like the title says, a group of my freinds, 2 other guys, have some experience and we're looking at making an morpg. it's only going to us three, and any other kids from our school that will pay $5-$10 for a copy of the game. we dont plan on it being that big, but we know that at least the three of us will play it. now if we're expecting a minimum of 3 and max of, lets say, 250 players, would i need to go get an expensive server, i work at a pc store, so i got connections, or could i just use a good pc(i already have one)that is always hooked up to the internet (thank u cable) i just dont want to have to spend more money on this then we will be makin off sellin the games. anyways, any help is appreciated, thanks p.s. also wondering how i would go about patching the game. the game is set for a max of 25 players (small towns and buildings to show it), when we hit 15, we up the max to 50 (adding a building or two for apartments, adding another small town, and enlarging all towns) and so on, we just need to know how we would go about patching it (we've never done patching ;))again, any help is appreciated.

Well, you're already planning for a game that can handle 250 players but you don't have anything built yet. If I were you, I would aim at a solid server design at first. By solid I mean:

- A protocol that uses low bandwidth
- A way of moving players/NPCs without sending alot of data
- A server that doesn't come down crashing when 10 players connect or are connected.

Next start planning out the several components you need:
- Database
- Login procedure
- Client
- Server maps
- A way to handle online players
- A way to handle players that are on a certain map

And then start building(Ofcourse, decided on the language(s) first too). When you got a server that can handle 10 players will not lagging severly, not using all CPU AND doesn't use alot of bandwidth, then start thinking about 250 players.

Toolmaker

I don't normally reply to these threads but, here are some questions:

- What is the most complicated game you've made to date? I will assume that it's a single-player RPG of similar complexity
- Have you got all the client-side issues sorted out, for instance, graphics engine, user interface, menus, setup etc?
- Are you already familiar with (non-game specific) network programming?

If the answer to all these questions is "Yes", you might have the relevant kit to be able to make your game.

If your previous best game was "hello world", "tetris" or even a simple platformer, you are probably not ready to tackle a ORPG.

Perhaps for some light relief, you should read this:

A useful guide to how to make a MMORPG :)

Mark

Quote:

Original post by markrq - What is the most complicated game you've made to date? I will assume that it's a single-player RPG of similar complexity - Have you got all the client-side issues sorted out, for instance, graphics engine, user interface, menus, setup etc? - Are you already familiar with (non-game specific) network programming?

-yes-actually it was a single player rpg
-not totally finished, this will be done within the month, we dotn expect to finish this for a while
-i am not at all familiar with it, my father has some experience, and can help a bit, butother than that no

and thats a ton for the link, that was great:)

an autopatcher is relatively easy to make, compared to the rest of the game. i wrote my auto patcher in Python in about an hours total worth of coding. the script itself is about 35 or 40 lines of code [grin].