Suggestion: Can Mindark Provide A List of Globals either in Real Time or a Txt file for download on a daily basis?

Divinity

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I know most will say that EL is there. However the method by which EL collects data is prone to attacks including inclusion of fake globals into the EL data stream.

Today, I was informed of one such way of doing so and someone used the method to collect peds from events based on Global scoring system. A couple LA's/events have been already reported to have been effected by this. The problem lies with the approach that EL follows and that is collecting the information from the EL client. Then it becomes easy to replicate that data and if someone can show the same data coming from multiple sources then it becomes increasing difficult to segregate good data from the bad data.

Why can we not have the global data show on a page or uploaded in a txt file for download on a daily basis? I do not think this is a major job and can very easily be automated.

This will prevent issues of duplication/corruption of data and missed globals etc.
 
I have seen some duplicates and screened those,

Would be very interested to hear more. Can we get this info out in the open? Thats one step
 
I have seen some duplicates and screened those,

Would be very interested to hear more. Can we get this info out in the open? Thats one step

I will not get into names as that is not the purpose of the thread. The issue has been made aware to Blastoise so I am sure he will look into it himself if not already.

The basic underlying problem is that when data is fetched from User then it will always be susceptible to such attacks.
What is done in this case is to emulate multiple clients ( similar to EL client) and to send wrong data/fake data which is then accepted by EL as coming from multiple sources.

A similar issue is there with Crypto as well and is called the 51% attack. Currently EL needs only 5 confirmations to register a global. Even if they increase that, the underlying issue remains and it becomes increasingly server intensive as well.

It is not a matter of duplication of globals but you can enter globals into EL using the method and the only way we can go back to verify whether that data is correct is to get enough chat.log files and then analyse for inconsistency between data on EL and the one on the chat logs of people. Extremely tedious process.
 
Thats okay no names required. I can do dome digging.

Yes i see what you mean about the issue.
Would be a nice feature to have on the LA station.
Maybe a download button of activity.
 
The problem is not new, it was even worse when just one report was needed to show global at EL.

Best solution would be to have an offical global logfile from MA, this would definately eliminate the cheaters and give much more accurate data about the globals, as no globals would miss at all.
 
I will not get into names as that is not the purpose of the thread.

I think you should share names with other event promoters. If I was still running events, I would certainly want to know, and the person(s) concerned would be immediately and permanently banned from my events.
 
yes , agree , maybe outputted from game as an RSS feed would work ?
 
Would be a nice feature to have on the LA station.
Maybe a download button of activity.

I think that would complicate the development process. Also personally I would like EL to work as it is and just use a more reliable data source which would be available to them through a universal stream.


The problem is not new, it was even worse when just one report was needed to show global at EL.

Best solution would be to have an offical global logfile from MA, this would definately eliminate the cheaters and give much more accurate data about the globals, as no globals would miss at all.

Agreed :)

I think you should share names with other event promoters. If I was still running events, I would certainly want to know, and the person(s) concerned would be immediately and permanently banned from my events.

Agreed. If any of the active event promoters would like name, I am willing to share. However, unless we remove the underlying cause we will always be at a disadvantage and playing catch the fox :)

Personally, I want to focus more on solving this issue long term and I feel it is not an unreasonable ask and neither is it expensive for MA to implement.
 
I think you should share names with other event promoters. If I was still running events, I would certainly want to know, and the person(s) concerned would be immediately and permanently banned from my events.

I forgot to add if the individual has rep, been here for a while etc then it will start mattering. From my personal experience of identifying a lot of scammers/exploiters in the game they just recycle through avatars and most do not get to high levels and as such getting avatars banned does not necessarily solve the issue.

Hence why I want to focus on the issue rather then the perpetrator as he can come back with a new avatar in a matter of days if not minutes.

yes , agree , maybe outputted from game as an RSS feed would work ?

Good idea buds but i will leave the implementation methodology to MA as to what they consider safe, cheap and easy to maintain. There are many ways to do this, I just rather have the result work :)
 
I guess you mean something like this The Entropia Auction, but done properly.

A simple REST api in JSON format would be more than enough. Easily readable, performant and secure (if you know what you are doing).

I don't like working with XML because a big portion of the payload is purely structural data.

+1
 
I guess you mean something like this The Entropia Auction, but done properly.

A simple REST api in JSON format would be more than enough. Easily readable, performant and secure (if you know what you are doing).

I don't like working with XML because a big portion of the payload is purely structural data.

+1

REST + JSON would be my choice as well buds. Ofcourse assuming all the security bit is taken care of but that should not be a major issue as far as MA's team is concerned.

Thanks for that link because i did not know that we had the expiring auction thing still. I remember it from peauction days but figured it was removed.
 
Best solution would be to have an offical global logfile from MA, this would definately eliminate the cheaters and give much more accurate data about the globals, as no globals would miss at all.

but with the option for the player to turn off the tracking and not appearing in the log...
 
I know I sound like a broken record, but.. reason #82346 that MA needs to create an official API and plugin system.

With it there should be a way to query the global database, such that someone could make a plugin for event management that allowed LA owners to query globals on their LA, filter by date range, etc.

Most of the "wish list" items that everyone wants could be solved by the community if MA simply gave us the tools to do so.
 
We already have a nice and useable tool, its EL, we just need a reliable data source for it! One without missed globals and secured against cheaters that like to send false data, speak the data source has to come from MA directly, not from some player run clients.
 
I know I sound like a broken record, but.. reason #82346 that MA needs to create an official API and plugin system.

With it there should be a way to query the global database, such that someone could make a plugin for event management that allowed LA owners to query globals on their LA, filter by date range, etc.

Most of the "wish list" items that everyone wants could be solved by the community if MA simply gave us the tools to do so.

Well an API also opens a can of worms w.r.t security measures and considering this is not just a game but it has financial value in transactions, I will myself be wary of this quite honestly. The only financial institutions which have functional public API's are card processors mostly, there main domain of business being that. For EU the development of the game takes priority and I am not sure adding more security risks is a good idea.

We already have a nice and useable tool, its EL, we just need a reliable data source for it! One without missed globals and secured against cheaters that like to send false data, speak the data source has to come from MA directly, not from some player run clients.

Agreed and anyone else wants to use the data can do so from the url itself.
 
It does not need an API, a simple text file on MA servers that can be downloaded by the users would do the job, too.
 
I know I sound like a broken record, but.. reason #82346 that MA needs to create an official API and plugin system.

With it there should be a way to query the global database, such that someone could make a plugin for event management that allowed LA owners to query globals on their LA, filter by date range, etc.

Most of the "wish list" items that everyone wants could be solved by the community if MA simply gave us the tools to do so.

waitaminit...are you stealing our ideas? :)

It does not need an API, a simple text file on MA servers that can be downloaded by the users would do the job, too.

would also work in other areas. it's not like people need acccess to the core code or the loot servers. the entropiawiki could use a text file of the items in the game as could bob the builder. the entropia pets could use that too. an auction house text file could help with selling items out of game which is a cottage industry in other games. even if just to provide avenues for proof of concept presentations.

the fact that hackers are looking at entropia universe is reason alone for MA to up their game. they got to hire experts with honor and integrity. and fire those without. seems like a lost cause to me if they just want to tread water and survive day to day.
 
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I didn't know it took 5 report for a global to be added, I thought my client wasn't working as I never had my globals on Cyrene or Next Island added to the list.
 
It seems like they use LUA scripting for in-game links, and if that is the case they could unload a LUA interface that we could make apps with similar to how Turbine opened up an API in Lord of the Rings Online with LUA. (this was back in 2010)

Anything you could link in-game, was accessible and able to be used in scripts ranging from game data, to UI upgrades, to inventory links/data and buff linking/data, and more. There were a bunch of sections of data that was not accessible as well, but even with basic ability to link and manipulate the UI, the game grew with it. The players were never faced with an invincible dot in the center of the screen, if they didn't like that UI, they downloaded someone else's.

The sheer number and variety of add-ons the community of players came up with is awesome, and helped that company maintain and grow a consistent player base for years.

Anything similar to this would be enough to have the nerds work magic for even more options MA can think of, and its free. Kind of brilliant for any company to contract out UI and refined data work to players for free, in my opinion.
 
I'd really like to see this kind of information be available to players as well, to me the best case scenario would be a secure API from which players can also draw basic AH and item information as well.

I can't really say if or when we'll offer this type of info but it's definitely something I'll try to push for.
 
I'd really like to see this kind of information be available to players as well, to me the best case scenario would be a secure API from which players can also draw basic AH and item information as well.

I can't really say if or when we'll offer this type of info but it's definitely something I'll try to push for.

I'm so glad MA hired you. It's great to have someone who hears and responds to the forums.
 
I'd really like to see this kind of information be available to players as well, to me the best case scenario would be a secure API from which players can also draw basic AH and item information as well.

I can't really say if or when we'll offer this type of info but it's definitely something I'll try to push for.

Appreciate you pushing for it and hopefully MA can implement some basic data to begin with. The Auction House data can have a lot of applications as well if the data is provided in a useable format.
 
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