Re: A few thoughts on client/server in multi-player games

["Eric A. Anderson" <>]

"Carl Edman" <> writes:
> Eric A. Anderson <> writes:
> > Tyler Van Gorder <> writes:
> > > [ use ftp to transfer pixmaps ]
> > [ another program to transfer the fonts ]
> 
> Yes, and how endlessly long was the list of bug reports caused by  
> people not downloading the proper set of fonts, or not having it in the  
> right directory or not having compiled for it ? 
None because it was all automated.  It downloaded the bdf font,
converted it to pcf of snf depending on what kind of server you had,
and added it to the fontpath.  No problems, no errors.  If the font
couldn't be downloaded, then the crossfire server wasn't running, so
it didn't really matter.

> [ not easy to setup a server not a problem because smart hacker
>   types will be maintaining the server ]
Why make it hard to setup a server?  Ease of having servers is a good
thing because the more people that run servers, the more people will
play.

> I think we can build a good protocol which assumes nothing more of the  
> client than that it has a bidirectional 8-bit channel to server with a  
> bandwidth of at least 1-2 kBytes/second and round trip time of at most  
> 100-200 ms.  The class of such machines is vast and the rest can be  
> built on top of that basis.
Which bring back my earlier point of 4 fps.  You'd need to change the
style of the game to play with 200 ms of net delay.  Especially if a
packet gets dropped, and you suffer a round trip to get it resent.
Unfortunately, 4fps means less of the arcade feel that some people
want to have.
          -Eric 
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