[MUD-Dev] Gearing up against GEAR

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sean Kelly [mailto:sean at ffwd.cx]
> From: "Vincent Archer" <archer at frmug.org>
  
>> [Client tells STRIKE] -> [Server reports STRIKE allowed again now]
 
> I don't buy this.  AC, like MMORPG's, will repeat the same combat
> action until you explicitly alter it.  So when I hot "attack
> fast/weak" I continue to attack fast until I press the "attack
> slow/strong" button.  So the client isn't sending "attack"
> commands every few ticks, it's telling the server "i'm going to
> keep attacking at this rate until further notice."  The server
> then does realtime turn-based resolution of combat based on its
> own internal timer.  Issuing multiple attack requests is
> meaningless.
 
> For spellcasting, there might be a slight advantage is using GEAR.
> As while spells take a fixed amount of time on the server, they
> are one-off events.  So in times of high lag it might pay to push
> through a couple spellcasting packets all at once.

As I understand it, it was spell casting that they were affecting.
Alledgedly someone can cast 3 debuffs on you before you could even
cast a single spell if they are geared.

>> How does one fight GEAR? I see no solution except to report the
>> timer on the client in the packet protocol. This allows the
>> server to check for time drift. If time drifts constantly and at
>> a fast rate, the client is probably GEARed.
 
> Is there a way to get at any other timer that isn't affected by
> GEAR?  If so, I'd report both.  Drift should be rapidly obvious.

Fighting it doesn't seem all that hard. If they validated recast
delay server side (as every other game does) it would be mostly a
moot point, althogh people could run around faster. Tracking peoples
run speed is probably a little expensive though so one might need to
only monitor a few peoples at a time, and try to track in on
offenders. EQ has largely been unaffected by gear after they patched
against it, and since pretty much everything is checked server side
now, one never really got much of an advantage. From what I hear the
EQ client now crashes if Gear is running anyway, which frankly will
put off a large number of players from using it.

Dan
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