The Client:

Timers as in the use of calculation of anything such is in done in 3D games, I don''t use. The only thing time is used for is to fix the frame rate. Everything else is based off the frames. I can do that since I have a fixed number of frames per second which the program uses whether or not it shows them to the user or not. It''s sprite based so using time makes no sense since sprites are frame based.

The Server:

There are no real timers which anything is based on. The display is updated once every 5 seconds and some other stuff happens every one second. I don''t consider that really a timer since no operations are directly based off the time that passed. Most things are set to happen as fast as possible like movement.

Ben

IcarusIndie.com

[The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | Programming | Gang Wars | The Wall]

So you do use a timer after all! Well now I get it

The question was confusing because you''re talking about timers and a 3D engine which is a completely different concept than I use. It''s like explaining how Tombstone started off as a 2D game but was designed to act like a 3D game so that later it could be a real FP-RPG without changing a single line of code outside the render loop.

How I use "time" is completely different than how you would use timers.

You want to use

x+=(GetTickCount()-LastFrame)/1000.0*xVelocity;
LastFrame=GetTickCount();

That''s a timer

I don''t consider the sample I posted a timer and that the only use I have for time.

Ben

IcarusIndie.com

[The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | Programming | Gang Wars | The Wall]

Ok, cool. I believe I know hwo to make a fully optimizedserver now. Back when I thought I''d haveto be using threads, and TCP, I couldnt even image a single server hosting 12k people. Once I get my terrain editor, and loader in the game, I should start working on my server.

Thanks =)

The best 2d MMORPG I have played has been in Development for over 2 years I believe. I have personally been playing it for over a year. Its called Dransik and its in open beta.

argh! wrong links sorry.

Try this one.

This question is too big... For a MMORPG you have 2 seperate projects (at least) ongoing. You have the engine, and you have content. And in many cases, they are tightly bound to one another.

If you just want to create a simple engine, you could probably do so in relatively little time. This would include some minimal rendering engine, network code, and some command interpreter with a basic set of commands. This really isn''t a game yet, but you can walk around looking at geometry that looks like it could eventually be a game.

If you want to create an actual game with any amount of content, your lifecycle increases many-fold. You need content generation tools. You need scripting engines for AI, quests etc. You need backend services such as credit card validation, user authentication etc. The project begins to require more people... then imagine the customer service burden after you release the game.

Sure, you can shortcut much of the "commercial" development process and put something out very quickly. But if you are hoping to show your work to potential employers, or if you are planning to charge for the game, you will find yourself running a cycle of 2-4 years easily.

I made a rather popular online rpg called Mirage Online a while ago. It was 2D, used DirectX, and was written in Visual Basic. Had over 2000 player accounts, and always had 60 or more people playing at all times. Took me about 2 weeks to get it finished, the only features I never got a chance to add before selling the source code were guilds.

What happend to it? did it die out? I remeber playing it when monsters were first added.

How long? Matters on what you have to start with, what you want your back-end equipment to be, how many clients per shard you want to support... etc, etc, etc...

Basically if you somehow have a complete world and Client built already, then you''re probably looking at around 6-12 months to build it with a competent team. All an MMOG is at the server end is a big, fat database application. Nothing more, nothing less. Toss in some pathing, simple NPC AI, spawning rules, drop/looting tables and you''ve almost got an MMOG.

As someone else said, the big part is content. You have to create a world bigger than you ever considered before.

Millions? Yes, there really isn''t a way around the purchase of bandwidth and servers. But 4 years? You''re kidding me. DAoC is largely considered one of the better games and it took 18 months to make. Beta testing started very soon after the development did and I would say that the fact that the company that they were licensing the logic from went bankrupt may have slowed them down by around a month or so, reworking things on the fly, as it was.

For me, the DAoC world is plenty big enough for a starter. The nice thing with MMOGs is that you can expand them as much or as little as you need to. If you get a lot of players in your game, you''ll need to expand faster so that the shard can support the larger number of players without too much overcrowding and again you come back to the same bottleneck... content creation.