Console death messages are exploited to (1) bypass the screen DM delay & (2) ID a killer's vehicle

[Matt Hands]

Meaning the text messages that are displayed in the console.

Exploit 1 - they appear immediately, so by one key press they can be used to defeat DH's system of delayed death messages on screen.

Exploit 2 - they identify the killer's weapon or vehicle/round type, so by one key press the killed player can identify what type of unobserved vehicle attacked him, then broadcast that to his team.

I have seen both of these commonly used and discussed, especially no. 2 in tank-based maps.

[Matt Hands]

Exploit 1 is fixed in commit 874f5eb.

Adds the same delay to console text death messages as for screen DMs. Uses the HUD to trigger the console message at the point the screen DM becomes valid. Ideally the new ConsoleDeathMessages array would be part of the Obituary struct, but I would have to redefine it as a DH version and it's not worth it - this should work just as well.

[Matt Hands]

Server admins can disable console death messages altogether, if they wish. Although now they are delayed, the scope for exploits is substantially reduced.

Regarding exploit 2, I propose to remove vehicle names from console death messages, so instead of getting "Player A was blown apart by Player B's Panzer IV HE shell", you would get a more generic "Player A was blown apart by Player B's HE shell". Also avoids the need for vehicle-specific console DM strings. By general approach is that console messages shouldn't give away more info that the screen DM. Any thoughts before I do that?

[Andrew Theel]

I concur, go for it!

If basnett doesn't, then I'll just flood him with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5j1wWY-qus

[Matt Hands]

Exploit 2 fixed in commit a6c4f42.

Removed all death message strings from all cannon shells. Console DMs are now completely generic for all vehicle cannon kills.

I can close this issue now, but have left open for a day or so, to ask a question below:

Infantry weapons & vehicle MGs still give a console message like "PlayerA was killed by PlayerB's M3 Grease Gun". This is generic functionality, inserting the weapon's name, and doesn't mean separate death message strings for each weapon. So it is more efficient that how the vehicle cannon's were set up, not adding masses of localised strings. But it is giving away a certain amount of info in the console, i.e. what gun the killer used. That doesn't seem like an exploit like giving away the killer's tank type, but are ppl happy to leave it that way?

[Andrew Theel]

The idea of having the bullets instead of the weapon (and having generic bullet icons) was to hide information such as this. For instance you can't tell if you or bob were killed by a sniper or a rifle (or even which type of rifle). I think we just have 2 bullet types, short (SMG + Pistol) and long (Rifle + MG). Which greatly hides the weapon as you only have 2 categories. Honestly I don't see it being that helpful and we can at least not worry about this. But if we want to be consistent with information we can hide the weapon in the console also. Basically I don't care either way. Basnett will likely say if it takes away from bug fixes don't bother and I sorta agree. We can always do it for a later update (especially if it becomes a problem).

[Colin Basnett]

I think what's done so far on this is sufficient enough. Tank types being betrayed by the console is a real problem; ambush tankers certainly don't want to know that as soon as they kill someone, their location and their tank type could be known to the entire team. This isn't as much of a problem in the infantry game. Closing this as resolved.