Player Handles are the biggest addition to the Triggering world IMO, with Patch 1.4.0. It is early days but I believe I have figured out how they work, if I am wrong then please correct me, we are all learning here.
On a standard windows install, your account files are kept at: C:\User\My Documents\Starcraft II\Accounts.
Upon opening that folder there will be another folder (or more) with numerals, ie: 123456789.
I believe that this is your unique identifier across the entire Battle.net system - ie, your account number that is registered to your email address. It is an incremental number, so someone would have the number 1/2/3 etc, although I am unsure where it started, it could have started at 10 million for all I know.
Inside these folders, are other folders, which are your unique identifier on Starcraft II's section of Battle.net (Something similar to Character Codes). They will look like this, 1-S2-1-123456.
So to summerise, the first one which is 123456789 is basically like a REALID.
The second one which is 1-S2-1-123456 is like a Character Code - and it is the Player's Handle.
Taking a look
So we are going to break apart this and take a look.
I have three accounts on my computer, 1 NA, 2 EU and 6 SEA, so I have confirmed these are the server IDs, I am not sure what the rest are though, I presume there could be LA, TW, KR, RU somewhere in there, I am not too sure if it is physical server so if both LA and NA share "1" or if it is dynamic servers.
1 : NA
2 : EU
3 : KR/TW
4 : ??
5 : CN
6 : SEA
99 : BETA Server (Not always turned on)
Game ID:
S2 : Starcraft II
Expansion ID:
I am not too sure about this one, it could be an expansion ID and I presume it is, but I have no evidence to support it.
1 : Wings of Liberty
Account Number:
Incremental number from the time you registered.
123456 : Your ID Number.
What you can do with them
Player Handles are Strings, and are unique to each player. They are not "Names" because names can be changed for a fee* remember :) But they are even better.
The possibilities are endless, you can actually create a live tracking system of stats, or log how many times each person has played with their friends etc.
But the number one reason I presume most people will want this ID is Banlists.
This ID opens up the door for creating Banlists, for those who know the theory behind it, you now have the opportunity to do it. For those that do not know, then you probably shouldn't be making banlists anyways.
Use it wisely though; abuse of this system might open the floodyway for complaints to blizzard and they could very well take it off us. I have an ignore list nearly a mile long of stupid kids who pissed me off, but remember they are just that, kids. Very few of them would I ever actually think about banning from say Tofu, forever, because even if they are little pricks, leave em be, karma will bite them in the ass sooner or later, you don't need to be the hand of god.
For me, the most useful application of player handles will be providing admin status to myself or team members for live testing - i.e., giving them access to debug codes. Banlists are small-time ;)
If I have two humans, Bob and Alice, playing on my custom map - is it now possible to identify Bob as the current player on computer A and Alyce as the player using computer B?
I'd like to get information about only Bob when Bob is playing on his computer, and the same for Alice. For example, only writing Bob's APM to an APM bankfile on Bob's computer and only writing Alice's APM to a file on her computer.
"The possibilities are endless, you can actually create a live tracking system of stats, or log how many times each person has played with their friends etc."
So can this replace banks? I'm not quite sure how that would work, is there a more indepth tutorial or overview on these systems with player handles?
When you type in your "code" in wc3, it is simply compressed data of which the same is a bank. So yes, banks are necessary because writing down codes is a noob shit pain in the ass way to do it - srsly.
The live tracking system of stats, and logging each time people play with their friends are all completely within the bounds of bank files. There is no tutorial because no one has really done it yet to that degree, but it is entirely possible.
Except that there is the limit of ~ 8.5kb that will screw with the banks in multiplayer and render them useless (incomplete data or you aren't able to load it always safely).
Also, lol @ wc3 system. Typing in a code is a terrible way because you need to invest into false codes and rely on players typing in their codes.
I already feel the bank system is limited because of the arbitrary limit of ~ 8.5 kb which can safely be uploaded in multiplayer without corrupting the cache data. But maybe I'm just relying to much on saving a massive amounts of data. ;)
But there are already some cool statistics possible and being done like the leaderboard showing a highscore of all players you ever played with and the people they played with up to that game.
The only "Good" I ever see coming out of this, thats not hacks or idiots using banlist(THey ruined WC3 people abused them badly), is the ability to save a players stats based on account for every computer and not just one...
Seriously This will just be abused I hope blizzard changes it... No offense Dogmai, i understand you only looked into itfor the knowledge but you know that once its cracked, hacks and children with banlist will plague the system
Banlists are not possible. Unless you intend to kick players after the game has started which will ruin the game for the rest of the players defeating the purpose.
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And the problem with this is? Granted it would be nice if loading was able to detect banned people, but have you ban someone you really think they're going to waste their time trying to play a game they're banned from, unless of course they're trying to cheat it. I mean really there is a level to it. You want to ban people that are actually causing real issues and if you ask im sure most people would rather play a 5v6 then have 1 idiot continouly ruin it into a 2v6. In an reality a person being kick by ban is going as big issue or smaller as bnet dropping one person which is something everyone is used to by now (just kick before the other bank info loads and people can restart/host again).
My main question is do you think there would be issue with handle if you actually started using them in the programming to give admin right instead of using a password system?
I play games of LOL all the time with people that are just trolling... Im one of the people that refuses to surrender and wants to play the game regardless.
Also there is no good way to create a "banlist" each player would have different people on said banlists.
You could attempt to merge peoples banlists together.... But if I really wanted to fuck with your map ...
I could just go into the bank file and add peoples player codes and then if your merging whats in my banlist with other peoples then well.... your gonna be merging people I added to the bank file by hand.
Even with encryption this is still do-able to
I use them in my maps for admin privleges
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Well there are several ways to skin a cat and a merged banlist is not the only solution. There absolutely no reason you can't just manual add their id into the game where there is a absolutely no way for them to get around it. Now as for merged list, i don't how your reliably getting other people's codes besides making your own map to steal them which would quickly get you banned all together.
In reality the number of people that have the skill let alone willpower to bother going through the trouble is very very small compared to the total sc2 population.
It cant be verified anymore cause the server is gone, but i believe 4 is the old Russian server. my guess is when they destroyed that server they switch all 4-sc2* to 2-sc2*
i doubt its possible to verify this anymore cause they have been changed
so, what does the trigger look like to get player handle? Ive seen it done before and I cannot figure out where in this text message action do I go to make this happen. I want the players handle to display upon map init.
so, what does the trigger look like to get player handle? Ive seen it done before and I cannot figure out where in this text message action do I go to make this happen. I want the players handle to display upon map init.
There is a function returning the player handle as string, taking an integer. In order to use it within a text message you will have to select "Convert String to Text" first because a string is not a text.
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Player Handles
Player Handles are the biggest addition to the Triggering world IMO, with Patch 1.4.0. It is early days but I believe I have figured out how they work, if I am wrong then please correct me, we are all learning here.
On a standard windows install, your account files are kept at: C:\User\My Documents\Starcraft II\Accounts.
Upon opening that folder there will be another folder (or more) with numerals, ie: 123456789.
I believe that this is your unique identifier across the entire Battle.net system - ie, your account number that is registered to your email address. It is an incremental number, so someone would have the number 1/2/3 etc, although I am unsure where it started, it could have started at 10 million for all I know.
Inside these folders, are other folders, which are your unique identifier on Starcraft II's section of Battle.net (Something similar to Character Codes). They will look like this, 1-S2-1-123456.
So to summerise, the first one which is 123456789 is basically like a REALID.
The second one which is 1-S2-1-123456 is like a Character Code - and it is the Player's Handle.
Taking a look
So we are going to break apart this and take a look.
1 - S2 - 1 - 123456
1 (Server ID) - S2 (Game ID) - 1 (Expansion ID??) - 123456 (Incremental ID number).
Server IDs:
I have three accounts on my computer, 1 NA, 2 EU and 6 SEA, so I have confirmed these are the server IDs, I am not sure what the rest are though, I presume there could be LA, TW, KR, RU somewhere in there, I am not too sure if it is physical server so if both LA and NA share "1" or if it is dynamic servers.
Game ID:
Expansion ID:
I am not too sure about this one, it could be an expansion ID and I presume it is, but I have no evidence to support it.
Account Number:
Incremental number from the time you registered.
What you can do with them
Player Handles are Strings, and are unique to each player. They are not "Names" because names can be changed for a fee* remember :) But they are even better.
The possibilities are endless, you can actually create a live tracking system of stats, or log how many times each person has played with their friends etc.
But the number one reason I presume most people will want this ID is Banlists.
This ID opens up the door for creating Banlists, for those who know the theory behind it, you now have the opportunity to do it. For those that do not know, then you probably shouldn't be making banlists anyways.
Use it wisely though; abuse of this system might open the floodyway for complaints to blizzard and they could very well take it off us. I have an ignore list nearly a mile long of stupid kids who pissed me off, but remember they are just that, kids. Very few of them would I ever actually think about banning from say Tofu, forever, because even if they are little pricks, leave em be, karma will bite them in the ass sooner or later, you don't need to be the hand of god.
For me, the most useful application of player handles will be providing admin status to myself or team members for live testing - i.e., giving them access to debug codes. Banlists are small-time ;)
If I have two humans, Bob and Alice, playing on my custom map - is it now possible to identify Bob as the current player on computer A and Alyce as the player using computer B?
I'd like to get information about only Bob when Bob is playing on his computer, and the same for Alice. For example, only writing Bob's APM to an APM bankfile on Bob's computer and only writing Alice's APM to a file on her computer.
@marktronic: Go
This was always possible.
@DogmaiSEA: Go
Mind chiming in here then?
http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/development/triggers/25773-retrieving-apm-for-triggering-player/#posts
Could really use some help to make this happen for a project of mine. :)
"The possibilities are endless, you can actually create a live tracking system of stats, or log how many times each person has played with their friends etc."
So can this replace banks? I'm not quite sure how that would work, is there a more indepth tutorial or overview on these systems with player handles?
look back on wc3..... Banks are not necessary.
...
When you type in your "code" in wc3, it is simply compressed data of which the same is a bank. So yes, banks are necessary because writing down codes is a noob shit pain in the ass way to do it - srsly.
The live tracking system of stats, and logging each time people play with their friends are all completely within the bounds of bank files. There is no tutorial because no one has really done it yet to that degree, but it is entirely possible.
@DogmaiSEA: Go
Except that there is the limit of ~ 8.5kb that will screw with the banks in multiplayer and render them useless (incomplete data or you aren't able to load it always safely).
Also, lol @ wc3 system. Typing in a code is a terrible way because you need to invest into false codes and rely on players typing in their codes.
I already feel the bank system is limited because of the arbitrary limit of ~ 8.5 kb which can safely be uploaded in multiplayer without corrupting the cache data. But maybe I'm just relying to much on saving a massive amounts of data. ;)
But there are already some cool statistics possible and being done like the leaderboard showing a highscore of all players you ever played with and the people they played with up to that game.
@DogmaiSEA: Go
The only "Good" I ever see coming out of this, thats not hacks or idiots using banlist(THey ruined WC3 people abused them badly), is the ability to save a players stats based on account for every computer and not just one...
Seriously This will just be abused I hope blizzard changes it... No offense Dogmai, i understand you only looked into itfor the knowledge but you know that once its cracked, hacks and children with banlist will plague the system
@DogmaiSEA: Go
Banlists are not possible. Unless you intend to kick players after the game has started which will ruin the game for the rest of the players defeating the purpose.
@SouLCarveRR: Go
And the problem with this is? Granted it would be nice if loading was able to detect banned people, but have you ban someone you really think they're going to waste their time trying to play a game they're banned from, unless of course they're trying to cheat it. I mean really there is a level to it. You want to ban people that are actually causing real issues and if you ask im sure most people would rather play a 5v6 then have 1 idiot continouly ruin it into a 2v6. In an reality a person being kick by ban is going as big issue or smaller as bnet dropping one person which is something everyone is used to by now (just kick before the other bank info loads and people can restart/host again).
My main question is do you think there would be issue with handle if you actually started using them in the programming to give admin right instead of using a password system?
@hobbidude: Go
I play games of LOL all the time with people that are just trolling... Im one of the people that refuses to surrender and wants to play the game regardless. Also there is no good way to create a "banlist" each player would have different people on said banlists.
You could attempt to merge peoples banlists together.... But if I really wanted to fuck with your map ...
I could just go into the bank file and add peoples player codes and then if your merging whats in my banlist with other peoples then well.... your gonna be merging people I added to the bank file by hand.
Even with encryption this is still do-able to
I use them in my maps for admin privleges
@SouLCarveRR: Go
Well there are several ways to skin a cat and a merged banlist is not the only solution. There absolutely no reason you can't just manual add their id into the game where there is a absolutely no way for them to get around it. Now as for merged list, i don't how your reliably getting other people's codes besides making your own map to steal them which would quickly get you banned all together.
In reality the number of people that have the skill let alone willpower to bother going through the trouble is very very small compared to the total sc2 population.
It cant be verified anymore cause the server is gone, but i believe 4 is the old Russian server. my guess is when they destroyed that server they switch all 4-sc2* to 2-sc2*
i doubt its possible to verify this anymore cause they have been changed
so, what does the trigger look like to get player handle? Ive seen it done before and I cannot figure out where in this text message action do I go to make this happen. I want the players handle to display upon map init.
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There is a function returning the player handle as string, taking an integer. In order to use it within a text message you will have to select "Convert String to Text" first because a string is not a text.