Zaroba's invincibility "hack" ;)

Willburn · Post by **Willburn** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:09 pm

Some of you may know the moon model pack zaroba posted a while back, which replaces the space station model with a moon.
Well, today I found out that this seemingly innocent little adition can be used as an exploit to gain "invincibility"!!!
Here is how:
Coolbiker and I decided to have some fun at megacityone today so we went there and messed around a bit, blowing each other up. At some point, I got the idea to fly inside the moon orbiting megacityone and just stop there (yep it works, there are no collisions in space).
I then turned around to cool and just started shooting at him from inside the moon. To me it looked like my shots were just hitting the moon from the inside and not cb, but since cb didnt have zar's mod installed on his client, all my shots hit him perfectly and ultimately killed him.
It also works the other way around: Coolbiker couldn't hit me. On his client it looked like all his shots hit me perfectly, but on my client they simply hit the moon and so I took no damage at all.
After having a bit of fun, blowing cb up about 3 or 4 times I decided to come here and tell the staff about this exploit, because I'm such an honest guy

My resolution to this problem:
Either disable the modding of the client somehow or introduce collisions in space.

cheers
Flowstyler

coolbiker · Post by **coolbiker** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:14 pm

Or mebbe its cos i asked how you weren't dying

Willburn · Post by **Willburn** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:15 pm

Maybe....

Nah, I'm honest

Wouldn't wanna screw anyone over in this game or any other game.
Never have and never will be.

Post by **Fooli** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:44 pm

Yeh, I was going to mention this in zar's original post. It's not a good idea to mod default models like that, for this very reason. We really need some kind of checksum system to prevent this happening, but... we don't have that yet.

f

coolbiker · Post by **coolbiker** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:17 pm

hmmmm....everyone r gonna b d/loading moon model now.

No-one will be safe from attack within missile range of a station. I wont say how far that distance is, but a few of us who have tested in the past know its a long way.

Be careful all traders, ur attacker is invincible

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:16 am

thats a wierd one.
i didn't actually think of that situation at all (oops

)

i'm guessing the same could be doable with the starport then, since a player could hide behind it and not get hit. unless the planet model itself has extra collision models added to it and if so, that might be why it happens with the moon.

i'll have to look into that later in the week.

on a side note, its not much different from the people who sit by a space station and constantly redock during a fight to avoid running out of ammo and countermeasures, and to avoid missiles and death.

coolbiker · Post by **coolbiker** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:06 am

Might be an idea if a ship cant shoot any weapons within a certain radius of a spacestation (or moon in this case) thereby negating this problem. Still leaves it a afe haven without them being able to exploit.

Xorgen · Post by **Xorgen** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:27 am

Ah! So that's why when I docked during Fight Night, Flowstyler perceived it as me crashing on a planet? Flowstyler, did you see space station as moon during Fight Night?

Ok, I don't want to be shot at from inside the moon. I suppose it can be fixed on a client by client basis, right? Would it be fixed if we all install this moon package? Where can I get it?

Another idea of a temporary workaround: what if I don't see the moons, but fly close enough to the attacker to be 'inside' with him? Will I be able to shoot back at him then? What's the moon size compared to space station size anyway? Is it the same roughly? 2x? 3x?

Willburn · Post by **Willburn** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:51 am

coolbiker wrote:hmmmm....everyone r gonna b d/loading moon model now.

No-one will be safe from attack within missile range of a station. I wont say how far that distance is, but a few of us who have tested in the past know its a long way.

Be careful all traders, ur attacker is invincible

Actually if really everyone would install the model pack, there wouldn't be a problem. The only ones getting screwed are the ones without the model pack.

Xorgen wrote:Ah! So that's why when I docked during Fight Night, Flowstyler perceived it as me crashing on a planet? Flowstyler, did you see space station as moon during Fight Night?

Exactley

My mistake

Another idea of a temporary workaround: what if I don't see the moons, but fly close enough to the attacker to be 'inside' with him? Will I be able to shoot back at him then? What's the moon size compared to space station size anyway? Is it the same roughly? 2x? 3x?

Yep, once you are "inside" the moon, you are able to shoot and damage the attacker.
The model size is actually fairly big, I'm guessing it's about 1/6 the size of a planet, not sure though.

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:58 am

Xorgen wrote:Another idea of a temporary workaround: what if I don't see the moons, but fly close enough to the attacker to be 'inside' with him? Will I be able to shoot back at him then? What's the moon size compared to space station size anyway? Is it the same roughly? 2x? 3x?

being inside with him 'might' work. but if its anything like collisions on worlds then chances are they still wont hit because the shots will explode right when you fire them on the other guys screen.

i'd say the moon is around 1/5th the size of the planet.
compaired to the space station, i don't remember. i've had it in my client for a while before posting the topic about it.

Xorgen · Post by **Xorgen** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:44 pm

Hmmm... Actually when I come to think about it again, and after reading the original moon model topic, I think it either should be included in the installation package, or the bug has to be fixed. I.e. everyone or none. Otherwise its an exploit.

Those reading forum probably will install it, but it will add so much more confusion to newcomers. Like the above one with 'docked' vs 'crashed'. Not mentioning invincibility.

And, I mean, what's this if to play the game on par with others you have to download special added items hidden in some forum topic that will probably be far down the list soon?

New guys will get screwed more (as if they are not screwed enough yet). Not by advanced players, who have no reason for using exploits, but by other (not so) new guys who have the chutzpah to use the new model as an exploit.

So I will not install it. And I request the bug to be fixed and those having the model installed not to use an exploit.

smithy953! · Post by **smithy953!** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:45 am

yeah i think the whole moon thing should be scrapped cos its un-fair to players, if stations were ment to be moons they would have ben set to by the drunken monkes so just leave em alone ppl

lensman · Post by **lensman** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:40 pm

coolbiker wrote:hmmmm....everyone r gonna b d/loading moon model now.

No-one will be safe from attack within missile range of a station. I wont say how far that distance is, but a few of us who have tested in the past know its a long way.

Be careful all traders, ur attacker is invincible

I the Sandgroper is not worried. Let them hide in moons.

JasonX · Post by **JasonX** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:30 pm

Perhaps we could have the ability to enter a space station through our ship.. That would solve the moon hack and the difficulty of finding the space station

Willburn · Post by **Willburn** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:45 pm

JasonX wrote:Perhaps we could have the ability to enter a space station through our ship.. That would solve the moon hack and the difficulty of finding the space station

I don't quite understand...
What do you mean with enter the space station through our ship?

JasonX · Post by **JasonX** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:18 pm

There would be a option in our "ship controls"(ermm.. bug in the word filter) that gives you the ability to go to a space station

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:33 pm

what would make more sense is if like planets, you could dock at the spacestation/moon just by crashing into it

then nobody could go inside it at all.

lucifer1101 · Post by **lucifer1101** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 12:29 am

i like your idea zar, but if we keep the stations we ould still need the f10 docking key to get in because the model is so small that its still quite hard for a collision.

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:35 am

maybe keep that option aswell

lucifer1101 · Post by **lucifer1101** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:15 am

fair enough