Ship Dealers

[Crashmaster]

because I will implement a life-time clock and planned obsolescence in my products until everyone (of you) is fed up with it!

They sure sell a lot of phones that way though.

 

[MacThule]

They sure sell a lot of phones that way though.

And electric cars. One auto shop nearby had a battery catch fire overnight and do like $170K in damage by burning up a couple other cars and half of one of their bays.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Jinm theres already rulesets in the game that prevent build mode. Ship permissions arent that hard. Have you fooled with the rulesets recently?

This is good info to have and may lead toward a solution everyone can agree on.

I took a brief look at the rule sets but found them counter-intuitive. Maybe a few (dozen) cups of coffee will help...

 

[Lone_Puppy]

lol, I like that explode after 10 jumps. Crack up!

I believe time spent to engineer tight restrictions around copyright or BP copying would be time better spent on other features and functions.
It would be a nice to have, but ultimately if somebody wants something they will get it in some way shape or form.

Personally, I don't care if people copy my BPs as long as I get credit for the original. That's what I like about this community. People are really helpful and giving when it comes to sharing their knowledge, expertise and of course BPs.

If you were to engineer copyright control, it could easily be integrated into the BP itself by encrypting the BP and applying a decryption permission process controlled by Starmade itself. Something like AES/Twofish 256bit encryption would be sufficient.

The en/decryption process could be handled in a number of different ways.

• Simple encryption of the BPs with different keys for different purposes could work;
  • control over entity spawn, e.g. number of times allows, total quantity of entities allowed, etc
  • BP saving of the entity, once it is spawned. Server or world engine would control this.
  • Ability to save/repair in a shipyard restricted by same rules for save/spawn of entity
• Shared encryption key for server side vs personal usage in game, but the game prevents you from saving the ship as a BP. A pain, especially if you want to backup what you have, but should be sufficient.
• Decryption key to allow full unrestricted access to the BP, so you can legitimately save the BP as you would now.
• Starmade Server would control the encrypted content and the rules in the BP, which prevents a BP of the specific entity being saved.
• It could also be a config option additional in servers where entities are tagged with something to prevent saving as a BP. Then at least server owners can protect their IP or copyright should they wish to. Such a tag could be included in the encryption/decryption process.

There are a number of simple ways to do this, but it's all going to be time and I'm not sure schema has the time with the universe update work happening. No harm in asking though.

 

[Valck]

lol, I like that explode after 10 jumps. Crack up!

I believe time spent to engineer tight restrictions around copyright or BP copying would be time better spent on other features and functions.
It would be a nice to have, but ultimately if somebody wants something they will get it in some way shape or form.

Personally, I don't care if people copy my BPs as long as I get credit for the original. That's what I like about this community. People are really helpful and giving when it comes to sharing their knowledge, expertise and of course BPs.

If you were to engineer copyright control, it could easily be integrated into the BP itself by encrypting the BP and applying a decryption permission process controlled by Starmade itself. Something like AES/Twofish 256bit encryption would be sufficient.

The en/decryption process could be handled in a number of different ways.

• Simple encryption of the BPs with different keys for different purposes could work;
  • control over entity spawn, e.g. number of times allows, total quantity of entities allowed, etc
  • BP saving of the entity, once it is spawned. Server or world engine would control this.
  • Ability to save/repair in a shipyard restricted by same rules for save/spawn of entity
• Shared encryption key for server side vs personal usage in game, but the game prevents you from saving the ship as a BP. A pain, especially if you want to backup what you have, but should be sufficient.
• Decryption key to allow full unrestricted access to the BP, so you can legitimately save the BP as you would now.
• Starmade Server would control the encrypted content and the rules in the BP, which prevents a BP of the specific entity being saved.
• It could also be a config option additional in servers where entities are tagged with something to prevent saving as a BP. Then at least server owners can protect their IP or copyright should they wish to. Such a tag could be included in the encryption/decryption process.

There are a number of simple ways to do this, but it's all going to be time and I'm not sure schema has the time with the universe update work happening. No harm in asking though.

I don't think it needs to be as complex as you suggest. It doesn't have to get the approval of MPAA/RIAA and consorts ;)
All it needs to do is prevent copying of/creating blueprints from a ship on the server it is on, while it is on there. Once a blueprint is on the StarMade Community Content section, it's free for all anyway (which is the point of putting it there IMO, and in line with sharing knowledge and expertise).

A few bits in the blueprint data chunk to control owner/faction/individual permissions should be enough to prevent most attempts at copying-on-the-fly in multiplayer, and in my humble opinion, that's all that is needed. Maybe a field to tie the ship to a specific user ID. No need for elaborate encryption.

If a game client would try and copy a blueprint locally, it would still have to somehow convince the server that its data is more accurate than the server's copy... probably not enough to prevent a player from gaining a local copy, but that won't help much if the server doesn't allow BP uploads.

I agree it will take some implementation effort, but not nearly as much as some sort of full-blown, offline copy protection.

 

[JinM]

Once a blueprint is on the StarMade Community Content section, it's free for all anyway (which is the point of putting it there IMO, and in line with sharing knowledge and expertise).

People also forget, that sharing screenshots of their design, or uploading it to the CC, prevents people from others claiming the designs as their own. In a way this is some sort of protection.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

JinM is correct: Once you post a screen shot, your aesthetic touch is up for grabs for others to emulate. Once you post to CC, the design in its entirety is up for grabs. Meanwhile, CC does list you as the original author and your screenshots are a basic proof of authorship.

I can't speak for everyone but in my case, I'm not as concerned with getting 'credit' for my work since everyone has already seen my build style and I'm not making real money on it.

This is more so about being able to sell the same ship in-game, to other players, more than once. We want to make vendors/dealers a possible in-game profession. This can't happen as long as people can save and reload your BP on the fly.

Also, thinking back to the old thread "Hinder Design Theft"; there's something to be said about the current tactical/strategic consequences of having certain designs released to potential enemies in multiplayer. For example; Suppose you have a complex logic-based super-weapon or an optimized chamber setup. If a pirate or enemy steals one of your ships, it makes sense that they would become aware of any special functions your ship has. What does not make sense is how they can instantly and endlessly duplicate your complex design without having any understanding of how it works or how to build one from scratch.

Whether it's sales or strategy, the issue is the same. Simply put; even if I have more money than Bill Gates, if I buy or steal an F-16 from the Air Force, I'm not going to instantly be able to build a whole squadron of them; whether it be for combat or resale.

 

[NeonSturm]

They sure sell a lot of phones that way though.

You don't need jump on a fighter except when you use it as escape pot.
Planned obsolescence is maybe not so good.
But a life time clock after being detached from a ship can sell as theft damage diminisher.

If value is 210, value is 90% and insurance is 5%. Take all values +9.
When insurance is 5%, value is 45%. Take all values minus 89 and limit them to 133/144 each iteration.
136+/144- growth trigger a warning and cause a stop by inbuilt warheads or logic failure.

THAT sells maybe.

The thing with planned obsolescence was a warning about abuse. Shorter rules are the rulers.

 

[Dr. Whammy]