As previously stated, we were able to deploy updates insanely fast when we first released the Test Server. The upsides are that Nirai is fast, and was relatively easy to set up. Up until recently, this is what we’ve used for deploying our game. This is a deployment tool used for Panda3D games. Most Toontown projects out there use a little something called Nirai. The crux of our problem was what we use to compile our game. So now, I bet you’re wondering: What is the permanent solution? Well, I’m glad you asked! Lucky for us, whitelisting didn’t just serve our purposes for this one situation, but it will also serve as a neat feature for server hosters too. Regardless, over 600 people have been whitelisted to date, and we couldn’t be more thankful for your patience regarding it. It was unfortunate we had to go this route, as it created an extra barrier of entry for entering the Test Server. And ever since we’ve added the whitelist, things have been great. By adding a whitelist to the game, we could control the flow of people coming into our Test Server, thus preventing exploiters. As a last-ditch effort, we eventually decided to add a new feature- whitelisting. Imagine trying to plug up the holes in a broken pool, but every time you succeed, a new hole pops up. The temporary solutions failed to work well, and for a good few weeks we were left frantically scratching our heads. After that, we would look at assessing the situation and figuring out a more permanent fix. Our goal was to make sure nobody was coming into the game, spouting foul language and clogging up the server with bots. At first, we tried some temporary solutions. Bad, because we didn’t want it to ruin the experiences of our players. Good, because it meant we could patch them up before officially releasing v1.0. With access to our client and server code, many exploits were performed on our Test Server. What we were presented with this time was something new and foriegn to us. The only malicious behavior our team has ever had to deal with is the moderation of our Discord server. This made it much, much easier for exploits to be found and abused. So when our game was dumped, that means those who dumped it had access to not only our client code, but server code as well. After all, you wouldn’t be able to host a Mini-Server or run the game in Offline mode without it. For us, however, we need to include both the client AND the server code. The server on the other hand is typically in charge of keeping everything in check and doing all the important calculations. Your client is what you see on your screen- a Toon jumping, the gag select screen, those kinds of things. Typically, all Toontown projects have only the client’s code in their executables. However, what made our case special was the nature of Toontown Offline itself. In the past, many different Toontown projects have had their games dumped, and we are no exception. In layman's terms, this means our game was reverse-engineered and it’s source code was published online for anyone to download. And only a couple weeks after we opened the Test Server, a few malicious individuals took advantage of that fact and began putting our security to the test.įirst, our game was dumped. We’ve never had an official, public server before. By opening our Test Server, we were exposing ourselves to the public for the first time. If there’s a district reset, yeah, it’s a big deal and we try to fix it- but it’s not as detrimental to us as it is for other Toontown projects. We aren’t Toontown Rewritten or Corporate Clash with hundreds and thousands of players- we are Toontown Offline. Unfortunately, a wrench was thrown in our gears and we soon had a serious problem on our hands.īecause Toontown Offline is a singleplayer game by nature, we’ve never had to deal with security issues before. Never before did we have the opportunity to work on updates and have them playable for testing as soon as we were done with them. As developers, we had so much fun being able to push out new content at this pace. Every day for a couple weeks, there would be a new Magic Word here, a new zone there, among many bug fixes. When we released the Test Server, updates were being pushed out at a very frequent pace. So, why hasn’t that happened yet? Let’s take a look back to when the Toontown Offline Test Server first opened. This means that all the features we had planned to be in this version are done, and we are just waiting on bug fixes and more to release the game properly, beyond the Test Server. Last month, we explained that our game was now feature-complete. Why is it taking so long for v1.0 to release? Track invasions, get notifications and more! Ever wondered what it'd be like to live life as a Toon? Hop online into Toontown Rewritten, a revival of Disney's MMO where you play as the goofiest Toons in.
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