Sun Apr 21 22:46:50 2002

I tried writing a CGI version of LORD in 1999 but found that doing the server-side stuff was incredibly difficult with the hosting company I was using at the time.  But after playing around a bit with the code for OSY, which I host on my own machine, I realized I could probably learn a little Perl and add a fun game for OSY members to play at the same time!

Back in 99 I did a quick mockup of the client-side interface for a LORD clone in HTML and Javascript.  You can access it here:

[url]http://www.pegasus3d.com/games/game/game_main_screen.html[/url]

Now, in the OSY game, your character would be your OSY nickname, so I could use the membership database that already exists.  Your stats would live on the server in another database, and the basic idea would be to fight a) computer-generated non-player characters and b) each other.  The idea would be to level up and fight some big enemy at the end, after which the game would be reset.  (If you've played LORD, you know what I mean)

I could do a dungeons and dragons (LORD) style game or a space type game.  I'm not sure which.  Any ideas?

Sun Apr 21 23:32:10 2002

Sun Apr 21 23:55:23 2002

Hmmm......:evilgrin: :sagrin: :evilgrin: :sagrin: :evilgrin:

(Edited by Imitation Gruel at 4:55 pm on April 21, 2002)

Mon Apr 22 00:24:03 2002

Mon Apr 22 00:38:11 2002

:lol: at what IG sed. :D

Thank you.

Mon Apr 22 02:57:11 2002

Mon Apr 22 16:56:53 2002

Dont even try to go for fantasy shit.

Mon Apr 22 18:53:05 2002

And one recommendation.

Recommendation: I would use JSP or ASP or CFML for the game, iiwy. This is simply because every PERL instance runs in a different session, on the server, which could crash the bbs a bit if you're not careful. If you're dying to use PERL, perhaps a MUD would be a better idea, since it's more stable?

Suggestion 1. I'd be willing to help with flash if you're interested.  The entire game can be done with flash and Javascript.  Ikonboard prolly has Macromedia support.

Suggestion 2. Howzabout a MUD or MOO. If you're crazy to level, you could get a free dikumud or smaugmud or tinymud(or a moo...muxes suck) from sites like:

Generic
http://www.boutell.com/perlmud/

or...

Koala
http://koalamud.sourceforge.net/download.php3

or

Smaug
http://www.gammon.com.au/downloads/dlsmaug.htm

or

Diku, Tiny and others
http://www.godlike.com/muds/mres/mftp.html

We could use Telnet or Kermit to log in.

J.

(Edited by Madan at 11:53 am on April 22, 2002)

Mon Apr 22 20:11:11 2002

Mon Apr 22 20:15:53 2002

Why don't you like MUDs?

M.

(Edited by Madan at 1:19 pm on April 22, 2002)

Mon Apr 22 21:13:18 2002

because the average dikumud is nigh uncrashable and because ikonboard can't claim any of the above.

I say buy the Torque engine from www.garagegames.com and we'll have an official FPS in under a month. :) (under a week if you want to just keep the demo stuffs. :D )

Mon Apr 22 21:14:27 2002

Besides, my game wouldn't be running on top of ikonboard, it would be a separate process.  If the game crashed, big deal, the board would be unaffected.  The only connection to the board would be to read the userlist file, it's a flat text file, and I'm hardly likely to corrupt it when just READING from it, am I?

I don't like MUDs because they are boring.  I got tired of text adventures some time in the early 80s.

Mon Apr 22 21:22:09 2002

Eh? What does ib have to do with anything? All they make is the forum CGI (in wretched perl no less) If you're talking about the perl distribution that OSY is run on it's most likely ActiveState's Active Perl, which makes perl suck no less. What Jeremy means by OSY game is a game about OSY the place, not OSY the forum  

Uhm, Hit:

A. I already warned him about PERL.
B. I wasn't talking about the ikonboard for the game, I was simply mentioning that either:
 1. Everything could be moved onto a MUD...
 2. The board we have now isn't exactly stability incarnate and MUDs *are* quite stable(in case he was was about to mention stability).

Jeremy, I hate to break it to you but a bbs, for the most part, *is* a "text adventure" but like I said, it was a suggestion. And you can take that suggestion any way you want.

I have a new Unix in a Nutshell book and I'm reading it tonite. I'll see you later.

M.

Mon Apr 22 22:48:32 2002

Tue Apr 23 02:26:40 2002

They shall be crushed!

Tue Apr 23 02:41:22 2002

Tue Apr 23 14:06:26 2002

from Madan posted at 10:15 pm on April 22, 2002

Because MUDs have been around since the 80's

unix has been around far longer, but that doesnt mean its good for the desktop.

Tue Apr 23 16:44:56 2002

MUDs are easy to use and extremely well-built.  And if you'd ever run one on a server, you'd know this.

Especially the smaug, diku and tinies.

But whatever. Let the matter drop already.

Last fucking time I make a suggestion on this place.

m.

Tue Apr 23 17:39:43 2002

Tue Apr 23 19:37:06 2002

from Madan posted at 9:44 am on April 23, 2002


Last fucking time I make a suggestion on this place.

Tue Apr 23 19:38:37 2002

from Jeremy Reimer posted at 3:48 pm on April 22, 2002

The board is perfectly stable.  It hasn't crashed once.  The only time OSY goes down is when OmniHTTP decides, for whatever reason, to stop responding, and I have to stop and restart the service.  Probably DOS attacks from the script kiddies.  It has nothing to do with Perl.

I like the idea, Jeremy. But before even starting to think about the environment, etc... do you have some design done for the game? Want some help?

Edit: of course, no fantasy crap. Hard sci-fi, possibly. Or Shadowrun :)

(Edited by PaoloM at 12:40 pm on April 23, 2002)

Tue Apr 23 19:41:45 2002

(Edited by PaoloM at 12:43 pm on April 23, 2002)

Tue Apr 23 20:04:05 2002

I hope now you understand what I was getting from you.

What the *hell* are you talking about again?

M.

Tue Apr 23 20:52:45 2002

Something like LORD, where you have a simple menu type structure, and the options are to buy/sell equipment, hang out in the bar, go fight other NPC ships (pirates?), challenge other players, form alliances, maybe trade goods, that sort of thing.

Tue Apr 23 21:04:19 2002

AYB would play such a game.

Tue Apr 23 21:06:50 2002

from AllYorBaseRBelong2Us posted at 2:04 pm on April 23, 2002

Yes.  ANd have literally thousands of possible ship configurations.  :)

AYB would play such a game.

Cupholders are teh win.

Tue Apr 23 22:49:08 2002

from PaoloM posted at 9:38 pm on April 23, 2002br]
. Or Shadowrun :)

Shadowrun = teh win.

But the Privateer style thing is coo as well.

Wed Apr 24 00:23:31 2002

Wed Apr 24 17:02:29 2002

Wed Apr 24 17:05:25 2002

Wed Apr 24 17:51:45 2002

Wed Apr 24 17:53:55 2002

THat would indeed be a horrendous massacre!

Wed Apr 24 18:31:57 2002

So you'd let any registered lurker play right ?

Of course!

Wed Apr 24 18:46:16 2002

from AllYorBaseRBelong2Us posted at 10:53 am on April 24, 2002

The whole point of the game should be to release the Mighty AYB from his slumber to destroy your enemies!

THat would indeed be a horrendous massacre!

Wed Apr 24 19:42:44 2002

;)

Fri May 31 04:04:01 2002

I want to do a sci-fi game.  I can use the universe I am developing for my novels, but players can be privateers like, er, in privateer, and there will be ship-ship combat, many many MANY different ship combinations and upgrades, and so forth.  Different species, too.

I might have to install some kind of database to make it work.  I am going to avoid MySQL, though, as it sucks.  Postgres would work, but I don' t know if there is a Win32 version.  It would rock if I figured out how to use it, though, we are using it in development at work.

So basically this is how it is: you start a character, except it's actually your user account from OSY that you log in with.  You have certain stats, you start out with a crappy ship, and you can do trading runs or fight other players (or both) and fight aliens too.  

Only a certain number of turns will be allowed per day, so people don't go nutso with the levelling.  You try to earn cash to pay for upgrades so you can kick more ass and get more cash, etc.  There will be levels, and a kind of a built-in honor code, if you are docked at a starbase and you are >2 levels below your attacker, they can't attack you.  If you forgot to dock and just logged out while floating around in space, well, anything goes.

The ultimate goal will be to win the tournament by warping to the unknown galaxy and kicking the big bad alien's ass, thus ensuring your total domination.  Then the game is reset, and we play again.  And I keep adding new things to do and see when you are playing.

Sound cool?

Fri May 31 14:48:25 2002

from Jeremy Reimer posted at 11:04 pm on May 30, 2002

Only a certain number of turns will be allowed per day, so people don't go nutso with the levelling.

Fri May 31 16:34:08 2002

It's pretty cool opening up a bash shell on WinXP.  Apparently you can run X and gcc and all the tagnut stuff, without ever leaving Windows, which to me is really really cool.  

I'm going to start the basic planning and see if I can code up an entry screen this weekend.

Fri May 31 17:01:11 2002

including postgres

Fri May 31 17:47:09 2002

Mon Jun 3 15:32:25 2002

Mon Jun 3 16:38:30 2002