Imagine multiplayer fallout or xcom over the internet, through a central server (like yahoo games or something, for example). Now, I'd like to eliminate all "dice-rolling" aspects from the game. My idea for determining bullet trajectory: A cursor bounces up and down a vertical bar, players try to make it stop in the center to have a y value of 0. Then a horizontal bar for the x value. The higher a player's shooting skill, the slower the cursor moves. Players have a limited time to stop the cursor, also depending on skill. I have 2 concerns: cheating and lag. I'm sure players could write some kind of program to slow the cursor manually. I was thinking about reporting all info to the server, such as time used, starting position of cursor, etc, to make sure everything was "kosher" with the game mechanics. But how much lag could I expect? If the window for selection is about 1500 ms, and there's >250 ms of lag...but then again, if the server is collecting clientside data, but then again that can be tampered with... Anyway, this is horribly written, but if anyone understands, any feedback would be appreciated.

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Original post by abstractimmersion I'm sure players could write some kind of program to slow the cursor manually. I was thinking about reporting all info to the server, such as time used, starting position of cursor, etc, to make sure everything was "kosher" with the game mechanics.

Actually, a program that detects color variation and clicks for you is easier to make than slowing the cursor down, and far more difficult for the server to detect.

ouch. Well, is there any good way to do this, without using random numbers?

You shouldn't be concerning about internet lag.

More and more users of today are switching to cable and DSL, a ping to the server usually only takes 30+ ms

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More and more users of today are switching to cable and DSL, a ping to the server usually only takes 30+ ms

If you live in the same country, maybe. From New Zealand to the US, there's some guaranteed latency just from the route of internet traffic.

Just put the dice-rolling back in. You can't make a server-test twitch test that won't get raped by lag, and you can't make a client-side twitch test that won't be cracked within a week. Dice ftw.

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Original post by Argus2 Quote: More and more users of today are switching to cable and DSL, a ping to the server usually only takes 30+ ms If you live in the same country, maybe. From New Zealand to the US, there's some guaranteed latency just from the route of internet traffic.

Just tested:
California, US to NZ = 170ms
to China = 446ms

well maybe it doesn't have to be twitch, but I really want the dice taken out (for my own ulterior motives), somehow.

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Original post by abstractimmersion well maybe it doesn't have to be twitch, but I really want the dice taken out (for my own ulterior motives), somehow.

Why?

This breaks most of the strategy in the game if you have mad skills [or a crack].

I think most of the strategy would be in equipment selection (a la Xcom) and character design (a la Fallout), not to mention troop movement.

Basically, I want dice rolls taken out so it's a purely skill based game, because then one can involve money.

On the other hand, maybe a small amount of dice rolling is OK...does anyone here play at Skilljam.com or a similar site?