I would like to start deprecating old versions of W:A (e.g. starting with HostingBuddy), as they are holding back the introduction of new features. For example, support for multiple-round games in HostingBuddy requires a feature introduced in recent versions.

If you still have a valid reason for using an older version of W:A, please post here. Right now I know of only one reason - Project X (http://worms2d.info/Project_X), but it isn't compatible with HostingBuddy anyway.

Rubberworm could be a possibility for those who still use 3.6.29.....since the recent usermade ver of Rubberworm doesnt have all the stuff in....
For 3.6.28....My pirate friend uses a cracked ver of Worms armageddon "Worms armagedon - new edition" wich comes with the update 3.6.28 installed, and there is no possible updates for that cracked ver ,as he says.....so I guess most of the 3.6.28 users are pirates, correct me if im wrong...I dont wanna offend anybody, its just my opinion....

Sorry about bad english

Well, I asked few... foreign... players about that, and they said that they can't update because they "don't know how", but some of them have admitted that they're pirates and they can't update because they're too lazy to find newest cracked version for so little profit :confused:

People who "don't know how" to update are most certainly pirates, because legitimate users had to update to play online in the first place. While pirates aren't the primary reason behind this (they'll find a way anyway), I definitely think we shouldn't hold back for those users who won't even bother updating their game.

I suggest adding a countdown warning to HostingBuddy for 3.6.28.0 users that 3.6.28.0 will not be supported after January 1st. Any objections?

'Forcing' them seems to be a good idea. It's not going to make them buy the game (as they might have friends or might find another cracked copy), but for the purpose of having more people updated, it will probably work...

Any objections?
Nope.

3rd party mods like ProjectX or Rubberworm will always get updated to work with the latest beta sooner or later anyway.

What you mean with "will not be supported"?

btw...not all Players with "cracked" Version are playing illegal because everyone can work with a Copy of his game(even if its a downloaded version) if he owns a legal Version.(at least in Germany it is legal --> "Right of Copy for Private reasons") So be carefull with your idea, of not supporting older Versions.

Making a copy of your CD and using a cracked version off the net are two totally different things.

I suggest adding a countdown warning to HostingBuddy for 3.6.28.0 users that 3.6.28.0 will not be supported after January 1st. Any objections?All for it. :)

I fully support it. New features shouldn't be held back just because people are either pirates or too lazy to update.
What you mean with "will not be supported"?

btw...not all Players with "cracked" Version are playing illegal because everyone can work with a Copy of his game(even if its a downloaded version) if he owns a legal Version.(at least in Germany it is legal --> "Right of Copy for Private reasons") So be carefull with your idea, of not supporting older Versions.
He means that versions older than 3.6.31.0 won't be supported any more.
Also, just because using a cracked version may not technically be illegal (if you own a legitimate copy), it does not mean that the cracked version should still be supported, because many of the people using a cracked copy are pirates. It would be silly to allow those pirates to get support just because a few legitimate users decide to use the cracked version.
Edit: I think a sticky thread titled "Why we will not support cracked versions of W:A even if you have a legitimate copy" needs to be made, since a lot of people don't seem to understand why for some reason.

Well, we don't plan to ban old versions from WormNET or anything like that (at least for now), but I'm not under any kind of obligation to support access to community services (e.g. HostingBuddy and WormNAT2) for any subset of users - including users of older versions.What you mean with "will not be supported"?I suppose the meaning is entirely context-dependent here. In the meaning of "I will not help them if they have problems", this was pretty much always the case - unless they have a very good reason to use an old version of W:A or it's obviously not related to the W:A version, I will tell them to update before I even look at their problem. This meaning is outside the scope of this discussion. Here, I mean drop support for old versions in community services like HB and WormNAT2.btw...not all Players with "cracked" Version are playing illegal because everyone can work with a Copy of his game(even if its a downloaded version) if he owns a legal Version.(at least in Germany it is legal --> "Right of Copy for Private reasons") So be carefull with your idea, of not supporting older Versions.I don't see why I should be careful about this at all. All technical support I provide on and outside these forums is voluntary. CD cracks and the like are very often the source of many problems, and I'm just not going to bother supporting people with a butchered executable. If they own the CD legally, then they can do it the right way and use a CD image (http://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD).

Also, I very much doubt that the German law you mentioned overrides the fact that you need to break several copyright laws and the End-User License Agreement to create and use a CD crack, especially in the context that the developer is required to support such uses.

So be carefull with your idea, of not supporting older Versions.
Ehrm, what?
IIRC, you already need at least v3.0 to even be able to play WA online. Same goes with WWP.
It's quite common that a developer requires a mandatory update for it's users to play.

And DC/CS are the official developers of the WA beta and in the case of Hosting Buddy/WormNAT too.
Also, I very much doubt that the German law you mentioned overrides the fact that you need to break several copyright laws and the End-User License Agreement to create and use a CD crack, especially in the context that the developer is required to support such uses.
Indeed.
AFAIK, a private copy is only allowed if you don't circumvent any copy protections, which definitely is the case with a cracked version, but not with a CD image, since the copy protection is obsolete.

(This is quite contradictory, as you are legally allowed to create (several) backups, which often you can't legally use then.)

You need at least 3.6.22.something I believe, due to the server's IP address changing (the older versions hardcode an IP address; the newer versions use DNS (wormnet1.team17.com)), if you want to go on wormnet without changing serverlist.htm.

the recent usermade ver of Rubberworm doesnt have all the stuff in....

Why? Every feature was successfully ported to work. The jetpack feature was changed not to use the previous parameter, it now uses the default scheme JP-power parameter. Besides, the RubberWorm now supports the Flame limitation feature, i.e. you can set a custom flames-on-map limitation as you wish up to 25500 (rounded by 100) - was taken from LaserFix. Also, the KaosMod, needed only for the Kaos league now, does some affect at the Utilities probabilities, read more at the Kaos site.
Soon (around 20-31 december), every LaserFix feature will be included, + some new features like custom Worm energy (up to 2550 maybe), and some other stuff.
The .31 version doesn't make you desyncing even if you play with an old WA Update user, because the compatibility was one of the most important things.

Just don't let people with different versions play the same game (like in, for example, OpenTTD).
Problem solved.

That suggestion has so many problems, I'm not even going to bother explaining why.

after January 1st

That would be a "nice" gift for the new year :o

@CyberShadow: i agree to you...no support needed.

I agree with Cybershadow's suggestion too.

Huge thumbs up from me. End support for 3.6.28.0 entirely, that way New Edition users will get screwed too!

Huge thumbs up from me. End support for 3.6.28.0 entirely, that way New Edition users will get screwed too!

LOL, I think you could add a "New Edition" detection feature, and when user logs on the WormNet, instead of the channels and stuff, shows off this flash animation (http://cristgaming.com/pirate.swf). :rolleyes:

Just kidding... btw, I totally approve this measure, CS. It will be a nice holiday gift, indeed.

I think with this the number of brazilian players will be cut in a half xD (I'm saying this and I'm brazilian... LOL)

And... as always, keep up the good work!

Just http://forum.team17.co.uk/images/icons/icon14.gif
LOL, I think you could add a "New Edition" detection feature, and when user logs on the WormNet, instead of the channels and stuff, shows off this flash animation.
Hm, I don't know if this is ever possible, maybe only by recognizing the WA installation directory title.

Piracy protection for this game is a waste of time

Great idea!

Green, the only time we have a problem with pirates is when they come asking for help with pirate-only issues. If they don't understand how to be pirates, they probably shouldn't be pirates.

Just http://forum.team17.co.uk/images/icons/icon14.gif

Hm, I don't know if this is ever possible, maybe only by recognizing the WA installation directory title.

99% of people using the hacked new edition don't change where the game gets installed to so you can just check if the games installation folder contains the words New Edition in it.

LOL, I think you could add a "New Edition" detection feature
Yeeeah, I don't think version 3.6.28.0 had a "send .exe data when connected to server" feature.

99% of people using the hacked new edition don't change where the game gets installed to so you can just check if the games installation folder contains the words New Edition in it.
That ingenious plan won't be able to stop it altogether, but at least it'll be able to stop the pirated copies for a while... for the whole 10 seconds it takes to search "New Edition fix" on Google.

That ingenious plan won't be able to stop it altogether, but at least it'll be able to stop the pirated copies for a while... for the whole 10 seconds it takes to search "New Edition fix" on Google.

It would be fun though xD watching all the sources of the pirated copy get flooded with questions asking for help for a month or 2. Also W:A can just submit a CRC32/md5 hash of it self to authenticate with the server. This "might" conflict with Wormkit stuff but I doubt it.

99% of people using the hacked new edition don't change where the game gets installed to so you can just check if the games installation folder contains the words New Edition in it.

It'll make a BIG security hole, while pirates may just change their main WA folder to "WA New Edition" and get validated.

Real New Edition users may update, but they need Old Edition CD/Image mounted and I know it's kinda non sense, and too complicated for most of the users.

There must be a better way to detect real New Edition users. Maybe to detect some file, which exists in WA NE only?

Just to reiterate my point - Piracy is T17's problem; it need not concern either of the two developers.

my friends and I do not use the new version because
does not rubberworm... :(

my friends and I do not use the new version because
does not rubberworm... :(
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rubberworm+3.6.31.0

Just to reiterate my point - Piracy is T17's problem; it need not concern either of the two developers.

How can you say that. If You play WA, so it can be Your potential problem too, caused by cracked or outdated EXE.

And while T17 officially stopped supporting WA, it's definitely not their problem in this case.

It'll make a BIG security hole, while pirates may just change their main WA folder to "WA New Edition" and get validated.

Real New Edition users may update, but they need Old Edition CD/Image mounted and I know it's kinda non sense, and too complicated for most of the users.

There must be a better way to detect real New Edition users. Maybe to detect some file, which exists in WA NE only?

My idea was to catch out people not familiar with customizing where they want the game to be installed to. A folder named "WA New Edition" contains the words "New Edition" (Case insensitive) so it would still be black listed and not playable, instead throwing up a prompt telling the person they are running a pirated copy of the game and suggesting they buy a copy from the Team17 shop.

... buy a copy from the Team17 shop.
An off-topic and not-so-important reminder:
Team17 shop (https://secure.team17.com/) is closed.

How can you say that. If You play WA, so it can be Your potential problem too, caused by cracked or outdated EXE.

And while T17 officially stopped supporting WA, it's definitely not their problem in this case.

Piracy is a persistent, ongoing problem that can affect many people in many ways. The last thing we want, however, is our only two developers wasting their time on something that can (and will) be deemed useless within a matter of months.

Piracy is not a problem :). It helps many people :).
One of main reasons why people uses cracked exe: it's easier. Cracked exe faster, it need not use cd (that need time for inserting, spin-up, it make icky noise, and can be just lost or damaged) or image (it need some hard disk space, additional virtual drive, program for make this drive, etc), cracked version can be portable... Just click and play... Legal version must be easier. Then people will use it... I can't see reason for keeping disk check now. WA can't make big incoming for T17 anymore.
http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/871/whypeoplepiratemoviesst.th.jpg (http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/871/whypeoplepiratemoviesst.jpg)
Best solution of problem with cracked copies (and bugs of them) is removing disk check... Original update installer will check the disk (it will need some files from cd).
//^ ..Sorry for this strong offtopic.. ^
Solution of problem with outdated versions is more harder notice about outdated version at the enter on wormnet or channel (with messageboxes and countdown timers for reading it)...
//Sorry for my bad english..

Explain to me the difference in hard drive space used when comparing a disk image to a pirated version of the software.

Actually, do not. This conversation is useless.

If only the majority of No-CD users weren't pirates...

The hostingbuddy was updated to 3.6.29.0, why not to 3.6.31.0? Only 3.6.28.0 users seem to be ****ed up now.
Edit: sorry :D

My idea was to catch out people not familiar with customizing where they want the game to be installed to. A folder named "WA New Edition" contains the words "New Edition" (Case insensitive) so it would still be black listed and not playable, instead throwing up a prompt telling the person they are running a pirated copy of the game and suggesting they buy a copy from the Team17 shop.

Yes, the only good solution I see is to BAN versions older, than the latest available and show a popup window, on WormNET loging, saying:

"You're Worms Armageddon game version is outdated.
Click here to get the latest update (http://wormsarmageddon.team17.com/main.html?page=supp&area=upda).

No mention about a pirates, while it has no sense and HostingBuddy should be always up-to-date too.

The hostingbuddy was updated to 3.6.29.0, why not to 3.6.31.0? Only 3.6.28.0 users seem to be ****ed up now.
Edit: sorry :D

I think you should update HB to 3.6.31.0 soon as well, you'd expect Project X users to be able to host without it. ;)

Yes, eventually; it's just better to take one step at a time.

It seems like there are a few very rare problems with 3.6.30.0+ that aren't present in 3.6.29.0. One example is this thread (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42681). Releasing an update just to fix something like that might just make things messier (with regards to WormKit modules, mostly); I'd probably have to look into creating a hotfix in the form of a WormKit module.

Yes, eventually; it's just better to take one step at a time.

It seems like there are a few very rare problems with 3.6.30.0+ that aren't present in 3.6.29.0. One example is this thread (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=42681). Releasing an update just to fix something like that might just make things messier (with regards to WormKit modules, mostly); I'd probably have to look into creating a hotfix in the form of a WormKit module.

I'm sure, that Bazooka's problems (from the thread You linked) are coming from himself and his full of trash system.

Sorry, I don't see a reason, why to hold down Updating, cause of one lame user, who don't even know a Re-Boot is useful sometimes.

For one user that does report a problem, there can be dozens who don't (and just decide to stick with an old version).

Anyway, old version users will be warned within a good time interval (at least two weeks), so we should have enough time to resolve those issues by then.

For one user that does report a problem, there can be dozens who don't (and just decide to stick with an old version).

Anyway, old version users will be warned within a good time interval (at least two weeks), so we should have enough time to resolve those issues by then.

Looks like a good idea, so if there will be some real WinXP problems, we will know about them for sure.

That suggestion has so many problems, I'm not even going to bother explaining why.

if you're not going to bother explain what i think is a very good idea, then why ask the public for their opinion.

sounds like you already decided...

I'm ok with this. Legal* user here, but there will be I expect less players overall.

Has an audit ever been done to see what versions people are using and if so can you tell who's logging onto wormnet with a cracked game.

* - I use daemon on laptop the other computer has a dedicated drive for worms.

if you're not going to bother explain what i think is a very good idea, then why ask the public for their opinion.Because it's obvious? If you don't see the problems with that suggestion, there's nothing to discuss.Has an audit ever been done to see what versions people are using and if so can you tell who's logging onto wormnet with a cracked game.http://stats.worms2d.info/

cracked version can be portable... Just click and play...

you can use http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php to split your thumb drive and make one of the partitions show up as a cd drive with your iso in it. you can keep your WA install folder on the other partition. no mounting tools needed. when you plug it in 2 drives show up, one removable and one cdrom

U3 thumb drives work the same way. apparently you can actually replace the iso on any U3 drive by using their own updater by replacing the U3 iso in the temp folder with your own iso

i havnt tried any of this yet, but people have been booting OS off of them using these methods, and use the other partition to save data.

::EDIT::
If only the majority of No-CD users weren't pirates...

i think the majority of ALL users are no cd users, disc mounting is extremely common now. i think the majority of people who own the disc have either owned it for a long time, recently purchased it second hand, or (like me) purchased it recently from team17 to do the right thing and not be a pirate.

i also think that the majority of new users found out the game was still strong and running BECAUSE of piracy. most 10+ year old games fall under retro gaming and abandon ware

most 10+ year old games fall under retro gaming and abandon wareYet, downloading them without owning original copies is still a copyright law violation in every country whose copyright laws I can think of right now.

Note: I'm not endorsing annoying copyright holders who don't make their IPs available for purchase. I'm just pointing out a fact.

most 10+ year old games fall under retro gaming and abandon ware
The term "abandon ware" has no legal relevance whatsoever.
Copyrights don't just vanish or fade out. There is always a legal legal successor.
Just because no one knows who it is, or because the game isn't sold anymore, doesn't mean it suddenly is free for distribution.

The term retro doesn't mean anything either.
Just look at all the re-releases of old games on Wii's Virtual Console, XBLA or Steam.

"Oh, I really loved to play that game 15 years ago! I want to play it again because it's totally retro and surely abandoned already." :rolleyes:
Yet, downloading them without owning original copies is still a copyright law violation in every country whose copyright laws I can think of right now.
I think piracy is perfectly fine in Somalia. :D

The term "abandon ware" has no legal relevance whatsoever.

"Oh, I really loved to play that game 15 years ago! I want to play it again because it's totally retro and surely abandoned already." :rolleyes:

i know piracy is illegal, i was just pointing out WAs new found popularity is BECAUSE of piracy. most of us that play out of nostalgia have purchased it at one point (ps1 for me, still have it). its a shame that once a piece of digital art has been dried up of revenue it gets tossed to the side and stuck in copyright limbo, WA is a rarity.

Im just going to say i own Worms Battle Pack

But i hate the Copy protection system on discs and also i really prefer not to use any CD images because that will force me to have 2 copies of the same game.

One Image
One Installed

thats a bit over 1 gb.

With a no-cd version i can just have a Rar achieve (300 mb) and know it works without having to have multiple Images on my computer.

So if your forcing me to play worms with CD or CD image i wait on a cracked exe.
or i simple jump to another game. its that simple.

Im not sure the community needs me in anycase :) but Worms armageddon is a good game and i enjoyed the many updated patches, being done on it.

because that will force me to have 2 copies of the same game.

One Image
One Installed

thats a bit over 1 gb.W:A's installer doesn't copy most data from the CD. A fresh install of W:A is under 80 MB.

I see i was asuming the install was with the Audio files....

My bad then, however which program would you suggest to create a image file of the Worms Armageddon cd?

because the copy protection makes my CD unreadable by standard image making tools.

The copy protection is not present in any Beta updates.

See here for instructions of how to create and use a CD image using various software:
http://worms2d.info/Running_WA_without_the_CD

1 gb
I still have 440GB of free space on my 1TB HDD.
In the year 2011, I really don't have to care about disk space anymore.

I still have 440GB of free space on my 1TB HDD.
In the year 2011, I really don't have to care about disk space anymore.
Oh lord it over us why don'cha! Pah, rich people nowadays!

I still have 440GB of free space on my 1TB HDD.
In the year 2011, I really don't have to care about disk space anymore.

your assuming that everyone has or needs a huge honkin desktop pc taking up a corner of their living space to put their 1tb drive into. theres a new trend for portability over high performance, and some computers only have a 4 or 8 gig nand to work with.

You would run W:A on those computers? Any practical systems running Windows that I've heard of use at least a SSD.

nand is ssd(?) maybe my definitions are a tad off. we play worms at the bar i frequent on an eeepc, which only has 4 gigs. its great because its small enough to pass around.

CyperWorm indeed its possible to create image of Worms Armageddon i had thought it was the same deal with worms armageddons cd as it was with Worms World Party. Worms World Party's cd has a copy protection which results in a Error when using simple Image creating tools. But there were no problem with getting Worms Armageddon running so i got nothing more to say on this.

I still have 440GB of free space on my 1TB HDD.
In the year 2011, I really don't have to care about disk space anymore.

It might be just you. IMO, I don't like disc images or games that are several gigabytes large. One reason is that I cannot put it in a USB stick and carry around - it forces me to bring a hard drive or DVD instead.

nand is ssd(?) maybe my definitions are a tad off. we play worms at the bar i frequent on an eeepc, which only has 4 gigs. its great because its small enough to pass around.

NAND isn't SSD.

NAND isn't SSD.

...yes it is.

Well. All NAND is not SSD, true, but some SSD is NAND.

nand is a type of flash memory, often used in ssd.

SSD = Solid State Drive
The solid-state part means, that there is only solid material used for electrons to move around in, and not for example vacuum or gas discharge tubes (e.g. an LED is solid-state, a light bulb is not).
Used in drives, it means that there are no mechanical parts, like spinning magnetic disks and moving read/write heads like in HDDs.

NAND is just a type of flash memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ssd

second paragraph

Starting today, users of versions older than 3.6.31.0 will see a warning screen (http://dump.thecybershadow.net/7056280bd49b943bfa7d9bece881c5ed/screen0621.png) when connecting to WormNET. There is a "Continue" link at the bottom; however, old versions will not be able to connect to WormNET starting with April 1st.

Haleluiah! :D

Starting today, users of versions older than 3.6.31.0 will see a warning screen (http://dump.thecybershadow.net/7056280bd49b943bfa7d9bece881c5ed/screen0621.png) when connecting to WormNET. There is a "Continue" link at the bottom; however, old versions will not be able to connect to WormNET starting with April 1st.

Is it a joke, the banning of older versions on April Fools Day?

Yeah very nice job cybershadow :D ^^

EDIT : maybe april fools yes hmm

No, it just happens to be a round date 2 weeks from now.

Awesome stuff!

I probably just install an outdated version to feel the mighty power of this ubercool warning screen :)

pics or it didnt happen pac-man

just kidding lol

DEATH TO THE PIRATES!!!!! XD XD XD XD

BTW, will that screen be available in other languages?

DEATH TO THE PIRATES!!!!! XD XD XD XD

BTW, will that screen be available in other languages?

I don't think so.
However, on what is this system based? When sending the "realname" string to the server? Then it wouldn't be as strong as there are people being able to change this (but I don't think so, too noobs for that :D ). Also don't forget snoopers which can avoid the frontend connection to WormNET.

The warning screen is for the benefit of legitimate users, not pirates. There is nothing for them to gain by trying to bypass the warning.

I would assume the actuall ban will be done by requiring something that the old versions don't provide.

...old versions will not be able to connect to WormNET starting with April 1st.

And what happens, when someone uses outdated (or pirated) game and will host using i.e. ProSnooper, which bypasses the Login screen and the warning?

Would WormNET detect his outdated wa.exe and refuse his Game ID request or it will be a huge security hole?

Would WormNET detect his outdated wa.exe and refuse his Game ID request or it will be a huge security hole?

Game ID is not needed in 3.6.29.0 and 3.6.28.0, so there won't be any problem for old users to bypass it. And the server can't refuse the SetGameId distribution since it distributes it before opening WA.exe (in case of a snooper)

Game ID is not needed in 3.6.29.0 and 3.6.28.0, so there won't be any problem for old users to bypass it. And the server can't refuse the SetGameId distribution since it distributes it before opening WA.exe (in case of a snooper)

So these are actually bad news and good bypass for pirates and lazy (outdated) users.

Is it possible for v.4.0 hosts to not accept connections from outdated users and to not allow v.4.0 users to connect to outdated hosts (with pop-up message window saying what's actually going on and where to get the latest patch)? I know it's drastic solution, but it seems to be the only way to eliminate all old versions in the future.

Isn't resource editing enough to change the version of cracked executables?

Isn't resource editing enough to change the version of cracked executables?

I'm not sure but it seems like this, because you will still enter WormNET even if spoofing version in the IRC/Wheat Snooper. The check is done Before connecting to IRC so it seems like to be true.
PS: nice avatar:o

There are some features in v31, which are not present in older versions and the game engine emulates, when there is someone with older game version connected and You all know about that.

I don't think that simple resource editing may substitute those missing features (correct me, if I'm wrong) and that makes me think, there are better ways to verify the game version, than simple reading few numbers by the game engine.

I belive (hope) there is a way to refuse old versions, when trying to connect to updated hosts (v4.0) and to not allow updated games (v4.0) to connect to outdated hosts (again, correct me, if I'm talking like a crazy).

To clear things up: snooper users are not affected by the WormNET entry check, because snoopers make no attempt to relay the W:A version to WormNET. However, HostingBuddy also requires everyone to use the new version starting today.

I belive (hope) there is a way to refuse old versions, when trying to connect to updated hosts and to not allow updated games to connect to outdated hosts (again, correct me, if I'm talking like a crazy).

It isn't possible. WormNET hosted games have no hoster version information in it, so it can't be refused by WormNET itself, and the other thing is that neither 29 neither 31 don't have the refusing.

It isn't possible. WormNET hosted games have no hoster version information in it, so it can't be refused by WormNET itself, and the other thing is that neither 29 neither 31 don't have the refusing.

Firstly, I'm talking about future version 4.0 and not about refusing outdated hosters by WormNET, but about refusing, while trying to connect to a hosted game.

HostingBuddy also requires everyone to use the new version starting today.

These are actually the good news ;]

Seems to work a bit:
http://img.webme.com/pic/d/dr-chat/diagrams.png

v4.0 will have secure logins and rank system etc. so it can be made that the login system refuses older clients? Heck you can add a online check that triggers when people light up in a game, if a client or the host requests other players to emulate an older version then the game won't be started and the person using the old version will get there account temp./perma banned?

Thus the only way to play with an old version is to trick the game into thinking it's the same version which will inevitably lead to desyncs :P

Discussing 4.0 here is pointless, mainly because it will probably be auto-updated. WormNET will be rewritten anyway, and we hope to remove the need for snoopers with a windowed, comfortable UI.

Firstly, I'm talking about future version 4.0 and not about refusing outdated hosters by WormNET, but about refusing, while trying to connect to a hosted game.

You have edited the message right after I had quoted.:eek:

I wouldn't use any Snooper, if I could Login to WN in a normal way.

...we hope to remove the need for snoopers with a windowed, comfortable UI.

So You plan to block Snoopers in the future or just planning to redesign WN, so using them become pointless?

In case of blocking Snoopers; will Port 6667 still be used or it will be changed to a different one?

You have edited the message right after I had quoted.:eek:

Yes, cause initially I forgot to include this information, but I've edited it before I saw Your post.

We will most likely use a new, custom protocol (which will not use port 6667).

We will most likely use a new, custom protocol (which will not use port 6667).

This gonna be awesome, but how about third-party servers and hosting games? Will they be hosted on a centralized server or there will still be an option for a direct ip?

We will most likely use a new, custom protocol (which will not use port 6667).

Wow, I'm gonna celebrate the day, when it will be accomplished, it's awesome!

Today , 2 of April , y played with a guy with 3.6.28.0 , how is this possible?

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1389/screen0498.png

He may have joined via a Snooper.

Isn't snooper joining with old versions banned too?

It should , maybe a banning while attemping to join a game.

WormNET itself is just a way of bringing players together. It doesn't actually host any games; just a list of games hosted privately by players (or HostingBuddy).

Without making a version of WA which doesn't work with older versions of WA (which is the opposite of the developers' goals), there's no way to prevent older versions from joining. You can just kick players with old versions if you don't want to play with them. The game announces their versions like in the above screenshot.

Isn't snooper joining with old versions banned too?

It should , maybe a banning while attemping to join a game.

Look at the previous page (3) and read posts since #79.

The game announces their versions like in the above screenshot.

Or /ver command in chat (lobby).

He may have joined via a Snooper.

No, he actually joined and continues to join from the game, the /whowas can help you out. I've looked his behaviour and can prove that it was the game. There is still a very little group of people which can access wormnet using an old version. The Floydd is an example.

Perhaps they hack the game to report a newer version to the server? o_O Does the server perform a CRC/MD5 check on the game (or a file that was updated with the latest patch)? Or does it just send a special request and the game simply reports a specific value?

I ask because some insane people might have hacked the game to work around it :P

No, he actually joined and continues to join from the game, the /whowas can help you out. I've looked his behaviour and can prove that it was the game. There is still a very little group of people which can access wormnet using an old version. The Floydd is an example.
You can use lookias' snooper to disguise your version (unfortunately).

You can use lookias' snooper to disguise your version (unfortunately).

Dude I did mention that his behaviour was to be a real game, like "QUIT" message etc. Look the /whowas and !seen. This is not only him who can join.

I definitely think we shouldn't hold back for those users who won't even bother updating their game.

I'm so neat, I always check with /ver and kick players with outdated versions, posting a link to wa.team17.com before as a private message for them.

Yes don't support old users. Else you'll be copying MS and there slack x64 support though they have improved in that area quite a bit with Vista and 7.

There is still a very little amount of people who can join via game using an old version, and I keep meeting them.:mad:

It seems very localized (http://stats.worms2d.info/countryuas.html). Can someone find the source?

It seems very localized (http://stats.worms2d.info/countryuas.html). Can someone find the source?

Probably some torrents with cracked WA.

My experience shows that Argentines are not familiar with english speech, what may be a reason, why they're unable to update.

There's nothing more, in that case, I could think of.

It seems very localized (http://stats.worms2d.info/countryuas.html). Can someone find the source?

Shame on you, United Kingdom ;D just kidding.
Argentinia? No wonder. In some countries I'm surprised if people use bought software there (without being a racist here).