Ferrous Moon
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Psudo-multiplayer
http://www.ferrousmoon.com:80/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=574		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  ConstableBrew [Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Psudo-multiplayer
Understandably true multiplayer would be exceedingly difficult to develop (the security of distributed p2p or the effort and resourcesin making mmo system). However another multiplayer model is possible.

Game content created and unique to individual players is periodically uploaded to a central Onlink game content server. The type of content that would be uploaded would have to be systems that the player is incontrol of, such as having private LANs that the player can build in-game.

Conceptually, as a player browses the internic database random ip addresses will be listed. Connecting to one of these addresses will cause the game to download a random system from the central content server. Once downloaded the content is simply another system withing the game.

<I don't know whether to delete this as spam or not, so I'm just removing the ads part entirely.-Miah>
Author:  VITAS [Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:31 am ]
Post subject: 
but you forget about the singel player abilities that onlink must have. I dont have internet everywhere e.g. on the train. AN thats the point where manupulation of user files is an issue. The only way you can get arround this is encrypt the files on the harddrive and in the ram or split between mutiplayer nad singelplayer accounts.

I think storing the whole servers list with lans on a central server would be great and its no problem to sync them to the clients. but then you have the problem that custom made lans no longer can be used because they must be installed on the server.

A global highscorelist is in discussion but for that you must also ensure, that noone manipulates his account.
Author:  ChaosR [Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:55 am ]
Post subject: 
why does every1 wants to have the ability to play online, it is cool, but not neccesary. we are thinking about making an online place with loads of stuff, like modlink. with a highsore list and some contests. but real online playing is abandoned a long time ago. plz, read the sticky's and annoucements before you start posting. my movie tells that also.
Author:  VITAS [Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:17 am ]
Post subject: 
i know it is and i know about the highscore thing too. :)
Author:  ConstableBrew [Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:42 am ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
but you forget about the singel player abilities that onlink must have.
No. You must not have looked into the Spore demo I cited. The game is totally a single palyer experience. The game would come with all the necessary single player game content. Should an internet connection be available the game will take the opportunity to download new content.
Quote:
the point where manupulation of user files is an issue.
Actual media is not created by the user, only existing content is utilized and only things that are expected to be chagned. For example: a company's name, items placed on a LAN, etc. All this information could be encoded in a simple text/flat file format and would be highly compressable; no binary information is required.
Quote:
The only way you can get arround this is encrypt the files
This is reasonable as a precaution. I would also expect to have to utilize thourgho bounds checking on the data supplied from a user. But because the user is not providing content that actually changes the way the game functions or operates, the inherit risks associated with malformed data are minimized.


Quote:
custom made lans no longer can be used because they must be installed on the server.
The ability to have private LANs in the game (possibly enhancing or replacing your gateway) would really be the only content that I see as being worth making the effort to develop any sort of multiplayer capabilities. My main vision is that these personal LANs are uploaded to the content server and then downlaoded by other clients as possible LANs to hack into.
Author:  ConstableBrew [Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:57 am ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
why does every1 wants to have the ability to play online, it is cool, but not neccesary. we are thinking about making an online place with loads of stuff, like modlink. with a highsore list and some contests. but real online playing is abandoned a long time ago. plz, read the sticky's and annoucements before you start posting. my movie tells that also.
I did read the sticky. And I decided I should post because the sticky did not make any mention of the content server model that I presented. Again, what I have suggested is not true online game play but really just an automated updater of sorts. This model poses significantly less developer effort than the two models already considered and thus is worthy of a fair treatment and not just a lump-sum cast off into the waste pile of pie-in-the-sky ideas.
Author:  Burningmace [Sun Feb 19, 2006 4:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
The problem arises that a player could very easily change their cash amount by using a memory scanning program such as Cheat Engine or ArtMoney.

Secondly, userfiles contain everything about the user. Transferring all this data would give rise to cheating by sending packets to the server saying that the player had a billion credits, etc.

Multiplayer for Onlink is infeasable. It has been discussed before, even if not on the forums.
Author:  ConstableBrew [Sun Feb 19, 2006 6:08 pm ]
Post subject:  You still don't get it
Player information is not uploaded. Only information that could provide game content to other players in their SINGLE player game. Other players never see any other player. Only other LANs or other game content that would be capable of being considered independant of a specific player.


PLEASE check out the video of spore. His discussion will be useful to your understanding.
Author:  VITAS [Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
but that takes the players th ability to modify their game e.g. modify company names or add lans.

As of now if you want new content wait for new builds for download.

(Ok the updates arnt that frequent as we would like, but there are simply to few people on the project to speed things up)
And Thats by the way the point why we need to focus, because theres enough to do.
Author:  ConstableBrew [Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:51 am ]
Post subject: 
I understand the need to complete the multitude of other concepts and agree that they should be completed first. What I am suggesting here is only a mechanism to extend the life of the game. The things already slated for development would definately add alot more excitement to the gameplay than a transparant content updater.

So with that I'll stop harping on this thread, and only say that this concept should be considered for a post-production patch.
Author:  prophile [Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:49 am ]
Post subject: 
Quote:
The problem arises that a player could very easily change their cash amount by using a memory scanning program such as Cheat Engine or ArtMoney.
Roll on 1) fork() and 2) crc32

There may be some prevention of that on the way ;)
Author:  Burningmace [Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:24 am ]
Post subject: 
OK, I know what CRC32 is, but what's fork()?
Author:  prophile [Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Read your man pages, Mister Burningmace. (actually I'm very surprised you don't know what fork() does)
Author:  Burningmace [Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:41 am ]
Post subject: 
I know now.
Author:  prophile [Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:45 am ]
Post subject: 
Bad boy, don't let me see you slacking off again! ;)
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