Revelation: Good for the game?

[Raistlin]

Let me start by saying that I have NOT reversed my views on Revelation. I am still dead set against there being a server reset; I hate losing things I've worked for, doubly so when I thought the game was persistent. That being said, haven't you guys noticed that the servers and game seem more alive than ever? Alliances and drama are flowing thick and fast; things haven't been this interesting since the early days!
I think what it boils down to is that while Revelation ever happening would be DEVASTATING in terms of the number of people who play the game, the IDEA of Revelation made things more interesting. Just as long as it never happens ;)
-Raistlin
P.S. I hate dial-up with a passion. It makes me want to burn the whole d**n world.

[Player]

I agree, its not the idea of player on player action that most people are against, its the fact that the effects of one side winning is devastating - a complete wipe. Take out the reset portion, and I believe most people will think this revelation is a fantastic update.

I could be wrong here, but i think the only thing stand in the way of a reset is money/time. Once someone researched the virus to v0.706, theres nothing stopping them from completing the reset. 

[virus man]

I agree, its not the idea of player on player action that most people are against, its the fact that the effects of one side winning is devastating - a complete wipe. Take out the reset portion, and I believe most people will think this revelation is a fantastic update.

I could be wrong here, but i think the only thing stand in the way of a reset is money/time. Once someone researched the virus to v0.706, theres nothing stopping them from completing the reset. 

Not true.  SGP is working on a much larger AV than the virus will likely ever be researched to and we have the hardware to run the AV multiple times.

If I am not mistaken we will have a 1.0 AV in the next day or so.

[Witcher]

Player has a point though Ebolla, though I disagree that v 0.706 will be the breaking point. 0.706 would be the theoretical limit but because you need to coordinate ten people you need a higher version to hit...

If there is a virus which takes longer to disinfect than the required time to stop Revelation there is NOTHING you can do to stop it, even if you have an AV.

Revelation virus 1.0 would be unstoppable provided you got 10 people to install it simultaneously (i.e. within the same day) - even if you do have the antivirus the AV routine would take too long to stop revelation from happening. The problem is that the AV does not work faster even if its version is much much higher than the version of the virus being disinfected.

[zand lizzar]

Its posted that Faith works much faster than a standard AV. That being said good luck researching Revelation. It shows up as soon as it completes downloading on the list of doomsday servers, unless its SGP with there uncrackable defenses doing it, all they would need to do is get on your system, kill the research, stop any uploads or downloads and probably load a malware on your system. Even if you change IP the Virus will still show your location.

[Andreas]

Not that I would try to research the rev but you are giving me nightmares.

[siremi]

When you download Revelation you definitely need a good bandwidth on the gateway. That opens up the gateway to malware attacks.

It will definitely be very hard to research the Revelation effectively. My guess is once a few Revelation start to pop out the guys doing the protection will also use a Revelation to strike at the other guys with the remote malware attack on the last stand.

Anyway, I think it will be a fight to remember

P.S.: I'm focusing on the much needed interface updates now...

[RaiseCain]

My guess is once a few Revelation start to pop out the guys doing the protection will also use a Revelation to strike at the other guys with the remote malware attack on the last stand.

But Revelation needs to be installed to use the remote malware option? Doubt anyone would risk their server just to use a remote v0.1 malware attack, even if the target is using Revelation.

[Player]

Ill quote myself 

1. Faith can easily disinfect Revelation
2. Revelation is easily located - it would appear to not only broadcast its location, it also deletes all defenses on the host.
3. Any player that so much as downloads Revelation will be immediately targetable, due to the unique broadcast feature, again.
4. At 6 hours per install, no parallel installs, one install per player, a day countdown, needed is a minimum of 10 players and half a week (3.5 days) of uncontested time.
5. Top players will be researching Faith and providing it freely to all.
6. "Faith anti-virus is faster then a normal anti-virus" - so it moves fast
etc."

1) Virus can be disinfected very easily.
Unless I am wrong here, but i think localhost has to power to kill any remote delete processes. So if You keep a copy of uninstalled virus in in server and consitantly checking and killing all deletes, theoretically you could keep the virus there forever.

2) Revelation is easily located.
True, if you only have 1 virus in the whole net. What if there are 10, 100,1000, 10000, or even 500000? Then it would be pain to keep track of all the virus. Even 0.1 version takes longer than 24 hrs to delete.

3) Revelation negates defenses.
Still, theres a few thing you cant do
 1 ) delete an uninstalled virus 
2) stop others from download the virus if they use IP reset or superior software ( at least its like that in public servers )

4) Half week of activation time.
Ok there is probably no way around this one, as once the virus is installed, AV will kick in and disinfect the virus. The only way to do this is probably research till disinfecting time is higher than the total activation process. Either you use IP reset alot, (resetting in 5 min intervals) or just try your luck. ( If you got a chain of virus set up like above, of course. )

5) AV version is higher than virus version.
see below:

6)If the activation time is same as other virus, which i think is 1 Gb/ 2000 sec, 0.1 version will take 11.11 hours. ( same for disinfects )
To last through the total installation time to doom = 6 x 9 + 24 = 78 hours. 78 /11.11 = 7.02 so need to research to version 0.706.

Resources needed to run at version 0.706 =

70600 cpu , 4236 000 kb memory, 2824 bw ,  141.2 Gb.   (x 10....)

[Witcher]

But Revelation needs to be installed to use the remote malware option? Doubt anyone would risk their server just to use a remote v0.1 malware attack, even if the target is using Revelation.

This is merely a suspicion but I have a nagging feeling that 0.1 revelation attack is likely to hurt a LOT more than a 0.1 malware attack.

[Raistlin]

Actually, v.1 Revelation is only supposed to hurt half as much as a v.1 malware, but the remote feature means it can blindside you.

[siremi]

Actually, v.1 Revelation is only supposed to hurt half as much as a v.1 malware, but the remote feature means it can blindside you.

If you get remote overloaded by a Rev vir, you get a log entry that shows you where the attack is coming from, the ingame IP that is remote attacking so you can strike back in whatever way you choose...

So far the Rev attack is 50% that of the normal hardware overload vir, but we'll see if it needs a boost or not.

[DamascuS]

Ok, im getting confused here, since there is no specific details on the type of remote overload function the Revelation offers (and because i dont feel like downloading a copy to test it out - well they do say curiosity killed the cat!), here's my question.

Is it like malware, where the overload target is the server the virii is installed on?
or is it more like, you enter the IP of the server to attack and bam! overloaded?

[RaiseCain]

Remote Overlaod suggests that it can Overload a target IP, but I think you need to install revelation first. Would be logical since malware uses the number of hours as a modifier to the damage it inflicts.

Also it is very unlikely that you actually are able to use it, download Revelation and everyone knows your IP. Install it and you have no defenses. By the time it has runs for some ours it will already be disinfected and your server destroyed.
And it only does 50% damage of what a regular Malware would do.

All in all I'd say this feature is useless unless it gets a boost.

[siremi]

Is it like malware, where the overload target is the server the virii is installed on?
or is it more like, you enter the IP of the server to attack and bam! overloaded?

Revelation works like this:

- download, install
- wait for it... it requires 11h to disinfect a 0.1 Rev , I suggest wait at least 10h so it can load with time (expect to be assaulted by others, so maybe use a dedicated owned server not your main)
- access Software, click on "Activate Malware" on the Revelation vir
- input target IP and confirm => BAM, you get a damage report, target gets a log with the Revelation IP that was used on it and the damage report

The higher you get your Revelation version, the higher the disinfect time and damage you can cause. Malware damage is affected by vir version and time the vir ran. I say Rev has many uses in a hack war.