Chat servers on the cheap side?
Author
A lot of multiplayer online games use chat as a feature.
Any recommendations for newbies on really affordable chat server hosts?
Author
Because normal hosts (like godaddy, yahoo, 1-and-1, et al) don't allow chat servers or use of sockets.
So my question should be rephrased, any IRC providers on the cheap?
Or better yet, how do newbies go about providing chat rooms for their pet-project games without spending hundreds a month?
So my question should be rephrased, any IRC providers on the cheap?
Or better yet, how do newbies go about providing chat rooms for their pet-project games without spending hundreds a month?
Author
Before developing the next Quake, newbies like me usually start with a multiplayer tic-tac-toe kind of game to get our feet wet.
What we need is just a $10-a-month package with hosting, php, mysql and chat.
That's all, nothing else, really simple, how hard is that to understand?
Now my questions is, is there such a kind of service somewhere in this world?
Then a backgammon online, then a monkey island, then unreal tournament.
By then I'll be cool enough to have my own dedicated server see?
But now, back to square one, I need chat on my really simple game and don't want to spend more than $10 a month for testing purposes.
Any help for god's sake?
What we need is just a $10-a-month package with hosting, php, mysql and chat.
That's all, nothing else, really simple, how hard is that to understand?
Now my questions is, is there such a kind of service somewhere in this world?
Then a backgammon online, then a monkey island, then unreal tournament.
By then I'll be cool enough to have my own dedicated server see?
But now, back to square one, I need chat on my really simple game and don't want to spend more than $10 a month for testing purposes.
Any help for god's sake?
This is largely dependent on what you're trying to do. What kind of game is this? What language is it written in? What features does it need ( private messages, channels, etc )? There are a lot of ways this can be done.
For our game Cindervale I wrote a chat system which can handle Channels and Private messages in less than two days. Since the game is web based, most of the protocol stuff was handled for us. We chose to use a database backend and have created a few tables for this like messages, channels, players, etc.
If you are writing this in python, there is a library called python-irclib ( http://python-irclib.sourceforge.net/ ). I don't know of any paid chat servers since they're pretty easy to implement and are highly dependent on what language, platform, and type of game. You might want to take a look at a few IRC libraries. IRC is a stable protocol which has a lot of support. If you were using the IRC protocol, you could just download an IRC server and be off the ground in no time.
Hope this helps!
For our game Cindervale I wrote a chat system which can handle Channels and Private messages in less than two days. Since the game is web based, most of the protocol stuff was handled for us. We chose to use a database backend and have created a few tables for this like messages, channels, players, etc.
If you are writing this in python, there is a library called python-irclib ( http://python-irclib.sourceforge.net/ ). I don't know of any paid chat servers since they're pretty easy to implement and are highly dependent on what language, platform, and type of game. You might want to take a look at a few IRC libraries. IRC is a stable protocol which has a lot of support. If you were using the IRC protocol, you could just download an IRC server and be off the ground in no time.
Hope this helps!
If you want to be cheap, setup hosting from your own personal computer.
Honestly, I dont know of any "traditional" hosting that allows you that much control. If I was a host, I surely would not be letting you crash a server that has numerous other clients on it.
EDIT:
As a side note, you say you want something for people that are new to network programming. Making a multiplayer tic tac toe doesnt require a dedicated server, nor any kind of hosting, run the client and server from your own computer. Then when you get to "Unreal Tournament" you can pay for a server, when you need it.
Now to quote you once more, "really simple, how hard is that to understand?"
Good luck.
Honestly, I dont know of any "traditional" hosting that allows you that much control. If I was a host, I surely would not be letting you crash a server that has numerous other clients on it.
EDIT:
As a side note, you say you want something for people that are new to network programming. Making a multiplayer tic tac toe doesnt require a dedicated server, nor any kind of hosting, run the client and server from your own computer. Then when you get to "Unreal Tournament" you can pay for a server, when you need it.
Now to quote you once more, "really simple, how hard is that to understand?"
Good luck.
A few major hosting providers I am familiar with specifically block port 6667 and any IRC traffic from entering or originating from their networks. You might want to consider using something other than IRC.
Author
Thanks Cindervale, you were much friendlier in your response.
Now, I already have my chat program coded, no need for software or IRC inner workings.
My question is about cheap ways to have chat on your game. Hosts don't provide chat features or allow socket connections on their cheap plans.
Being this forum about game development and hoping newbies were treated accordingly I wrongly thought there would be some way for us noobs to start playing with this stuff without having to pay with our first newborn for services like chat.
Thanks for your input anyway.
Now, I already have my chat program coded, no need for software or IRC inner workings.
My question is about cheap ways to have chat on your game. Hosts don't provide chat features or allow socket connections on their cheap plans.
Being this forum about game development and hoping newbies were treated accordingly I wrongly thought there would be some way for us noobs to start playing with this stuff without having to pay with our first newborn for services like chat.
Thanks for your input anyway.
Author
"You might want to consider using something other than IRC."
Thanks for this pointer. What other options do I have?
Right now I am polling the server every 5 secs, but just for testing the infrastructure. But I need the real stuff to go live.
Thanks for this pointer. What other options do I have?
Right now I am polling the server every 5 secs, but just for testing the infrastructure. But I need the real stuff to go live.
This topic is closed to new replies.
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