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MCCodes v3 Announcement


Dabomstew

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It has been several years since the release of MCCodes version 2 now, and a fair while since the release of Redux (2.5) too. MCCodes are proud to finally announce the development of Version 3 of the engine.

It was said when Redux was released that it was to be a taster of things to come. This is true to an extent, but Version 3 promises to be so much more than improvements to Redux. It is being redeveloped from the ground up to create a great experience for game developers and the players of their games alike.

Modifications/Modules

MCC v3 has a fully modular feature system. That is to say, all the pages that you interact with are modules that can be dropped in and out, subject to you keeping modules that other ones rely on. To the extent that is possible, these dependencies are minimised to make it easy to customise the features you want on your game. To make new features on your game or use ones made by other people you just install the relevant module(s), which will be easy to do in the admin panel.

Each module has its own folder containing a descriptor file and several other files - the technical details of this system will be exposed to a much greater extent in a future update.

Great Possibilities

Via the use of "mod projects", groups of modules, MCCodes v3 will be able to be used to run many different types of text-based MMORPGs with drop-in engines. The base engine that comes with v3 will be the familiar crime/mafia-based RPG, but other official (and potentially unofficial) possibilities will be released after the initial release, along with a bare-bones package allowing you to develop your game from only a small amount of essential modules if you so choose.

Language Support

It will be possible to translate MCCodes v3 to run games in other languages using its inbuilt language system which will also tie-in to the module system. You can even allow your users to choose their language if you want to run a multi-lingual game. At the moment, we only plan to have the official release in English to begin with but there is certainly a possibility of further official language packs in the future.

Layout Engine

As with Redux, the main layout of v3 is seperated into skins which each provide their own custom look & feel for the game, its login/register pages & potentially certain complex graphical mods. It will be easy to drop in & install new skins, and you can offer users their choice of skins if you are willing to maintain more than one.

MCCodes Site Integration

Coinciding with the release of v3 will be a restructure of the MCCodes.com main site. This will allow us to roll out two major things - a new support system for more structured official support, and most importantly, a marketplace for v3 modules & module packs.

The marketplace will accept free & paid mods from anyone, provided they are up to certain minimum standards. Unproven module authors will have to go through manual verification of every mod they submit, but we intend to allow certain users the right to submit modules directly provided they have a good track record. For module authors, they will be able to sell their mods directly on MCCodes.com and receive income from these sales, subject to commission.

There will also be special sections on the marketplace for skins & language files, which will be regulated seperately under rules which are yet to be determined fully.

For module purchasers, there will be the ability to rate modules, comment on them, and of course purchase/download them for installation to your game. The staff panel of v3 games will be integrated directly with the marketplace to allow direct installation of most modules available. You will also be able to report severely broken mods directly to MCCodes so we can disable their download/purchase until they are fixed, if the report is true.

All marketplace privileges granted are of course subject to revocation if abused.

Alright, when can I get my hands on this?

The official release date is not certain, but is planned to be in late Q2 / early Q3 2012 - that is, June or July.

How will the engine be tested, and how can I show interest to be granted early access?

Our current plans are to release alphas and betas to a select group of testers as progress is made on the engine. While we already have a fair few ideas as to who will be the testers, we strongly encourage those of you with moderate to strong development experience with MCCodes or any other PHP scripts/engines who want to participate in testing to contact us - either PM me or ColdBlooded on here, or email us at [email protected]. The nature of development means that people who are not experienced coders will not really be helpful in this early role, so please provide proof of your coding experience if you do indicate interest.

What happens to the old MCCodes versions?

MCCodes version 1 is set to be discontinued as a purchasable product in the very immediate future - we don't have the time nor the resources to maintain it to a good standard. Version 2 and Redux will continue to be sold as is until the release of Version 3, at which time they will either be heavily discounted or discontinued themselves.

A whole lot more information will be coming out over various mediums throughout the next few weeks/months. Look out for more technical explanations of how particular things will work and more announcements about progress/testing.

Questions and comments in this topic are welcomed, but non-constructive blind criticism isn't. Be sensible!

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Prototype:

"The official release date is not certain, but is planned to be in late Q2 / early Q3 2012 - that is, June or July."

Good info Dabomstew. Well, what I can see from your post match nearly 1 to 1 to my own engine. Which means either that my ideas were indeed something so basic that any engine would need them, or that you thought "yea we should do it too" which means I gave a good impulse to your design. For me in both case it's good news.

The modular approach => great! I can't wait to see how you did it, but it's really something which in my mind was needed seeing the number of "how can I install this mod?" posts.

The multi-language => indeed separating the text from the code is something needed in such project.

Layout engine => same

Market place => good to find all the modules, and actually for me the only viable solution. Browsing through the forums is not exactly easy, so having a single place to search for is certainly the way to go.

So overall, I'm happy for you guys (McCodes users and developers) and can't wait to see how it will be at the end.

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V1 going open-source?

V1 will be completely dis-continued from the market. No further sales or distribution of V1.1.1 (latest version) will be carried out. All existing license holders for the V1 engine will be able to download latest version of their V1 engine from their Client Zone at anytime for their license use. V1.1.1 is still up for sale but it will be taken off when the mccodes.com restructured site is launched in 2-3 weeks or so.

Prototype:

"The official release date is not certain, but is planned to be in late Q2 / early Q3 2012 - that is, June or July."

Good info Dabomstew. Well, what I can see from your post match nearly 1 to 1 to my own engine. Which means either that my ideas were indeed something so basic that any engine would need them, or that you thought "yea we should do it too" which means I gave a good impulse to your design. For me in both case it's good news.

The modular approach => great! I can't wait to see how you did it, but it's really something which in my mind was needed seeing the number of "how can I install this mod?" posts.

The multi-language => indeed separating the text from the code is something needed in such project.

Layout engine => same

Market place => good to find all the modules, and actually for me the only viable solution. Browsing through the forums is not exactly easy, so having a single place to search for is certainly the way to go.

So overall, I'm happy for you guys (McCodes users and developers) and can't wait to see how it will be at the end.

Thank you for your positive remark Bertrand. It should be an interesting and a fun experience.

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Each module has its own folder containing a descriptor file and several other files - the technical details of this system will be exposed to a much greater extent in a future update.

This has one main problem as far as I can see; backward compatibility. I understand that you’re trying to improve but your engine has a massive amount of mods ready to go as is, ensure it’s somewhat compatible with the new version if at all possible.

The marketplace will accept free & paid mods from anyone, provided they are up to certain minimum standards. Unproven module authors will have to go through manual verification of every mod they submit, but we intend to allow certain users the right to submit modules directly provided they have a good track record. For module authors, they will be able to sell their mods directly on MCCodes.com and receive income from these sales, subject to commission.

This, as I said on the new world engine’s announcement, is not something I would go with for a number of reasons.

First off the commission is somewhat counterproductive. Producing a relatively cheap mod, and then having yet more of the sale price go to someone else will discourage programmers. I know people use sites such as codecanyon, however you need to look at the size of the market compared to what you would be offering. Then having to review every mod put on the market? Would you be doing that yourselves?

Frankly this thread seems to be a lot of writing with very little content, therefore I have a few questions –

1) Have you started development, and if so how is it coming along?

2) As said above what are you offering for the developers? E.g. documentation, tutorials for those with no prior programming experience etc.

3) If you’re planning to discontinue versions to what extent does that go? Will any bugs still left be simply ignored or will you continue to support any bugs found in the engine for a set amount of time after.

4) How are you going to deal with illegal distribution of the engine

5) How do you plan on marketing it, you stated it can be changed into something other than a mafia based game, nevertheless it is coming that way. Will it still be sold as an “out the box” game?

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Some good questions asked / points raised here - I'll answer what I can:

Price range - Shouldn't be too different from modern v2/Redux prices, though still far from certain.

Developer documentation - This is something we are definitely going to include. The buildup to the release will reveal a fair few details for developers so you know what to expect, and upon release there should be a good set of documentation so that quality mods can be produced right off the bat. Tutorials for people with no prior experience in PHP/programming is complicated, but is something we're definitely looking at.

Backwards compatibility - We didn't cover this in the initial post because we are very hesitant to give any official word/promises on it until it's in there and solid, but rest assured we are working on providing a solution for both using old modifications and importing old-version game data. What we're unsure of so far is how much work will be needed on the part of the user/developer to get these going.

Development progress - Development is well under way, as emphasized by our upcoming need for testers. We could probably release a very early alpha to a tester base right now, but we are going to get more done on the base framework first.

Discontinued versions - If there are further serious exploits uncovered then we will patch them when they come to our knowledge... As far as less serious bugs go, we will probably run with a "phase-out" period after the engines go off sale and release a final non-security patch just before that date.

Illegal distribution - We won't go into great detail about this to stop us giving the very information they want to would-be illegal distributors... but measures will be taken appropriate to our budget and market. We certainly don't *want* to have to encrypt any of the code (even before you take the ineffectiveness of such systems into account), we may be promoting a modular system but people are going to want to / to have to modify the core files sometimes, we know that.

Initial marketing - It will initially be marketed as an "out the box" game, with the developer's bare-bones edition sold on the side. Further marketing after launch will depend on what additional game packages are made and when.

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v1 becoming open source - won't be happening immediately, but don't rule it out from ever happening.

Code style - the improvement in this should already be visible in the v1/2/2.5 patches (over the original versions), but will be better still in v3 since we are developing using a consistent style from the very start.

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v1 becoming open source - won't be happening immediately, but don't rule it out from ever happening.

Code style - the improvement in this should already be visible in the v1/2/2.5 patches (over the original versions), but will be better still in v3 since we are developing using a consistent style from the very start.

Look just dont bother with it may or may not happen. Release v1 open source or say its not going to happen.

As for the code style. Er.....well no not really. I think up until the latest release there has not been much change in the code other than fixes provided by the forum. The latest release has seen a change in the code but not significant to say an improvement.

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Look just dont bother with it may or may not happen. Release v1 open source or say its not going to happen.

As for the code style. Er.....well no not really. I think up until the latest release there has not been much change in the code other than fixes provided by the forum. The latest release has seen a change in the code but not significant to say an improvement.

By code style I was more meaning the formatting - indent levels, block style etc have all been made consistent in the patches, and more comments were added. As they were bugfix patches, we didn't change anything that would break mod compatibility (such as variable names, method names/arguments, overall execution flow etc.). However, there will certainly be further improvements to the style in v3.
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  • 2 years later...
just wondering and bringing this up after so long but its now 10th May 2014. (Nearly 2 years later.) Is there any chance of some news now......

Well considering there is no one working for Mccodes anymore dealing with support request and games with no license, there probably won't be a V3.

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Well considering there is no one working for Mccodes anymore dealing with support request and games with no license, there probably won't be a V3.

You're wrong here! I'm waiting for someone to do a press release about this..... [MENTION=50433]ColdBlooded[/MENTION]

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You're wrong here! I'm waiting for someone to do a press release about this..... [MENTION=50433]ColdBlooded[/MENTION]

Ah I guess i could be, but about the Support and stuff, that isn't wrong, it took Mccodes 3 week to reply to my first support ticket and now my second one its been a month, no reply

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Ah I guess i could be, but about the Support and stuff, that isn't wrong, it took Mccodes 3 week to reply to my first support ticket and now my second one its been a month, no reply

I need to get my **** sorted clearly >.>

I've been busy moving places past 2 weeks + busy at work. I'll get on top of this as soon as possible.

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I need to get my **** sorted clearly >.>

I've been busy moving places past 2 weeks + busy at work. I'll get on top of this as soon as possible.

I respect you guys have other things to be doing in life, but just the fact its been like a month now is getting kinda ridiculous :p

Well actually its been 3 weeks for the second ticket i sent actually not a month but still :p

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I respect you guys have other things to be doing in life, but just the fact its been like a month now is getting kinda ridiculous :p

Well actually its been 3 weeks for the second ticket i sent actually not a month but still :p

I understand. Replying to it right away.

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