Archive for category PHP & Web

A Friendly Warning: Don’t Use Voided Alliance

I realized that I was still running Voided Alliance on my server. This obviously concerned me because, as you may know, I wrote the game several years ago (before I knew enough about security to be writing something so complex.) If you have looked at the source code, first let me apologize for making you ill, second: you will know that the code is very amateur.

It wasn’t too long before I found SQL Injection attacks left, right and center. Far too many for me to fix, especially since market distribution of the patch would be impossible. I can only hope that very, very few people are actually running the code.

The fact that I was never hacked before seems to have been because of PHP’s Magic Quotes, surprising enough. Now, because of the fact the Magic Quotes “security” feature is disabled, it is no longer “secure”. I would urge anybody who is currently running a script, for whatever reason, take necessary precautions (such as: Not running it.)

I have since taken down the downloads of Voided Alliance, they will not be going back up. I have told everyone a long time ago that I am no longer supporting it. I have now taken down the VA source running on my server as well.

I hope everybody realizes that this is a very real danger and takes necessary precautions. I don’t want to ruin anybody’s day, week or whatever because of a nasty SQL injection attack.

Regards,
Eric

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Interactive Galaxy Map Now Interactive

Interactive Galaxy MapEarly this morning, I finished the rendering of the map. Now I am done with the movement and I have also improved the look of the stars. (As well as added more colors.) Now, you can look around the map by clicking either 4 directions. It moves you 256 units in the direction you chose. The colors are random at the moment because I don’t have any means on determining star color.

You automatically are placed at your current system. In this case, everyone is automatically placed looking at the system “Sol.” It does seem pretty lonely out there!

Things still to come:

  1. Zooming in and out.
  2. A mini-map to determine where you are.
  3. Details about the star on hover.
  4. Permanent star colors.

Keep in touch!

If you would like to see Xeno 4 for yourself you can visit it here: http://www.xeno4.com/
If you need a beta key, please feel free to email me at: webmaster@lurous.com.

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Interactive Galaxy Map Changes Galaxy

Yesterday, I decided I was going to get a good jump on the interactive galaxy map. I knew it was going to be difficult. I already had some plans on what I was going to do. Therefore, I thought I could just get it done tonight. Now, it is 12: 33 AM my time and I have finally gotten it– well, not working– but it is more organized than before.

Interactive Galaxy MapIf you’ve seen the old Ant galaxy, you will notice how spaced out those stars are. The old one used to be so close! I had to remove any star within 16 pixels of one another. I don’t think it was a bad idea, though. I had known for a long time that we had too many systems. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I was able to remove only 24,662 systems. However, keep in mind, there are still over 60,000 systems to explore. I know you will all be thrilled to hear that Sol was not one of the 24,662 systems that were removed.

Keep in touch!

You can visit Xeno 4 yourself by going here: http://www.xeno4.com
If you would like a beta key, please email webmaster@lurous.com.

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Another Addition to the New Website

Most of you know that Lurous Productions hosted a blog before we switched to Joomla. The unfortunate effect of that is that the site doesn’t seem to change enough for my tastes. I also wanted a bit less “professionalism” for the website. I also wanted a better medium to post updates and development news for Xeno 4. This way, I don’t force people to have to read the blog and people who want to read it can still find out what is going on.

Everyone is happy! Well, that’s the idea, at least.

I’ll keep everybody informed!

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