RGSSAD/RGSS2A Decryption

[Cowlol]

Here's an idea: release your game with some end-user agreement that explicitly restricts decrypting or reverse-engineering. People will still do it, but not in public, and you'd have a good case if you catch someone reusing your resources (at least you could tell the site hosting their game to take it down). You simply can't fight cracking your game, so acknowledge it and try to minimize the 'damage'.

I'm all for open games, though, it encourages an environment for learning and sharing. Cheating isn't that bad either, if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have got through many RPG Maker games where the developer forgot to remember that not all players know his/her game inside out like he/she does. If I ever release my game I'm thinking of asking the artists if we could release the resources freely, considering how it's hard to find original resources for resolutions over 320x240. I certainly wouldn't mind releasing the code either. I'd still sell the game, because I'm sure *some* people want to buy more than just pretty resources and battle system scripts.

Also hima, I admit I cracked your game! I was simply interested in how you coded certain things... does that make me... a criminal?

 

[hima]

@Cowlol
You mean you crack by using this decryptor or you made your own?  I agree with you about us cannot 100% prevent our game for being decrypted. And the end-user agreement is a really nice idea.

Also, I don't mind decrypting my game for learning so don't worry   ( But if you make your own decryptor then I'd love to ask you to teach me how. I want to learn more about encryption/decryption )

I was actually going to release the unencrypt version too but I want to add comments to explain the idea behind the script or each event command first so that people don't have to guess blindly what my poor written code was trying to do lol. Nobody asked me for that so I never got around to continue working on it ^ ^;

 

[Ellie]

This sucks for online games where leaderboards are involved, and commercial games where money is being taken.

But, it's better to know it exists and (hopefully) how to defend against it, than to not know it exists and not know people are stealing yer game.

 

[Prexus]

But my deal DOES have original tiles, sprites, artwork, and scripts and I DO NOT want people stealing them super easily when it's released.

also people who go commercial will DEFINITELY be against it.

Lastly, if people want their shit to be decrypted then they should be able to have it safe!!!

I mean this kind of thing is bound to happen all the time, it's just the way of things, but it would be extremely nice for someone to put as much effort into ENCRYPTION, too.

1. Sprites, graphics, sounds, and scripts, can all be ripped from an RM game just as easily as it is ripped from any other game. Screenshotting. Recording. Replicating. Not that hard to do.

2. If anyone uses your original work, for any reason whatsoever, whether it is to make money, or for fun, you have the right to pursue legal action. If you don't, they are getting away with stealing your work based on your own negligence.

3. WHO CARES IF SOMEONE CHEATS AT YOUR GAME? GOD.

 

[Ynlraey]

3. WHO CARES IF SOMEONE CHEATS AT YOUR GAME? GOD.

THANK YOU!
Also Venetia, what Cowlol said, I was about to say the end user agreement, but he explained it better XD

 

[Ellie]

Because cheating is generally really shitty, I'd like to think people played my game to get the storyline and gameplay not to become uber powerful and thus get bored with it. Yes, there's nothing wrong with cheating I guess, and if people really get a kick out of that then whatever, but in games that are online, or have had a SHITLOAD of hard work put into the storyline like Venetia's game it's really not fair that someone should be able to just shit all over it (metaphorically speaking).

 

[Wichu]

Then there's the (few) multiplayer and online games; I'm making a Pokémon fangame which will eventually have online trading and battling. I'm going to implement a system which allows the game to detect cheated Pokémon. This is all good and everything, but a project cracker means that someone could just open up the scripts, figure out how the hack detection works, and create undetectable hacks. Which wouldn't be a problem if you couldn't play against other people, but you can :S

Let's hope that the ways to prevent it being cracked that vgvgf is working on translating will be safe enough... Although it would be amazing if someone created a custom encryption system, with some way of customizing it so not everyone's games will be encrypted identically.

 

[Ellie]

@Wichu: What you want to do is do all your hack protection in the server itself, as then even if they change the game they can't save or trade or whatever over the server.

 

[hima]

Whether or not people cares about cheating doesn't take away the developers rights to encrypt their games.  Screenshotting, recording and replicating all takes efforts. Having an encryption will at least prevent a normal user from doing it too easily.

And like Wichu said, multiplayer games and online games need to take cheating into account. (Also those games that have online highscore table.)

Personally, I do care about people cheating on my game. Not in a sense that 'This is my game! Don't cheat!' but I would love to know why do they cheat and which part or on what aspect they usually needs to cheat.  This is so that I'd know that maybe I can improve that part to be more interesting or adjust the difficulty or maybe having an in-game cheat code. But of course, talking about this further would be more appropriate in Punk's topic instead so I'll stop now

 

[Venetia]

1. Sprites, graphics, sounds, and scripts, can all be ripped from an RM game just as easily as it is ripped from any other game. Screenshotting. Recording. Replicating. Not that hard to do.

2. If anyone uses your original work, for any reason whatsoever, whether it is to make money, or for fun, you have the right to pursue legal action. If you don't, they are getting away with stealing your work based on your own negligence.

3. WHO CARES IF SOMEONE CHEATS AT YOUR GAME? GOD.

When did I ever bitch about cheating? And notice how you ignored my operating word "EASILY" in "I DO NOT want people stealing them super easily when it's released."

Yes people can rip, but ripping takes time. Decrypting a project takes all of 4 seconds, and then anyone has access to EVERY SINGLE tiny little piece of artwork/system work/whatever imaginable, no work involved. I'm not even as concerned about the things I've done so much as I'm concerned about the things I've commissioned from people--I think that the people who help me deserve to know their shit is atleast SORT OF safe.

Secondly, yes, I can take legal action. Against hundreds, possibly THOUSANDS of FACELESS INTERNETPEOPLE. Sounds great, and HUGELY FEASIBLE. not.

I'm realistic, I mean I'm not going to be crying in the corner if someone uses my shit (in fact much of it will be made available in the HKCP), but it is kind of shitty IMHO for someone to just crack into my hard work and tamper with it, super easily, with a few clicks of a mouse. It cheapens my hard work. IN MY OPINION.

It's asinine for anyone to bitch about me or anyone wanting to protect my (or, their) work. If you don't want your shit protected, then by all means, release some shit and unprotect it. But I DO and peoples' opinions about these things should be respected.

 

[Venetia]

And besides, I was only originally commenting as a means to imply that I'd really really like it if someone figured out how to encrypt XP games better

 

[Ludichris1]

sss

 

[Skie Fortress]

so that means you could download a famous RPG Maker XP game that someone made, 'crack' it open and use their custom graphics and exclusive music? Cool, but B A D


he he ... you didn't need that for RPG Maker 2003! They had everything in their own little folders for easy stealing access

EDIT: not that I stole anything

Don't worry, that wasn't fake at all~

 

[Wichu]

@Wichu: What you want to do is do all your hack protection in the server itself, as then even if they change the game they can't save or trade or whatever over the server.

That would work fine, other than that the Pokémon themselves are caught offline. Therefore, I have to include some code to make sure that they validate fine once online, which with this decrypter can be easily found and exploited.

 

[Ynlraey]

Man, it's not like EVERY SINGLE PLAYER is out to steal your resources and cheat. In fact, I might venture to say that there are way more normal players than hackers and cheaters. Aveyond is a good example.

 

[Ellie]

Wtf has that got to do with anything?

If you don't mind me asking, why are you so interested in this program (and defending it)? What would you personally use it for?

 

[Skie Fortress]

She's not defending the program. She's just speaking out against the whole gloom and doom mentality many people are taking up regarding this.

 

[Ellie]

But it is doom and gloom, as far as I can tell.

There are three uses I can see for this:

- Encrypting your own game that you deleted accidently
Fair enough, I guess it could happen.

- Encrypting someone else's game to learn
No. If they want you to learn from their game, they would post an unencrypted version themselves, give them the choice.

- Encrypting someone else's game to steal
No. Again, if they wanted you to take things they'd post it unencrypted themselves, or post the graphics/scripts/events online.

 

[Desecration]

Or as stated previously in the thread for the purpose of better encryption? The guy included his source so people could look at it and learn to protect there games. Not just hack them wide open and ruin what people have worked to do. I could be totally off the bat though but I'd say your worrying a bit much.

 

[Skie Fortress]

Sure, I'll give the last two. That will happen at some point.

But you have to wonder, is your project so great that it will be worth decrypting? If you're making a run of the mill RMXP game with copy pasted scripts, and some graphical edits to the rtp here and some spliced ruruga faces there. I sorely doubt that you really have anything to worry about.

I'd say that the higher profile or commercial projects are the ones that will be targeted really, and if you fall under higher profile or commercial, then sure, I'll see your point. But I find it silly that people with your typical project in the sea of typical projects are screaming bloody murder. I'm referring to the past threads about this as well.

tl;dr 'danger level' is relative to project quality.

This is all in my opinion of course.

P.S. Since this decrypter is open source, study the algorithm and defend against it. That would be a better solution than throwing your hands up in the air and saying it's over.