taken place and will eat it. I am asking you, rather than rush something to place, which may work, and may not under the load of many pc's, let's try talking again. I know you want solid solutions, and I am with you 100% duud. I am not, nor would I armchair you, despite that comment. I stand behind each comment I made and will re-iterate... if you rush something into place that many players may or may not even use, we all lose face, because I represent a group of people who can build a kick-ass system as well. I can build a C#/SQL/SharePoint system (that I will call back-end) but I understand you are one of the few people who can write such a kick-ass client side system (when I say that I mean anything that uses T2 script, games and game servers, versus server side in this case, meaning everything that used to be Vivendi supported). And as for cobble to withstand an attack? Well, I suppose I deserved that one for calling you out like that. No, the systems I use will use RSA and more. You may teach me some about the functionality, but then as you implement the systems to encrypt on your end, the systems I use will do the same. We will be on par with each other. I fully agree doing it right is tough, and I credit you for that, I will honestly say that I thought you were doing what you accused me of... really saying nothing. You talked of RSA parts, and how close some of the other parts were to completion, but if it cracked, and a rushing developer should NEVER self test, how is that going to make people view you, your work, or the community? You could be right man... you may be perfect... I'm suggesting we take the weekend to discuss this on voice, and charge others with swapping lists and pre-loaded files.

    Yes, there are easy ways to cobble together a system that won't stand up to any sort of attack. But security is hard, and doing it properly is hard. I want solutions, not a house of cards. If you have something to offer, I will work with you. If you are just here to criticize without getting involved, and without a big picture plan, I do not want to hear it.

    *** Please see above...

    You had your chance for input when we made an appointment communicate over your Ventrillo server. You missed your appointment, and as my free time is extremely limited, I have to focus on getting the secure system online. If you want to talk about your ideas for the web side of things, I will be open to listen to them after authentication and listing is online.

    *** Ok, I'm glad you publicly stated that because that is what I am talking about... I gave you my home number, email, chatted with you the night before and life cropped up? You claim you waited an hour? You don't sound like the kind of person who waited an hour... and how hard was that really? You sit there and wait until I ping you on IM while you work... you really did not stare blankly, looking at the screen, waiting for my message for 60 minutes did you? Forgive me for wasting your time if you can bring yourself to do that, because farther up you sounded a bit more reasonable, but by the time you get to this part you have seemingly shown some colors that I don't think really represent you. Your last words made you out to be something less than reasonable... I'm sure that is not you. Besides, here’s an idea… why don’t you just sit back and build a list while other developers make something that works? Does that feel like what you wanted? Slow down duud, and assume that there are other good people around… you are hardly alone nor must you be a martyr… the community will slow down. But if done right it will again pick back up.

    *** So I will leave it with this... if you rush your product to market, with all of this on record, I'm not sure this will work out well for you. A game community will stand some things in a waterfall methodology and others in an iterative methodology. A GUID based login system should be waterfall, and it has to work right the first time, and if you do this alone and others do not agree, there WILL be more than one system... great for community cohesiveness. But after that, building a player and team (and linking) page on that can be iterative... players will forgive some errors in that system a bit more, so long as the group got the first part right. I am asking... let's talk this over, get this right, and never give the community a reason to mistrust the system... ever. You are not perfect and you are not the only busy person around. If you put something out there without planning, testing, documentation and community backing, I will not use it, and I know for a fact I'm not alone. And I will move forward with other client (and game server) developers, and the community will vote by choice (or use both, or one until the other is ready, it's hard to say). But both of us can muster over twice the developers, testers, web-coders together rather than apart… and the keyless game will re-attract players. I know your feeling… I lived with it for years with another Tribe. I swore that if they did not get a good website up the community would lose people… and you are doing that now. The truth is, we will lose people either way… but a SINGLE, perfect, keyless system will bring them back... I am asking you to think it over and ping me with an opportunity that a few of us can jump in a Vent room this weekend.

    (note - jpeg supplied by Vsf)


    umm, I think he just de-throned Elec's Long post Kingship.
  • Wow, that was an incredibly pathetic read. All of your accusations are reversed. EWO/Pnet is the one that's clearly egotistical and stubborn about this. It's pretty obvious when you read Thyth's explanations that he knows what he's doing and it's going to be done well. When you read the other groups explanations... oh wait, they haven't even posted any. Anywhere. The fact that Thyth is being open and your group isn't makes it pretty obvious whose motives are more pure.


    I'm offering aid in the solution, not an actual solution. I publicly stated that we are working on a solution, yes, but I have not accomplished nearly as much as Thyth has.

    It felt like a punch to the gut when you stated that we were being egotistical and stubborn. EWO... maybe, but not PNet. I've PMed Thyth and openly stated here in the forums that we want to help in any way we can. Again, I realize that I stated that we were going to provide a master server, we still can if anyone wants to use the server.

    I agree that Thyth has gone beyond talk and has shown that something is being done. So please, don't ever state that we at Pandora Networks are egotistical and stubborn when we're doing whatever we can to help.

    I never stated how Pandora Networks was going to host the master server because at the time, we had no solution. When I found out about Thyth's solution, I requested to help by providing the server to him. He politely declined saying he already had someone lined up as the host and I politely backed off. Instead of using it as the master, maybe we can use it for something else.

    If I sound egotistical it is because I personally want to help the community as much as I can. Yes, I had to come in with a bang saying, "Oh we're going to release a master server that will take place of the current 'official' servers." but I recognize that as a mistake because I now realize you don't bite more than you can chew. We didn't have a solution ready, I should not have made any official announcement. Yet since we wanted to show how much we wanted to help, an immature announcement was made.

    I do apologize if we don't have anything like Thyth has, but we do have a server that the Tribes 2 community, and Thyth, can use at no cost. It's yours.
  • wutz up fella's. Fellow T2 player here, so what is the official word and when does T2 servers actually shut down?
  • It hit November 1st about 9 minutes ago here, and we're still running.

    Wonder when exactly it'll go dark?

    EDIT: Do we have some sort of IRC channel we could hang out on while Tribes 2 is offline?
  • really, im still able to log in and play i just actually tryed it again and its still good so hopefully it stays that way.
  • I think it may go down 12am PST, although I'm not sure. I hope Thyth gets his solution up and going soon!

    Again, I apologize for not being able to provide anything like what Thyth has been able to come up with. Thyth, you're a good man and thank you.

    Like I said in my previous post (and I'm not trying to advertise here) but we are giving out a Premium Hypernia server to the Tribes 2 community. I will allow Thyth to choose someone to manage this server.

    It's on us guys. Since we couldn't provide the solution, might as well aid Thyth's right? :)
  • I'm sure Kryand was just trying to get a general response to VSF out there, it's a bit unclear who's who with everything flying around.

    As to when the official masters will go dark, it's up in the air. They could have it set up to shut down on a timer, and if so, it could be set to pacific time. However, knowing they don't like to put any effort into things that don't make them any money, it could take anywhere from a few hours to a week for something to happen.
    If it doesn't happen tonight or tomorrow, it'll probably be up till Monday at least.

    The new system could take a day or so more to finish, but with any luck it should be done pretty soon. :)


    It'd be nice to see a high capacity community server sporting the TribesNext tag. I don't think we'd have the time to manage such a server (though I know a few guys from our community who'd be good candidates to admin it), and I've got a few the-construct servers of my own to run, but if that's something you'd be interested in putting together, there'd be much <3.
  • thanks for the info fella's i will check back tomorrow since i am on PST its only 11:05pm here and im tired so PEaCe out.
  • Small question... will we need our cd keys to create a new account?
  • Small question... will we need our cd keys to create a new account?

    Nope. When you click create new account, you'll first click a button to generate your RSA keypair (see Thyth's posts for more details on this subject), then choose your account information, then register it with the server.
    The process is very simple, and nobody should have any trouble with it. ;)
  • Do we have some sort of IRC channel we could hang out on while Tribes 2 is offline?
    I propose we use #Tribes over at irc.Arloria.net
  • Welp, 12 AM PST and still running smoothly. Yay. Hopefully there won't be an offline gap between the new and old servers.
  • I hope that I've been able to demonstrate a cohesive plan for an easy-to-use community system, and an ability to pull it off in the last few days. It's pretty clear that without a knowledge of C++ the types of modification made to the T2 executable would have been impossible.

    Also, it's very easy to make uneducated claims from comfy armchairs. Yes, Ruby is free, but an interpreter integration with a closed source system is not something you can go onto SourceForge and download, it's a ton of work, and it happens to be an essential component to building this. Properly utilizing cryptography is also a lot harder than throwing around the terms RSA and SHA1. DUN is right that very few could pull this off -- I just happen to be one of them.

    The convo that was referenced was not an intended barb, more of a discussion to see if any of this was even possible.

    That said; evidently you do have the knowledge, experience, capability and resources, and also you have (to my satisfaction) presented a cohesive plan that seems credible!

    I'm just glad somebody has the know how and the desire to do something to keep this game alive. What you have proposed will make a lot of people that want to play; but had no CD keys, very happy!

    Thank You! :D
  • Still up...I told some of the tribes 1 players i know, they look forward to playing.
    Bye Bye Original Masterserver.
    screen2.png
  • I'm offering aid in the solution, not an actual solution. I publicly stated that we are working on a solution, yes, but I have not accomplished nearly as much as Thyth has.

    It felt like a punch to the gut when you stated that we were being egotistical and stubborn. EWO... maybe, but not PNet. I've PMed Thyth and openly stated here in the forums that we want to help in any way we can. Again, I realize that I stated that we were going to provide a master server, we still can if anyone wants to use the server.

    I agree that Thyth has gone beyond talk and has shown that something is being done. So please, don't ever state that we at Pandora Networks are egotistical and stubborn when we're doing whatever we can to help.

    I never stated how Pandora Networks was going to host the master server because at the time, we had no solution. When I found out about Thyth's solution, I requested to help by providing the server to him. He politely declined saying he already had someone lined up as the host and I politely backed off. Instead of using it as the master, maybe we can use it for something else.

    If I sound egotistical it is because I personally want to help the community as much as I can. Yes, I had to come in with a bang saying, "Oh we're going to release a master server that will take place of the current 'official' servers." but I recognize that as a mistake because I now realize you don't bite more than you can chew. We didn't have a solution ready, I should not have made any official announcement. Yet since we wanted to show how much we wanted to help, an immature announcement was made.

    I do apologize if we don't have anything like Thyth has, but we do have a server that the Tribes 2 community, and Thyth, can use at no cost. It's yours.

    Well I didn't intend to offend you; I was just a little annoyed at ViciousStarFish's post, because he seemed to be accusing Thyth of hurting the community by not surrendering to the "others" "working" on the solution. I've done coding projects before, and most of the time, they are better off being done by one person. Trying to involve and brief other people and get them coordinated with you takes a while, is often frustrating, and can easily lead to the project taking even longer than it otherwise would have. I am of course only speaking of small coding projects, like ones that can be completed in a couple weeks. More people add much more complication to the development process, so unless they all start on the same page from the beginning, having multiple people won't be worth it until the testing phase. I have been in Thyth's position before, and speaking from experience, it would be best everyone leaves him alone until he finishes with what he's doing. Short of literally sitting next to him and looking over his shoulder, there are not a lot of ways to help that are time-efficient. Once the system is usable, that is the best time to check it out, make suggestions, and fix anything that might be wrong.
  • Thanks for the reply Kryand and I'm glad we're on good terms. I understand what you're saying and that is why I've decided it would be best that PNet just aids in the matter. Krash, if you want that server just let me know and we'll get things sorted out. :)
  • hai guyz i herd u liek mudkipz

    oh shit. No point in trying anymore. We're all fucked now. ABANDON SHIP, ABANDON SHI-
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