On the server-side there would be an authentication daemon that has a database of correct checksums for a selection of approved PlaneShift client binaries (one for each supported OS/arch combination and possibly a few more for e.g. working around strange Linux distros).

Just my opinion of course, but I think that would be absolutely terrible - one of the great things with PlaneShift at the moment is that since it's open source we can:-
 (a) build client versions for OS/arch combinations not yet built officially (I'm on 64-bit Linux and in the past there's sometimes been a delay between a new client being released and a working 64-bit Linux version, and judging by some forum posts it's been even worse for Macs)
 (b) experiment with the client and tailor it to our liking, eg. in my client I've changed it so that Mouse Look isn't cancelled by a mouse click on the screen, so you have to switch it on/off yourself, which is much more to my liking (I have Mouse Look permanently on except when I switch it off deliberately, eg. to chat).  Okay something like this could be submitted to the Dev team to be build into an official client as an option, but with the client checksums in place I wouldn't even be able to try it out.

I think taking away the ability to modify the client would far outweigh any fix to problems with botting (not that I realised there were any).

EDIT - Now that I've read your post right to the end (sorry, wrote this a bit too soon!) I see that you've noted both these points yourself, so this post is just to say yes I agree with you except that in my opinion these problems make it a non-starter.

Just to bump this back to the top, because I had the same problem with the new client compiled from CVS code and art downloaded by the updater (everything was fine with the 015 client) so this could be useful for others.

Bereror's fix worked for me too - thanks Bereror!

I quite liked the sound of this change, except for the timer where you're talking to the NPC for 15 secs, so if say, someone comes up to you and says 'Excuse me, can you tell me...' while you're talking to an NPC they'll probably give up on you before you can say anything to them.  Maybe a hotkey is needed to break off talking to the NPC, or maybe the NPC could recognise a sentence with 'bye' or 'goodbye' in it to show that you're finished talking to them.  Okay, 15 seconds is not ages, and is probably about the minimum you need to make the new system work smoothly, but it could seem a very long time to wait from a response to a player who may be afk (I suppose you could jump up and down or something to show that you'd heard the question and would answer when you could).

Anyway, I might have hit on another problem (related to what bilbous says above), or maybe there's a problem with the quest now, or maybe I'm just being dumb, but I'm just trying to complete a quest for Harnquist and got stuck when you give him something, he says he'll teach you some more, OK?, so presumably you're supposed to respond Yes, but I can't get this to work in the new system.  Hopefully the following to illustrate the point is not too much of a spoiler:-

[I give Harnquist the X he's asked for]
Harnquist tells you: Ah good. It is important to ...blah blah blah ... If so, find a Y for me and bring it here.  OK?
Aelfwine says: Yes
[No response from Harnquist]
Aelfwine says: Yes Harnquist
Harnquist tells you: Sorry, can you use a simpler but complete phrase?
Aelfwine says: say Yes
Harnquist tells you: Sorry, can you use a simpler but complete phrase?

I've tried it three times now, after the first time making sure I said 'Hello Harnquist' before I gave him the X (again - some more of my hard-earned goods gone!) so that he should already have been talking to me, but the same result.  Giving him the items seems to cancel his attention, then if you get his attention by using his name again he doesn't realise he's just asked you 'OK?'.

Any tips?

Quote from: Monk_ on May 22, 2006, 01:06:46 am

As far as players complaining about potions being used and such, I thought that was a little funny - this was war, not a practice duel. There were no combat conditions stipulated. The goodies at least were distributing good weapons and potions to their guildmates and friends. The most ironic part to me is how most such grievances were coming from the baddies side!! Who would have thought they would be complaining that the goodies weren't chivelrous enough   !

Maybe it was a war, but it was supposed to be roleplayed. Instant heal system, including potion, are bugs and advertise there usage is meaningless.

Before the event, the I was close to post "indeed, potions and other bug exploit are not allowed", but it would have  been unkind. I should have post this anyway then decide to stay at home according the replies.

Well, I was using potions (while being hit by Energy Arrows by unseen attackers while fighting the monsters) - nobody told us not to.  I'm new to PvP, so not familiar with the dos nd don'ts (this battle seemed like a good way to try some PvP combat, but it didn't work out that way - I never found anyone who was accepting attacks and was struck down for challenging, like many others.

The point is, if there are rules like this, they need to be decided on in advance, then posted along with the arrangements for the battle on the forums, and repeated many times unambiguously in game by the commanders (who should also have been appointed in advance, and shown up early and worked hard at organising things).  That way people would be right to complain if others used potions, but as it was, we weren't told not to.  There was a brief discussion on the hill before the battle, but no decision (and nobody in charge) so everyone had to make up their own minds.

There used to be a bug where when you jumped down, and the game switched to the next map, you\'d start standing on a transparent floor then as soon as you moved you\'d fall and die.  Switching load all maps on fixed it. so that you jumped right down in one go and were okay.

However, I think that\'s fixed now - certainly works on my system without turning on load all maps.

Maybe you character\'s just not strong enough to survive the fall.

And the cape could hide your character name (+ guild) from other players, until they were very close (much closer than the usual distance), but it would also count against you in combat or crafting, because you couldn\'t see very well.

Just a couple of ideas.

I\'ve just tried out the new installer for 0.3.014b, and while the installer itself runs very well, there\'s a problem which you may not have considered if you\'re running a 64-bit machine without 32-bit binary support.

In that case, you can\'t use the installer, since it\'s 32-bit, though if you run the installer on a 32-bit system and select 64-bit, then copy the resulting directory over, everything\'s fine.

Ideally, I think it\'d be best if there was a 64-bit binary of the installer too.

64-bit mostly, now I\'ve eventually managed to build the client on it.

32-bit sometimes.