ScoreDoom 2.9Beta Release

[BilboHicks]

Even though I have quit proper development, I decided to create a 2.9 version specifically for new add-on pack content. Its exactly the same pretty much as 2.8r4, except for its newer Add-on Pack support. Therefore it's not online hi score leader board compatible-> use 2.8 for that.
Just uploaded a 'beta' version for anyone to try, before I declare it a full release.

grab from http://www.scoredoom.com

Its probably best if I just do a dump of the readme:

ScoreDoom 2.9 Beta Release Notes
*********************************

ScoreDoom 2.9 was released to accommodate new Add-on Pack content, like new custom monsters. 2.9 is
targeted at players who like playing with the add-on pack and dont mind using local hi scoring.
2.9 may be periodically updated to add new custom monsters.

2.9 releases are not meant (a.t.m.) to be compatible with the 'official' ScoreDoom online hi-score
server. For online hi scoring, grab the last version of ScoreDoom 2.8 from
http://www.scoredoom.com

Scoredoom 2.9 archives will come with an updated add-on pack in the 'skins' sub-directory with
new & updated content.

Changes from 2.8
****************
-Nearly 30 new monsters, many from the realm667.com beastiary and the Realm667.com 2010 competition.
-Terrorsphere duration is toned down a lot, since it is a very powerful powerup.
-Nearly all Archvile variants can now raise monsters.
-Hellroses are gone, so now 100% monsters should always be achievable.

Beta Feedback
*************
-Looking to get feedback on the new content (sounds too loud/irritatig, monsters too hard etc.).
-Are sprite & sound clashes
-Bugs: i.e. levels unfinishable (typically MAP07, E1M8,E2M8 etc.), etc.

[DavidB1000]

Hmm, looks interesting. But only if it works with the addons you put in. New monsters and powerups?
If not, I won't be playing it for awhile. Also, the anti-cheating seems okay, but I'm not going to ever use the high score thing, so I guess as long as I don't enable it in the ini, I won't hear a loud siren every time I turn on God Mode, right?
Otherwise, I'm going to be very annoyed...and then make you listen to me sing La Bamba.

Honestly, strict anti-cheating is fine, but loud noises? Gah...

[BilboHicks]

Hmm, looks interesting. But only if it works with the addons you put in. New monsters and powerups?
If not, I won't be playing it for awhile. Also, the anti-cheating seems okay, but I'm not going to ever use the high score thing, so I guess as long as I don't enable it in the ini, I won't hear a loud siren every time I turn on God Mode, right?
Otherwise, I'm going to be very annoyed...and then make you listen to me sing La Bamba.

Honestly, strict anti-cheating is fine, but loud noises? Gah...

lol. Yep the online hi scoring supports the addons.
If you dont care about it, just set sd_global_hiscoring=false and it will behave just like v1.99r3b. No buzzing noises for God Mode

EDIT: Looks like I have a lot more work to do with anti-cheating and game setting checking!!

[DavidB1000]

Ah, well, whew, that's a relief. No buzzing is good. Besides, otherwise I will telefrag you.

Seriously though, this is indeed shaping up to be interesting. I dare say though, my ideas were good too. Bonus ammo and stuff every certain amount of points. I don't really like competing with scores online.

[BilboHicks]

The beta has been updated.
There were some major holes in the anti-cheat prevention which have been patched. This version should be close, if not totally anti-cheat using standard doom & zdoom features.

My versions of plutonia and tnt for some reason had different md5 hashes from what they should be (very odd), but the proper md5 hashes have been added to the hi score server, so final doom based hi scoring will show up ok now.

download from usual: http://www.scoredoom.com

[BilboHicks]

ScoreDoom has been updated to support online hi score tables, as well as some other enhancements

For what that means in detail, go to http://www.scoredoom.com
You can download it there as well as view the hi scores tables.

Just a few points when using Online Hi Scoring, and especially if you are getting the annoying purple *online hi scoring disabled* messages:

1. The 'Extra PWADS & Patches' on the main hi score table gives the wad & patch order necessary. If using the add-on pack, it should be in the 'skins' subdirectory. For instance tnt.wad requires the tnt31.wad fix, and HR.wad requires the HRMUS.WAD.

2. The final release versions of all the iwads are used by the hi score server (v1.9). You can check your iwad version with an mdr5summer and verifying against this page: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_files

3. md5 checks are done on the pwads too, so you should use a version untampered with, like with all the files.

4. Anti-cheating is much better enforced than with the 2.0betas, and I'm confident that I have stopped any type of cheating when using the many standard zdoom options/functionality/bindings/aliases/cheats. (I've been wrong too many times in the past, so please PM if you are able to find a way to cheat!

4. The Hi Score Server is configured to auto-add player names it does not recognize. Though the client defaults the password to 'changme', which will be added. To change this on the server, go to http://www.scoredoom.com/player.php Then go to the 'ScoreDoom Setup' menu and change it there. (The doom font doesnt seem to distinguish between upper and lower case letters, so be careful)

5. http://ww.scoredoom.com goes into much more detail into the dos and donts of using Online Hi Scoring with gzscoredoom.

6. The Hi Score Server is configured to auto-add wad configuration hashes to a secondary 'public' hi score table if it doesnt recognize the md5 hash for the wad being sent (potentially due to points 1->3 above where the player thought they were configured ok)

I plan to eventually release the server files so people can run their own private pwd protected servers, after tweaking the html/php/css some more.

Thats about all I can think of. Again, its worth reading http://www.scoredoom.com for more info.

Just a little bit of history with this...
I wanted to implement something like this from the get-go when I started the mod, but due the difficulty of stopping cheating with extremely versatile zdoom engine (and online cheating in general), I decided against it... Until recently when Edward850 suggested I should add this feature, using md5 checking, something I didnt think of.
If it turns to be impossible to stop cheating, allowing people to run their own pwd protected servers with other trusted players hopefully will compensate some ;P


For the scoredoom 1.x thread:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/4 ... -v1-99r3b/

[Xaser]

The highscore system is neat, though it is far too easy to suddenly disable it by accident.

I accidentally hit the tilde key instead of escape and suddenly my scores are disabled. I didn't even type anything. That needs to be fixed.

Cheat protection is understandable, but wouldn't it be better just to disallow the use of such commands? I.e. if highscore-recording is on, attempting to type "god" will provide no effect (except an error message). To stop recording and allow cheats again, have a "highscoredisconnect" console command or something so the player has to force it specifically. The whole "you accidentally hit a cheat key you are kicked from the server automatically" business irks me. Is there anything wrong with just disabling cheats when highscore mode is on? Nightmare mode already does it, so...

Also, an option to choose (at game start) whether to even connect to the highscore server or not would be handy, since this computer is not always connected to the internet. I may want to hone my skills offline as well.

[EDIT] I just had to fix my password, since I had no idea I was supposed to manually edit my config before actually playing the game. It would be good to prompt the user to input a player name/password upon first running the program -- having to edit the .ini by hand will probably turn off a lot of less experienced users. I'm pretty well-versed in ZDoom myself and I'd still rather not do it. ;P

Still a very cool mod, I do have to say. Forgive me if my criticism seems a bit harsh -- it just needs some polishing in its execution, for everone's sake.

[Medricel]

Cheat protection is understandable, but wouldn't it be better just to disallow the use of such commands?

It'd probably be better to just turn off sv_cheats by default, and disable highscores if it is on.

[BilboHicks]

The highscore system is neat, though it is far too easy to suddenly disable it by accident.

I accidentally hit the tilde key instead of escape and suddenly my scores are disabled. I didn't even type anything. That needs to be fixed.

Cheat protection is understandable, but wouldn't it be better just to disallow the use of such commands? I.e. if highscore-recording is on, attempting to type "god" will provide no effect (except an error message). To stop recording and allow cheats again, have a "highscoredisconnect" console command or something so the player has to force it specifically. The whole "you accidentally hit a cheat key you are kicked from the server automatically" business irks me. Is there anything wrong with just disabling cheats when highscore mode is on? Nightmare mode already does it, so...

Also, an option to choose (at game start) whether to even connect to the highscore server or not would be handy, since this computer is not always connected to the internet. I may want to hone my skills offline as well.

[EDIT] I just had to fix my password, since I had no idea I was supposed to manually edit my config before actually playing the game. It would be good to prompt the user to input a player name/password upon first running the program -- having to edit the .ini by hand will probably turn off a lot of less experienced users. I'm pretty well-versed in ZDoom myself and I'd still rather not do it. ;P

Still a very cool mod, I do have to say. Forgive me if my criticism seems a bit harsh -- it just needs some polishing in its execution, for everone's sake.

No problem at all. Feedback is always very welcome.

I can understand about the console key business being a pain, especially if you are used to using it a lot . To be honest, I can probably remove that check, since I now have other checks in place to sniff out any (hopefully) console command which can lead to unfairness.
Unfortunately it is not a simple option of svcheats=0, since dmflags changes and other cvar changes & CCMDS can be sent through the console via key bindings and what not. But yeah, I agree some refinement should be added.

You actually can set your password in the new 'ScoreDoom Setup' GUI menu, which was added in this release (unlike the betas).
Having the game query for a password dialogue box at first is a good idea, as well as having an option to connect or not at startup.

My main concern for this release was making sure to make cheating very very hard to do.

[Xaser]

Well, you've succeeded in that last point. It is, indeed, quite cheat-proof.

For the cheats issue, I see your point about the cvar checks, which should certainly be disallowed. But I still think an sv_cheats=0 behavior in regard to normal cheats should be enforced. I, for one, have several keys bound to cheats like noclip, god, etc. for testing purposes, mainly, and I'm not exactly the greatest at avoiding 'typos', even in-game. If I were to hit, say, my noclip key ('X', which is a hazardous position since I use WASD for movement), I would much prefer seeing a "Cheating not allowed" message rather than "You have been disqualified".

I did notice the ScoreDoom Setup menu, though it was a bit too late by that time. Good to hear about the password query.

I'm hoping to be able to test the highscore system some more, soon. I can't at the moment since I'm back to my genius dialup connection (of which my laptop with Scoredoom can't seem to connect to). In a few weeks, though... ;P

Until then, I could brush up on my point-racking skills. Barrels, ahoy!

[BilboHicks]

Barrels Ahoy indeed Try beating The Green Herring's score of 2583 on E1M1 for starters!
That was my biggest fear with this, realizing just how crap I am at Doom
I got 2519 after 10 tries.

[edward850]

I don't understand what's going on, but score doom seems to be disabling online high scores for every single external Pwad. Iwads work fine.
Edit: The console tells me that my score doom version isn't supported, but, as I said, this only occurs for any Pwads.

[BilboHicks]

Very weird. Could you tell me which pwads you are trying to use, and how exactly are you loading them?
Does it happen with the pwads on the 'official' hi score server table.. like hr2final.wad? hr.wad hrmus.wad?
Those worked for me when I tested. also it looks like The Green Herring posted a score for mm.wad.

does the pwad work with -file 'mywad.wad etc...'?

[edward850]

Command lines work, Drag 'n drop doesn't. Also, +gennodes is causing a divided by zero error again.

[BilboHicks]

Cheers Edward. Yeah I actually wanted to add Hell Factory as a supported wad, and got the crash. That's fixed. (accidentally removed the fix in the last build). Will look into drag n' drop.