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Introduction This
short article is designed to help TWX scripters understand some of the cool
things you can do with ANSI escape codes. I'll review some of the ANSI
basics and how to make them work under TWX, and I'll provide some examples
of some of the things you can do with them. I'll also toss in a few
scripts at the end that show some real life uses for the things I'm going to
show you. What
is ANSI and ASCII? First
off, if you don't know what ANSI or ASCII is, then you should check out the
following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code
These links will quickly get you up to speed on what you need to know to
understand what I'm going to be talking about. Really, these entries
are much better than anything I could try to write. What's
the big deal? Ok,
now you want to know WHY you want to use ANSI Escape Codes in your
scripts? Well, I got three good reasons. The first one is that
it makes your script's echo's more colorful. This can be handy when
your script is sending you back data, and lots of stuff is spamming past
your screen. You don't want your script's messages to get lost in the
clutter. Secondly, you can use the CURRENTANSILINE System Value to
help detect spoof attempts against your scripts. And finally, you can
use ANSI Escape Codes to completely alter the messages that get displayed on
your screen. ANSI
Escape Codes under TWX So,
to use an ECHO with an ANSI escape code in TWX, the format looks like this:
echo #27 "[#X"
#27
is the ASCII code for the Escape Key. TWX uses the # key to
indicate that the number immeadiately following the # is an ASCII code.
"[#X"
is the rest of the ANSI escape code. Where # is a
number, and X is the code.
If you have ever wondered how to make TWX echo an *, use #42, the ANSI code
for *. Example:
echo #42 #42 #42 "3 Asterisks!*"
Below is a list of most of the useful ANSI escape codes and ASCII codes,
formatted for use in TWX:
| Cursor
Control and Clear Codes: |
| Escape
Code |
What
it does |
| #27
"[#A" |
moves
cursor up # lines |
| #27
"[#B" |
moves
cursor down # lines |
| #27
"[#C" |
moves
cursor right # spaces |
| #27
"[#D" |
moves
cursor left # spaces |
| #27
"[2J" |
clear
screen and home cursor |
| #27
"[K" |
clear
to end of line |
So, to
clear the screen, one would use the following command:
echo #27 "[2J"
To move the cursor up 3 lines, you would do the following:
echo #27 "[3A"
To move the cursor up 3 lines, clear that line and substitute your own text:
echo #27 "[3A" #27
"[K" "Hello World*"
(the above might look a bit weird, depending on where you run this, I'll go
into more detail later. Moving the cursor around can be tricky...)
| Color
and Text Formatting |
| #27
"[#(;#)m" |
There can be multiple text
formatting sequence numbers separated by a ; and ending with an m
where the # is of the following values: |
| Attributes |
| 0 |
normal
display |
| 1 |
bold |
| 5 |
blink
on |
| Foreground colors |
| 30 |
black |
| 31 |
red |
| 32 |
green |
| 33 |
yellow |
| 34 |
blue |
| 35 |
magenta |
| 36 |
cyan |
| 37 |
white |
| Background colors |
| 40 |
black |
| 41 |
red |
| 42 |
green |
| 43 |
yellow |
| 44 |
blue |
| 45 |
magenta |
| 46 |
cyan |
| 47 |
white |
So, to make
TWX echo "Hello World" in bright green text, do the following:
echo #27 "[1;32mHello World"
To make TWX echo "Hello
World" in blinking bright pink text with a blue background, do the
following:
echo #27 "[1;5;35;44mHello
World" #27 "[0;1;37;40m"
The escape code at the end resets the
ANSI to white on black. If you don't reset it, the next echo you send
might be blinking.
See the following sample script for
more details and examples: ansi_codes.ts As
you can see, you can make your echo's quite colorful if you
want. Using
ANSI to Help Prevent Spoofing and Other
ANSI Tricks So,
how can I use these ANSI codes to help prevent spoofing? I'm going to narrow the definition of the term spoofing in
this essay to when another player attempts to feed false information to one
of your currently running scripts. This is often done with hails,
although it can also be done with beacons, planet names, ship names, and
port names. This is done to sabotage your running script, so your
script breaks at best, or gets you and your corpies #SD# at worst. As always, there is a trade
off. The more security you build into your scripts, the slower they
will likely run. When it doubt, don't play with or against
people you don't trust. Vote with your feet. All that being
said, I firmly believe that spoofing is part of the game. There HAS to
be a risk associated with scripting, or everyone will just run bots, and
we'll just end up playing an advanced version of C-Robots.
While that's fun in it's own right, it's not why I play TW! If you
really can't stand spoofing, then play on servers where it's expressly
forbidden. Common
Spoofing Methods: First,
don't try any of the following things in a real game. People will
probably get really pissed off at you. If you must test, do it on a
local test server, or on a server where people know you are clowning
around. Don't come crying to me if your favorite sysop bans
you! Ok,
say you and your coripe are the only ones on-line. You are having a
conversation like this: Who's Playing
Warrant Officer Traitor The Great [1]
Pirate Roberts [1]
F Traito Heyo
R Robert heyo
R Traito k,
rdy to start atm'ing?
R Robert
yeah
R Traito k,
lemme get the colts in place
When suddenly... F
Traito Yarr!
Prepare to be spoofed!
R Robert
Huh?
F Traito HEY!
You hit # again and see: Who's Playing
Warrant Officer
Traitor The Great
[1]
Pirate Roberts [1]
Civilian Traitor the Not So Great
Now what? Some asstard is using
the same first 6 letters of your corpies name. Well, turn off fedcom
for starters and pray they never get your SS chan. Unless you turn off
ANSI, all Fed and SS messages coming from Traitor
the Not So Great will look the same as
Traitor The Great's.
The only way to be sure who said what with ANSI on is to use private
hails. Or to turn off ANSI. With ANSI off, all communications have headers that show who
sent the message. See some examples below:
Private hails with ANSI on:
Traitor The Great is hailing you!
P Traito Heyo!
Traitor The Great terminated the
comm-link!
Traitor the Not So Great is hailing you!
P Traito boo!
Traitor the Not So Great terminated the comm-link!
Traitor The Great is hailing you!
P Traito Hey! that's not me!
Traitor The Great terminated the
comm-link!
Various hails with ANSI Off:
Incoming transmission from Traitor the Not So Great on Federation comm-link:
boo
Incoming transmission from Traitor the Not So Great on channel 111:
boo
Traitor the Not So Great is hailing you!
Incoming transmission from Traitor the Not So Great:
boo
Traitor the Not So Great terminated the comm-link!
Usually you don't want to use private hails, since they are slower.
And you really don't want to turn off ANSI, since you won't be able to abort
incoming text, and again, you will be running slower. Is there
anything else you can do about someone who's using the first 6 letters of
your corpie's name? Not really. The sysop can turn off Aliases,
and that helps some, but there is nothing in TWGS that prevents two people
from having the first 6 letters of their name. It's a problem that
should be addressed, but I don't have too many good ideas on how to do so,
other than to put in the full name of the traders. Now,
lets say that Traitor the Not So Great
wants to start messing with you
some. Below is a typical message you would receive if he wandered into
one of your figgies and killed it. Deployed Fighters Report Sector
603: Traitor's
the Not So Great's Merchant Cruiser
entered sector.
Deployed Fighters Report Sector
603: Traitor the Not So Great is attacking!
Traitor the Not So Great destroyed
1 of your fighters in sector
603
Now, what will your photon script do
if you get the following?: F
Traito
Deployed Fighters Report Sector 603: Traitor the Not So Great's Merchant Cruiser
ent
F Traito
Deployed Fighters Report Sector 603: Traitor the Not So Great is attacking!
F Traito
Traitor the Not So Great destroyed 1 of your fighters in sector 603 What
Traitor the Not So Great did did
was put 71 leading spaces in front of his message. That's just enough
so that the first line from him appears blank, and the following line looks
JUST like a typical fighter message, other than the color, and the fact that
he into the max char limit over fed in the first message, so the
"entered sector." got cut off. If he had chosen a shorter
name, it wouldn't have even gotten cut off. For your convenience, I
have posted an example of the above spoof, using "." instead of
spaces. Just copy the yellow text below, hit `, and paste it in.
.......................................................................Deployed Fighters Report Sector 603: Traitor
The Great's Merchant Cruiser entered se
Just about any message can be spoofed
like this. One of the other really common places you will see this
spoof get attempted is when someone lifts off the StarDock.
This:
Traitor the Not So Great blasts off from the
StarDock.
Becomes this:
F Traito
Traitor the Not So Great blasts off from the StarDock. This
isn't as bad as it looks at first glance, because even though it looks like
2 lines, it's really just one line that gets sent. A simple TWX
getWord
will save you lots of grief. I'll go into this more later. Other
Stupid Tricks: Other
spoof attempts involve beacons, planet names and ship names. Usually
they are run against bots, or things like probe scripts. Creating a
planet called "Probe Destroyed!" adj to dock can have interesting
effects on older probe scripts. Naming a planet or beacon "For getting blown up, you lost"
or "You fled in your Escape Pod" might get you some interesting
results against certain gridding scripts. Really, the possibilities
are endless. "launched a P-Missile in sector" and "Photon Wave Duration"
are really nice ship names. There are too many possibilities to
list. So, you have to be careful. It's a good thing that TW
prevents you from using INACTIVITY anywhere in your name. Things
to do: Below
are some general things that you can do to help resist spoofing. These
have nothing to do with scripts, but are just good policy.
1. Don't leave a script running that doesn't NEED to be running.
2. Don't let your corp SS chan be the same as your corp
PW. I've seen
many people do this lately, and it's bad, bad, bad. Your corp PW
should be alpha-numeric with special keys, and at least 8 chars in
length. Your corp SS chan should be at least 5 digits long, and avoid
things like 11111 or 12345.
3. Turn off fedcom when you are running scripts. It removes some of the
social aspects of the game, but it can sure save you from most spoof
attempts. I personally have a macro button on my ZOC that toggles it
for me.
4. Set Message Display Mode
(C,N,A) to Compact. Don't set it to long, or incoming messages will
look just like you had ANSI turned off (C,N,1). Spoof
Checking Methods in TWX Spoof
Checking methods: Verification
of incoming message using getWord compares. Using getWord to check the
CURRENTLINE to make sure that the message coming in is not a spoof. Using
getWordPos, getText, and CutText for more difficult sections, usually around
trader names that could contian spaces. Using
getWord and CURRENTANSILINE. The ultimate in spoof protection. Appendix
1: Common
ANSI messages, and their TWX equivalents: The
following messages were all generated using Elder Prophets's DisplayAnsiLine
Script. We've done quite a bit of testing with it, and we believe that
the following ANSI codes can be put directly into a script, or whatever
parts you need of them.
Blank Line
#27 & "[0m"
Command Prompt:
Command [TL=00:00:00]:[4372]
(?=Help)? :
#27 & "[35mCommand [" & #27 & "[1;33mTL" & #27 & "[0;33m=" & #27 & "[1m00:00:00" &
#27 & "[0;35m]" & #27 & "[1;37m:" & #27 & "[0;35m[" & #27 & "[1;36m4372" & #27 &
"[0;35m] (" & #27 & "[1;33m?=Help" & #27 & "[0;35m)? : "
Limpet Mine Activation:
Limpet mine in 2711 activated
#27 & "[0m" & #27 & "[32mLimpet mine in " & #27 & "[1;36m2711" & #27 & "[0;32m activated"
Trader encounters one of your figs and kills it:
Deployed Fighters Report Sector 2711:
bait's Scout Marauder entered sector.
#27 & "[0m" & #27 & "[1;33mDeployed Fighters " & #27 & "[0;32mReport Sector " & #27 & "[1;33m2711" & #27 & "[0;32m: " & #27 & "[1;36mbait's " & #27 & "[0m" & #27 & "[35mScout Marauder" & #27 & "[32m entered sector."
Deployed Fighters Report Sector
2711: bait is attacking!
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;33mDeployed Fighters " & #27 & "[0;32mReport Sector " & #27 & "[1;33m2711" & #27 & "[0;32m: " & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m is attacking!"
bait destroyed 1 of your fighters in sector
2711
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m destroyed " & #27 & "[1;33m1" & #27 & "[0;32m of your fighters in sector " & #27 & "[1;33m2711"
Trader enters sector or leaves sector
bait warps into the sector.
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait " & #27 & "[0;32mwarps into the sector."
bait warps out of the sector.
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1;36mbait " & #27 & "[0;32mwarps out of the sector."
Trader landing on dock and lifting off dock:
bait lands on the StarDock.
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m lands on the
StarDock."
bait blasts off from the StarDock.
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m blasts off from the
StarDock."
Fed Com message:
F bait
Heyo! Fedcom
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[33mF " & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;36m " &
#27 & "[37m" & #27 & "[1;36m " & #27 & "[33mHeyo! Fedcom"
SS Chan message:
R bait
Heyo SS chan
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[36mR " & #27 & "[1mbait" & #27 & "[0;36m " &
#27 & "[37m" & #27 & "[1;36m " & #27 & "[33mHeyo SS chan"
Private Hail:
bait is hailing you!
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m is hailing you!"
P bait
Heyo! Private Hail
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[32mP " & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;36m " &
#27 & "[37m" & #27 & "[1;36m " & #27 & "[33mHeyo! Private Hail"
bait terminated the comm-link!
#27 & "[K" & #27 & "[1A" & #27 & "[1;36mbait" & #27 & "[0;32m terminated the
comm-link!"
Trader Listings from hitting #:
1st Sergeant Traitor [1]
#27 & "[32m1st Sergeant " & #27 & "[1;36mTraitor" & #27 & "[0;34m [" & #27 &
"[1;36m1" & #27 & "[0;34m]"
Robber bait
#27 & "[0m" & #27 & "[1;31mRobber " & #27 & "[36mbait" & #27 & "[0;34m"
Attack:
<Attack>
#27 & "[0m" & #27 & "[1;5;31m<Attack>" Back
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