I just registered and am going to read all the programming tips and stuff. I know essentially nothing. My goal is to work hard and eventually run a MMORPG or a game similar to that. Any tips and all advice will be appreciated very much, (Example: What language would be best.) Thanking in advance.

Work hard.

If you start here you''ll answer most of your questions. If you have any more questions, feel free to post them here on the forums. Good luck

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http://www.cfxweb.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1139

quote:Original post by MJMSMJMS
I just registered and am going to read all the programming tips and stuff. I know essentially nothing. My goal is to work hard and eventually run a MMORPG or a game similar to that. Any tips and all advice will be appreciated very much, (Example: What language would be best.) Thanking in advance.

Make a good design, spend some time defining goals, rules, features before you start programming. EG. how do players quit or save ? A quit or disconnect could make them just stand there, or they could drop all items and start in a temple the next login. A save could mean that the player disappears and starts there again when he reconnects, or he could go into sleep mode.

Think up an inventory system, with objects who have parents and a list of objects as children. This makes making bags and chests easier, and you can put a bag with contents inside a bag which goes inside a chest.

Design your map/world system, with sufficient detail. How is the terrain stored and drawn ? Do you use a heightmap ? If so, 256/256 area's, or another size ? How far can you see ? How are buildings handled ? Can you

Then design the server and client separately, the server should know the maps to see what areas are walkable by everyone, but only the client needs to know the textures, etc. You probably need a map/building/object editor, or converters from 3ds/q3radiant/worldcraft/milkshape to your format. The protocol between client and server should be defined. The client should not be trusted, the real game takes place on the server, the client just displays it.But the client should know all static objects in the world, so that it's not neccesary to send the position of 200 trees to the client whenever the player enters a new area.

Most important rule: you can make some 3D graphics demo's just to see if it can be done, but don't start on the real thing too soon ! It's tempting and easy to quickly make a program that displays a 3D window where you can walk around. If you start and add a flat floor to walk on, before you have designed the terrain format or concept, then it might be a problem later.

You might even have added a start menu for configurations. Now you want to be able to hit ESC and see the menu to change your settings. Oops, if your program is just

main(){   init();   drawmenu();   start();   endgame();} 

then you have a problem. You need a game loop which draws the 3D screen when a flag is set to PLAYING or set to MENU, then the menu is drawn. This while the main loop keeps going, so the other players and NPC's still move around. You cannot expect the server to send the entire game state just because the player opened and closed the settings window.

Just start coding when the design is more or less sound. Don't start simple with limitations thinking you will add them later. This usually leads to problems and games with strange limitations that players won't understand. They are technically not possible because of bad design, and you as the programmer probably already took them for granted and because a complete redesign would be too much trouble. For example not being able to sell an object in a shop that you are wearing or wielding. You can explain to the users that they should first take off or unwield the items before starting the shop conversation, but in other games it just works.

And don't be afraid to listen to user input, if they complain about something, you should always consider changing it.


But about language, just use what you are comfortable with. Visual C++, Visual Basic or Delphi with JEDI DirectX libraries, they will all work OK.



[edited by - Stoffel on September 4, 2002 6:11:16 PM]

Good Stuff, I''m taking notes. Thanks.

If I wanted to make a good game, how long should I expect it to take? (Preferably in hours not days or months)

At least 9999.

"1 and 1 is 1 11" - tool