[Kde-games-devel] KsirK and Jabber

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Tuesday 16 September 2008, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> There's probably some inspiration to be had here from the DOOM engine...
> modem play worked because the game engine used a synchronized PRNG, so

this doesn't work as well for strategy games like risk when it comes to 
preventing cheating, however. here's why:

* ask the PRNG for the next, say, 1000 entries
* use those values as the game progresses for other people's turns
* when it comes to your turn, "peak ahead" at what the results would be for 
different moves
* decide the best outcome

now think about card games and this is just insane: you can know exactly what 
order the cards are in the deck. talk about your perfect poker cheater! ;)

obviously this is not a trivial hack, but it's not a difficult one either and 
makes sync'd PRNGs utterly useless for strategy based games esp when something 
valuable is on the line (giving people a reason to do it =)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech

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