umoria 5.x savefiles, to protect or not to protect?
James E. Wilson
it does prevent casual cheating. You can no longer start up a binary file
editor and just casually increase your gold by a few K, and they dismiss it
with some comment like "I would have had that money if the shopkeeper
hadn't cheated me out of it, so it isn't really cheating". If you want to
do something like this, you must first modify the source, or else write
a program to decrypt/encrypt savefiles, which makes it obvious that one is
cheating.
This is the only savefile protection mechanism currently implemented in
umoria 5.x.
You can copy your savefiles at will, make backups, trade them with friends,
and nothing bad will happen. Note that for Umoria 4.87, this is how the
micro versions work, but the UNIX version did not permit any of this.
Currently, for Umoria 5.x all versions permit this.
Now, the question is, should Umoria 5.x have protected save files?
There are several issues to consider here.
CON:
1) Many people find the save file protection inconvenient and troublesome.
This usually occurs after they have accidentally 'touched' a savefile
causing moria to complain even though they weren't cheating. It is also
a problem when a machine crashes.
2) (Asumming that this actually works as claimed...)
Umoria 5.x has a nifty feature which lets you move a savefile from
one machine to another. Many people have requested this, and it happens
to be a very useful new feature. It is especially handy if moria is banned
at work/school, just copy the savefile to a micro and continue playing.
However, this interferes with savefile protections. What happens when
I want to move a savefile from my wilson@ernie account to my c152-tb@cory
account which has a different UID? Moria can not possibly know that I
am not cheating when I am doing this. However, if I permit this, then
cheating becomes trivial no matter what the savefile protection scheme is.
Also, there is the problem with save files created on micros, just whose
savefile are they anyways?
3) If someone wants to cheat, all they have to do is modify the source to
eliminate savefile protection, so why provide it in the first place?
4) It is difficult, if not impossible, to implement a savefile protection
scheme that will easily port to all machines umoria runs on.
PRO:
5) The original programer, Robert A. Koeneke, did not want people playing
copies of save files. When a character dies, he/she should be dead.
6) How will this affect the score file? Comparing scores of people who
play copies against people who don't play copies is not quite fair.
Well, I think that is enough from me. I would like to hear the opinions
of others. My feelings on this should be pretty clear from number four;
I don't like to waste my time writing code which isn't portable, hence I
would rather not bother with save file protection code.
I am sure that some people disagree though...
Jim Wilson wil...@ernie.Berkeley.EDU
"For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in
the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human
responsibility." Vaclav Havel, president of Czechoslavakia
Paul Chow
of savefiles is to have an automatic return to the last spot the
player saved his game. In other words, if a player dies, his character
would be restored to the state it was in when he last saved the game.
Isn't that what people are in essence doing anyway (when they have multiple
copies of savefiles, that is...)? This is the way many commercial
RPG's handle death. They give you some sort of message such as "Next time
you should be more careful..." and return you to some position that won't
leave you feeling you've wasted your time. After all, it's the pits when
you work a character up and finally feel that it's beefed up and equipped
and all of a sudden you die by some fluke (power failure, crash, AMHD around
the corner that you didn't see...)!!! The system crashes are the worst...
I understand Robert Koeneke's feelings towards death and its finality, but
this is after all only a game, meant for all to enjoy...and if we wanted to
"cheat", those that want to will go ahead and cheat despite Koeneke's
safeguards. To those that agree with Koeneke's philosophy, they can always
junk the character if they die. They aren't forced to continue on with that
character. I personally feel the method stated above would be the most
convenient way to please as many people as possible. I personally keep a
backup of my character now, and when I somehow die unexpectedly, I have to
copy the backup, reload MORIA and then continue on. It would save time and
wear and tear on my hard disk if the game would just automatically restore
the character's condition. What do others feel about my suggestion?
Patrick (using Paul's account, he's confused about some of the mail he's
getting addressed to Paul instead of Patrick)
Doug McDonald
I think it is best to just let people replay save files.
But, there should be some changes to make it possible to recover from
any disaster. especially gas attacks by AMHD and the Balrog. It
is silly to have attacks from which there is no defense at all.
I think the general store should sell, for some modest sum (800?),
gas masks. It would have the cute effect of having the most
mundane store sell the most important item. But you would have
to enchant it some awful amount to resist the Balrog.
MAybe it should also protect from spores.
Doug McDonald
David M Tate
>
>I think the general store should sell, for some modest sum (800?),
>gas masks. It would have the cute effect of having the most
>mundane store sell the most important item. But you would have
>to enchant it some awful amount to resist the Balrog.
>
>MAybe it should also protect from spores.
>
>Doug McDonald
What a great idea! A gas mask! It would have all sorts of restrictions, such
as
(1) Can't be worn with other headgear (helm, cap, crown, etc.)
(2) Reduces dexterity (awkward, uncomfortable)
(3) Slashes charisma (if it matters)
(4) Can be destroyed by acid
(5) Causes tunnel vision.
The last is my favorite; when you've got this thing on your head, you can't see
Evil Iggy sneaking up behind you.
You could make it SCUBA-type gear, and require the character to carry oxygen
around (*heavy*, and when you run out, you have to take off the mask or risk
passing out). Or, you could make it a filter-system, and have to replace the
filters as they get saturated (or clogged).
Incidentally, along the same lines as (1) above, isn't there a logical flaw in
allowing a character to wield a two-handed sword and a shield at the same time?
I would think that all the two-handed weapons (Flamberge, No-Dachi, Zweihander,
Claymore, Espadon, Great Flail, Battle Axe(s), Halberd, etc.) should have this
property. It would certainly give a little better justification for keeping a
"lesser" weapon, even if you don't have the dex to get extra hits with it.
--
David M. Tate | "It made the basses of their being throb in
dt...@unix.cis.pitt.edu | witching chords, and their thin blood pulse
| pizzicati of Hosanna..."
"A Man for all Seasonings" | -- Wallace Stevens
Art Boyne
>Now, the question is, should Umoria 5.x have protected save files?
My vote is to leave the save files unprotected.
Those who want to replay save files will find a way to do it *regardless*
of whether the files are protected or not. All you can do is adjust the
pain level. With the current protection scheme, for example, on UNIX,
I can simply use a binary <--> ASCII translator and use vi to change the
save date. On DOS, I can use a program like XCOPY that preserves the file
creation date information (I think I can also make the file read-only).
Instead of protecting the files, and to keep the score files reasonable,
how about this: Allow the user to save the game at any point without
terminating. Whenever his character gets killed, allow the user to choose
either to continue from the saved point or quit; however, the save file gets
updated either way to indicate the number of times he died. The score file
can then include number-of-deaths information either as an explicit field or
as a negative factor in the score.
Art Boyne, bo...@hplvla.hp.com
Craig Champlin
In article <129...@hplvli.HP.COM> bo...@hplvli.HP.COM (Art Boyne) writes:
>wil...@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (James E. Wilson) asks:
>
>>Now, the question is, should Umoria 5.x have protected save files?
>
>My vote is to leave the save files unprotected.
Please leave save files unprotected! As long as humans are writing
programs, there will always be bugs. Most notably, bugs that
cause system crashes. I logged on here tonight to complain of
such a bug in 4.873 for the PC. I saw this message and realized that
4.873 is now old hat. Bug reports should focus on 5.x. Anyway, if
I had not been running moria from a batch file that made a duplicate
of my save file, I would be VERY upset right now!
Here is what happened... I was rummaging around at 1500 ft. looking for
potions of gain x when I met up with a ghost. Being that I was out
of oil and was about to make a trip up to the surface anyway, I
didn't mind the occasional intelligence drain. I was carrying
plenty of "Restore Life Level" potions so I knew that I would only
drop a little in my ability to cast the spells (from the intelligence
loss) but I would not forget any spells due to lost experience. Well,
I read my "Scroll of Recall" when my intelligence dropped to about 15.
I figured I could buy a potion in town to restore it. About this time,
the ghost was starting to make a nusance of himself. He kept healing
himself with my manna and making Elvis, my 27th level Ranger,
afraid. So, no spells for me and no hack and slash either. I must
say, I felt rather helpless. Teleport. Damn! "Your staff has no
more charges left!" So I tried my Teleport Away wand, 3 charges. The
mother never even left the room! I just was able to slam him against
the opposite wall, then run... Not to worry, though, the WOR should
kick in at any minute. Well it did, but not before that bugger had
zapped my smarts down to 3. What followed was a marathon session
with my space bar as the moria narrator informed me, "You have forgotten
a spell! more--" for every spell from three books! What happened
next? Yup, WOR kicked in and I found myself in town, dumb as a post but
happy to see light again.
Needless to say, I was a little shook up but not too overly worried. I
figuried I could buy a potion of restore intelligence and I would
be back to my fearsome self again. Well I bought the potion, quaffed
it, and... nothing. "Hmmm," I said, "that's odd... Maybe I need
to quaff one of these Restore Life Levels." So I did. (This is
when the trouble star.) "Welcome to Level 27!" the narrator
said while he flashed _many_ spells on the screen from which I was
supposed to pick one from a to x. Well, only a-w was on the screen
and I most certainly wanted my identify spell back which was off the
screen. So, I poked my down arrow to see what letter I wanted. Sure
enough, the rest of my choices were displayed. But when I chose the
spell I wanted... NOTHING! I couldn't even warm boot!
My point is this, I would be heart broken, (not to mention wondering
what to do next) had I not had a back up copy. This was a silly
way to loose a character. Admittidly, I would have been in a bit
of a pickle right now had the system not crashed, but I would have been
able to work my way out of it. (This is where the Grape Jelly trick
is fair, right?) Anyway, please do not make it so I can't make
back ups. I have been playing Elvis since before Christmass, it
would have been a shame to loose him due to mechanical difficulties.
P.S. I ran into my first Invisible Stalker tonight. I was busy
dealing with this infernal ghost. What is an Invisible Stalker?
What does it do? Are they worth many experience points? He didn't
seem to be very hard to kill, but like I said I was pre-occupied
with seemingly more important matters.
Thanks.
--
--Craig Champlin "Jewels five-words-long
That on the stretched finger of all Time
Sparkle for ever."
-Tennyson
William P. Setzer
>wil...@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (James E. Wilson) asks:
>
>>Now, the question is, should Umoria 5.x have protected save files?
>
>My vote is to leave the save files unprotected.
"protected save files" involves two issues:
(1) Protection from replaying saved games, and
(2) Data encryption to prevent character modification.
The second issue has not been addressed by anyone, but I believe that
we are all in agreement that it is "a good idea". It's a simple
observation on human nature that if a game makes it easier to cheat
then some people will, and justify it as something else. [A couple of
simple questions will illustrate this. How many people post to this
newsgroup every week and ask for the wizard passwords? _Why_ do they
want the wizard passwords?] Make it hard enough and people won't
cheat, because they can't.
Unfortunately, most posters on the subject want to remove the
protection from replaying saved games. They think that allowing
people to make backups is a good idea, just in case of machine
failure. Well, I think that it's a bad idea, because of the reason
listed in the previous paragraph. To illustrate, let me explain why
panic save games are (by default) not scorable. On the surface, it
would appear that panic save games should always be restored, maybe by
having the program automatically do a restore if it detects that the
file is a panic save. The reason this is not done is because people
were using it to cheat. When they were in a very bad situation (but
not dead), they would pop out of the game and send it a SIGHUP. (For
those of you not entirely familiar with U*ix, just imagine that there
is an easy way to get Moria to panic save.) When restored, the game
regenerates the level, so the player is usually out of his/her
predicament. What started out as a good idea in theory turned out
to be a huge cheat in practice. Unfortunately, an analogous situation
occurs if save files were allowed to be restored. There will be
people who abuse the intent and use it to cheat. The only good
solution to this problem (so far) has been to encrypt the save files.
Make it hard enough to cheat and people won't, because they can't.
This makes for some unfortunate situations (as related by other
posters on the subject), but is it worth it? I believe so. A cheat
of this magnitude completely devalues the game. How can you take
pride in your 34th level character when you know some people will
think that you have cheated? Will you ever be able to admire the
achievements of others without at least considering whether or not
they cheated? I don't know.
--
William Setzer | High Priest of the Chebychev Church of
setzer@{epsl,wam}.umd.edu | Probability, and survivor of the Bayes wars.
John George
>Art Boyne writes:
>>wil...@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (James E. Wilson) asks:
>>
>>>Now, the question is, should Umoria 5.x have protected save files?
>>
>>My vote is to leave the save files unprotected.
>>[Argument about replaying save files].
>
>"protected save files" involves two issues:
>
>(1) Protection from replaying saved games, and
>(2) Data encryption to prevent character modification.
>
>
>Unfortunately, most posters on the subject want to remove the
>protection from replaying saved games. They think that allowing
>people to make backups is a good idea, just in case of machine
>failure. Well, I think that it's a bad idea, because of the reason
>listed in the previous paragraph.
...more stuff deleted
>--
>William Setzer | High Priest of the Chebychev Church of
>setzer@{epsl,wam}.umd.edu | Probability, and survivor of the Bayes wars.
I think it is a GOOD idea, for the following reason. We got a new
version of UMoria some time ago, and I created a character, and worked
him up to about 27th level. Then, although I had not touched the
character file, I got the message, "file <whatever-the-name-was> has
been touched, sorry." This happens sporadically with any character
I develop. I have lost perhaps 10 characters this way in the last
couple of years, and now I am playing Larn almost exclusively.
At one time, the person who installed Moria tried to bring one
of my characters back, but said that he wasn't sure how to
do it; another person, an alleged Moria expert, did a ls -l to
look at the protection for the character, and found that the
program was saving the character, but giving me read/write permission
on the savefile. I don't know why; he said the problem was fixed.
Well, I have just lost my n+1st character to this goddamn bug, and
as I say, I am now playing Larn. It is not as much fun, but I can
save characters without losing them randomly.
--John C. George
Joel P. Benson
from wilson to work. It says moria.sit but it is not recognized by my StuffIt
v 1.51. Will someone send some help please? Thanks in advance.
Joel
Sean Barrett
>observation on human nature that if a game makes it easier to cheat
>then some people will, and justify it as something else. [A couple of
>simple questions will illustrate this. How many people post to this
>newsgroup every week and ask for the wizard passwords? _Why_ do they
>want the wizard passwords?] Make it hard enough and people won't
>cheat, because they can't.
>pride in your 34th level character when you know some people will
>think that you have cheated?
Excuse me, but it's just a game. I find that I much prefer text adventure
games which let me save than ones that don't. It's so boring to go back
through the same old stuff over and over. Ditto for moria, the early
levels get rather tiresome.
For example, since I started playing a couple weeks ago, I've made periodic
backups of my character, but haven't ever used one yet. The point here is
to _further_ my enjoyment of the game. I really don't care about other
people's opinion of my character when he reaches 18/00 18/00 18/00 etc.
I just want to have fun.
Put it this way: is it possible to cheat at solitaire? Certainly yes if
you're going to go brag about your great accomplishment...
Sean "buz...@eng.umd.edu" Barrett
John 'Vlad' Adams
>> It's a simple
>>observation on human nature that if a game makes it easier to cheat
>>then some people will, and justify it as something else. [A couple of
>>simple questions will illustrate this. How many people post to this
>>newsgroup every week and ask for the wizard passwords? _Why_ do they
>>want the wizard passwords?] Make it hard enough and people won't
>>cheat, because they can't.
A) You cannot make it hard enough that someone won't be able to figure
out how to cheat.
B) Some of us have needsof wizard passwords thanks to co-workers who
load up Moria on the lab-assistant IBM at work and kill off a character
which took days to build up. I, for one, would like 4.73 wizard passwords
so I could restore my character which a malicious co-worker really fried.
Take your judgement and morality elsewhere, like alt.flame, please...
--
John M. Adams --*-- Professional Student on the six-year plan! ///
Internet: j...@beach.cis.ufl.edu -or- vlad...@maple.circa.ufl.edu ///
"Houston, we have a negative on that orbit trajectory." Calvin & Hobbs \\V//
Cosysop of BBS:42; an Amiga bbs running QBBS. 904-438-4803. (Florida) \X/
John E. Sanders
>pride in your 34th level character when you know some people will
>think that you have cheated? Will you ever be able to admire the
>achievements of others without at least considering whether or not
>they cheated? I don't know.
Why bother with what other people have done and JUST HAVE SOME FUN WHILE PLAYING
A LITTLE COMPUTER GAME??????????
Melanie Hiranandani
1. What does the Balrog look like?
2. How did he get to be master of the dungeon?
--Melanie
John Kennedy
-->>> [...How many people post to this newsgroup every week and ask for
-->>> the wizard passwords? _Why_ do they want the wizard passwords?]
-->>> Make it hard enough and people won't cheat, because they can't.
--> A) You cannot make it hard enough that someone won't be able
--> to figure out how to cheat.
(This isn't directed at Vlad, (-: but he happened to have a good quote
in his message that I could use)
I would make a token attempt at security and leave it at that. For one,
if the person can get at his save file, he can back it up and look at it no
matter what you do. You can't prevent anything but Moria from accessing the
file for the simple reason of file system backups -- every time somebody backed
up the file system, "there goes the Moria games...". I kind of like the
current method of saving files -- it can be hacked to saving the files in a
particular directory first. This leaves me the option of making the files
unreadable to the user but readable for the game -- that's fairly secure.
Without a lot of effort, it would be trivial to load even encrypted character
files. The source is distributed, remember? Unless you provide a way for
every games administrator/compiler to customize his encryption method, it will
only discourage lazy people. Finding the passwords is already too trivial
to mention -- unless the IBM version does something the Unix does not, I can't
see that they've tried very hard.
To sum this up and nip my own message at the bud, putting too much security
into the game doesn't yield equal gains. About the only security that would
work is to make the file unreadable to anything but the game, and BSD
administrators would probably have a fit shortly after that (especially the
ones that like quotas). If you have brains, source, and an IBM, nothing will
stop you from doing whatever you feel like.
--
Warlock, AKA +----------------------------------------------------
John Kennedy | uucp: lampoon!war...@csuchico.edu
CSCI Student | internet: war...@csuchico.edu
CSU Chico +----------------------------------------------------
William P. Setzer
protected from replay.
John Sanders writes:
>Why bother with what other people have done and JUST HAVE SOME FUN
>WHILE PLAYING A LITTLE COMPUTER GAME??????????
I bother because Jim Wilson asked me to. He is the maintainer of
Umoria and he has to make the design decisions concerning save files.
He asked for opinions on whether or not to protect save files and I
posted mine.
John Adams writes:
>A) You cannot make it hard enough that someone won't be able to figure
>out how to cheat.
That is true. However, you can make it hard enough that it isn't worth
it (for most) to try.
>B) Some of us have needsof wizard passwords thanks to co-workers who
>load up Moria on the lab-assistant IBM at work and kill off a character
>which took days to build up. I, for one, would like 4.73 wizard passwords
>so I could restore my character which a malicious co-worker really fried.
That is a very real concern. IMO it is the primary argument against
protecting save files. I was originally of the opinion that crashes
and such were relatively infrequent occurrences. However, the number
of people who have been writing in and relating their machine woes is
beginning to convince me that there should be a way to replay save
files. (In fact, there is. You can restore from wizard mode.) I am
presently working on a scheme that will still prevent cheating, but
will allow unlimited save file replay under "appropriate"
circumstances. (The whole problem, of course, is to properly define
appropriate.)
>Take your judgement and morality elsewhere, like alt.flame, please...
Perhaps my argument is a bit on the religious side, but I believe
that it is a valid point that has to be considered by Jim.
Sean Barrett writes:
>Excuse me, but it's just a game. I find that I much prefer text adventure
>games which let me save than ones that don't. It's so boring to go back
>through the same old stuff over and over. Ditto for moria, the early
>levels get rather tiresome.
There is a fundamental difference in game philosophies between Umoria
and adventure games. Adventure games are primarily problem solving.
Once you know that the bird scares the snake, you can get by the snake
every time. (Anyone remember that one?) Umoria's primary goal is
to stay alive and kill the Balrog. Once you allow people to replay
dead characters, you remove one of the primary motivations of the game.
In a sort of unrelated thought, IMO the beginning is one of the more
exciting parts of the game. You aren't high enough level to survive
most forms of attack from the monsters of your level. That stray
kobold could still waste you.
>For example, since I started playing a couple weeks ago, I've made periodic
>backups of my character, but haven't ever used one yet. The point here is
>to _further_ my enjoyment of the game. I really don't care about other
>people's opinion of my character when he reaches 18/00 18/00 18/00 etc.
>I just want to have fun.
Don't you compete with other people on the scoreboard? If so, wouldn't
you be pretty upset to see something like the following (scoreboard
format only approximated):
1123900 Foo Halfling Mage
1039909 Foo Halfling Mage
908876 Foo Halfling Mage
808243 Foo Halfling Mage
<Your character here>
Perhaps not. I can respect that. How about another reason then?
I will assume that you have played several adventure games. Have
you ever been so stuck that you perused the executable for text
strings to try and help you? Almost always, the text is encrypted
to prevent just such an attack. If you _had_ been able to read
that text, would it have lessened your enjoyment in the game?
My guess is yes. I believe Umoria save files should be encrypted
for the same reason. Dying is an integral part of the game.
Encrypting the save files protects you in the same way as encrypting
text in adventure games. The problem comes in when you have a valid
reason for wanting to replay save files. As has been related by a
number of posters, they have had valid reasons for needing to restore
a save file. This is where I believe the discussion should be
concentrated. How do we allow people to easily restore games if
they have a valid reason, and yet make it as hard to cheat as possible?
I have my own ideas, but I would like to hear others.
Boudewijn Wayers
>you're going to go brag about your great accomplishment...
Of course it's not a problem to cheat/make backups/change savefiles,
if you're playing solitaire. The problem comes in when you're playing
at a system. In this case, it would be better if everyone had the same
chance of making it into the scorefile. Of course, you could argue:
"well, everyone can cheat, so everyone has this same chance".
Nevertheless, in this case, someone who's honest will never make it
to the top of the scorefile.
Boudewijn.
--
wsb...@eutws1.UUCP or ...!mcvax!eutws1!wsbusr
(Boudewijn Wayers).
Boudewijn Wayers
> That is true. However, you can make it hard enough that it isn't worth
> it (for most) to try.
I agree.
> The number of people who have been writing in and relating their
> machine woes is beginning to convince me that there should be a way to
> replay save files. (In fact, there is. You can restore from wizard
> mode.) I am presently working on a scheme that will still prevent
> cheating, but will allow unlimited save file replay under "appropriate"
> circumstances. (The whole problem, of course, is to properly define
> appropriate.)
[Stuff deleted...]
> [...] a number of posters, but they have had valid reasons for needing
> to restore a save file. This is where I believe the discussion should
> be concentrated. How do we allow people to easily restore games if
> they have a valid reason, and yet make it as hard to cheat as
> possible? I have my own ideas, but I would like to hear others.
Since (as mentioned) it is possible to restore saved characters from
wizard mode, i don't think it's nescessary to introduce other options
to do so.
If, by a machine crash, or other VALID reason, you have lost your
character, contact the wizard, and ask him (politely, if nescessary) to
restore your character.
If you're just making backups to get to the top of the scoreboard
faster, bad luck (or be VERY polite...).
John J. Feiler
The Problem (as I see it):
Sometimes you need to backup a game, but "we" don't want people to "cheat."
A Possible Solution:
Encrypt each saved game. As part of the saved game, save a unique
game ID, and a integer replay level.
Have a different encryption for each replay level.
Have the game maintain an encrypted list of all active game ID's, and perhaps
a password for each game.
What This Does:
Go ahead, make backups of your files. If you replay, after having died,
the system knows you are doing so, because your game ID is no longer valid,
so it bumps your replay level, and makes your game ID valid again.
Some other bozo can't trash your game, because they dont know your password.
This also allows you to make a backup, then do something stupid, die, and start
again at the previously saved spot (with a backup level one higher).
The final score should be lower by some reasonable amount if you have replayed
the game.
So, whatcha think...
John
--
==============
John Feiler "Life's like a jigsaw, you get the
709 Locust #7 straight bits, but there's something
Pasadena, CA 91101 missing in the middle..."
James E. Wilson
Apparently, there are a number of people having problems downloading
the macintosh .sit files. There is nothing wrong with the two .sit files
in my kukulcan archive. Tonight, I downloaded both using zmodem, and
downloaded one of them with xmodem (from MacTerminal), and had no problems.
First of all, since these are binary files, you must use binary mode when
getting them via ftp. For most ftp programs, you just type 'binary' or 'image'
before transferring the files. If you are on an old 36 bit system like
TOPS-20, then use tenex mode.
Secondly, since these are binary files, you must use binary mode when
downloading them to your mac. Most of the older, obsolete protocols, such
as kermit and xmodem do NOT default to binary. On UNIX systems, for example,
you must specify the -i option when starting kermit, and you must use
-sb when using umodem (an xmodem program). The sz program (zmodem
protocol) defaults to binary, so no flags are needed. Make sure that
your terminal program or whatever is set to 8 bits data; if it is set
to 7 bits of data, the download may not work correctly. The SIT files
are in macbinary format, so make sure your Mac program is set to
'macbinary' download format.
Jim Wilson wil...@ernie.Berkeley.EDU
"...black men in Harlem (a part of New York City) were less likely to reach the
age of 65 than men in Bangladesh (one of the worlds poorest nations)..."
-- New England Journal of Medicine, January 1990
John E. Sanders
>I wrote an article on why I think Umoria 5.x save files should be
>protected from replay.
>
>John Sanders writes:
>>Why bother with what other people have done and JUST HAVE SOME FUN
>>WHILE PLAYING A LITTLE COMPUTER GAME??????????
>
character got to a high level. My comments were meant to be similar to
those of Sean Barrett's. Sorry about the confusion.
Howard Hsieh
[stuff deleted]
>Go ahead, make backups of your files. If you replay, after having died,
>the system knows you are doing so, because your game ID is no longer valid,
>so it bumps your replay level, and makes your game ID valid again.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but a counter that
records the number of times the character died would be nice to
include in the high score stats. That way, we can see whether someone
made King/Queen in one death or fifty.
New items? Good idea. How about arrows/missile weapons that
have the effect of Stinking Cloud?
--
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Howard Hsieh /o \/|
par...@portia.stanford.edu 7__/\|