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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Sept 7, 2016 17:50:55 GMT -5
fallenHow does the private key antipiracy work? Does Google Play/App Store/AAS add a file to the game upon purchase that unlocks the game content? Or something else? As I am looking to go into cybersecurity I am curious about how it works
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Post by tenbsmith on Sept 7, 2016 18:57:34 GMT -5
I enjoy and appreciate this thread. It seems that due to limited resources the TBs have decided to pursue modding only with Steam and Battleforce. Am I correct that Steam makes it easier to support modding than Google Play or the Apples App store.
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Post by fallen on Sept 7, 2016 22:50:01 GMT -5
I enjoy and appreciate this thread. It seems that due to limited resources the TBs have decided to pursue modding only with Steam and Battleforce. Am I correct that Steam makes it easier to support modding than Google Play or the Apples App store. We have chosen to dip our foot in the water on Steam because it is so much easier. We've added some mods that can be hand-installed. It isn't the best, you really want part of the application (Steam Workshop) to take care of it for you. Still, it is 1000% easier on Steam than on mobile and there is even a big part of Steam dedicated to modding. I don't know that there is any mobile modding scene ... ? Either way, if the toe-in-the-water produces enough interest on Steam, we'd put a foot in the water (support Steam Workshop). If that is successful, we could find ways to add official modding support to mobile (Dropbox) but ... any modding is going to be driven by the interest of a community around it. If there are 2 people modding on mobile, and no one playing it, then Cory and I probably wasted 2 months of precious dev time to build that bridge. If there are a 10 people on Steam modding and 1000 people playing their mods, then we've got some gas in the tank and its worth the investment. It all remains to be seen, we are experimenting. But, in all games except BF Steam, there is no mod support.
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Post by fallen on Sept 7, 2016 22:53:06 GMT -5
fallenHow does the private key antipiracy work? Does Google Play/App Store/AAS add a file to the game upon purchase that unlocks the game content? Or something else? As I am looking to go into cybersecurity I am curious about how it works We sign any APK with a special Trese-Brothers private key, which allows us to publish it through our Trese-Brothers channel on Google Play. Apple has a similar certificate setup. Once signed, it can't be changed without invalidating the signing. Only APKs or packages signed in such a way can be distributed by GPlay. Later, when the game is launched, we check with Google Play to make sure the game was downloaded and valid. Pirates rip out the check with Google Play, but that changes it, so it has to be resigned with another key, or not signed at all. Generally, it is unsigned ... which means you have to turn on the setting on your phone "Allow install of unsigned apps" which is asking for malware. But hey, you're pirating anyway! P.s. I am the art director and part-time coder. I might not use all the right words, but that is nothing new
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Post by ntsheep on Sept 7, 2016 22:58:34 GMT -5
I enjoy and appreciate this thread. It seems that due to limited resources the TBs have decided to pursue modding only with Steam and Battleforce. Am I correct that Steam makes it easier to support modding than Google Play or the Apples App store. We have chosen to dip our foot in the water on Steam because it is so much easier. We've added some mods that can be hand-installed. It isn't the best, you really want part of the application (Steam Workshop) to take care of it for you. Still, it is 1000% easier on Steam than on mobile and there is even a big part of Steam dedicated to modding. I don't know that there is any mobile modding scene ... ? Either way, if the toe-in-the-water produces enough interest on Steam, we'd put a foot in the water (support Steam Workshop). If that is successful, we could find ways to add official modding support to mobile (Dropbox) but ... any modding is going to be driven by the interest of a community around it. If there are 2 people modding on mobile, and no one playing it, then Cory and I probably wasted 2 months of precious dev time to build that bridge. If there are a 10 people on Steam modding and 1000 people playing their mods, then we've got some gas in the tank and its worth the investment. It all remains to be seen, we are experimenting. But, in all games except BF Steam, there is no mod support. Your puns are getting better
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Post by fallen on Sept 8, 2016 0:06:53 GMT -5
[Your puns are getting better Slowly but surely, I think I am learning English
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Post by stratego on Sept 8, 2016 0:15:46 GMT -5
fallen I was thinking about an easy way that the game can be modded, installed as update and not pirated, so here is my idea: When mod is made author sends package to you, and one of you sign it and distribute thru your channels like to those who support you at patreon, etc
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Post by tenbsmith on Sept 8, 2016 8:41:26 GMT -5
stratego, that seems to solve the piracy concerns but not the issue with limited TB resources as it would still require significant work from them.
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Post by fallen on Sept 8, 2016 14:35:56 GMT -5
fallen I was thinking about an easy way that the game can be modded, installed as update and not pirated, so here is my idea: When mod is made author sends package to you, and one of you sign it and distribute thru your channels like to those who support you at patreon, etc stratego - that is possible, but it isn't a plan we can sign on to do. You're suggestion means we'd have to spawn a new game basically, and now be tracking and handling bug reports on a new app, 4X-Modded which would need updates alongside the market 4X, its own crash report testing, and the works. We've already experienced the hour suck of doing mods without good support on Templar Battleforce, facing all sorts of crash reports and issues people are having. As tenbsmith pointed out, it's a blackhole for us in terms of effort put in. Modding works if you have real support for it, the company has planned for it, and there is a decent sized community of players and modders. At this point, we are lacking the first 2 items in those list, and they are ranked in order of importance.
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Post by stratego on Sept 8, 2016 18:30:12 GMT -5
fallen I was thinking about an easy way that the game can be modded, installed as update and not pirated, so here is my idea: When mod is made author sends package to you, and one of you sign it and distribute thru your channels like to those who support you at patreon, etc stratego - that is possible, but it isn't a plan we can sign on to do. You're suggestion means we'd have to spawn a new game basically, and now be tracking and handling bug reports on a new app, 4X-Modded which would need updates alongside the market 4X, its own crash report testing, and the works. We've already experienced the hour suck of doing mods without good support on Templar Battleforce, facing all sorts of crash reports and issues people are having. As tenbsmith pointed out, it's a blackhole for us in terms of effort put in. Modding works if you have real support for it, the company has planned for it, and there is a decent sized community of players and modders. At this point, we are lacking the first 2 items in those list, and they are ranked in order of importance. Support from company is a good thing, but it is not necessary for modding, the support you are lacking is actually the thing asked by yourselves, meaning that making mods is even harder than if there is no support, as there is no guidelines, but you want them here
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Post by stratego on Sept 8, 2016 18:34:49 GMT -5
stratego, that seems to solve the piracy concerns but not the issue with limited TB resources as it would still require significant work from them. That is the current problem, if TB wants their games modded, they need either a solution or no rules modding like it is for most mobile game mods(here comes eaaytech in mind, Chinese players tripled gamer numbers by starting to mod ET games)
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Post by fallen on Sept 8, 2016 18:57:51 GMT -5
stratego - thanks for all the feedback. As we've mentioned, we are working on a plan for responsible modding support. Also, as mentioned, we are a two person company so no ETA.
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Post by stratego on Sept 9, 2016 1:57:32 GMT -5
stratego - thanks for all the feedback. As we've mentioned, we are working on a plan for responsible modding support. Also, as mentioned, we are a two person company so no ETA. Even if I start to mod now it will take me huge time, so my ETA is even more unpredictable
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