Hi,

I play the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl competitively. Right now the game's playerbase is split in two, people who use Dolphin netplay, and people who use Wiimmfi on real Wii hardware.

I understand that Wiimmfi aggressively bans cheaters and requires Wii NAND dumps to enforce those bans. However, cheating basically isn't possible in Brawl, because any sort of cheat would just cause the game to desync. And like I said, there is already an established playerbase that uses Dolphin netplay (which is not based on WFC), and there is no cheating problem.

It would really help if Wiimmfi could check what game you are playing and allow non-dumped NANDs specifically for Brawl and possibly other games where cheating isn't possible.

Allowing Dolphin for legitimate cases like this would also lessen the incentive to try to circumvent the anti-cheating system.

I've looked into other things like AltWFC but I don't think they're as good.

For what it's worth, I already dumped my Wii NAND so I'm able to use Wiimmfi on Dolphin. But for most other players it's too much of a hassle, or too difficult, or their Wiis have long since broken, etc., so the community at large remains split.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Okay, I understand you want to be able to ban Dolphin users, and restrict the rate of new accounts.

I have a couple ideas for how this could be done, while still minimizing the split in the Brawl community:

1. Wiimmfi could have an "official" NAND generator on the website. This generator could require validation with an email address, or have a rate limiter. (That said, this solution would still be less than ideal for me, because I want to make the friction of Dolphin and Wiimmfi users playing together as low as possible.)

2. Store generic NANDs in a separate database table. This will at least keep the main table clean. Possibly store less information (e.g. don't bother storing randomized MAC addresses) to save space. These accounts could be purged after, say, 6 months of inactivity if necessary.

Also, out of curiosity, how often do Brawl players get banned from Wiimmfi? I checked the ban thread but it was all Mario Kart Wii players as far as I saw.

Thanks for your reply!

It's possible to legally dump and emulate the game without owning your own Wii/WiiU, or having it working (using a friend's Wii for example).

Owning a Wii doesn't prove you own any games for it. And likewise not being able to dump your NAND doesn't mean you don't own the game. Brawl sold well but it's frankly almost the least popular Smash game, so I think the majority of current players had it growing up.

The biggest problem with asking Brawl-on-Dolphin players to dump their NANDs is that there isn't much incentive to. Brawl's original netcode is really bad, and Dolphin netplay has less lag (and you don't have to deal with friend codes). All of the top players use Dolphin exclusively. But the problem is that each subcommunity is half the size. If the two groups could play together close to effortlessly, then both could learn from each other (I think even the top Dolphin players could learn from the Wii players), and it would make it easier to find matches for everyone. And more people still means less lag on average, because you can find someone closer by.

As long as playing between Dolphin and Wii requires special steps that not everyone will/can perform, the community has to be organized on the assumption that most people can't play each other. If the friction were low enough, the ability to play each other could just be assumed. The biggest benefit would be for new (returning) players whether they are on Wii OR Dolphin, because it would mean more people and less to set up.

Thanks for reading.