General Discussion - Server stress tests and security. - Forum

" nermind wrote: " tpapp157 wrote: Stressing the servers is one of the major reasons for having a closed beta. That's why GGG intends to invite thousands of players. I thought an open beta would be more suited for stressing (= Well...Open beta is kind of finisher of testing, where PoE servers will be 100% ready for public release... Just now, Alpha testing is in progress and you need to start slowly with this kind of stress testing ;) So Closed beta is more suitable right now ;) Because GGG will have everything under control.. ;) I wanna hack'n'slash all daaaay long :)	Posted by Conano on Jul 14, 2011, 11:34:20 AM Quote this Post
I know GGG will be stress testing for thousands of players off the bat, but I'm wondering how it'll go if the game hits big at a rapid rate, and millions of players are online. I couldn't see GGG creating millions of bots to test that amount of stress, is that even something to worry about? Or is it something that is dealt with once it comes up? I love lamp	Posted by jmackay on Jul 14, 2011, 12:12:36 PM Quote this Post
It's likely that GGG is using a COTS system for their stress testing. They will have a good idea of what their servers are capable. The more they "secure" the game s.t. no one has bots or exploits is to implement more checks server side; however, this will come at a cost to performance. Hopefully they found the right balance between cost, performance and security. All for minions "modes" so they can follow, stand, or patrol.	Posted by Chemdude8 on Jul 17, 2011, 1:47:21 AM Quote this Post
It's not just the servers that get stress tested in alpha/beta, it's the devs too. Servers don't need holidays.	Posted by Malice on Jul 17, 2011, 1:59:07 AM Alpha Member Quote this Post
Hi, I am the lead programmer on Path of Exile. The purpose of doing a closed beta is so that we can scale our servers slowly. As we control exactly how many accounts get into beta, we can make sure that the servers have reached our performance goals before adding more players. That said, before we let players in we want to establish reasonable confidence that we can scale to the level of users that we need to deal with. The way we have been doing this is with load testing bots. By the end of closed beta, we are confident that we will be able to scale to meet the demand for Path of Exile. We take security very seriously. First and foremost we must make sure that item economy is legitimate and we have taken great pains during the development of Path of Exile to make sure that this is the case. The key to good security is defence in depth. In addition to carefully auditing all the code related to item manipulation, the databases that store the items are isolated from the servers that the players connect to. Every item has a unique identifier, so that if a dupe happens, one item will annihilate the other upon saving to the database. These, along with other measures should ensure that the item economy is secure. However, nobody is perfect, and because of this we have been using a very good game hacker to attempt to find exploits in our servers. Path of Exile II - Game Director	Posted by Jonathan on Jul 17, 2011, 6:53:37 AM Grinding Gear Games Quote this Post
" Jonathan wrote: Hi, I am the lead programmer on Path of Exile. The purpose of doing a closed beta is so that we can scale our servers slowly. As we control exactly how many accounts get into beta, we can make sure that the servers have reached our performance goals before adding more players. That said, before we let players in we want to establish reasonable confidence that we can scale to the level of users that we need to deal with. The way we have been doing this is with load testing bots. By the end of closed beta, we are confident that we will be able to scale to meet the demand for Path of Exile. We take security very seriously. First and foremost we must make sure that item economy is legitimate and we have taken great pains during the development of Path of Exile to make sure that this is the case. The key to good security is defence in depth. In addition to carefully auditing all the code related to item manipulation, the databases that store the items are isolated from the servers that the players connect to. Every item has a unique identifier, so that if a dupe happens, one item will annihilate the other upon saving to the database. These, along with our measure should ensure that the item economy is secure. However, nobody is perfect, and because of this we have been using a very good game hacker to attempt to find exploits in our servers. Thanks for taking the time to explain Jonathan, you guys are doing a great job. I love lamp	Posted by jmackay on Jul 17, 2011, 9:04:19 AM Quote this Post
" Jonathan wrote: The key to good security is defence in depth. In addition to carefully auditing all the code related to item manipulation, the databases that store the items are isolated from the servers that the players connect to. Every item has a unique identifier, so that if a dupe happens, one item will annihilate the other upon saving to the database. These, along with other measures should ensure that the item economy is secure. However, nobody is perfect, and because of this we have been using a very good game hacker to attempt to find exploits in our servers. Oh wow. Anti-dupe hard coded into the engine? I like the sound of this. This is what I love about having devs who are veteran players of the genre. You guys know where the problems usually come up so you're able to work on them before you even finish coding the game. Available to mediate cross-league trades and mirror services. Send me a PM here or in-game. IGN: SpudOfDoom \| The Exiled - Path Of Exile's oldest clan	Posted by SpudOfDoom on Jul 17, 2011, 7:54:05 PM Alpha Member Quote this Post
" Jonathan wrote: Hi, I am the lead programmer on Path of Exile. The purpose of doing a closed beta is so that we can scale our servers slowly. As we control exactly how many accounts get into beta, we can make sure that the servers have reached our performance goals before adding more players. That said, before we let players in we want to establish reasonable confidence that we can scale to the level of users that we need to deal with. The way we have been doing this is with load testing bots. By the end of closed beta, we are confident that we will be able to scale to meet the demand for Path of Exile. We take security very seriously. First and foremost we must make sure that item economy is legitimate and we have taken great pains during the development of Path of Exile to make sure that this is the case. The key to good security is defence in depth. In addition to carefully auditing all the code related to item manipulation, the databases that store the items are isolated from the servers that the players connect to. Every item has a unique identifier, so that if a dupe happens, one item will annihilate the other upon saving to the database. These, along with other measures should ensure that the item economy is secure. However, nobody is perfect, and because of this we have been using a very good game hacker to attempt to find exploits in our servers. Haha that is awesome! I remember Blizzard battling dupers and hackers in Diablo 2 for ages because their coded infrastructure was flawed and easily exploitable. Looks like you guys are already one step ahead on preparing for the problems that have occurred in other games. Thank you! =) Last edited by Ken on Jul 18, 2011, 3:21:09 AM	Posted by Ken on Jul 18, 2011, 3:20:01 AM Quote this Post
That's really nice to hear, you investing so much time in security will surely be paid off later, a game with fair economy will be played much longer. Kudos! KnockKnock lvl67 marauder	Posted by Sotee on Jul 18, 2011, 8:18:49 AM Quote this Post
Hi Jonathan, Thank you taking your time to answer my questions. Just as other users have stated, I can tell from the information you have provided that you guys are veteran gamers and have learned from other games' flaws. As the saying goes --A wise person learns from their mistakes; a smart person learns from others' mistakes. "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot." - Charlie Chaplin Last edited by bkboggy on Jul 18, 2011, 11:36:57 AM	Posted by bkboggy on Jul 18, 2011, 11:36:14 AM Banned Quote this Post