IIIlusionist [253384] —
Original article
In our ever-changing Torn City keeping up with the various new game mechanics and player inputs can be difficult. And by player inputs, I am referring to the phenomenon known as scripting.
Below is a very basic, non-extensive, and not-so-accurate description for us mere humans of what scripting actually is:
Using incohesive (but grammatically correct) content to carry out one or more functions to help make routine tasks easier by automating processes that are normally tedious and modify web pages cosmetically.
Basically, it involves adding stuff to your browser to get things done better and faster than you could possibly do without them. To many, including myself, scripts are just combinations of random letters and symbols that form pages-upon-pages of text. However, to the more trained eye, these lines are commands - very much like reading the matrix.
There is a fine line between legal and illegal scripting in Torn, but a basic rule to stick by is this - anything that gives a player an unfair advantage is illegal.
This raises the question, what does one consider to be a "unfair" advantage? A simple script that notifies a player that their life has fallen beyond a certain point without even looking at the Torn screen may give a significant advantage for a player trying to avoid a mugging. Additionally, a war base script that allows players to only see those players out of hospital or in a particular faction would also be unfair, as it allows the script user to identify players to attack considerably quicker than those without.
In reality, even the simplest of scripts give a player an advantage over those not using the script. The difficulty comes in differentiating what different players considers to be "unfair". Scripts have been around for a long time, and many players use them to make personal activities easier, a few of which are considered illegal in Torn. Some infamous scripts of the past include one which kept people online 24/7, the auto-flying script created before captcha was introduced, and the "mugging script" which scanned global events on Torn's homepage to quickly identify mug targets.
Scripts can aid game-play by making it easier to navigate through and subsequently visualise aspects of Torn. So far, it seems many scripts save our fingers from trivial clicking and make things look prettier. Of course, on occasion, a player uses scripts to illegally give themselves an unfair advantage. However, do these scripts hold the potential to become something dangerous, or even pose a threat to account safety?
The short answer is yes.
However, there is no need to lose it over what is and what can be. It is important to note that while the Torn API and user scripts/extensions can interact, the Torn API is read only - therefore it doesn't pose a real threat to account safety. A user script/extension, on the other hand, can cause some damage. To put the risk into perspective, what follows is a worst case scenario concerning the fictitious Player A.
Day 1 - Player A, who has mad scripting skills, joins Torn.
Day 2 - Player A creates a legal script that they release to the public.
Day 3 - Hundreds of players begin to use the script.
Day 4 - Player A leverages the interest and alters the script in order to retrieve account information (including passwords and usernames).
Day 5 - Player A begins to log on to individual accounts, spending, sending and gambling away various players' money and items.
Day 6 - End of the world!
Does the above seem far fetched? Perhaps...but the actions are both plausible and possible.
A person who writes scripts could quite easily be able to transform a script from being something safe, legal and helpful into a rogue extension that gathers sensitive information from user accounts, potentially compromising account safety. The alteration could be noticed by a player within minutes, but, if the offender planned well, the offence could take a good long while before the script-monkey gets caught, by which time the damage could be catastrophic.
Bearing in mind that I am not a staff member, and based on the information that I have gathered, my understanding is that players in Torn use scripts at their own risk. So, in the event that an account is compromised as described above, no items or money would be returned to the script user's account.
Now just to make clear, my intentions were not to put the fear of god into the script users amongst Torn's inhabitants. The focus of this article was to raise awareness of the risk that programmatic shortcuts pose if players use disreputable sources. To my knowledge, there hasn't been a recent major case of a player getting access to an account that wasn't theirs due to scripting.
There are a few commonsense precautions that you can take in order to help reduce the risk of becoming a victim, one of which is to only use scripts that are from a reputable source, whether that person be in-game or outside. A player that is two days old and named "trustme" posting a wonder script to eclipse all other scripts could very well be a fraud.
One good indication is to look for feedback from other players. If everyone is rushing to a Justin Bieber concert claiming he has changed and is no longer a little brat with a squeaky voice, do you instantly believe them or do you do a little research first? Similarly, just because everyone else says the script is safe, doesn't mean that you should blindly follow the crowd. Quickly scan the source code for anything out of the ordinary. Look out for URLs that you don't recognise or lines that have a high probability of sending some sort of information to someone in Nigeria:
There is no need to stop using the reputable scripts that are in Torn, just be aware of the risks and do your homework so that there are no surprises down the road.
**Editors: Glimph, madbuns & sugarvalves
Below is a very basic, non-extensive, and not-so-accurate description for us mere humans of what scripting actually is:
Using incohesive (but grammatically correct) content to carry out one or more functions to help make routine tasks easier by automating processes that are normally tedious and modify web pages cosmetically.
Basically, it involves adding stuff to your browser to get things done better and faster than you could possibly do without them. To many, including myself, scripts are just combinations of random letters and symbols that form pages-upon-pages of text. However, to the more trained eye, these lines are commands - very much like reading the matrix.
There is a fine line between legal and illegal scripting in Torn, but a basic rule to stick by is this - anything that gives a player an unfair advantage is illegal.
This raises the question, what does one consider to be a "unfair" advantage? A simple script that notifies a player that their life has fallen beyond a certain point without even looking at the Torn screen may give a significant advantage for a player trying to avoid a mugging. Additionally, a war base script that allows players to only see those players out of hospital or in a particular faction would also be unfair, as it allows the script user to identify players to attack considerably quicker than those without.
In reality, even the simplest of scripts give a player an advantage over those not using the script. The difficulty comes in differentiating what different players considers to be "unfair". Scripts have been around for a long time, and many players use them to make personal activities easier, a few of which are considered illegal in Torn. Some infamous scripts of the past include one which kept people online 24/7, the auto-flying script created before captcha was introduced, and the "mugging script" which scanned global events on Torn's homepage to quickly identify mug targets.
Scripts can aid game-play by making it easier to navigate through and subsequently visualise aspects of Torn. So far, it seems many scripts save our fingers from trivial clicking and make things look prettier. Of course, on occasion, a player uses scripts to illegally give themselves an unfair advantage. However, do these scripts hold the potential to become something dangerous, or even pose a threat to account safety?
The short answer is yes.
However, there is no need to lose it over what is and what can be. It is important to note that while the Torn API and user scripts/extensions can interact, the Torn API is read only - therefore it doesn't pose a real threat to account safety. A user script/extension, on the other hand, can cause some damage. To put the risk into perspective, what follows is a worst case scenario concerning the fictitious Player A.
Day 1 - Player A, who has mad scripting skills, joins Torn.
Day 2 - Player A creates a legal script that they release to the public.
Day 3 - Hundreds of players begin to use the script.
Day 4 - Player A leverages the interest and alters the script in order to retrieve account information (including passwords and usernames).
Day 5 - Player A begins to log on to individual accounts, spending, sending and gambling away various players' money and items.
Day 6 - End of the world!
Does the above seem far fetched? Perhaps...but the actions are both plausible and possible.
A person who writes scripts could quite easily be able to transform a script from being something safe, legal and helpful into a rogue extension that gathers sensitive information from user accounts, potentially compromising account safety. The alteration could be noticed by a player within minutes, but, if the offender planned well, the offence could take a good long while before the script-monkey gets caught, by which time the damage could be catastrophic.
Bearing in mind that I am not a staff member, and based on the information that I have gathered, my understanding is that players in Torn use scripts at their own risk. So, in the event that an account is compromised as described above, no items or money would be returned to the script user's account.
Now just to make clear, my intentions were not to put the fear of god into the script users amongst Torn's inhabitants. The focus of this article was to raise awareness of the risk that programmatic shortcuts pose if players use disreputable sources. To my knowledge, there hasn't been a recent major case of a player getting access to an account that wasn't theirs due to scripting.
There are a few commonsense precautions that you can take in order to help reduce the risk of becoming a victim, one of which is to only use scripts that are from a reputable source, whether that person be in-game or outside. A player that is two days old and named "trustme" posting a wonder script to eclipse all other scripts could very well be a fraud.
One good indication is to look for feedback from other players. If everyone is rushing to a Justin Bieber concert claiming he has changed and is no longer a little brat with a squeaky voice, do you instantly believe them or do you do a little research first? Similarly, just because everyone else says the script is safe, doesn't mean that you should blindly follow the crowd. Quickly scan the source code for anything out of the ordinary. Look out for URLs that you don't recognise or lines that have a high probability of sending some sort of information to someone in Nigeria:
There is no need to stop using the reputable scripts that are in Torn, just be aware of the risks and do your homework so that there are no surprises down the road.
**Editors: Glimph, madbuns & sugarvalves
Original article
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