Beginners Guide to starting up a McCodes Engine. A must read before you delve into the game.

[Joshua]

I know this isn't a "mod" so to speak but I still feel that this is the right section for this.

To start off, let me acknowledge that I in no way shape or form am a "pro". I have dedicated a large quantity of my time to learning php/mysql using McCodes as I can and wanted to learn. I am bored and figured I'd do a quick "intro"/write-up ordeal in an effort to stop a large quantity of highly annoying requests found on these forums daily.

 

First and foremost, let me say if you have absolutely no knowledge in any computer language I highly suggest you take the time to practice some basics and learn your way around. Is this necessary? No, some of us, myself included learn by trial and error. But it is a suggestion.

 

Second, before you install your engine of choice I highly suggest you browse the forums to find which you may want to purchase/use. Lite Version of McCodes is very simple, and I'd recommend people using this first hand to get aquainted with how the coding works. V1 is 75? i beleive where as v2 is roughly 300.00.

Don't expect to spend 300.00 on the best version and make that money back, some , most, tend to lose this money so read up before you make any big plans.

 

Granted one would expect that after paying 300.00 for the V2 engine it would come fully customizeable and secure. However, this apparently isnt the case if you actually took the time to browse the forums or hell, even google.

The common mistake most game owners make now is they delve right into the engine and learn first how to install modifications to their game. While this comes in handy, it's a bass ackwards way of doing things and will ultimately lead to your site failing.

The reason being, you focus so much on getting it up and on-line to make that quick buck most totally overlook the security end of the engine. Which is where we go from here.

The very first thing you should do upon installing this engine is Disable your Register and Remove the installer.php file.

This will keep your game safe while you work on your current project.

Then I'd suggest browsing the Forums a bit and learning how to stop the following hacks

$IP variable----Secure this Variable in Authenticate/Global_func.php/Register.php/Header.php and possibly login.php. This stops a common firefox add-on hack.

SESSION hi-jack---This is found a few differant ways and should also be secured, by browsing the forums you can find a few differant ways to stop this as well.

Cmarket/Forums---A common exploit that can be found on google by any tom dick and harry allows large game exploits. This leads into another problem with the mccodes engine.

In each script you want to check and make sure your $_GET and $_POST variables are secured. If you arent sure how to do this there are many differant posts you can find on these forums that will guide you in the right direction, the REST is UP to you. If you do not have or do not wish to invest the time into learning this, Do not start a game, Or find someone that does this for a living and pay them to do it for you, again, spend money to make money.

Preferances hack. Using a common script that comes with McCodes users are able to to use a certain code in the script in their display picture. When an Admin views it, it treats the hack as an Image and the Admin automatically does what the script does w/o his knowledge making the hacker an Admin. Again, the fix for this can be found on these forums if you but invest the time to search for it.

Player Report, Using a meta tag in player report and the display picture bit, a user accomplishes the same thing found in display pic, this is also used on the forums at times as well.

You may also want to give your register a looksy and find the $_GET['REF'] Variable and use the abs bit to secure there as well.

By now you have no doubt noticed the engine is highly unsecure and no longer recommended even for those that know what they are doing.

This is by no means saying it's "not" secureable, but it takes a large quantity of time to secure it properly.

 

This should be done, first and foremost over anything else. Do not dive in, add mods use a few quick fixes for common exploits then hope your game will succeed. If you want something to succeed, you make it succeed.

 

Do not post here every 2 seconds asking someone to completely re-code a script for you.

Many times I see someone request help on a certain script and that's not a problem. People here gladly help you out when they can. However occasionally I myself will see the same person post 20 times 20 differant full length scripts and want them all done for him.

This shows me that this person has no desire to learn and has realized he can just have someone here do it for free while he sits back and tries to get paid for our work. This will quickly hurt your standings with the boards and you will find no one helps you at all.

 

Once you have security accomplished and set-up you can then move on to purchasing mods.

I recommend keeping it game oriented. If you are running a mafia style game it'd be utterly silly for you to have a vampire or werewolf script running.

If you are running a vampire werewolf game, it's highly silly to have pimps and drugs frequently mentioned.

A lot of things should be re-written and customized to make your game "unique". Without uniqueness it will fail gaurenteed.

Do not copy other peoples games, that's a quick way to lose standing and members as well.

 

Once you have Security in Place and Mods in-place you want to spend a little bit of money on advertising. The best advice I can give you is it is going to cost you some money to make any at all, advertising sites can bring you members. if your game is fun to play and you feel it has potential, do some ad swaps, paid advertising, whatever your methods of getting users is going to be.

 

To Re-Cap.

1. Decide on an Engine.

2. Research that engine.

3. Setup your site.

4. Secure your site ( OR pay someone to do it for you ) to the best possible ability.

5. Modify your site including (custom layouts, modifications to fit your game and your game only)

6. Advertise Advertise Advertise.

 

There are many programmers on this board that do paid work for a lot cheaper than you might think. So if you don't have the time or initiative to do it yourself you can always browse through a few posts and find who does what and how good they are at doing it.

Do not think you can slap up a stolen copy of an engine and make a quick buck, not only will you fail, but you came to the wrong boards to talk about it.

The reason this post contains no "links" to other helpful posts, is because of the initiative bit I referred to earlier. I assure you, if it involves McCodes there is a post about it here somewhere on these forums. If you are to lazy to find it yourself then you will fail at a game. So step up, get to work, and good luck.

Hope this helps "someone"

^_-

 

--Thug

[DeaTH_RideR]

im sure this will help some people out that have it in there head there going to open a game. If i read this 2 years ago i would have not even bothered, now im learning something new and having a blast. :thumbup:

[Joshua]

I dont wish for this to discourage anyone only to eliminate the same posts we see day in and day out ><

[albenski]

Thanks for this post now i know the steps to take what other programs are there to use to read the php scripts besides notepad and notepad ++

Great post sure helped me out i went to installing it removing the installer and then adding mods to my game thinking i will learn by doing mods posted here i learned a lot doing it this way i think.

showed me some good stuff for what the database is i have NO clue about PHP or DataBase but i think by reading a lot of post on here i picked up some great stuff and some of its been reading a lot of your post too. i just need better understanding of php and database and ways of reading the php code

Thanks again for posting this its now gave me more understanding of the steps to take

[Joshua]

So long as at least one person gains something from this it was worth typing out :P

Congratulations on your accomplishments so far :)

[Guest Null]

Reply

I believe the player reports is vunerable to an IFRAME hack. Im not exactly sure, but i do believe it is, when its unsecured ;)

[Zero-Affect]

I believe the player reports is vunerable to an IFRAME hack. Im not exactly sure, but i do believe it is, when its unsecured ;)

You have issues if you think that's the only thing available to do with Player Reports, i'd be admin on your game in 2 minutes and have your entire users table gone in 10, if i were malicious obviously im not...

Seriously this post is worthless the MCC engine is completely crap and that's being nice, my advice to anyone planning to get anymore MCC products is to cease your mental breakdown. It's not worth a 100th of what you pay for it, Considering the time it takes to tweak and make unique compared to other sites i'd say you better of getting RRPG, ZAP or Horizon.

So in final i say STAY AWAY FROM MC - if you actually want to have players who ain't bored.

[Joshua]

Regardless of the vulnerabilities of the MCC engine, people use it. This post is to help them out, sorry you don't like the engine itself. Granted it takes an enormous amount of time to secure even remotely the mcc engine, but it "can" be done.

[Zero-Affect]

So plan is

Buy MC v2 for $300.00 USD =>

Spend $500.00+ USD on security =>

Spend $1,000.00+ USD on valid template =>

Spend two months on fixing it up =>

Shoot yourself?

Gotta admire peoples dreams..

Notice most of them said spend not earn...

[Guest Null]

I believe the player reports is vunerable to an IFRAME hack. Im not exactly sure, but i do believe it is, when its unsecured ;)

You have issues if you think that's the only thing available to do with Player Reports, i'd be admin on your game in 2 minutes and have your entire users table gone in 10, if i were malicious obviously im not...

Seriously this post is worthless the MCC engine is completely crap and that's being nice, my advice to anyone planning to get anymore MCC products is to cease your mental breakdown. It's not worth a 100th of what you pay for it, Considering the time it takes to tweak and make unique compared to other sites i'd say you better of getting RRPG, ZAP or Horizon.

So in final i say STAY AWAY FROM MC - if you actually want to have players who ain't bored.

I was simply stating it's possible. I never said i have no clue about other hacks and etc.

[Joshua]

Buy MC v2 for $300.00 USD =>

Spend $500.00+ USD on security =>

Spend $1,000.00+ USD on valid template =>

Spend two months on fixing it up =>

Shoot yourself?

Gotta admire peoples dreams..

Spend 500+ on security.

Well...I just learn myself, saves money.

MTG at MOST charges 2-300.

1k+ on a valid template? Hardly......for 1-200.00 you can get a pretty nice one, or again, learn to do it yourself.

Spend Two Months fixing it up? Any game should have well more than 2 months working on it, mccodes or not.

Shoot yourself? No thanks, i'll leave that to the pros ^_^

[Zero-Affect]

Buy MC v2 for $300.00 USD =>

Spend $500.00+ USD on security =>

Spend $1,000.00+ USD on valid template =>

Spend two months on fixing it up =>

Shoot yourself?

Gotta admire peoples dreams..

Spend 500+ on security.

Well...I just learn myself, saves money.

MTG at MOST charges 2-300.

1k+ on a valid template? Hardly......for 1-200.00 you can get a pretty nice one, or again, learn to do it yourself.

Spend Two Months fixing it up? Any game should have well more than 2 months working on it, mccodes or not.

Shoot yourself? No thanks, i'll leave that to the pros ^_^

SOS Factory Template which would be a proper none copyright issued template... with coding supplied costly

Learning PHP/CSS/HTML + Graphic Design = how long exactly...

building from scratch would be easier than building with MC