Data collector/spoiler site.

Sounds awesome, if it could be more automated I would love to see it. My biggest complaint concerning the current Wiki is that most of the stuff you search for is not there. I think this would help get the info out.
 
Homogenn said:
dbum said:
It basically sounds like magelo for live but also tracking what mob it drops off of. So basically, if you could build a magelo like client and then parse your 50 minute logs, you could identify what items were looted from a mob. Wouldn't be as efficient but could be done.

Your logs doesn't say what dropped what. If you kill 3 or 4 mobs at the time, you can't really be sure which is which.

I know, so in those situations I understand this wouldn't work.

But I think it is walking a fine line if it is scanning the loot window. I am by no means trying to read too much in too Wiz's words or put words in his mouth but what he stated previously seemed to state anything on your person. Anything in the loot window is not on your person - a technicality it is but it all hinges on where the line is drawn. In my opinion, if your showing the loot window, showEQ is only one step away since it would only be reporting the items before you kill the mob - but I would think the way the information was gathered would be determined in almost the exact same manner.

Personally, I think it should be restricted to only what is physically on your person or in your bank (as was magelo).
 
One concern is that this would appear to whatever safeguards Wiz has in place to catch people using ShowEQ, identically. It's sniffing packets - what you're doing with them is irrelivant, as far as the server is concerned. They're being intercepted. This would (playing devil's advocate here) pave the way for someone to modify or write a new program that used the same method for packet retrieval that you use, but used the retrieved data in a more exploitatious manner. Both would appear the same.
 
It would not matter if Dreten was going to write the program or not, if someone was going to write or use a program like ShowEq they would do it regardless.

And Dreten would not have to write the program to pull the info from the mobs in the zone. It could be written so only to collect the information when looting the mobs corpse. So the only information gathered would be the players name, mobs name, zone name, and what the player looted.
 
Has been similar log readers/parsers in the past .. one such that I used on LIVe all the time was EQ Companion.

Had a pair of old laptops that it ran on beside each of my main toon screens..

Instant access to amounts for DPS, separated chats (without clogging up the screen) items looted/sold what vendor you sold it to and who paid more if you had sold the same item before.

Nice tool for information at the finger tips that would be easy enough found by reading your logfile after the fact but without the delay or time to do so.
 
It would not matter if Dreten was going to write the program or not, if someone was going to write or use a program like ShowEq they would do it regardless.

You're missing my point. It is this:

Dreten writes this program. Then half the server is using it, constantly scooping up packets, pulling out harmless information.

Someone else is then free to write a program that scoops up those same packets, pulls out exploitable information, and it appears, serverside, the same as Dreten's does. Therefore, they just effectively wrote ShowEQ that's undetectable, because Dreten's program has been deemed acceptable.
 
And Dreten would not have to write the program to pull the info from the mobs in the zone. It could be written so only to collect the information when looting the mobs corpse. So the only information gathered would be the players name, mobs name, zone name, and what the player looted.

Which is basically what I had in mind.

And for all of you talking about log parsers, this has nothing to do with any logs whatsoever, it's not even remotely close.

But yes, I do see the problem in it being reversely engineered into some type of ShowEQ, hence the question to the devs. It's a very fine edge, and I don't even know if it's possible to pull through in EQ, I just have my beliefs that it is. If I get a no, that's fine - I do understand if it's not wanted. :)
 
Dreten said:
And Dreten would not have to write the program to pull the info from the mobs in the zone. It could be written so only to collect the information when looting the mobs corpse. So the only information gathered would be the players name, mobs name, zone name, and what the player looted.

Which is basically what I had in mind.

And for all of you talking about log parsers, this has nothing to do with any logs whatsoever, it's not even remotely close.

But yes, I do see the problem in it being reversely engineered into some type of ShowEQ, hence the question to the devs. It's a very fine edge, and I don't even know if it's possible to pull through in EQ, I just have my beliefs that it is. If I get a no, that's fine - I do understand if it's not wanted. :)
Mobs killed and the hp can be pulled from the log. I see no reason to flirt with unleashing a ShowEQ type monster to accomplish something that could be done by adding additional info to the log file.

Something as simple as a flag to broadcast to group chat who looted what from what corpse would make the packet snooping unecessary. And that the 30 seconds of thinking solution.

There has to be a better way. Count me as one vote against.

Craig
 
I think that sniffers is something we really don't want to give support, in all honesty. Those worms seem best left alone.
 
Other than watching a a player do something they "cant". Like running directly to a ground spawn, tracking without track ability, etc, is there some technical, automated way to find and ban people with ShowEQ?

I thought the biggest problem (from a server standpoint) was that SEQ was undetectable.
You're talking about a program being run on a pc that acts only as a gateway and analyzes the packets that go through it.

If it could be detected, you'd think there would have been alot more bannings on live... or was the 'undetectable' just Sony's excuse because they didn't want to take the time to police it?
 
If it could be detected, you'd think there would have been alot more bannings on live
I remember when i was that nieve.
There where very few banning in live becuse it was company policy to avoid banning.
I seen people who exploited the shark fiasco and didn't get banned even though it was logged by the server.
 
A machine acting as a gateway with its NIC in promiscuous mode is undetectable by the server. Packet viewing is non intrusive as data is captured while it moves over the interfaces. What IS detectable is the users actions - running straight to a mob, knowing the exact loot on a mob ...etc. The only way I can think of this being detectable is seeing if the packet moved through 2 NAT gateways in a row as its first 2 hops...

but I have never looked that deeply into packet analyzation.

:v:
 
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