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I started programming a MMORPG a few days ago. So far, you can login, and it verifies your account and determines whether you are already logged in (to prevent two people from using the same account at the same time). It then pops up a window and displays a texture and some buggy text that moves across the screen if you try to resize the window (which you should not even be able to do in the first place).
This will be my third MiniMORPG. My first was a graphical 2D one in which you could log in and shoot each other with arrows in a Zelda-like atmosphere. Nobody logged in, except me from a few different computers -- had fun shooting myself. My second was a text-based MUD that was fairly detailed, but small -- only Xuri logged in and checked it out briefly.
I was going to base the code on the first one, and just improve upon it, but lost it somewhere somehow, so I started fresh. Then I thought I would be smart and use a pre-existing 3D engine, but I want to make it UO-like in how buildings are built (tile-based, kinda'), etc. and decided that just is not how things are meant to work in any decent 3D engine available, so I am joyfully writing my own.
I wrote several 3D engines before. The first one, which amazed Lord British enough to show his programmers (who I bet called me a newbie), won me a full scholarship to the school of my choice (which I then dropped out of), and provided Ryandor with enough amusement to keep him busy for a few hours, designing maps for it (of course). The second was basically a better version of the first, but the third I started from scratch and was/is leagues beyond the other two, with rolling hills, fancy trees, buildings, and water that looks very stupid from underneath. This project, though, requires a fresh approach, I think -- I do not think I could adapt any of them for it.
I also abandoned the wiki at Sydius.org for now -- I completely lost interest in it since nobody was visiting, except Dev (for some unknown reason). I was also getting so caught up in designing concepts and such that I never stepped back to realize my ideas are crap and that I will never get anywhere if I do not start coding.
Right now, my coding philosophy basically means, "code by the seat of my pants, and fix it later." That is a horrible way to make a program. Long story short, I spend an hour writing 500 lines of spaghetti code, then spend 8 hours cleaning it up. Yet, it still beats designing things beforehand, since I tend to spend 50 hours designing a single class before implementing it. Of course, once I find myself at a dead-end, I might regret some of this spaghetti code? so long as I can keep the improvements in code functionality and quality to bite-sized portions, I will stay motivated. As soon as I realize that I will have change 5,000 lines of code at once before I will be able to even compile the client again, well, eh? I will go see what is on TV, and forget about the project until I decide to start over a year from now.
Graphically, I think I can muster rectangular cubes for walls, some OK roofs, and crap trees (maybe using a generator), but all animals/people will be groups of spheres until someone else decides to donate art or I learn how to model biological things more accurately. Hopefully, code-wise, it will support anything I might want to throw at it, though.
The gameplay/world will basically be a fully-3D version of UO, where both Balrons and Bunnies are represented by differently shaded spheres. Think "Seige" rule-set, though, but with some modifications. It will be a much more challenging game than UO ever was, but hopefully with more immersion as well.
Role-playing will be lightly enforced in that I will actively monitor character names and strike down with lightning any whom shall dare the macro "Vendor buy me the bank so I can hire some guards!" Basically, be yourself, but not a moron, and you will be fine. Going on a massive killing spree for no apparent reason is fine with me, though, and I will probably make some great choke points for hapless miners to dare venturing through and for PKs to ambush people in. I think that sort of thing adds spice to the game, though, with likely fewer than 5 players, I doubt there will be many jerks to bother you (or friends to play with).
It will be Windows-only because I do not care about porting it to Linux/Mac at this point. I have some friends who use Macs that I would ever-so-love to play my game, but it is a hassle I will worry about later. Linux fans should be able to play my game easily through an emulator. I am trying to abstract most of the OS-specific stuff away, though, to make it easy to port later, if I ever see the demand.
As for hardware requirements, I am aiming for everything between 500Mhz Pentium III to 2.4Ghz Dual-core 64-bit AMD (my chip). Graceful degradation is the key -- it will look like crap on a crap system, and beautiful on mine. Considering I will likely be 100% of the player-base, I suppose that is an alright philosophy.
At any rate, I will actively start sending spam and gay porn to those of you who do not register and play at least one hour per day once I get the game to the point where you can walk around. Oh, but then, I probably will not get that far, so do not worry.
Last edited by Sydius on Sat Dec 10, 2005 6:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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