Okay, I''m thinking of making a RTS game and I''ve thought of two possible ways to make it work. One, do something like most other major RTS''s have done, have their own dedicated servers (Westwod Chat or Battle.NET) and all players log onto those and chat and join/create games. Or I could have something like WON where players set up their own servers (i.e. 3d shooter style, Half Life, Quake) How do these systems work and are they even feasible at all in any sort of realistic cost constraint?

If you got a /384 DSL line you could support a few dozen people chatting & setting up games ala Diablo style.

With cable, it''s hard to say since its so sporadic. With a modem, don''t bet your life on it

Magmai Kai Holmlor
- The disgruntled & disillusioned

The only difference between a LAN game and a net game is whether or not the server is running on a connection with DNS.

Games like Quake still run off of a central server which is hosted at WON. It''s a lobby server. You may be hosting the game on your computer but it still has to connect to the other player through WON which is a dedicated host.

It''s kinda like ICQ. You send a message to ICQ and ICQ forwards it to it''s destination. You never have a direct link.

Ben
http://therabbithole.redback.inficad.com

Battle.NET is nothing more then a chat server and gameing master server.

WON is the same thing only you don''t start off in chat.

Yahn Bernier wrote a great artical on gameing master servers at www.gamasutra.com