Stolen map/mission

[DeltaFOX209 1]

I do believe this would be the correct position for said post, if not ill move it. I did use the search function after i used google, no results, so here i am.

Recently we've been dealing with people stealing our missions and hosting them on their own public servers, and people keep getting confused and coming into our ts thinking they are on the right one (they have our website and ts info on the map).

Now i know the whole, 'mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery' but it doesnt help but annoy us when we try talking to them and they get all offended and kick us from ts while we try explaining that our guys worked on the mission for a good amount of time and knicking it like that just seems kind of underhanded. So my question is this. Is there ANY way to stop this from happening? I remember a unit my friend was in tried stealing a mission and when they did it caused the spawn points to be glitchy as hell (like cobras upside down in trees and stuff and the mission was just horribly broken). Thanks ahead of time

[blackmamb 2]

What mission are we talking about? You can state more clearly your server info on the mission name, I guess, or have a look in the recent threads on this section, there was that one dude that posted something to basically encrypt missions. Not sure it was totally working though.

[DeltaFOX209 1]

basicly its a lingor insurgency map, its built from the ground up, base layout and everything, it took a good chunk of time to put together, i dont mean to sound like a crybaby or anything, its just starting to get on our nerves, they even failed to edit it one bit, the map still has our ts address, our rules, and the mission says "edited by SRU" only thing they changed was the splash screen

[Guest]

basicly its a lingor insurgency map, its built from the ground up, base layout and everything, it took a good chunk of time to put together, i dont mean to sound like a crybaby or anything, its just starting to get on our nerves, they even failed to edit it one bit, the map still has our ts address, our rules, and the mission says "edited by SRU" only thing they changed was the splash screen

then its not stolen, they never claimed rights for the mission, they just use it without permission, however, its really easy to do this with missions on ArmA 2, i think its no big deal until they claim they made the whole mission

[DeltaFOX209 1]

they are actually starting to remove our markings now that public affairs tried reasoning with them... so i believe they are heading in that direction, but my question is if theres a way to prevent this in the future? I mean we cant do anything now if they wont listen, hey have the files and are being immature like a bunch of Day Z kids that got blamed for stealing someones beans so THEY are kind of out of our mind now, we just want to prevent future stolen maps.

[ProfTournesol 956]

I'm afraid there isn't much to be done. Most of the interwebz don't give a damn about asking permissions and respecting other people's work.

[DeltaFOX209 1]

i just find it hard to believe that after this many years of arma no one found a way to stop mission taking :\

[marker 1]

If someone implemented the above, then you might as well close down this forum...

Everything I have seen for over the past year concerning arma editing is about sharing.

I would take it as a compliment that they are using your version of insurgency...

[ProfTournesol 956]

But this community is ALSO about asking first and give credits.

[NeoArmageddon 958]

My opinion:

1) Encrypting missions and/or building solutions to prevent users from get a mission from a server is neither a solution to your problems nor is it in the spirit of ArmA and the community. If you build a mission and play it public, the mission IS PUBLIC and should be threaded as such. Everyone joining your server gets a local copy of your mission file and can use it as such copy. If you don't want your mission to spread, don't make a public server with it! Proprietary server and missions are stupid ideas from people who think they can get money or fame from preventing people to play their missions.

2) I don't think there is something wrong with editing a mission, adding a notice of edit, and reuploading it on your own server for personal/squad/clan use. I often edit missions to fix some bugs or adding special units (have a look into the Escape Chernarus thread for example). Only if the creator explicit says, that editing without his permission is not allowed, I will ask him for a permission to do so.

3) Releasing a edited mission in the forums is something completely different! I would always ask an original author for his permission to release an edited AND credited version of his work!

4) Removing credits/authors remarks and claim a mission as your own is just rude and an exploit of "game" mechanics. But I am sure that those people will quickly loose their (good) reputation. There were some of those cases in the past and most of the people involved never released another (stolen) mission again. Those people will exclude themselves from this community.

@DeltaFOX209

I don't see why you should host a mission for the public and don't allow anybody to play it apart of your server. The phrase "this mission took a lot of effort" is not a reason to make it a proprietary mission.

If you release your mission publicly with a notice "Don't edit this mission with the authors permission" everyone could see, that those people are using an illegitimate version.

[iceman77 18]

There's nothing you can do, aside from keeping your games private. Even encrypting is fail. my2c

Edited February 9, 2013 by Iceman77

[avibird 1 155]

DeltaFOX209 I am sorry but I have to say grow up! It's not your map/mission! You guys did not make the lingor island or the insurgency game mode. You guys are using the work of others as well. You guys just added a few things and put some markers down and now you think it's yours lol. How is that any different then what they did to you. If the real scripters and modders of this community acted like you then we would have no arma. Yes people should give credit when using the hard work of some else but the work was not yours in the first place. I hope you see my point. I just had to say what was on my mind . Take care AVIBIRD.

[NeoArmageddon 958]

... but the work was not yours in the first place

DeltaFOX209 said in the third post, that his mission was build from the ground up.

[iceman77 18]

DeltaFOX209 said in the third post, that his mission was build from the ground up.

As the topic question has already been answered, I'll stray off the topic with you guys. I find it hard to believe it was built from the ground up, if he's here asking on behalf of his community if there is any way to stop people from stealing missions. And for the fact the OP reinforced that claim with "base layouts and everything", instead of "All of the hours it took to write the code"... etc. Now, I don't know for sure, and I'm not trying to throw salt around. I'm just saying, usually, if someone makes any mode from the ground up, the base layout is a trivial part of the build.

But I guess it depends on your defenition of what insurgency is? A map with a few editor placed markers and a few friends fooling around. Or an actual mode coded from the ground up?

Edited February 9, 2013 by Iceman77

[avibird 1 155]

If he is using insurgency game mode and lingor island then it's not his mission. him and his friends/clan whatever edit the insurgency and added to it. How is that his mission from the ground up. From the ground up would mean he made a new game mode or his own mission not insurgency. How can you not see that. Just because I have 6 different domination missions that I have a modified significantly does not make the mission mine. It's still xeno mission. How can you not see that.

[iceman77 18]

Well insurgency can be anything. Do you know how many missions named insurgency has rolled through this series over the years? Before this "new found" fireball type of insurgency. So in essence, the "name" of the mode is trivial. This is why, we don't know for sure, what insurgency he's talking about. It may have well been a new build.

[avibird 1 155]

Ice I understand what you are saying but you and I know if someone made a new insurgency build from the ground up for real and put it out for public play it would have been announced on armaholic for us all to see! In my view if you change things in a mission it's still the original mission that's the bottom line with me. If you put that much time and effort into a mission to rewrite most of the codes within and alter the gameplay sigificantly you would call it something else and want to take credit for your work. I am currently working on a new DOMINATION MISSION called domination company of heroes or domination total war (still working on the mission and name). The gameplay will be very different and 98% of the code will not be the same from domination. I will still give xeon credit for his vehicle repair script that I am using in the mission. My point is real new gamemodes/mission types for open public play are very rare these days.

[iceman77 18]

Yes, but we don't know that he didn't make his own insurgency from the ground up. There's several hundreds of missions that are made and not released. So, just because his mission wasn't on armaholic doesn't mean they didn't make one from scratch. Not saying they did make their own, we just can't be 100% certain until the op replies :).

[blackmamb 2]

Yeah, well that's exactly why I was asking. And he does mention the "Edited by SRU" thing. I remember playing on a pubbie SRU server once, and it was featuring a Fallujah Insurgency. Sure you could see a good deal of work had gone towards creating a new base and all, but it was still your basic Insurgency gamemode.

Now, DeltaFOX, I can understand your frustration if they do remove the Edited By SRU thing, but all in all, you can't consider that as being your homemade mission, more of your build of a popular released-by-someone-else gamemode, including bits of various other communityreleased things, such as MSO, other Insurgency edits, and such.

You guys also chose to put that on a public server.

Can we consider these guys are doing the right thing? Probably not. Does that allow you to lock that thing, encrypt it, whatever? Certainly not.

[zooloo75 834]

To actually answer your question and solve your issue, you can put in certain counter-measures to give mission thieves a hard time running your mission.

Take certain variables and remove them from the mission, but put them on your server and publicvariable them so they are sent to the client. Put things such as small arrays or initialization type variables that are essential to play the mission.

For example. Let's say I have a script that goes something like this - (execVM "missionInitializations.sqf") and the missionInitializations.sqf contains a bunch of variables for the player to use. Instead of having that in the mission, you can put a publicvariable after each var in the sqf and have it send to all the clients (but put the file in your server's arma2 install directory).

If you need further help, PM me or ask here.

[iceman77 18]

Yup, that's pretty much the only way. Though idk why anyone would want to stop people from playing content that's not there's to begin with. Aside from putting in / editing a base layout and a couple text titles / hints.

[Horner 13]

Or you could move alot of the code over to a server side file and broadcast via publicVariable. But that wouldn't help in your case because it's not your mission and that code you're trying to "encrypt" is available publicly anyways. Why go to such lengths to protect something that you didn't create in the first place? I can understand if you spent months coding something, but making a base couldn't have taken you longer than a couple hours maximum.

[zooloo75 834]

Or you could move alot of the code over to a server side file and broadcast via publicVariable. But that wouldn't help in your case because it's not your mission and that code you're trying to "encrypt" is available publicly anyways. Why go to such lengths to protect something that you didn't create in the first place? I can understand if you spent months coding something, but making a base couldn't have taken you longer than a couple hours maximum.

Already beat you to it xD

Not a contest though :)

[DeltaFOX209 1]

all of you took everything wrong except for page number 1. I was just simply expressing my distaste and desire to prevent people taking things without permission to take credit them selves. So telling me to "GROW UP" is a stupid and un needed answer as i wasnt ranting/flaming/venting. I believe i stated my inquiry in a professional manner.

"ground up": of course we didnt make lingor and insurgency, thats horrible. I understand the mission is public and people have rights of usage, what we dont like is taking a mission that was just blank lingor and basic insurgency that we spent time working on to add a spawn point, units, bases, scripts, parameters and other little things to try and make it more enjoyable for the public. And when someone takes said mission, hosts it, and takes credit, thats LIKELY to upset someone, especially the person that took time to make it.

So other comments and additions wasnt needed, I understand the ArmA community is focused around sharing, modding and gerneral cooperative activities, I've played arma since Armed Assault. So trust me, i understand the theory. SO!

I'll re word my question. Is there anyway to brand our mission, so when its "acquired" and used by others because they dont want to take the time to edit, is there a way we could have the map or something to show "made by So-so unit"?

lets stay on topic shall we?

---------- Post added at 21:42 ---------- Previous post was at 21:39 ----------

To actually answer your question and solve your issue, you can put in certain counter-measures to give mission thieves a hard time running your mission.

Take certain variables and remove them from the mission, but put them on your server and publicvariable them so they are sent to the client. Put things such as small arrays or initialization type variables that are essential to play the mission.

For example. Let's say I have a script that goes something like this - (execVM "missionInitializations.sqf") and the missionInitializations.sqf contains a bunch of variables for the player to use. Instead of having that in the mission, you can put a publicvariable after each var in the sqf and have it send to all the clients (but put the file in your server's arma2 install directory).

If you need further help, PM me or ask here.

so far the best answer ive had, Thank You

[iceman77 18]

"ground up": of course we didnt make lingor and insurgency, thats horrible ... And when someone takes said mission, hosts it, and takes credit, thats LIKELY to upset someone, especially the person that took time to make it.

only thing they changed was the splash screen

Sorry, not trying to be a super prick. But, how exactly did they take credit if all's they did was change the splash screen? Yet they didn't take time to edit other things. Things that people usually change when they're being underhanded... clan text, ts info etc.

Also, people can only go by what you say. In your case it was a ground up build initially...