Another community has been stealing my community's official map

[Gabe Noodle from Volvo]

What? No. Every time I release a new version of the map for MY community, they steal it, and start using it as well, quite fast might I add..

With the holiday logic entity thing, you could link everyything to it so nothing works unless it's set to a certain holiday, if they aren't very savvy they'll probably have trouble with it, but if they're smart they could solve it rather easily.

 

[AwesomeX]

I recall a certain map released during the early days of tf2. It was a server exclusive, and they were able to keep this mostly enforced via one method: Critical gameplay entities were not stored in the map, but instead placed upon map load by a plugin. If they're smart, though, they'll be able to work around that and any other measure you put into place.

As long as you have the appropriate entity data, I'm sure that you can just make a list that the server executes when the map loads to spawn every one. Now may be a good time to learn how to make plugins if none can fulfill that purpose.

That's something I've thought of doing. But I have no idea where to start on learning how to set that up.

 

[Egan]

I recall a certain map released during the early days of tf2. It was a server exclusive, and they were able to keep this mostly enforced via one method: Critical gameplay entities were not stored in the map, but instead placed upon map load by a plugin.

You can extract a map's .lmp file of entities using VIDE and put that in your servers' maps directory - where it will load with the map and feed data to the clients. I haven't tested it but I wonder if you could compile a copy of the map with entities and another without most, and use the former's extracted entity lump on the second of the same name.

I have tested that the .lmp of the same name in the /maps directory changes entities in the map since I had to use that on Watergate (because I didn't want clients to have to redownload massive files for small entity changes).

 

[Freyja]

OP's map is legally protected under law. Everything you create automatically is, if people are distributing or modifying it without the OP's permission, then that is illegal. Unfortunately, it would be hard to do much about it, and probably cost you more than it's worth to take legal action on it. But please let's remember actual copyright law.

That said, there is one way you can absolutely prevent your map from being used anywhere else, and make it server exclusive. Check out this post by Boojum Snark. This will also prevent decompiling the map properly.

 

[AwesomeX]

OP's map is legally protected under law. Everything you create automatically is, if people are distributing or modifying it without the OP's permission, then that is illegal. Unfortunately, it would be hard to do much about it, and probably cost you more than it's worth to take legal action on it. But please let's remember actual copyright law.

That said, there is one way you can absolutely prevent your map from being used anywhere else, and make it server exclusive. Check out this post by Boojum Snark. This will also prevent decompiling the map properly.

Bloody hell, that's awesome. I'll have to try that out.

Does the lump have to be fast dl'd? I really doubt it, but I want to be clear. Also, he says that I can just compile the map with "-onlyents" is that still true?

 

[Freyja]

I'm not sure, you'll have to ask him yourself or just try it. I've never done it personally.

 

[Egan]

Does the lump have to be fast dl'd? I really doubt it, but I want to be clear. Also, he says that I can just compile the map with "-onlyents" is that still true?

The .lmp doesn't need to be fast dl'd, it just resides on the server.
You can probably just toggle the visgroup checkbox for 'Point entities' on the side of the map anyway: http://i.imgur.com/cRnc6Lw.png (I haven't tried the full process though).

 

[Hotel Detective]

Then my suggestion is to grow a thicker skin. It's harsh, I know, but such is life.

What terrible advice.

 

[Exactol]

I think what gabe was saying was that if the server that stole the map had it enabled, they could do things like kick people

 

[Pocket]

OP's map is legally protected under law. Everything you create automatically is, if people are distributing or modifying it without the OP's permission, then that is illegal. Unfortunately, it would be hard to do much about it, and probably cost you more than it's worth to take legal action on it. But please let's remember actual copyright law.

Sending a DMCA notice would be a good place to start. They might be ballsy enough to ignore it, but I bet whoever provides their server hosting won't, unless it's literally hosted on a private machine in their basement. Not sure what could be done after that... maybe their ISP?

 

[Phil25]

I've never had this problem before but my map has a secret room which is restricted for special people only. The way I'm doing it is having a trigger_teleport all around it which is getting removed by a plugin on the server. It's not anything extreme but I believe it can be tweaked quite nicely:

Try putting a logic_auto somewhere hidden in your map, like in a wall or in another entity so it would be very difficult to find when somebody decompiles the map. Then, in OnMapSpawn have it do something map-breaking (after some time had passed, ofc). Possibly link it to another hidden entity which will do the dirty work, so the regular game entities won't have anything in their Inputs. After that, simply have a plugin remove that entity before it breaks the map.

The plugin won't be difficult to write at all. If you decide to use my suggestion, feel free to contact me and I can whip something up for you.

 

[worMatty]

It's pointless putting any logic in the map to kick, teleport or kill people because the rival server operator can just decompile the map to remove those entities or use Stripper:Source to neutralise them when the map is loaded and the server loads the server-side entities (networked edicts). All types of decompile protection are overcome by BSPSource so forget about them. The only real solution is the one that Freyja linked to, where you only host a shell map that's just world geometry and prop_statics, and keep all your entities in a lump file that's server side. Just make damn sure no one else gets hold of that lump file because all your effort will have gone to waste. I heard that HMX did something similar with some of their Deathrun maps a while ago to stop theft. If you plan to do this, you should do it on an update where your map changes quite a lot, so that the rival has to put in a lot of work if he hopes to copy the entities out of a previous version of the map. The aim is to force the rival to put in so much effort that they can't be bothered.

Another possibility is that you make your map public and host it on the Workshop. The rival can't technically steal your map then, and if you fill your map with images advertising your community, anyone who downloads or plays your map on another server will come to know who made it and it won't matter how many derogatory decals the rival inserts on his version.

It's sad that you are experiencing this. My advice to anyone who finds themselves in a position where they must have words with another community operator is to be as polite and articulate as possible, and always try to show that you see things from their point of view. Remember that there really isn't anything you can do to stop people from misappropriating work so you have to rely on your charm. Same goes for if a server group's peons are trying to start a hate war. Deal with things calmly, and don't respond in kind. Forget it ever happened. And don't let them wear you down.

EDIT: I wonder if it's possible to split dynamic brush entity data and dynamic brush model data?

EDIT2: Changing credit to Freyja.

 

[Izotope]

Correct, HmX has a web-tool that strips the lump from the bsp and stores it on the server.
When you decompile such a shell-map all you get is world geometry, nothing else.
I personally wouldn't bother recreating an entire map worth of entity work, so that's definitely the way to go.

I went through a similar experience a few years back, when I made a map for HmX. I put a logo and some text in the spawnroom, and this logo was gone on some other server running the map.
You wouldn't believe what kind of shitstorm followed for these two communities.
After that I stopped caring for "exclusive" maps, they shall be public.

Doing anything with and/or to your map without permission is disgraceful, and I do not have any respect for those who do.

I hope your "rivals" stop bothering your community when you update your map with this lump method.
I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Frosty Scales]

I've never had this problem before but my map has a secret room which is restricted for special people only. The way I'm doing it is having a trigger_teleport all around it which is getting removed by a plugin on the server. It's not anything extreme but I believe it can be tweaked quite nicely:

Try putting a logic_auto somewhere hidden in your map, like in a wall or in another entity so it would be very difficult to find when somebody decompiles the map. Then, in OnMapSpawn have it do something map-breaking (after some time had passed, ofc). Possibly link it to another hidden entity which will do the dirty work, so the regular game entities won't have anything in their Inputs. After that, simply have a plugin remove that entity before it breaks the map.

The plugin won't be difficult to write at all. If you decide to use my suggestion, feel free to contact me and I can whip something up for you.

This exists already, but the concept seems to me like it's completely undermined by the fact that you can just remove those entities and recompile

 

[Empyre]

You spent hundreds of hours making a map, and you don't want it played by as many people as possible?

 

[Leminnes]

You spent hundreds of hours making a map, and you don't want it played by as many people as possible?

Eh, don't judge the guy. He made the map for his community to have fun on. I can kinda understand wanting to keep it that way. I wouldn't want that personally, but to each their own, right?

It also sounds like a silly map, not really one that's intended to be played by people unfamiliar with it.

 

[Empyre]

I still don't see why he is upset that more people are playing enjoying his map, but I completely understand him being angry when they deface his map with decals that bash his community. That is very childish and not cool for them to do.

AwesomeX, the best advice I can give you is to ignore them. If you react and get angry, that is entertaining to them, and it will make them want to do it some more. If you ignore them, they're get bored and stop picking on you. If they then continue to play your map, it means that they enjoy it. Take it as a complement. It's a rather rude way of paying you a complement, but it is a complement nonetheless.

 

[Hotel Detective]

I still don't see why he is upset that more people are playing enjoying his map

When someone builds a house, do you think it's weird they don't let everyone sleep in it?
It's a map they want their friends to play on, it's not something they're seeking attention and fame for.

 

[Harry :)]

I don't know if this is acceptable, and I don't know if they could easily get by this, but: you could copy the materials, rename them, keep them from getting packed with the bsp, then force users to download the materials when they join.

 

[Izotope]

I don't know if this is acceptable, and I don't know if they could easily get by this, but: you could copy the materials, rename them, keep them from getting packed with the bsp, then force users to download the materials when they join.

This will annoy their users more than their rivals.