[dirGames-L] Cheating and stealing and hacking oh my.

[Gary Rosenzweig]

These are pretty easy to defeat. You don't need to go as far as complex
encryption. Just store the "score" and other values in multiple places, and
compare them at critical points. For instance, store the score as a number,
a string, a number + some constant, a number multiplied by some constant,
etc.

I usually create a function like "increaseScore()" and then do all the
changes to all the versions of the score in that one function. If the player
scores 100 points, I just increaseScore(100). Then I have a "compareScore()"
which checks them all.

Important: If you catch someone cheating, don't let them know you caught
them. Don't put up a "Error: Using Score Cheat Program" message. Then they
know you caught them and they will try harder to defeat you. Instead, make
it look like the cheat program "broke" the game. Something like "Error
23836353" and then a halt. They will just think that the cheat program isn't
working and they will stop trying.

--
Gary Rosenzweig
CleverMedia
rosenz at clevermedia.com