Hubert Cater

Posts on this form of manipulating the values in SC has been around for a while, and unfortunately is commonly done in a lot of games with a similar implementation. As Shaka mentioned there is no fool proof way to prevent "cheating" but I will be doing something in SC2 that will make it at least much more of a challenge to dynamically edit these values at run time. Not perfect but will at least be addressed. Hubert

Zappsweden I posted a slightly more detailed response to this idea here Hubert [ October 19, 2003, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ]

Aagudor Just thought I would pop in here on this discussion to add a few thoughts/explanations. The idea of an extended editor has come up a lot lately, and while I have mentioned that it would not be an official addition to SC, whether from me or sanctioned via a third party, the primary reason is in fact cheating (there are others ). This was of course not something that I really wanted to describe in too much detail.... but since the cat is out of the bag it certainly does not hurt to explain it a little further. The fact is that, as I have often said before, in many ways I was learning as I went along in developing SC, and SC simply was not designed (properly) to have extended editing capabilities (beyond what is available in the current campaign editor). Well not so much in the way that it would be editable seamlessly between opponents without resulting in an unfair advantage for one or the other, i.e. cheating. It just comes down to how the data is stored and manipulated by the game engine, which is what Aagudor is alluding to above, and how in the end cheating will be that much easier if extended editing capabilities are introduced. While it is certainly debatable as to how or why SC is played, and what method is the most popular, i.e. single player, hotseat, TCP/IP etc., at the end of the day a decision must be made in the best interest of everyone involved, be that the players who want the most out of the game and in my case the designer who has to sit down and make any number of changes. While the decision to not support further editing capabilities for SC may not be the most popular, I truly believe it is the right one to make. As pointed out in some of the other threads, which I will address shortly, there are always ways to cheat and no real point to make it any easier. Personally, I do believe that one of SC's strengths is the fun from pseudo competitive play, and if this type of play is weakened by the increased suspicion of cheating then it will really become a case of beware of what you wish for Now before the solo players jump all over me for not including it for them , consider that in many ways I am listening and that safe extended editing capabilities will be included for SC2. Again, why not this game you ask? Well at some point I have to commit my resources and time towards endeavors that will continue to support my future, and after a year and seven patches I think SC one has had a fair amount of investment from me, hopefully enough by most to feel that I don't simply put something out and abandon it. Ok, a little long in the tooth, but I hope this helps, Hubert

Windows XP also has it's own built in firewall that may be hindering your connection. If you check the properties of your primary network connection and select the 'Advanced' tab you should see if the XP Internet Connection Firewall is activated. If it is just disable it and you should be fine. One way to get to your network connection is by double clicking your 'My Network Places' icon on your desktop and then clicking on the 'View Network Connections' on the left side. If this still doesn't help take a look at the TCPIP How To Guide as this should help for other issues: http://www.furysoftware.com/documents/TCPIP_Quick_How_To.txt Good luck! Hubert

Great to hear Hubert

Thanks Les Hubert

Just wanted to pop in on the idea of an extended editor for SC as it has come up several times. While there are no plans to sanction an extended editor for SC1, either by myself or from a third party, the good news is that SC2 will have much more extensive editing capabilities. I won't commit to exactly what those will be just yet, as it is still to be 100% determined, but the ability to edit unit values and much much more should be there . Hope this helps, Hubert

Actually you can only blame me for this as developer of SC, and truth be told I consider myself to be pretty serious about SC II I realize I haven't said much about the next game, but as I said before I prefer to work this way... since once announcements are made I would like to have myself available to answer questions and get involved a bit more within the forums. This in reality is very difficult to do when you are a lone wolf developer like myself who needs to remain focused on development. If the concern is the timeline on when SC II will be available, believe me the quality and time to market will only be better/quicker this way More time spent here chatting with this rowdy bunch is less time for me hammering out code Hubert

Some great ideas here Jordy, definitly something there to add some variation to the game Hubert

Sounds like a good one Bill Hubert

Wow tough crowd Well I just wanted to pop in here to say that on behalf of the entire development team for Fury Software (me) that I am still here Consider me a lurker at the moment who is still keeping his eye on suggestion posts, (infact I added Edwin's post to my list of potential ideas) but since I prefer to work quietly on the next project until I'm almost there.... It may not be ideal for everyone but it's better for me (at the moment) if I don't put my foot in my mouth and make promises I can't keep... now if I had a PR guy and a development team with a huge budget perhaps it would be a different story, so all I can honestly ask for is everyone's patience.... believe me there is only so much one guy can do Once we (Battlefront and I) are comfortable with what we have to offer there will of course be announcements, just keep in mind that the last time around the game was only officially announced one month before release so this may be a reference to judge by Until then rest assured the development continues! Hubert

Ok great Hubert

Strange issue indeed, off hand I honestly have no idea why SC might be causing your Java apps to crash. What sort of Java apps are crashing, any ones in specific? I can post a question to the Eiffel forums (the IDE I used for SC) to see if anyone has ever seen this problem before. Hubert

I strongly second that Hubert

Ask your German counterpart if he has the latest German patch 'v1.07g' where the 'g' is for German. There were a few small differences that were included for the US v1.07 patch that differed from the original v1.07 German release that could be causing the error you've encountered. The v1.07g patch can be found at http://www.most-wanted-games.com Hope this helps, Hubert

Hi Panzer39, That is a really strange error indeed, glad to hear that you found a workaround. There were other reports with SC and XP with seemingly similar issues, and I wonder if the problem is related in the same way, although I cannot for the life of me understand why this would be an issue. Either way glad you got SC back up and running. Hubert

Perhaps you should try and contact your ISP if your attachments are being stripped of their original size. This could be for any number of reasons like extra protection due to recent internet worms etc. Hope this helps, Hubert

I heard of a similar problem way back when and I believe it had to do something with the permissions on the PBEM files or perhaps the PBEM directory itself. I would check to make sure it is not read-only or perhaps even just deleting the directory itself may do the trick. Hope this helps, Hubert

Unfortunately just the main sound effects can be disabled but not some items like menu clicks etc. Check the Options Menu for the disabling sound effects option. Hubert

Just wanted to pop in on this discussion... thanks for the posts and feedback (as always). The only thing to remember is that SC really was my first game and one that in many ways I learned a heck of a lot from (I'm still learning). Points well taken on items such as broader editing capabilities etc., and in the end consider SC a stepping stone for hopefully bigger and better things to come... especially now that I have a better idea of what I am doing Hubert

Not sure really, I would suggest taking a look at the TCP/IP Quick How To Guide as it should cover most issues. It can be found in your installation directory or online here: http://www.furysoftware.com/documents/TCPIP_Quick_How_To.txt Just off the top of my head I would check to see if you have any firewalls active such as ZoneAlarm or in the case of Windows XP disable the 'Internet Connection Firewall' if that option is selected. Good luck! Hubert

Definitly sounds like something the SC save loader couldn't handle. Yes you could try to reinstall SC or perhaps just delete your SAVE and PBEM folders as they may contain other corrupt files not sure. I've even heard of save files having been set to read only by email programs or the operating system itself (couldn't tell you why) and this has been a cause of problems as well. Hope this helps, Hubert

Hi Reepicheep, Thanks for the report, something for me to think about correcting for future games, thanks! Hubert

Hi Shaka, Thanks for the report, definitly something interesting happening there. I'll take a look but as v1.07 is pretty much closed it's most likely to remain an interesting feature Hubert

Ok I'm not sure what you are really seeing happen so send me the turn and I'll take a look. Hubert