Neeeding advice on a MMO style game using Q2 Source

[Ace]

I already have a GNU source of BAND, but I need some advice and help, possible ways to make this work as an MMO....  we already know that servers have ports 27910 on up.... so what I was thinking of is taking the source and making it read from one server, and use each port as individual lands, or territories that inter-connect.  I wondered how this would work... Any feedback would be usefull on how this could be done.... also I would like Q2 to send data to a mySQL database rather than save the info on the client machine to prevent some hacking...

[quadz]

I already have a GNU source of BAND, but I need some advice and help, possible ways to make this work as an MMO....  we already know that servers have ports 27910 on up.... so what I was thinking of is taking the source and making it read from one server, and use each port as individual lands, or territories that inter-connect. 

It's certainly possible for your mod to cause players to connect to a different port like WallFly does.

WallFly just stuffs a 'connect' command to the player's console.

also I would like Q2 to send data to a mySQL database rather than save the info on the client machine to prevent some hacking

I presume the Q2 servers providing the interconnected territories would also hook into the database, so that they are always in-sync with one another in terms of the player's inventory and experience points, etc. ?


It might help if you expanded a bit on what you envision the player experience to be like in this game.  I'm assuming, in the most general sense, you have in mind a kind of MMO but with Q2 first persion view and movement physics?  But what kind of gameplay do you have in mind, as far as interaction with other players, quests, etc?


Regards,

quadz

[Ace]

It will be top down view, have point and click features, obviously 3rd person view, and will have the ability to fight both players and monsters to level up off of.  And of course rotation will be possible of the camera, just limited, to avoid looking at the sky too much.... becuase this would help improve r_speeds issues on large maps. I may also make maps in-game that will show your current location and location of monsters, and people in your party, as there will be a party system as well. There will possibly be a max level of 999 and I will have the status on it, items you can get, not just same old same old stuff... this is not a totally re-write but a total conversion from one game to another...  Yes it would be one server though, so the server would have to be powerfull enough to handle at least 10 servers at once with 64 players on each.  Each server will host 1 whole map dedicated to that one server port, and I will have php monitor those ports to see if they are open on my website, to give server status to players so, they know to avoid certain territories.  The maps will be huge of course with seperate locations within 1 map.  Shops, Stores, dungeons, and the main land will be on one server, and to connect to the another land they would basically do a trans warp type thing simular to what Seal does currently... so to avoid the map loading issues for players like they do in co-op I am just going to dedicated 1 map per port.  instead of doing co-op like I thought before, becuase forsaw the map loading issue coming, and I needed an idea to bypass this, and it only seems logical to do what I am describing.  And yes my system I belikeve is beefy enough to handle this server... I think anyways, as long as I keep things simple and small... Just worried about doing this on a 0.68 Mbps upload rate...

Ah hell I keep having to edit... there is some more info, yes there will be NPC's, and yes the MYSQL database will be on the same server as all 10 or how many server ports there may be...  And also the web server will be on the same server, will be using mirrors to prevent too much server load.... There will be abuilities to zoom yes, and there is so much more....  Just think of this as a mmorpg/diablo style, seal style or WOW style, deathmatch Q2 style, all in one chaotic game....  It of course wont just be thrown together like a straw house, there will be alot of work done into this...

[peewee_RotA]

So what's the latest?

Any more info or ideas on how you want to accomplish this?


I've had 2 ideas for a long time. The first is just like you described. Various zones hosted on different ports that you are automatically reconnected to as you travel place to place. Coop Or Die has a very real implementation of this basic concept that is quite awesome.

My second idea I talked about at length, but shelved due to the limitations. The idea is to create a hub server for a diablo 1 style mod that spawns a sort of "instance dungeon" that several people can play cooperatively on. That dungeon would be randomly generated by using prefabs. Limitations are that either the map is recompiled constantly on the fly or func_wall style entities are copy pasted until the game just plain chugs it's last chug and crashes.

[Ace]

Well you saw the other post I am sure, but I do need programmers, more than advice to be honest...  I am not coding this one bit, I already tried and failed, becuase the source is missing alot of data, aka dsound.h and other files, plus the converting has conflicts on the compiler I was using anyways...  Plus I would slow the project doing it myself to be honest...

[Ace]

I already have a GNU source of BAND

Also that source was broken as well as the Q2 source, but this was worse, when discoloda had sent me the source files, he failed to keep other important data

[hensoup]

Hello I am the lead coder of BAND anyhow we have got the EXE to compile and right now I am figuring out how to get mouse click to work on quake 2. I'll be posting a question later about that.  Right now it's not as easy as using something like Unity. But the network code is all there so I'd rather mess with rigging quake 2 than rewriting net-code.

[reaper]

that oldschool arcade game, galatica?, you could do something like have monsters form in orders and a group of players take them on.  flying small monsters like skee shots or whatever, so you could work on targeting

[hensoup]

that oldschool arcade game, galatica?, you could do something like have monsters form in orders and a group of players take them on.  flying small monsters like skee shots or whatever, so you could work on targeting

we are doing things that over the top with enemy counts. I am working on getting quake 2 with a diablo style interface where you click the location the character moves. and such. we are in alpha now and I got the exe working thru Visual C++ 2010.

[Ace]

that oldschool arcade game, galatica?, you could do something like have monsters form in orders and a group of players take them on.  flying small monsters like skee shots or whatever, so you could work on targeting

we are doing things that over the top with enemy counts. I am working on getting quake 2 with a diablo style interface where you click the location the character moves. and such. we are in alpha now and I got the exe working thru Visual C++ 2010.

I thought you was using 2008? O.o

[hensoup]

told you earlier this morning on my desktop I'm using 2010 but then again I forgot if I did.  but it's proof it works.