Ferrous Moon
http://www.ferrousmoon.com:80/forums/

Onlink Multiplayer
http://www.ferrousmoon.com:80/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1001		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Eleazar [Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:51 am ]
Post subject:  Onlink Multiplayer
I read the sticky topic, and what IV was trying to do was insane. Multiplayer for a game like Onlink isn't only possible - it's extremely easy.

Look at it this way. When you create a new account in the single player game, it generates all the computers, passwords, names+faces, etc etc etc.

Basically, it generates your "world".

Why not have a web server with a single, massive Uplink world running on it? Then when you connect to the server, you create a new account, get a gateway with a unique IP, and play in a world that never dies (because the main plot will be disabled).

IV was trying to take the Uplink concept directly into the real world. OBVIOUSLY that's not going to work. You might as well hack manually. But by creating and maintaing a game server, it IS possible to create a multiplayer system.

Online, that is.

Start thinking inside the box :P

~ Eleazar
Author:  Miah [Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
What you fail to understand in our case are the resources such a thing would require. We just don't have the servers for it right now.
Author:  Eleazar [Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
I assumed so. But the idea can also be applied in a LAN context. One computer creates a world, and other clients on the LAN can join.

So then the coding involved to move from LAN -> Live server shouldn't be too much.

And consider this: If you start a network game, there's nothing stopping the individual computer from broadcasting itself over the internet. Add that to a working IRC server, and you pretty much have a system for live, online multiplayer play.

I think, though, that the whole idea will require a little restructuring in the way Onlink works. But that's your job, isn't it? :)

~ Eleazar
Author:  Darkknight512 [Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
What if we do it like Freelancer did, player hosted servers and then the game works as normal.
Author:  Eleazar [Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:05 pm ]
Post subject: 
That's what I was thinking.

But it would require quite a bit of recoding... Still - well worth it, I think.

And as soon as I get my head around OOP, I might even be able to help :P

~ Eleazar
Author:  gmt2001 [Tue Oct 16, 2007 3:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
that would work. And if for some reason you can only get it to work on LANs then thats why tehy invented HAMACHI ;)
Author:  eddieringle [Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:25 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ooo Online...

That gives me a couple ideas.
But right now, like Miah said, the resources required for a project like this would be huge, not only that, it would require time that I doubt most people have.

But as for servers, I have one :P. And I would be glad to offer it as an Onlink server (well, part of it, the other part will run my website.
Author:  ChaosR [Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:43 am ]
Post subject: 
Once I'm done with this, I will finally buy my devdisc, and I'll look into it.

Resources shouldn't be a problem, even I was able to run a WoW server with 50 players, on my uberslow 1Mbit upload. And WoW seems a lot more difficult and resource consuming than Onlink.

And even if you have not, you could still go for the LAN solution
Author:  eddieringle [Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:36 am ]
Post subject: 
Or we could go for a Peer-to-Peer approach... :P

Eh, I think we still should wait for some more solid releases of single player Onlink...
Author:  Eleazar [Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:59 am ]
Post subject: 
P2P could be handy, but then you would have to actually send your IP to the other player, in order for him/her to connect to your game. Even things like P2P need central servers to list all the active IPs...

Since the multiplayer engine will be a different approack to the game, call it Multilink and start a seperate project for it :)

~ Eleazar
Author:  Darkknight512 [Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:03 pm ]
Post subject: 
Then make a central server, you would only need a very slow computer, even a Pentium 2 would do to act as a DNS like server.
Author:  Eleazar [Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:18 pm ]
Post subject: 
True.

Doesn't Onlink have it's own IRC server?

Failing that, I'm sure that there are at least three people on this forum that are online long enough, with fast enough connections and computers to create a viable server network. Keep them in sync, and you have yourself a platform for playing online.

Now all you need is the game...

~ Eleazar
Author:  gmt2001 [Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
~is person 1/3~
Author:  eddieringle [Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well, you might not want to use a poor pc, seeing as many people will be connecting (hopefully :P) and the server will be under heavy load.

Onlink is a great name, and I don't think Miah or Tycho intend on creating an ENTIRELY new mod named Multilink. I mean:
<i>Onlink</i> can mean:
An <i>On</i>going mod for Uplink,
and after multiplayer:
An <i>On</i>line mod for Uplink :P

Yes, Onlink has an IRC server, I don't believe they use it... (or do they?)

Why does that fit in to this??? :/

Anyways, like I mentioned before, I would be happy to offer my bandwidth, seeing as we have 2 more IPs available. :P
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC-05:00
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/