pacov

Join Date 02/2008

+183

The Host Disconnect Bug/Exploit Test Thread - AFTER Demigod v1.10 (1.10.122 on Impulse)

Update: the publishers are aware of any exploit issues (9/12/09)

SD released demigod version 1.10.122 on 8/6/2009. This hotfix release was expected to have fixed the host disconnect exploit/bugs. The specific bugs I am referring to are as follows:

The host of the game presses END GAME after 3 minutes (but before the game is actually over) and the results of the match are not reported properly or at all.
The host of the game disconnects their computer from the internet AFTER 3 minutes and the results of the match are not reported properly (documented by me in greater detail here http://forums.demigodthegame.com/358171)

The purpose of this thread is to track any instances of these host exploits still functioning or to provide details on any other types of host disconnect exploits. Polynomial and I conducted some intial tests after the hotfix was released. Here are the results of the tests. Please post additional information or examples with as much detail as possible.

Case for exploit #1 being resolved: Hosted a 3 humans vs 1 human game. The host is on the 3 man team and hits END GAME. http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/835911/player/22215/. This game only lasted 2 minutes, so the games official result was NA, but it did properly record the game as a loss for the host. Previously, there would not have been a full record of this game. It stands to reason that a game lasting > 3 minutes would behave similarly.

Case for exploit #2 being resolved: Hosted a 2 human vs 1 human game. The host is on the 2 man team and unplugs his ethernet cord after 3.5 minutes. The game persists as expected with AI taking over for him. After another 2.5 minutes, another player concedes to force the game to end. http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/835959/player/22215/. The interesting part of this is that the game showed up under my stats immediately as a win, but did not show up under the host's stats initially. I refreshed, looked the host up, looked myself up, looked him up again and there was still no record of the game under the host's ID. After 2-3 minutes, I looked the host up again and the record appeared. So, it looks like the original host disconnect exploit has been resolved! I'm not sure why it took so long for the host to have the game appear under his stats, but the game did appear and was tracked accurately.

Thanks for Polynomial for the time he put into testing this out!

demigod

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-Pod-

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sometimes when a player hits end game or disconnects, it causes a desync which causes the game to instantly end and stats to not be recorded.

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sometimes when a player hits end game or disconnects, it causes a desync which causes the game to instantly end and stats to not be recorded.

THIS.

This is something I would love to get some more info on. I have had this happen to me once since the new patch went live, but I CANNOT replicate this currently.

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So, why not put this in the bug report forum? Do you want to discuss this with players, or developers?

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more people read these forums = more people can test/confirm the fix and verify results with pacov and devs.

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I saw this happen last night. 3v3 game I game lost, and would have ended a nice winning streak for me, but host (my team) quit in the middle of the game and it was not recorded.

Went something like this:

1) A non-host player on my team rage quit. Don't know if it was an 'end game' or a disconnect.

2) Host rage quit. Don't know if it was 'end game' or disconnect.

3) Being the last human left on my team, I conceded.

4) The game concluded but was not recorded. In this case, I was pleased to see it not get recorded

The host's name was "oncewasblind".

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So, why not put this in the bug report forum? Do you want to discuss this with players, or developers?

Players.

Edit: Generally those of us on the forums are playing alot of games and are likely to find something that the devs/pubs may have missed in QA. So far, things look great regarding fixing the exploit. If we find something and can document it, odds are the devs will read about it or me/someone else will make them aware. Plus - this patch already went through QA and it seems reasonable to assume that the devs/pubs didn't find any real or substantial issues.

Anyway, I hope the days of the host disconnect exploit/bug are over, but I think it is fairly reasonable to assume that if we do find a stat bug or exploit and can document it, then it will get the appropriate level of attention. Based on what I've seen, I don't think fixing the host disconnect bug was a very simple solution. And, as there is more than likely a stat reset in the near future, now would be a pretty good time for us as a community to be diligent in discovering and documenting any stat exploits. I feel pretty confident that if there are major issues, SD won't go through with a stat reset in the near future. But, like some of us say, screenshot or it didn't happen...

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http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/841092/player/44769/

Host disconnected past the 3-minute mark, everyone else got a loss.

Note: two players on the opposing team disconnected a few minutes earlier (they too after the 3-minute mark), though not simontaneously.

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Quoting Aeris130,

reply 8

http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/841092/player/44769/

Host disconnected past the 3-minute mark, everyone else got a loss.

Note: two players on the opposing team disconnected a few minutes earlier (they too after the 3-minute mark), though not simontaneously.

This look a lot like my game that I got a false lost : http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/835425/player/10942/

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Quoting Wagnard,

reply 9

Quoting Aeris130,
reply 8
http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/841092/player/44769/

Host disconnected past the 3-minute mark, everyone else got a loss.

Note: two players on the opposing team disconnected a few minutes earlier (they too after the 3-minute mark), though not simontaneously.

This look a lot like my game that I got a false lost : http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/835425/player/10942/

Hmm... both of those examples look exactly like what used to happen when host exploit #2 was used. Not sure how this is being pulled off though...

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The guy who won my match, is not using an exploit voluntarily. Its easy to see from the look of its stats.

So I guess its a bug that seem to happen rarely

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yeah... I checked his stats as well and agree. It doesn't appear intentional, but I hope we can figure out what exactly is causing the problem.

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http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/844094/

Another host quit and win game (NOT Intentional). Host got disconnected after 40 minutes into game, and other players stayed until game was finished.

I noticed host didn't get disconnected from demigod irc chat.

My thought is that if host lag for 9 seconds and reconnect quickly, he can send game won message to master server so his game is recorded in his favour.

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I have another case: http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/841760/player/20865/

The game was not moving past the "Waiting for players to connect" screen for what seemed to be 1.5 to 2 minutes, so I closed the game. I got a loss, although I did not even join the actual game.

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My thought is that if host lag for 9 seconds and reconnect quickly, he can send game won message to master server so his game is recorded in his favour.

Hmm... that's possible. Perhaps something else for us to test out. Our 1 test for a host disconnecting intentionally from the internet involved pulling the ethernet cord out completely and NOT reconnecting to the internet. If I remember right, Polynomial was still not plugged back into internet when his stats showed up (see case for exploit #2 above). So, perhaps we need to find a way to cause an even quicker disconnect (ipconfig /renew perhaps?) and try that. Be aware that if I understand it correctly, the original host disconnect exploit simply required you to disconnect yourself from the internet as the host and you'd get a win (eg it didn't appear to matter if it was 10 seconds or 20 minutes... somehow it would report the game as a win for you).

The trick is for us to find a way to reproduce this bug consistently (because as of now, it doesn't appear to be a user exploit - it appears to be a bug).

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T-Man

Join Date 03/2001

+69

Pacov,

Thanks for your work at trying to help uncover these problems. Please, lets keep this thread going for anyone who notices anomolies with stat tracking.

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http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/844227/player/65876/

WTF, i remember this game and i slaughtered there team, and it went for way longer then 10 mins, how the hell did i loose, an dhow th ehell can 1 man beat 5 ppl, i migh tb able 2 beat 3 but never 5 by myself

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Yeah, I was in that game with you Ryan...pretty much kicked our asses man.

Neilo (the host) had his entire ISP crash on him (crashed on everyone that it was providing for), so he lost his game and his internet all at once, and that's why it looked like he quit the game. It was unintentional, but for some reason, it recorded a win for him and a loss for everyone else.

Quoting -Ryanheart-,

reply 17

i might b able 2 beat 3 but never 5 by myself

Well, I wouldn't put it past ya to beat 5 ryan...and i'll leave it at that.

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

This was an ISP wide crash as far as i can tell (any Aussies on Netspace notice this, my mate did and he is in Newcastle, im central NSW), so how to replicate this i don't know.

It sure is a hard to pill swallow Ryan...you were kicking some serious ass mate.

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hehe yea props 2 u Cypher for stayin and fighting, im assuming you 3 are a premade? i see a bright future for u 3 you got the team work goin on just need 2 learn the game alil better. Im not to fussed, every1 knows the stats r stuffed. I wonder though, with the time you spend playing, does that include lobby time cause i spend WAY 2 much time waiting in lobby? Do they add that to your sccore to make there game look pretty???

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Quoting Neilo,

reply 19

Very odd this one. First the game dropped, then the net soon after. Curiously though, the game did not record as a win for me untill the game had run it's course (my team kept playing after i D/C). When i got kicked i was albe to check the stats and it was recorded as a N/A. I'm assuming it changed upon game completion, cause by then my net was gone altogether.

This was an ISP wide crash as far as i can tell (any Aussies on Netspace notice this, my mate did and he is in Newcastle, im central NSW), so how to replicate this i don't know.

Neilo - I'm trying to understand this a little better. You were hosting a game. The game dropped. What exactly happened regarding the game dropping? What did you see on your side? Just the end game summary screen and a victory message?

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

At first to me it seemed that everyone on the opposing side was conceeding. Thats the way it went, they conceeded one after another and then i was taken to the victory screen.

My teammates though all saw and heard "a player has left the game" and to them it was as if i had rage quit. the game continued for them but i was as if i had won the game.

Then my net died altogether.

A normal concede by the opposing team from my perspective mate...no crashs or anything.

Can't shed anymore light on it im afraid mate, hope it helps.

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Can't shed anymore light on it im afraid mate, hope it helps.

Neilo - well... maybe a little more light. I'll ask and if you remember anything else, super! You also said:

When i got kicked i was able to check the stats and it was recorded as a N/A.

So, your internet still appeared to be up at this point (but was about to go down) due to an ISP outtage. I see the game time recorded as 10 minutes. Do you know if that was roughly the amount of time the game was at when you dropped from the game or does that strike you as being the correct length of the entire match? You also said that the game changed from na [to win] persumably when the watch was officially over, but at that point, you did not have any internet connectivity. Just to double check, are you fairly confident it was originally marked as NA?

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Neilo

Join Date 04/2006

+128

Hi mate.

Yeah my net was real weird. Firstly DG dropped but i had about 90 more seconds of browser use. It then took about another 2 minutes for the conf calls i had going on Skype to drop. Very weird.

10 minutes was the length i was in the game. My teammates stuck it out and played on for about 25 more mins i beleieve. So the 10 mins is my game length.

For sure the match was a N/A when i checked it straight after my D/C. It was when my net was back that i was able to check and saw it was now a win. I thought my team mates had pulled a miracle, but then saw that the details for the match were all screwy.

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I had another instance that behaved like the host disconnect exploit. Posted this in another thread on desyncs, but may be releveant here:

Just had a game on the brothers. The host was purgespam. We got the desync message and it closed. Stats are crazy though. http://pantheon.demigodthegame.com/game/851048/player/28414/

Player	Team	Entity	Favor Points	Result
Shade	Forces of Light	Lord Erebus	0	Lost *
pacov	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	0	Lost *
TrouserSnake69	Forces of Light	Unclean Beast	0	Lost *
Purgespam	Forces of Light	Regulus	0	Lost *
KALELsmX	Forces of Light	Torch Bearer	0	Lost *
BlackWidowSPDR	Forces of Darkness	Regulus	90	Won
lawless2142	Forces of Darkness	Rook	0	Lost *
willb7878	Forces of Darkness	Regulus	0	Lost *
Binarylust	Forces of Darkness	Torch Bearer	0	Lost *
General Skillet	Forces of Darkness	Lord Erebus	0	Lost *

BlackWindowSPDR somehow gets a win... wonder if we can get any clarification on how the desync coding is supposed to work... in that game, it acted like the host disconnect exploit, but widow wasn't the host. In the only other game I have had desync, no results were reported at all... I'm wondering if the fix to the host disconnect exploit was to assign 1 other player the same stat reporting rights of the host... then if both the host and this other person drop, then perhaps the desync message appears? No idea, but am trying to makes some sense of a nonhost reporting like they pulled the host disconnect exploit.

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