6 replies to this topic

[ray648]

First I would like to introduce myself. My name is Ray and im 21 years old. Ive been programming since i was about 16 and writting games from the moment I started. My current job is programming windows applications in Visual Basic, however at heart I am more of a Linux fan and have reasonable experience with C and Perl.

Previous games ive made include most of the basic ones people always recommend to start with (Tetris, Space Invaders, etc), as well as several text adventure games, one of which was a very scaled down version of what I will be trying to achieve here, with a server program that allowed several players to be in the same environment and interact as well as doing the normal quests.

My main reason for wanting to make this game is that I love multiplayer gaming, but I hate the way all the MMORPGs on the market impliment it. By removing nearly all NPCs from the environment, the game world seems to me to loose its culture and background and just be full of people with the same goal in mind (leveling up, adventuring, etc).

Anyway, here is my game idea:


Game Style: Fantasy RPG

Basic Concept: A fantasy RPG set in a large city similar in ways to the one seen in Planescape Torment. This is a multiplayer game and all game data will be stored on a central server in the same way as all online RPGs, therefore the game will be not run offline. However, unlike other online RPGs, where as many characters as possible are played by human players, the idea here is to have a very low density of human players compared to NPCs. This will allow all players to have a feeling of importance in the game world, like they would in a single player game. A player would, for example, be able to become head of security in the city and be able to order NPC security guard characters to do things for him/her without annoying other players, as there probably would not be very many players who directly under the players command. This action would however have a significant effect on the game world as other players might find out what has happened and some of the rules they have to obey to avoid the law might be changed as a result.

Perspective: Isometric view point or possibly pre-rendered backdrops

Players: up to about 100 at a time. World continues even when no players are logged on.

Server: Game server (probably written in C++, or possibly perl) running on Ret Hat Linux using a MYSQL database to store game data. Due to the relatively low number of players who will be connected to the server at a time, the server specifications and bandwidth are not as much of an issue as they would otherwise be. I have a computer that can be used for this purpose.

Client: Graphical client program initially for Windows or Linux. Probably also written in C++ (possibly C# or other .net for windows version) using direct X or equivalent.




I would just like to add that this is not a direct request for assistance with creation of the game, the purpose of this post is to run the idea past some people and get opinions of it. I believe myself to be reasonably capable of coding the server end of things and sorting out the database, my main problem is complete lack of experience with modern graphics programming. So really, these are the questions I wish to ask you:


What do you think of this idea?

Has this been done before by anyone and I havn't noticed?

Anyone interested in helping with a client at some point in the future if this does go ahead?



Thanks in advance for your time and feedback.

[Ed Mack]

Having such a large number of NPCs could make the world seem sterile, and lifeless. Also, they can put a great load on the server(s) to simulate.

But still, I hope you pursue this further :)

[ray648]

Ed Mack said:

Having such a large number of NPCs could make the world seem sterile, and lifeless. Also, they can put a great load on the server(s) to simulate.

But still, I hope you pursue this further :)

Just a quick thought, but do you think all the NPCs could work better if some were controller by a second server (connected by LAN to the first so as not to reduce bandwidth). Also if the server could not cope it would be possible to offload the database to another computer on the network. I guess this all depends a bit on how many NPCs there end up being and the specification of the server (which currently isn't great), however, by the time a project like this could be ready I would probably be able to find the money for some new hardward.

ps. thanks for the comment, made me think about it a bit more.

[Methulah]

I think that part of the joy of having a game continually played online is the fact you get to interact with so many players. This, however, can get boring. What I would invisage is that you could rent or sell servers to groups of gamers who know each other and wish to play a online RPG with just their friends (kinda like playing NWN or BG2 at a lan, except fully online and open ended.

Just a comment, but I know that if I could have a server for me and my friends to play an online game without all the noobs, newbies and undesirable players... I would.

[ray648]

A quick update for anyone interested:

Work on this project has now started. Ive started making the database and server program. Currently it can accept multiple connections and will send out to clients part of the data about the first area of the game (the only data currently in the database). Ive got a couple of friends helping me with other parts, one is doing the music and sound effects for the game and another will possibly be doing a lot of the work on the client application in windows.

The game server application is being written in C and the database program used is MySQL. Both are running under red hat linux 9.

[Ed Mack]

Cool, any test site?

[justdan]

ray648 said:

Ed Mack said:

Having such a large number of NPCs could make the world seem sterile, and lifeless. Also, they can put a great load on the server(s) to simulate.

But still, I hope you pursue this further :)

Just a quick thought, but do you think all the NPCs could work better if some were controller by a second server (connected by LAN to the first so as not to reduce bandwidth). Also if the server could not cope it would be possible to offload the database to another computer on the network. I guess this all depends a bit on how many NPCs there end up being and the specification of the server (which currently isn't great), however, by the time a project like this could be ready I would probably be able to find the money for some new hardward.

ps. thanks for the comment, made me think about it a bit more.

He could just have the npc's load once the player gets within a certain range.