Ultimate Heros (save your char)

Save your character from one game to the next!

This would be amazing in maps where you build a hero and compete against eachother. It would be like D2 or something where you dont have to start a lvl 1 hero all over.

how?

Heres a possible idea, keep in mind this wont be easy:

I. Implementation
at any point in the game a player can type '-save' or whatever and the game will give them a text message, a code that describes their characters hero, level, stats, current items, and resources. They can then write this down and when they join a new game they enter the code at the start and BAM, the map decodes it and gives the player all their old properties.

II. Encoding
this is the hard part. you need to keep track of:
1. the type of hero the player has (easy)
2. the hero's stats (moderate, use variables)
3. the hero's level (easy)
4. the hero's items (easy)
5. the player's resources (easy)

Now what you would want to do is encode these things so they dont get a message like:
Your code is: MK_10_143_98_112_orboffire_ankhofreincarnation_empty_empty_empty_empty_10500

Thats so easy to hack... =)

Come up with something good

III. Decoding
this is easy if you found a good encoding method
use the string(substring) comparison to validate and decode the code.
Then just give the player what the code says!



If you have any other ideas or comments on this topic please share

Just wanted to say that i've done that months before.
There must be a thread by me lying around somewhere in these forums. Attached are two maps where your hero can travel between using the password mechanism.

The real hard point on this one is: Try to keep your password small. That's hard, but I managed to keep it down to 19 characters. w00t.

And here's some discouragement:
Everybody can hack you with just extracting the *.j file and adding a few powerful items into it. Then he starts the game, collects them and then saves the hero.

If you get a way around this: Praise and hail thee.
For I think that map protectors cannot stop you from extracting the *.j file, because War3 must be able to extract it itself.

no way! When my HD crashed and I lost my unprotected copy of my map I had to rewrite all my triggers because I couldnt get the .j file out of the protection...

right? else what would be the point of protecting maps?

WarCraft 3 can see the *.j file and so can everybody.
'War3map.j' is in the *.w3m. You can't do anything about this. Everybody can just extract it with any mpq extracting program.
:(

I don't think there's a protection that can hide the *.j file. But I'm curious. What protection did you use?

Even with map "protection" it's REALLY easy to look at any file in the .w3m by using a mpq viewer/extractor. I'm almost positive that even a newbie could look at files easily, though they may not understand everything.

If all you needed was the .j, can't you just copy-n-paste the tect to a new map, after adding the variables and such?

As for the 'code' a series of 1's and 0's would probably be fine, or you could use 0-9 for each substring.

There isn't. Let's just think that i encode the .j file using my own method. Then war3 wouldn't read that causing errors.

then please extract the .j file from a protected map for me k?

Give me the protected map that you want the *.j file from and I'll do it.

MicrosoftXP, you just need to open the map with ether MPQVIEW or WINMPQ and extract that. It's not a secret.

It would be quite complex to come up with good encoding/decoding algorithms to keep the code in-between 6 and 7 characters, especially when you have more then one unit you want to save. I would be willing to try and come up with such a scheme, unless of course someone has already done this.

If you want a general encryption algorithm, you'd have to have one which needed some general number and still provided the proper encryption and decryption. Otherwise, anyone who knew the algorithm could decrypt the password.

If you make/find something like that, I'd be impressed.

Even with a good algorithm, the user can extract the .j file and still decode it.

True, but it would be easier to hide a single variable (the algorithm's seed) then an entire algorithm.

Blackdick, is there anyway to grab a value from a file, either your own file or part of the WE standard files?

To hack the game and making a super powerful hero, the algorithm needn't be understood by the hacker.
The hacker just changes the *.j file:
Just add one trigger at the end that creates a bunch of powerful items.
:bgrun:
Sad fact: Even with the most powerful encryption - yes even if you make it undecryptable - the map can be hacked very easily.

Superiki you sure bout that? I did make a map protector that protects even the *.j from being extracted :) what it does is kinda aks like a controlled virus and if someone trys to even click on your map in any program or even in the editor its comes up with
Unknowen error! error formating c drive! 0% formatted

and when it gets to 100 it goes : Have a nice day :) and turns off your comp! of course nothing happens to it and only someone with the 4 differnt passwords and the file to extracted it can edit anything in the w3m but im gona have to remake it my comp was wiped and i had forgot to save it to cd or the web but it wont take me lone to get it back up

(this is a shared account and the other person asked how to make stuff like this couse i saw it in the cp as a suscribed thread and i tolled him he was a dumn asss and should have asked me :ggani: *please note in all my replys this is in it couse its my fav smily :ggani: *)