The following is the letter I wrote to the RO community but it has been posted here on moddb to ensure that everyone is aware of the situation. We appreciate Moddb's support at this time.
"Dear Red Orchestra Community,
After posting last night about our website I have some sad and disturbing news to report. Someone hacked into the Darkest Hour ftp and stole one of our older builds. This build has since been posted on torrent sites and many of you are downloading it.
To those of you who did this I would like to say on a personal level that you clearly have no respect for the huge amount of time myself and my team have put into this project. Your desire to play DH has now meant that you may have delayed us getting it to you as you have done untold damage to the file server. This is the lowest form of thuggery and human behavior and I personally will not rest until we have found out and reported those who did this to the correct authorities. Many of the developers including myself feel that we have taken a lot of flak (including death threats sent to me personally and 2 weeks ago we had a bomb threat on our website) in recent months and I have spent the majority of the day talking people out of leaving DH and moving onto other projects. You only had three or four weeks to wait and now you may have ruined it for everyone who waited and worked so patiently on DH.
To those of you considering downloading these torrents: I cannot vouch for any of the content or viruses that may have been implanted into the software. More importantly by downloading this stolen content you are helping to endorse this behavior and we will not treat you with any kindness and respect if you are to post bugs or screenshots here or elsewhere. I must remind you that this is an older build and does not represent the final quality of DH. Therefore we will not be responding to any comments about this leaked software and will treat anyone reporting or posting on it as the source of the leak and press charges to the full extent of the law (it should also go without saying that anyone taking content from this build and posting it before DH releases or as their own work will have similar treatment).
We have always tried to be open with everyone here about Darkest Hour and this has shocked and upset everyone involved. If you want to download the torrents that is fine by us but I can assure you that what you are downloading is not the final product and we hope that loyal fans will abstain. During this time I appreciate any support we receive in finding these people and even just letting the other guys in the dev team know that you are still looking forwards to DH.
Sincerely,
Aeneas2020
DH Project Lead"
Just like Half-life 2...
Speak up if you know anything. I wish I could help, I just hope you guys don't quit while your so close.
Unlucky guys, one bastard goes and spoils it for the rest of us. I personally find it quite sad that someone cant physically wait for a game.
Damn teh haxzor that leaked this!
Its pritty stupid when some sad act comes along and hacks a hard working mod team that is making a great game for free. I'm just glad they only stole an old build and didn't delete everything you've worked on.
This is probly the mod I'm looking forward to the most but I asure you I'm deffinatly not going to download that torrent.
Keep up the good work guys :) and I hope you catch that dirty hacker soon.
I'm french from Normandie, and i'm waiting this mod for months (and more)...
Really sad news, really sad peoples...
I don't know how torrent works and be sure i'll never know!
Hope that you'll keep up as strong as i keep on waiting your release!
Don't stop Boys, here, in France, we're waiting for you! (or may i say were praying!?)
wow thats just sad im sorry to hear about this fellas. Let me know if there is anything I can do.
That just sucks. But one good thing that can come out of it is if you can give people like that the finger and stick together on the mod.
Just to let you know we shouldn't be delayed in our release at all. Thanks for reacting nicely about it. some other people seem to think its all a bit of a joke. Anyway we'll keep you posted.
This is one of the worst things that can happen to a mod and peaople developing it. I do hope that that there will be justice.
(buried)
boo fking who
(buried)
your posting like this is some slick new game. You make a ****** little mod of a real game, and now crying cuz you suck to much to protect yourself. Get a life/job/talent.
"******" mods don't take years to develop and modding is what gets many people real jobs in the game industry.
I wouldn't tell them to get talent. They have quite a bit of talent. I'd like to see you do all this on your own.
(buried)
I work in networking for a living, i win.
Then you chose the wrong profession fool.
Yeah, that has nothing to do with anything. All you're proving is that you don't know what you're talking about.
You sound like some student who got a networking job at his school and acts like he's the bomb cause he's got this awesome student paying job.
Don't bother responding with something like, "I has job at <who_gives_a_crap_company>" Cause really, no one cares, and you've already proven you don't know what you're talking about. Why create a brand new account on ModDB, just to post pointless comments that don't add to anything?
wow thats to bad i wasn't exactly looking for bad news like this ill tell you if i find anything about it
to those who did this FU*K YOU!!!
(buried)
all i see is a bunch of "boho boho cry cry". Someone is bound to have the latest files backupped, just continue and stop whining.
wow well thanks for the majority of you being nice i guess the people aren't being have nothing better to do with their lives... Next time you put 18 months -2 years into something and have it stolen etc just before its supposed to be released then you can comment. *waits for - karma votes*
that should say "i guess there are some people who have nothing better to do" but again i just wanted to say thanks for all the positive support.
omg! what crap! Unfortunately there is no 100% safe way to get around this.
If I were to work on a team, I would personally have hundreds of decoy files if I felt threatened by hackers. The decoy files would be recognized as being the same amount of gb in size as your latest game file would be, so that when the person hacks in and downloads the file, they just get a file of nothingness which is several gb's.
If the hacker is really that persistant that they would go through those hundreds of files individually downloading them all, then you've got a problem, or if the hacker just manages to choose the lucky file, then you're out of luck.
I'd just do this as a delaying or preventative measure, but against someone with no life, it's pointless as they will keep at it until they find what they're after..
As for knowing which file is the updated one, I'd just send an email to the team saying which file is the latest one to download.
Now I know that when transferring files with the team, it's not just one file, it's folders and folders of stuff, but you can still use the same rule.
The It'd be like playing where's wally...only wally looks the same as every other person in the picture.
I hate no edit button ><
Another thing I will mention is that I don't own the game, but I certainly intend to buy it, if there is a mp game other than WW2 online that hits the spot of realism, it is Red Orchestra. Both games have their ups and downs, but for the hardcore gamers, I would say RO is the better game especially if you don't like low detailed environments and lag.
same thing happened to Forgotten Hope 2, a couple weeks before it was released too
sinful, you're a fu*#ing idiot. Sorry, but it's the truth.
Did you permanently lose anything important?
Also, sinful and ajikan, Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, and even Red Orchestra itself were all once mods. You are ignorant fools.
papermoose, I havent said anything about the mod itself. im sure it will be great when/if its done. But this was a "feel sorry for us" post, and i dont care for them.
Sure good thing they told the community the mod will be delayed, but cutt the whining. They arent the first this happend to, and probably not the last.
news is news no matter if its good or bad, if you dont care save our bandwidth and dont make a reply.
Sorry that happen to you guys. Something I hate to see happen to any mod or game for that matter. As far as those threats though, that seems a little strange to be making those over a mod..
Really strange.. but anyways. Hope you guys manage to get the mod fully back on track.. ( To be honest you might want to look up any possible legal actions that you might be capable of doing if this is honestly happening. )
This is indeed a very unfortunate thing to happen.
I haven't heard much about this mod (but it appears I may have been living under a rock if it has been in development for almost 2 years now) but this is a tragic thing to happen to any mod. I hope these guys get caught, this is just stupid and idiotic.
Hope to see you guys release.
Sorry to hear this Aeneas2020, my modding heart goes out to all the guys who have worked so hard to produce a FREE game that people can't wait for and STEAL cause they are no talent hackers who are unable to do anything but damage and think it is cool. Then morons download it.. most likely, they would be the pea brains who would complain that what they just downloaded wasn't finished. I would suggest using a SVN and have it on a 3rd party server. This way, they can hack all day and not know where you keep it. The only problem we are having at present, is that some of those no talent morons are trying to join the mod so they can steal what others have done, again! It must be a genetic impairment or bad parenting, or both, but there has to be a sure fire way to stop at least these frizzled wheenies from taking another breath? And that goes for that toss called sinful! It was most likely him who... no, come to think of it, he has even less talent than the no talent hackers who stole your internal beta... Like I said guys, my heart goes out to you guys... all the best, push the pieces back together and make the mod even better than the one those idiots downloaded...
mods depending on costly commercial retail games are "free games" ?
Well, I really don´t think that you can call Red Orchestra a very "costly commercial" game. It costs 20 $. :)
And damn this incident sucks. I deeply despise stealing of the files. And I despise more that guy who sent those threats to Aeneas. A genuine twat he must be.
DONT STOP MAKING IT! this is a terrible incedent but i think you have to keep making this mod for people who havent downloaded it. the people who want the finish product. let the others download the older build let the viruses destroy there computer. that is the price they must pay
I wouldn't be surprised if one of their testers did it.
Be careful who you pick for your alpha/beta tests.
Well hackers are becoming more comon those days i hope some 13year old child like that guy was wont stop you from making great thing you doing.
continue with the great job and don't let this get you down!
Damnit, I hope this doesn't slow you guys down too much, I have been looking forward to playing this mod, and I will not download the leaked version, although I am sure it is still great. XD
its so sad what people will do just to play a game hope you guys get back on track
Well look on the positive side guys! This should be a great confidence booster. People are so eager to play your game, they're willing to actually break laws to get it! I'd be kind of humbled :D
Yeah we're taking it postively it will just mean we make things even better now. We have already tracked down some of the original hackers.
What a fecking *******. Guys you have my full support although i havent followd the mod at all, but hearing news like this and how its affected a devoted team is shocking. Good luck fella's and i hope you get back on track soon.
Aeneas, and the entire dh team, i am terribly sorry for your lose to the mod, i would never download the build, i hope the release date will not be postponed, will it?. i just hope you guys can catch those F@#%&$% hackers. oh and to all who posted negative about this loss, think of it like this u r working on a mod for 2 years then some *** comes and steals almost all of the progress. how would you feel? then some gay guy comes onto ur site and says "GET OVER IT IS NO PROBLEM, THIS WAS JUST SOME BOOHOO ****.". Aeneas i am sorry and hope you can release this mod when expected, for i love this mod and it is amazing that you and the dh team can devote yourselves to this, through bomb threats and all
My best of wisheses to all of the dh team
Killer
whats with the email link?
I can't believe it leaked, well I hope the respectful team helps finish this great mod, and yea with hackers these days they'll hack anyone for any reason they want, just hope you finish the mod, hehe can't wait ^_^
Good luck, I wish you a speedy recovery!
That is low what someone did to you guys. You guys are a good group but these jerks have no lives and no right to hurt anyone. I hope you guys find out who did that and those letters.
TWZCatinHat
(Real life takes to much time now a days)
Good luck guys with everything.
Death and bomb threats? Why the hell would someone send a modding team death and bomb threats?
God damn ******** can't wait a little more. Anybody who SUPPORTS this torrent is an enemy also. Screw 14 year old hackers. Keep it up DH!!!
torrent??!!! to download the stoleo one!!?! send it to me and ill writhe to microsoft, i have a history with them i did alot of work for them they own me this much
righto....