[Update] Introducing: Renegade-X proprietary GUID-based access control

[Suspiria]

Dear Renegade-X,

This new access control system offers GUID-based server moderation.

This should make our admin's jobs easier, while making VPN-supported hacking somewhat more of a hassle.
Tilting the time-energy investment ratio even further towards the hacker's side.

It has been made with future scaling of our playerbase in mind.

It also permanently eliminates the requirement of running Steam, to record statistics.

The system offers two security levels:
Level G: Allow all players (Default)
Level A: Only allow players with a valid Renegade-X account

IF security gets tough, we now have the means to seal the hatch.
Meaning that in case of need, we become our own authority that hands out GUIDs.

If things settle down again, we can also elect to reopen the hatch again.
Without players losing their RenStats.

It's all build-in, and easy to toggle.

End-user Xperience of G: Nothing changes for our players. Just launch from the Launcher as usual. (Default)
End-user Xperience of A: Players have to log in to their Renegade-X account on the Launcher once, before they can play.

This system is a dependency for RenStats and Rx_TeamBalancer, and comes bundled with it.
It also operates as a platform for a host of other new GUID-based opportunities.

Due to the security-sensitive nature of this system I will not go further into details here.
A thorough explanation of its architecture and integration options will be made available to #DEV.

Thank you.

D

RS_AccessControl_v0.5.rar

Edited April 30, 2019 by DugeHick

[Suspiria]

@Agent @RypeL @Sarah. @yosh56

[Suspiria]

@MajesticSausage

[NodSaibot]

I'd rather discuss anything that has to do with anti-cheat in private, for obvious reasons. Also, this should be integrated with forum accounts, not separate. Also, as we are moving towards a new launcher, I don't know if all of this would be usable. It is possible that some integration changes may change, but nothing is for certain. I'd rather hold off on doing anything like this for a little while.

[Madkill40]

If there is a way to undermine the security of this through .rar you've shared that may pose a problem

This is really neat and would be better off being pushed in the dev's faces than publicly, as Sarah stated

[SonnyX]

All-right, so this has been part of the Totem Arts internal discussion every now and then so far, discussing implementation, security, which systems it should plug into and what systems it should affect.

Although what you have presented so far isn't far away from the idea we had so far, however what you present is still lacking in depth of thought. I don't really mind discussing security sensitive information over the forums, a good implementation can be open source and still be secure. However as Sarah said, when we do make official accounts it will likely be tied in with the forum accounts as that is the preference of multiple Totem Arts veterans. This of-course would then be tied in with team-balancing and server-administration.

I looked at your team-balancing code just a moment ago, but again one thing that has been discussed in Totem Arts is team balancing and things like score, kill/death ratio, win/lose ratio are all insignificant and even deceiving. We have methods in mind for creating good team-balancing code however these thoughts need to be implemented in code at some point. There has been talk about using the veterancy system as a means to decide how well you play and thus for team-balancing.

Although we all don't mind surprises, I would recommend you to discuss these things with me or other Totem Arts members before you might get dissapointed when your hard work doesn't get included in the game or not being used at all.

That being said, your "May Update Suggestions" has some nice suggestions, the "Patcher is keeping 15GB's of backup data" will be fixed along with a new launcher being released. We should also have fixed the issue of more instances of RenegadeX showing up in the software center since Patch5375. I'll look into DefaultInput.ini and see if I can prevent it being overwritten in the future.

[Suspiria]

On 5/1/2019 at 2:19 AM, Sarah. said:

I'd rather discuss anything that has to do with anti-cheat in private, for obvious reasons. Also, this should be integrated with forum accounts, not separate. Also, as we are moving towards a new launcher, I don't know if all of this would be usable. It is possible that some integration changes may change, but nothing is for certain. I'd rather hold off on doing anything like this for a little while.

Good comment.

Fortunately, the most security-sensitive parts are in the backend systems and documentation which are not included on here.
Any hacker worth their salt will have access to the SDK and will be able to find their way to these files in no-time.

Also it seemed like a bad idea to barge in like that with only placeholders to show for it.
Now that I've gotten your attention, the situation has changed and I have now taken the files offline.

[Suspiria]

On 5/2/2019 at 1:10 PM, SonnyX said:

All-right, so this has been part of the Totem Arts internal discussion every now and then so far, discussing implementation, security, which systems it should plug into and what systems it should affect.

Although what you have presented so far isn't far away from the idea we had so far, however what you present is still lacking in depth of thought. I don't really mind discussing security sensitive information over the forums, a good implementation can be open source and still be secure. However as Sarah said, when we do make official accounts it will likely be tied in with the forum accounts as that is the preference of multiple Totem Arts veterans. This of-course would then be tied in with team-balancing and server-administration.

Guys guys guys..

You haven't seen the real documents that are actually security sensitive, yet.
These designs are fully in agreement with the points you're both making about forum integration, server-administration and team balancing.

That's the whole point of my gift.

It's just that it's literally impossible for me to integrate with the forums working solo like this.
Therefore Level A is a work in progress, and is up to you who you want to assign that to. I'm sure you understand.

GUID-based server-administration should already pretty much work.
And if not it'll be a breeze.

On 5/2/2019 at 1:10 PM, SonnyX said:

I looked at your team-balancing code just a moment ago, but again one thing that has been discussed in Totem Arts is team balancing and things like score, kill/death ratio, win/lose ratio are all insignificant and even deceiving. We have methods in mind for creating good team-balancing code however these thoughts need to be implemented in code at some point. There has been talk about using the veterancy system as a means to decide how well you play and thus for team-balancing.

The balancing formula is ment to be suggestive, and as a first start.
We literally have a statistics expert here with us who studies Statistics 3 and has offered to be of help with that: @Tytonium

The product I'm offering is the code behind all that.

On 5/2/2019 at 1:10 PM, SonnyX said:

Although we all don't mind surprises, I would recommend you to discuss these things with me or other Totem Arts members before you might get dissapointed when your hard work doesn't get included in the game or not being used at all.

Reason I come as a surprise is because I'm confident that my work is good.
And because human beings generally hate to miss out on all the goodies.

I don't generally apply to companies or organizations.

I show them what I can do, and they literally stop me from boring them with past histories, degrees etc. I just get right in.
That's just my experience and ofcourse may not be the case here. NP. As you like.

Consider me a contractor.

On 5/2/2019 at 1:10 PM, SonnyX said:

That being said, your "May Update Suggestions" has some nice suggestions, the "Patcher is keeping 15GB's of backup data" will be fixed along with a new launcher being released. We should also have fixed the issue of more instances of RenegadeX showing up in the software center since Patch5375. I'll look into DefaultInput.ini and see if I can prevent it being overwritten in the future.

Thank you, sir.

I will forward these more sensitive documents to you now.