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Multiplayer questions?

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:21 pm
by Learner
Who are the primary people involved in multiplayer development and what is the current status of the project?

In the past I hadn't been very interested in VegaStrike due to my requirements in the trading, multiplayer, and other issues. Looks like multiplayer may be the one thing needed to be able to at least start looking at and working with this.

LRNR
http://www.terminuspoint.com

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:47 am
by Straidai
ah yes, I ran into this game not too long ago and spent hours reading the previous threads in this section.

I am also desperately seeking a space trading multiplayer game with space flight, where it actually takes SKILLS to become the best/feared combat pilot in the multiplayer universe and not time and money.

I have not seen those since jumpgate.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:05 am
by hellcatv
there's a network_fork but it needs a few more dozen hours by some really good devs to clean it up...right now our lead network devel, ace123 is working on it in his spare time

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:18 am
by Straidai
thats cool.

Were not persuing anyone to get the multiplayer code done in anyways.

However, I do have some multiplayer ideas of mine in order to get the gameplay balance just right to have run.

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:32 pm
by Learner
I also have ideas, plus experience with multiplayer where the server controls most everything for security & sync reasons. The worst problems with that model is the server has to do most of the work and net lag causes more problems unless you have a very robust and smart motion prediction system in the Client.

I just don't have the time to dig into adding MP to a game like this :(

LRNR
http://www.terminuspoint.com

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:07 am
by unimatrix
Learner wrote:I also have ideas, plus experience with multiplayer where the server controls most everything for security & sync reasons. The worst problems with that model is the server has to do most of the work and net lag causes more problems unless you have a very robust and smart motion prediction system in the Client.

I just don't have the time to dig into adding MP to a game like this :(

LRNR
http://www.terminuspoint.com
What you just said is something that's been nawing at the back of my head for a while. I did some work with Browser-Base MMOG's five years ago (promisance mainly) and followed the development of the MMOG when I was in business school.

Noted that was one of the major problems is with cheats. Both the browser-based world and other games like evercrack. Making sure each player as the same game version seemed like it would be the hardest to control...

Still, if you have experience, I'm sure tips/suggestions would be welcome...

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:50 am
by pifactorial
The game cube avoids cheats by having an encrypted network protocol which is only in the binary releases. You can compile the game yourself but, since it uses different protocols, self-compiled clients can only play on self-compiled servers, and binary clients can only play on binary servers. It also has a version-checker in the server code to boot any players using the wrong game version.

Pretty straightforward security if we're going to be using a client-server model.

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 3:59 pm
by Integral
unimatrix wrote: Noted that was one of the major problems is with cheats. Both the browser-based world and other games like evercrack. Making sure each player as the same game version seemed like it would be the hardest to control...

Still, if you have experience, I'm sure tips/suggestions would be welcome...
You might want to ask the bzflag people for tips. I believe they've done a lot of work in this area, doing stuff like sanity-checking the data clients send to detect cheaters (eg, if your tank is suddenly going 3 times the top velocity of a tank, something's wrong and you're likely to be automatically kicked).

Daniel

Integrating network libraries from worldforge

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:59 pm
by theBohemian
Hi.
I just wanted to note that the http://www.worldforge.org already has modular clients, servers and protocol libraries/application. I think it would be a good idea to reuse their software for multiplayer support in vegastrike.

Please dont read this as a demand for working faster or such. I only thought that this idea would be in line with vegastrike's mission statement and I would love to see great Free software projects to work together.

Best regards
theBohemian