WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

[marcus]

Since the official english version of rmxp will be released tomorrow, I just want to issue a general warning that I feel is very important. RMXP IS capable of modifying files within your computer. That's right, with a few simple lines of code it is entirely possible to completely screw up your pc. While I haven't encountered a game that did that, I have seen people post joke scripts that do a wide range of things from hiding all of your desktop icons to completely altering run.dll and other important system registery files. I'm certain no one here is mean enough to do that, but it is entirely possible to create an actual "virus" with rmxp and even keep the game from shutting down without restarting your system.

When I was learning a little bit of rgss my first script was to create an autosave system but a few syntax errors that I later poorly fixed ended up deleting the saves to my game. It wasn't anything destructive but the possibility is still there.

Just a heads up.

[lilwilddude]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Thanks for the warning. And another thing to be careful about is when you get it. If the power were to go out during the download.. Bye Bye, $60..

[marcus]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Haha, don't worry about that happening because it doesn't work that way. Download.com doesn't take exchanges online so you can download the program as many times as you want. The only time you'll have to pay (assuming it's a pay 2 play or you pay to unlock your LEAP code) is after you install the program.

[lilwilddude]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

oh.. Thanks for clearing that up. I thought you entered your credit card number then it allowed you to download it.

[marcus]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Even if they did do that, companies that offer purchases online always give you a security code that you can enter if you need to redownload the product. If that didn't, that'd be kind of stupid.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Hahaha. That was like, so unexpected.

"RPG Maker XP! So powerful, even a child could hack you!"

Thanks for the heads up. This makes my decision of not getting XP even more profound.

[RPG Learner]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Aw man if that's possible then i've have a bad feeling about this. And i;ve have Windows XP SP2 so i've have a bad feeling about this.

If this is possible is there any preventive measures to this.

Well it's best not to mess with the scripting at all for now.

[NikisKnight]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Just only play games people have reviewed on-line. Reviewers should have a cheap PC that they play unknown games on.

[RPG Learner]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Good Advice but when you have only one computer it's probably best to wait and see if the game good enough. and doing RSS scripting will be interesting but for the time being it's best to learn to do the simple scripts.

[marcus]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Really, just use your discretion when downloading games just like you would when downloading programs or surfing the net. Would you download a program by a nameless company who has no certification and sent you the link via email or would download a program by the member of a forum? The point is, if it looks suspicious, don't download it.

But really, it's not something that people are going to regularly do mainly because rmxp isn't exactly groundbreaking or popular enough to attract those kinds of people. And you don't have to worry about accidentally making a script that damages your system because you won't have any business modifying a file in-game unless it's a specific script that does that (like the auto-save script I mentioned).

Yea, just act like you would any other time you're on the internet and don't download and play random games from geocities and tripod accounts.

[RPG Learner]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Well i would'nt do that since it's really suspicious anyway but i'll heed even more caution.

[HolyPhoenix]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

I wonder what would happen to the person who makes a virus with it and put it on the forum games. Valk would probably ban him for life plus any charges for making the virus from the police.

Oh man I don't want to get it as much now. How bad of a virus can you create? Anything, or are there some things you can't do. I don't know that much about the programming in it yet.

[RPG Learner]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

This is a really good question cloud who knows what these Anti-pavillion people could do here.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

I'm not worried.

[marcus]

Re: WARNING: Be incredibly careful with rmxp

Well, any file can be infected by a virus really. You could be scrolling through a webpage or checking an email and a virus can get on your computer. All the scripts let you do is modify files in game so you could copy and paste multiples of one file or delete a file in-game.

Also remember that I'm talking about the Japanese rmxp (the one I have) and I first noticed this problem before there was a patch. I'm certain if this caused a stir in the Japanese community then one of Enterbrain's recent patches probably fixed the issue so only files in the folder the game.exe is on can be modified.

But seriously, it's nothing to be afraid of; typical precautionary that you should take whenever you surf the internet. If a game has 1 map and no resources and the person posting it is braggin that it's a 40 hour game whatever, then delete it. I seriously doubt anyone is stupid enough to "attack" the pavilion like that. Just take the same steps when downloading things you would when normally surfing the internet.