Traveller, yet another RPG

[Psilocybeing]

Note: most of this information is out of date, the game itself is no longer using anything to do with HTTP(bar the SQL server for data storage). The hex system has also been ditched, and replaced with seamless 2D movement using a physics engine. See below for the most recent screenshot.


I've started work on yet another RPG game, but this one will be set in space. The game will be turn based, allowing you to gain 'turns' over time, much like some of those webgames that were flooding the net a few years ago. It's still in the very early stages, but I've got the hex display sorted, and I plan to have it work with WLAN via HTTP, to make managment of the server easier.

One aim for this is to have an ever expanding universe, that will be dynamically generated as people explore unknown space. Objects in space will consist of things like asteroid fields, planetary/orbital bases and stations, NPC spawns, etc. As I will be working via HTTP for getting/sending information, making an online atlas for the universe, or player stats will be very easy thanks to working with SQL.

The current approach I've taken has a 2 hex border, that is not visible to the user, which is used to buffer images before they are brought up for rendering, which should hopefully speed it up a bit.

Here is a screenshot of the hex system, be gentle ;)

[Psilocybeing]

By the way, as far as story line goes I was hoping to rope in something from the old Traveller RPG book. If anyone happens to know where I might be able to get a PDF copy for reference, it would be a great help :)

[Zadam]

This game sounds very exciting and promising... I look forward to it! :)

[Psilocybeing]

Just added movement around the environment, and the basis of updating the map array with tiles from a server. This is all coded in pure C, no LUA for me baby ;)

[sousuke]

...This is all coded in pure C, no LUA for me baby ;)

I like this game already :mrgreen:
always nice to see real developers on this forum ;)

[XteticX]

...nice to see real developers on this forum

[sarcasm]Oh yea baby... everyone who uses lua is a phony of course. You can clearly see a 20x improvement just by knowing its in C. [/sarcasm]

You dont accually see code when you play a game.

[Lizardking]

[sarcasm]Oh yea baby... everyone who uses lua is a phony of course. You can clearly see a 20x improvement just by knowing its in C. [/sarcasm]

You dont accually see code when you play a game.

yes but i think it was more of a stereotyping thing, because generally you can do MORE in c. and to do c, you need to kno quite a bit of coding , and alot of people making lua, are just learners(wich is great) for now, because before the language wasnt as popular as c. therefore he is stereo typing that if you kno c you generally know more coding....

[sousuke]

[sarcasm]Oh yea baby... everyone who uses lua is a phony of course. You can clearly see a 20x improvement just by knowing its in C. [/sarcasm]

You dont accually see code when you play a game.

You know what this -> ";)" means?
It means you shouldn't take it too personaly, even if you know only LUA ;P
I wasn't really serious about it, sorry if I hurt your or anyone else's feelings :icon_sad:
(I know you can do a lot in lua, usually in shorter time, but not neccessarily faster programs than in C)

But let's not drift too much off topic with this.

[xigency]

first off, nice looking game, and online is pretty awesome too

and on the LUA vs C++ note:
C++ is more functional, with faster runtimes
Lua is faster to make a full game, easire, and less of a learning curve

but what really matters is the programmer and what they make

[Psilocybeing]

I personally don't see a difference between people who script, and people who code. Scripting still requires the exact same path of thinking, logic, and math. Each has their own advantages, scripting being the availability of large ammounts of easy to use APIs, and coding with the ability to narrowly define how your code works, to a point of mathematic precision.

I often find problems that I would much rather solve with Perl/PHP than with C/C++, as again they have nice API librarys. Just my 2c, glad you guys like the concept :). I'm just cleaning up the rendering code, and the main loop as to make it a little easier to change.

[Psilocybeing]

Online play, if it can be called that at this stage is working. An inital map is stored on a server(or will be, when I code one. I will not be using HTTP as I had planed, but will still use SQL) which is where every player will start. From there coords are stored using simple x/y coords in an integer varaible, so we will have a possible world size of 16 million tiles, 4millionx4million in dimensions.

As I have stated before, all unknown space will be generated on the fly, hopefully making use of things like solar systems being generated around a sun dynamically as the first players venture out beyond this backwards little world ;)

There won't be a test version for a while, maybe a week or so depending on how much time I spend on coding, and when the test is here it will most likely have very few features, bar exploration. I will be keeping count of the distance travelled by players on the server, so we might have a little chart going on ;)

[Psilocybeing]

One interesting idea I had was coding the server, also on the PSP, or at least a terminal to the server(to view the universe zoomed out, one of the things I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to do with an MMORPG system).

[Psilocybeing]

Here is a nicer screenshot, not much of a visible change at the moment but behind the scenes alot has been revamped, and completely changed. This starting area is loaded from a mapset sent to it from a server.

I think the backdrop I made gives it a bit more sense of area :)

note: this looks a HELL of alot better on the screen of a PSP. This screenshot does not do it justice. I'll package up a simple demo eboot later, so you can see for yourselves.

edit: upped the brightness a little on the image, it resembles what it looks like on the PSP alot more now.



As you can see, the console on the right is still not in use, but I will be adding several meters there, clock, WiFi status, etc. It will also be used for ingame commands, such as interactions with surrounding objects/tiles. Chat will be displayed over the main interface, using a scrolling text function I've made.

[Psilocybeing]

Here is a quick copy of my current status on the client/server. After an hour or so of nailing down a few render errors, and teaching PHP who's boss, I've got a working mapserver. Currently nothing is supported bar connecting to the world server, sending the user-string and recieving the inital mapset, which is retrieved from my local SQL server, but if anyone could give this a quick run-down on their PSP and report back if it works, I would be most gratefull.

I'll be leaving the server up for most of the day, so you should be able to connect without any problems.

NOTE, that this is in no way accurately show what the game will be like once I am done programming. This is the first draft of the client and server, and there will many many more to come.

[antiroC]

Just tried this out.

Connects fine to the router, tells me the local PSP's IP address.
Then goes to another screen which says:

Connecting to world server
Unable to connect
Connection returned $ffffffff
Errno=$6f

Then the map screen appears

HTH

[Psilocybeing]

Ok, it looks like port forwarding is not working on my end. The server works fine on local. Thanks for trying it :).

I've removed the link, but as soon as I get this damned router working I'll put it back up.

[Psilocybeing]

The routing is fixed, here is the demo again. I'm heading out to the pub now for a well deserved pint, I'll get the movement sorted later tonight :)

[EriCKY]

oh sure i'm the only tester :P

[Psilocybeing]

I decided that I needed to send it to more than one person, to accuractely test the WLAN connection, both on the clients side and on the side of the server, which is now working fine. I just did a telnet to the server, and manually sent a login packet from a free shell account, and recieved the initial mapset. You'll be the first playing with the real game, that's for sure EriCKY

[thedan]

=(

I get unable to connect to world server, error $6f

[J913B]

Recieved same error as antiroC and apparently thedan.

[Psilocybeing]

Yeah sorry, I went to sleep right after I posted that message, as it was 3:20 AM and I was knackered. The server is back up now, and will remain up until I goto sleep again today ;)

[Psilocybeing]

Just a quick heads up, movement in the universe is now sorted, and I also have a slot in the code reserved for object generation, which I will get around to doing later. The idea behind the generation will be similar to drop tables in MMORPGs, as in every time new space is explored, the server will loop through the new hex tiles, and perform counts on objects in the universe(for planets/suns) or in the local vicinity(asteroid belts, NPC spawns, etc) and spawn at the correct rate, based on the psysical width of the area in effect(i.e. so many hex tiles for a solar systems influence, new planet generation etc).

Most of the past couple of days has been spent tweaking and cleaning up the client/server code, aswell as upping the framerate of the client considerably. I will not be posting any dev copys every step of the way, but when I feel I've reached a substantial milestone, test copies will be released(after EriCKy tests them, of course :P).

The fix with the framerate was also directly linked to the slow response time of the PSPs control pad(had a recieve timeout on the socket I was using), so the exit callback will work fine now(L shoulder button).

[Psilocybeing]

Movement/rendering code has been cleaned up, and the display of other clients on the server should be done by the end of tonight. Here is a current screenshot, I dumped the hex tile as rendering tiles on an offset was just getting annoying.



Note: the client that was uploaded yesterday will NOT work with the current server, so sorry about that. Once the netcode has come along a bit more, I'll release another test.

[Psilocybeing]

I'm looking for a second test for this game by the way, in addition to EriCKY. If you've read this before I've spoken to you EriCKY, it's nothing personal, I just really need someone that will be available at different times to when you are, as I'm in the UK and I imagine you are quite busy with schoolwork and such.

Anyway, if anyone is able to help me out, and has WLAN working on their PSP give me a PM. It would be really great to get this new feature working tonight :)

The ability to see other clients on the server in the vicinty of you(visible screen) is almost done, problem is as I'm using the PSPs MAC address for a username(it will be put through a random MD5 hash once I'm done, to protect privacy) even if I leave an old connection active, as I only have the 1 PSP it will overwrite any old latent connection on the server.

[will1234]

i will do it and if you remember i tested for you on the irc channel im pspwill

[Psilocybeing]

The display of other players on the server is now just about sorted, bar a minor offset update that I need to throw into the movement function which I'll do tommorow. Next is optimising the net code some more, to get more bang-per-buck bandwidth wise. At the moment the server is spewing out unnecessarily large map update packets.

[Master Inuyasha]

I have a suggestion. Some of us dont have routers, and if you have the time, can you also make the game for offline use? That would be very cool.

[Psilocybeing]

Really that would take a hell of alot of extra work, as the client really is just a TV+remote. It will show you what the server tells it to show you, and has barely any control over gameplay(bar movement, the client is prompted by the server for anything else). Once the online version is somewhat working, I'll make an offline one aswell, but that won't be for quite a while I'm afraid .

'Never trust the client. Never put anything on the client. The client is in the hands of the enemy. Never ever ever forget this.' There might not be an enemy, but it can't hurt to stick to this coding stature :)

[Master Inuyasha]

Well, thanks, I knew it would cause more work. Unfortunetly, I have no say in the internet at my house. Well, keep up the good work, kind of looks like Star Sonata!