12 replies to this topic

[kolio]

My question is about an mmo, but wait please dont close the page or post omg its long and impossible. I recently quit age of conan and wow for about 5 months and I'm in the mood for some projects.
I worked with 3dmax 5 7 09 , maya 8 , truespace 6 7, photoshop 7 cs3, illustrator cs3, flash mx 7 cs4, and know c/c++ (beginner), Php(intermediate) 5 w/MySql, HTML, css, JavaScript, action script 2.0 3.0, torque script and going to college for Computer Science.

OK so i have many many flash based games and now i would like to make a windows based game. An mmo game to be specific. My question is for a rage of 100-500$ what is a good mmo engine that is directx9 and can easily be modded and has mmo capability.

I have been looking at torque and realm crafter so please give me some hints, i have looked at minions of mirth (made by torque) and apocalypse online ( made by realm crafter) and i must say i was disappointed in both.

p.s. and i dont wanna finish this mmo just mess around for experience and fun

[fireside]

You've already looked at most of your options. A true MMO requires at least one dedicated server. Do you have that? They cost about 50 dollars a month to rent. You can do a search. Many of the engines will do multiplayer games where the computer acts as the host and can handle maybe a hundred players, at least that's what torque advertises. If you have a dedicated server you could also look at WorldForge which is a pretty nice open source deal. If you're disappointed with those games that were made by teams of people, what do you think your game will be like? Basically doggy doo doo. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and pick an engine and write a multiplayer game, not an MMO.

[kolio]

Ty for your honesty. But i do wanna add something.

I am mainly looking for an engine that can do 10-50 players but if i keep modifying and adding things or i get support that it can also support 100-500+ players.

I am willing to spend couple hundred dollars for a dx9 good quality scalable engine anyone know?


p.s. fire
http://fireside7game...labz_index.html
its glitched, if u charge and jump the water, then charge while falling then u and u spawn back and u keep charging there is no maximum charge and jump as far as u can. I finished lvl 4 in 2 jumps. Disable charging while in mid air it should fix it.

[fireside]

Quote

its glitched, if u charge and jump the water, then charge while falling then u and u spawn back and u keep charging there is no maximum charge and jump as far as u can. I finished lvl 4 in 2 jumps. Disable charging while in mid air it should fix it.

I'll go back and check it, thanks. Haven't looked at that game for a while, been working on a new one. Were you using the mouse or the keyboard?

I think Torque has the nicest networking system for the money, but there are a few things I don't like about it. You have to use quark like mapping for indoor scenes and that's getting pretty out dated. You'll really just have to test the demo's and decide. No one can try that many of the commercial engines because that would add up to a lot of money. C4 is a nice looking engine and sounds a little more expensive but you don't have to pay for upgrades. I haven't tried the networking system, though. On torque, I was hosting a couple players with a phone modem and it was running pretty good. Networking is probably the one place you are better off getting a commercial engine because it's built in and everything, otherwise, I think the open source engines are fine. One engine you might want to look at is Sauerbratten. Don't know if you heard of it, but it's pretty cool. The rpg is still in beta, though.

[kolio]

It only works using the mouse. Whats harder than making a good game is getting dedicated game testers O.O .

Well my only goal is to find an engine that has very good mmo capability, like handling large clusters of players 50-100+. And ive been looking at engines all week to decide which one to buy, but i don't know which engine later on ( months maybe 1-2 years) can be scaled to 200+ players with out crapping out on me.

[alphadog]

I guess the question is what are you trying to learn: designing the content and experience, designing the code/middleware, or design the underlying engine of a typical MMO?

You could look at indie licenses for C4, HeroEngine (I don't know how much, but look at their student license), Unity (if you have a Mac), NeoAxis, etc... They all have different value depending on need.

[kolio]

I am going for designing the content and the experience. Looking for an engine that in 1-2 years of modding can be expanded to 500+ players. Most engines i looked at support up to 128 players with ease, that not the problem i'm looking for an engine that can be expanded greatly, so down the line 1 year for now im not fucked cause the engine i chose to write the game in.

[fireside]

I think that's the limit of hosting on a computer. After that, you need to get a dedicated server. The only one I know of that says they can do an MMO is 3d game studio pro edition which costs 900 dollars. There might be others. You could also look at Shiva. I think they have a separate server if I remember right. Have your wallet ready and be prepared to get skinned. Another possibility would be to look at sun's project Darkstar. It's just the server side of an MMO and you hook up the rest.

[alphadog]

I think if you really want to focus on the content/story side as a "learning experience", and don't want to go deeper than the upper/scripting layer, then I would look at HeroEngine. I don't know what their student license is like, but it's worth finding out.

I will admit that I have not used it. I only recently heard about it. It was used for the new Star Wars MMO by Blizzard, although I don't know to what extent Blizzard cross-pollinated code back into HeroEngine. But, it should scale for you even on one system and obviously has at least been partially tested in a commercial endeavor.

Usually, most game engines used in a one-man team will involve you rolling up sleeves and getting into the thick of it.

[kolio]

HeroEngine is designed for professional development teams. We cannot offer free licenses and we do not offer student pricing for individuals. :(

straight from the site :(

[alphadog]

I must have misread that, or it has changed recently...

Sorry.

[kolio]

Ok i'm making a second attempt around, i have been reading a lot of stuff about game design of forums but i cant seem to find a game engine for me.

My simple choices were realm crafter pro or TGEA, to make a mini mmo for my portfolio. Any advice would mean a lot. I'm looking for a mmo engine for 300-500$.

[CocoaDart]

I was wondering this same question. Because my idea was to create a simple 3d multiplayer rpg and if it turned out to be fun, to try to evolve the engine to be able run on a dedicated server for 500-700 players. I just dont know what engine can do that without pooping out either and I did not want to wish I had chosen a more versatile engine once I've spent alot of effort and time.

One engine I've been really eyeballing is the torque engine. Cheap, network support, many good and interesting projects have been done with it, but I'm a beginner too so hopefully someone else will post and fill you in more.