Hello all. I am faced with a hard design decision during the development of an MMORTS. Just to sum it up, this is one ongoing game, so that everyone is playing on the same map, and when people log-off, their stats are saved. My problem is what to do with the no longer playing people''s units, building, and so forth. The only ideas that we have been able to come up with so far is a lock-down of their areas, or of having an AI, sort of a mayor similar to that of Call to Power 2, except more advanced. Anyway, I would appreciate you feedback on this, and you can either reply to this post, or email me at: fireball@gdnmail.net Thank you, Fireball

About the massive programming problems involved in your very ambitious idea - I''ll just say this:

Have you ever coded a multiplayer game of any kind before? If so, fine and good, if not, write a four-player RTS first.

Anyhow, I think you''d have to alter the rules from those of a regular RTS to make this work, perhaps making it possible to disassemble and move buildings or something. You could have exit points like tunnels to save your vehicles (to minimise the problem of someone logging out deliberately when they are losing and waiting until their enemy has been defeated by someone else).

There are other problems to consider, like what happens to newbie players who find themselves right next to someone who can conquerer 300 square-screens of land and resources.

Perhaps you should consider having players on teams, perhaps controlling two massive bases; that way no player really ownes any buildings anyway, and you should be able to keep the sides fair.

that''s all I can think of

Hi,
I have all the programming problems for this solved, and have been coding myself for around 6 years. Mostly the problems lye in design, and thank you for you suggestions.

-Fireball