How do I Proceed?

Rafkin · 04-08-2004, 05:23 PM

Hi guys.. I've been lurking the forum for a bit. This is my first post

First a bit of background information on me. I started programming with VB, then the mIRC scripting language. Since then I've moved onto html, javascript, perl, php, C, and currently C++. I know my way around html, javascript, perl, php, and C pretty well. I've done some coding in C++, but nothing very impressive. Currently I am trying to figgure out windows programming and programming games with DirectX. I havn't gotten very far with that yet.

Now, I want to make an online, multiplayer (massively multiplayer) game. I have many idea's running through my head, and have worked some of them out. It would be pretty much a space game, where a player earns credits, and uses those credits to build bigger, faster, better ships, upgrading thier hulls, engines, sensors, sheilds, etc as they can afford them. These bigger, better ships would in turn allow them to earn more credits, but also may require hiring NPC crews, such as engineers, cooks, medical, pilots, communications officers, etc.. They could earn credits from transporting diplomats, and other people around space like a taxi, or hauling cargo, or mining ore, or providing protection for conveys from pirates, etc. They would be able to form alliances with other players to setup empires.

I don't want to give away too much more information at this point, unless someone wants to help me with this project, at wich point any information sent will be with the aknowledgment that said information can't be used to create another project that's better, or done prior to mine. After mine is out, however, idea's are as free as with any game.

I was thinking of doing this using C++, and DirectX etc, sort of like Space and Beyond.. but as I have stated before, I'm not very good with DirectX or Windows Programming, and this project is a bit daunting for someone of my experience. Thus I am considering doing this as a web page based game, using PHP, and MySQL. Doing this using the latter would allow me to provide the basic game free of charge, with premium memberships at a small monthly rate, allowing for no ads, and thier own planet or solar system added to a location chosen by the Game Admin (to avoid congestion), possibly within an area controlled by the empire they belong to, if they so wish. This could be done with a DirectX game, but not as easily.

However, doing it as a web page based game has it's own challenges, such as not being able to do a rotational 3D, self updating scan of nearby ships or planets etc. However, I think I could get away with two dynamically created images, showing the front and side view of their ship, with the dots, blobs, blips, or whatever in thier correct places, for like a screen capture of the scanner radius.

Another problem I have, is that I plan to have some NPC ships and crews going around doing much the same thing as the players, in the form of hauling cargo, mining ore, playing taxi etc, to provide some competition for the players. The availability of these jobs will depend on availability of ships to do them. Eg: If someone is hauling a certain ore from planet A to planet B over and over again, the amount of pay will drop, and eventually the cargo would be refused, untill planet B generates a need for that item again. Other NPCs would act as pirates, or aggressive factions to generate the need of battleships, and give people the option of something to battle against other than other players.

Now, here comes the hard part. Do most web based games use programs in the background to update the database and make changes as needed? is it a continuously running program or something that runs every so many minutes? If the latter, would it need a program on contrab that would activate the other program on intervals? Could this be done where every time someone visits the page, this activate the other program to do the updates needed since the last time someone visited, prior to spitting out the eventual report requrested?

How would I go about doing this, and would you suggest I use the web page based version or do this with DirectX and C++, using a client / server setup?

I'm sorry, I do have a bad habbit of making very large posts to say the simplist of things. I'll close this by saying, I'd like any advice you might think is fit to offer, and thank you in advance for any and all help.

---------
Rafkin

sde · 04-08-2004, 05:41 PM

if it were web based, the page usually isn't constantly running .. rather runs once and terminates until the next link or button is clicked.

also, it would seem that everytime a user would do something, it would hit the server, so you could write events to the database as they happen as opposed to a cron job. there might be uses for cron otherwise.

i think to make this game truely enjoyable though, you would have to go the directx/c++ route .. or something of that sort.

if you were willing to learn flash, that would be a possibility as the flash timer can load variables from some middleware like php, .. however flash is not a 3d environment either.. and if you don't know flash, it can be a bear to learn.

i can hear all those gears turnning in your head though =)

good luck .. welcome to the community too!

Rafkin · 04-08-2004, 05:59 PM

Well, if I do go with the DirectX / C++ route.. I could add in some true 3D enviroments, allowing people to disembark from thier ships and interact with npc's and pc's alike on star bases, space stations, and even planets (if their ship isn't too big to land). I could also use a set of instanced zones, to make up the town or space port area..

But then, I wouldn't be able to provide people the option of having thier own planet or solar system, unless.. hrm.. I suppose if I have several sets of zones, that they could choose from, so that not everyone had the exact same looking planet, but allowed some variety.

These sets could also include things such as ship building area's, or repair facilities to allow the planet owner to make some credits by providing services, as well as a factory or refinery for items or minerals to be shipped to and from.

This interaction could also allow me to setup different languages for various races, to make the neccessity of either learning the different languages, or setting up a ship to ship universal translator, as well as a personal, carry along version of the same. Could provide various levels of those, in complexity, availability, and thusly price. Learning the language would help when the other side is communicating among themselves without using thier translator.

So many idea's.. I have got to figgure out how to write a design document to get these down.