Super Mecha Crows - server kit for Super Mecha Champions ======================================================== In short: start the game once without the kit and let it update until it says it can't connect. Close it, unzip this folder, double-click Install-SMC.cmd, click Yes when Windows asks, then start the game from Steam again and pick the server SMC-Steam-US. NetEase switched off the servers for Super Mecha Champions, so the game on Steam has nothing to connect to any more. Super Mecha Crows is a fan-run replacement server. This kit makes your copy of the game connect to the Crows server instead. The game itself stays as it is. Time needed: about two minutes. Need help? Write to smc-help@horsecock.art and attach a photo or screenshot of what you see. BEFORE YOU START ---------------- You need: - Super Mecha Champions installed through Steam, and fully updated. To update it, start the game once WITHOUT the kit and let it download every update until it says it can't connect. Then close the game. Do this before you install the kit: an update that runs after the kit can undo it. - Steam running and logged in. The game still logs in through your Steam account. - Windows 10 or 11. Unzip the kit first: right-click the zip file, choose "Extract All...", and open the new folder. Double-clicking inside the zip window does not work. INSTALL ------- 1. Close the game if it is open. (It should have finished updating first; see above.) 2. Double-click Install-SMC.cmd A black window opens and reports each step. Two pop-ups may appear: - A blue box, "Windows protected your PC". Click "More info", then "Run anyway". Windows shows this for any program it has not seen before. - "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?" for Windows PowerShell. Click Yes. This is for the one change outside the game folder (the hosts file, see below). The window ends with "Done." Press any key to close it. 3. Start Super Mecha Champions from Steam as usual. On the login screen, pick the server SMC-Steam-US. The first time, the game asks you to make a character. After that you land in the lobby. The game stays a normal Steam game: same shortcut, same Steam account, no extra launcher. IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG ----------------------- The black window shows red text. Read it. It says what is wrong and what to do. Fix that, then double-click Install-SMC.cmd again. Running it more than once is safe. The window says a game file is missing or is not the expected one. In Steam: right-click Super Mecha Champions > Properties > Installed Files > "Verify integrity of game files". Wait until it finishes, then run Install-SMC.cmd again. The game starts but shows a gray screen, or closes after half a minute. Windows Security has probably removed the game's video player (a file called MLiveCCPlayer.dll) or stopped the game from writing its own files. Double-click Allow-SMC-Defender.cmd. It asks for permission once, brings the file back, and tells Windows Security to leave the game folder alone. Then start the game again. If you use another antivirus program, add the game folder to its exceptions yourself. The game loops on the login screen, or the text is suddenly Chinese. Steam was not running, or not logged in, when the game started. Close the game, start Steam and log in, then start the game again. The game says it cannot connect, or waits forever on the login screen. Either the server is down, or the hosts file change did not stick (some antivirus programs guard that file). Ask at smc-help@horsecock.art whether the server is up. If it is, run Install-SMC.cmd again and click Yes when Windows asks. Anything else. Send a photo or screenshot of the black window to smc-help@horsecock.art. The game also writes a log to \package\log.txt and that file helps too. UPDATING THE KIT ---------------- The server only takes the current kit. When the game says on login that the client version is outdated, download the kit again from the download page and double-click Install-SMC.cmd again. Running it over an older kit is safe: it swaps in the new script and keeps everything else. Your account and progress stay. The game must start through Steam, with the files Steam installed. Copies that start without Steam, or with a replaced Steam file, are refused. Kits repackaged by other people are not ours. UNDO ---- Double-click Uninstall-SMC.cmd (it asks for permission once). Every file goes back to how it was, and the game has nothing to connect to again. WHAT THE INSTALLER CHANGES, EXACTLY ----------------------------------- Three things. Each one is backed up first, and the uninstaller puts all three back. 1. One file in the game folder: package\patch_npk\p_script.npk This is the game's own update file. NetEase used it to ship game updates, and the game reads it every time it starts. The installer adds two entries to it and leaves everything that was already in it as it was. Backup: p_script.npk.orig, in the same folder. What the two entries are is explained in the next section. 2. One file in the game folder: package\Documents\cacert.pem The game's list of trusted certificates, the same idea as the padlock in a browser. The Crows server's certificate (ca.crt in this kit) is added at the end, so the game accepts the server's web address. Backup: cacert.pem.orig. 3. One Windows file: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts The game has NetEase's web addresses built in, with no setting to change them. The hosts file is where Windows lets you say where an address leads. The installer adds a marked block that sends those NetEase addresses (the list is in hostnames.txt) to the Crows server. Everything else in the file stays. Backup: hosts.smc-backup, in the same folder. This is the step that needs the permission prompt. While the block is there, any program on this PC that tries one of those NetEase addresses reaches the Crows server instead. As far as we know no program other than the game uses them, but you should know it applies to the whole PC. Nothing is installed anywhere else. No program keeps running in the background. Steam and your Steam account are not touched. THE TWO ENTRIES --------------- The game only talks to a server that can prove it is NetEase's, using a key that only NetEase had. NetEase's servers are gone, so out of the box the game refuses every server. The fix is to give the game the Crows server's key. The installer does that like this: 1. It copies the game's own connection script (a part called ConnectHelper) out of your game's main script file, package\script.npk, and stores that copy in p_script.npk under a second name, ConnectHelper_original. The copy is not changed. 2. It adds our script under the name ConnectHelper. That script is revival-ConnectHelper.py in this kit, and you can open it in Notepad. When the game starts, it loads the original, puts in the Crows server's key, and writes one line to package\log.txt so you can see it was active: [REVIVAL] ConnectHelper override active, gate key swapped Our script reads no files, sends nothing anywhere and changes nothing else. The key is a public key: it lets the game check who the server is, and cannot unlock or read anything on your PC. Because the game's own script is copied from your PC, this kit contains no game files at all. Only the files listed at the bottom. WHAT THE SERVER SEES -------------------- The server receives your Steam ID and what you do in the game: your character's name, your matches, your chat. It never receives your Steam password. The game's built-in reporting (crash reports and usage logs it used to send to NetEase) now goes to the Crows server too, because those addresses are in the hosts block. FILES IN THIS KIT ----------------- README.txt this file Install-SMC.cmd double-click to install (it runs Install-SMC.ps1) Uninstall-SMC.cmd double-click to undo everything Install-SMC.ps1 the installer. A plain text file with an explanation at every step: open it in Notepad to read exactly what it does. Allow-SMC-Defender.cmd only if Windows Security removed game files or blocks the game. Allow-SMC-Defender.ps1 Brings the files back and adds the game folder to the exceptions. revival-ConnectHelper.py the one game script we add, in readable form revival-ConnectHelper.nxs the same script in the game's own compiled format. This is what gets installed. ca.crt the Crows server's certificate hostnames.txt the NetEase web addresses that the hosts block sends to the server server.txt the server's address. If it ever changes, put the new one in here and run Install-SMC.cmd again.