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Author Topic: OpenArena -> MMORPG? Possible?  (Read 12783 times)
NayusDante
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« on: July 09, 2007, 02:41:01 PM »

I've had this crazy idea for a while now. No, I'm not trying to make a retail-quality killer app. This is just something that I think could be done, and for that reason, SHOULD be done.

First of all, I think this would be a LOT easier than it sounds. The core idea would only take a few small modifications:

Character Server
This could be anything from a few textfiles in the server's folders to an SQL database with a PHP admin interface. I've seen the former done in the form of a UT200X mod, which while not exactly balanced, worked incredibly well. Heck, one could just pull some exp charts and such from any old D20 system manuals and build a file to hold them for each character.

Character Stat Integration
This might be the biggest part of the modification. The stats need to be used ingame to determine things that normally would be handled by static values. Things like weight and strength would need to be considered to determine a character's moving speed, jumping ability, etc. Intelligence would modify a player's damage inflicted by "magic" weapons. Players would need to gain experience from frags or npc/mob kills.

Server Travel
This might end up being the easiest thing to do. When a character "zones" by entering a portal or going past set map coordinates, they go to a different map. Each map would be on a different running server instance. This way, different server parameters could be set for individual zones. When a character moves between zones, their character would be saved and their connection diverted to their destination. Upon entering the zone, their character is loaded again and play resumes.

I'd really like to head up a project to accomplish a demo or something. If any experienced coders want to get involved, PLEASE let me know. If the project is successful, a linux distro could be built around it to make a game similar to the ./hack series (OS and game integration; allows for pure gaming optimization without bloatware).
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rancid punx
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« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2007, 02:56:04 PM »

sounds fkn awesome!

good luck with that mate Smiley
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MalloC
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« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2007, 12:51:47 AM »

I've had this crazy idea for a while now. No, I'm not trying to make a retail-quality killer app. This is just something that I think could be done, and for that reason, SHOULD be done.

First of all, I think this would be a LOT easier than it sounds. The core idea would only take a few small modifications:

Character Server
This could be anything from a few textfiles in the server's folders to an SQL database with a PHP admin interface. I've seen the former done in the form of a UT200X mod, which while not exactly balanced, worked incredibly well. Heck, one could just pull some exp charts and such from any old D20 system manuals and build a file to hold them for each character.

Character Stat Integration
This might be the biggest part of the modification. The stats need to be used ingame to determine things that normally would be handled by static values. Things like weight and strength would need to be considered to determine a character's moving speed, jumping ability, etc. Intelligence would modify a player's damage inflicted by "magic" weapons. Players would need to gain experience from frags or npc/mob kills.

Server Travel
This might end up being the easiest thing to do. When a character "zones" by entering a portal or going past set map coordinates, they go to a different map. Each map would be on a different running server instance. This way, different server parameters could be set for individual zones. When a character moves between zones, their character would be saved and their connection diverted to their destination. Upon entering the zone, their character is loaded again and play resumes.

I'd really like to head up a project to accomplish a demo or something. If any experienced coders want to get involved, PLEASE let me know. If the project is successful, a linux distro could be built around it to make a game similar to the ./hack series (OS and game integration; allows for pure gaming optimization without bloatware).

Well, good luck on this. I have only been poking around with the Quake 3 engine for a while now, but although this would be possible, for me it seems unpractical to use quake 3.

I do not know all the nitty-gritty stuff, but someone once mentioned to me that using different servers to co-ordinate within quake isn't that easy. Not impossible, so you could do it.

The biggest work you will have with doing something like this imo is the "Server Travel" as the rest is actually quite easy.

Also, you should keep in mind that Quake 3 by default can only handle 1024 entities loaded at any given time, unless if you were to go and modify the net protocol to handle more. So there would be some networking code also to do. Alas you could get past this by using certain limitations on the game, as to the amount of players in any given area at once (doesn't feel right though) or not allowing players to drop things (or if they do, have a fast 'decay' time on them) otherwise that would easily count up to the 1024 limit.

In any case, just my two cents worth of incoherent blabbering.

Kind regards,
  MalloC
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NayusDante
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« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2007, 05:49:34 AM »

I see what you're saying with the entity limitations. Still, I'm not planning to have this be as massive as most MMOs. If you look at most zone based MMOs, there's not going to be more than say, 200 entities in any given zone. So let's say 50 players in a heavily populated zone, 20 NPCs, and 30 mobs. That leaves about 924 spare slots for extra stuff like dropped loot, which could just be added automatically to the deserving player.

The reason that I want to do Quake 3 is because it's got such a big developer community already and it's advanced enough to look good. I would pick another engine, but what else is open source, linux compatible, visually pleasing, and relatively easy to jump into?
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UrKraFt
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« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2007, 11:38:29 AM »

Sounds cool, good luck with the project Wink
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iLeft.bye
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« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2007, 06:37:47 PM »

you need to remake q3 networking from scratch and most of the other things
moreover mmorpg requires lots of work hours
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NayusDante
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« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2007, 07:08:14 PM »

you need to remake q3 networking from scratch and most of the other things
moreover mmorpg requires lots of work hours

For a real MMORPG, yes. For a proof-of-concept demonstration, no. A realistic goal at this point would be something like PSO. Maybe 32-player lobbies and 4-player zones. The way PSO handles servers would translate nicely, reduces the need for servers save for the lobbies. Gameplay would take place in user-hosted rooms with instanced zones.
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iLeft.bye
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« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2007, 07:17:49 PM »

yes that is doable even you can go up to 64. I thought again you can move player infos from server to server using a database. so you can have several servers communicating with eachother
each server runs a predefined map (a small portion of the whole rpg land )
when you move out of the bounds of that map You are taken to the corresponding server along with you previous info
I wonder if one can run more than 4 servers like that on a single machine
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NayusDante
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« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2007, 07:26:41 PM »

I'm sure that it's limitless as long as you have a separate set of data files and config files for each one. It would take a hell of a lot of ports, though. Each server needs one dedicated port. This is another justification for the PSO style server breakdown. Even better, the entire game could be instanced with each player hosting a server for the zone they are in, but with the ability to invite party members to join their server.
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Czestmyr
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« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2007, 10:25:24 AM »

Man, nice idea, but is it really doable? I would genuinely Phear you, if you manage to do something like that Wink
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NayusDante
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« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2007, 03:18:11 PM »

Man, nice idea, but is it really doable? I would genuinely Phear you, if you manage to do something like that Wink

Find me some experienced modders and let me remember how to edit the sourcecode, then we'll find out lol.
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Kylratix
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« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2007, 01:07:42 AM »

You can run multiple servers to get around the limitation. Any mmorpg uses clusters anyway.
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-- Roy 'Kylratix' Laurie
http://www.binarycult.com
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