Log in/Server select stages?

[Plague Bringer]

Okay, many of you know me as Plague Bringer the (ex?) forum troll and goon nub. Currently, I'm working on getting knows as Plague Bringer the game designer. Me and a friend, Delrey, have been thinking about creating a game on the Quake II engine, as it's OpenSource and I have experience with Quake II games. Not to mention the fact that I know coders around these parts such as Risujin, benmachine, TehOen, Paradox, and others.

Anyway, straying away from the formalities, Delrey was wondering a few things;

Would we be able to have a log in screen, where you can log in to your account. We were hoping that this is possible so that we could have characters that keep the weapons and armor that they buy indefinitely.

We were also wondering if it would be possible to have a game wide leveling system, similar to the server leveling in Wolf: ET, and have the ability for servers to filter out certain levels, so there's not level 50s pwning newbies with gattling guns.

Thanks for your time, guys.

P.S. Lava, if you find that this is in the wrong section, feel free to move it and inform me of where to put stuff like this for next time.

[Caveman]

In short: Nope.

Because then you'd need to totally rewrite the code, not only to include a "ghost-client".
The net code would also need a complete overhaul.
Imho that would only be possible if the server itself is also the client for everybody where the gfx is rendered locally. And that would mean you'd also need way more horse-power.

Better go look for another engine.

[Plague Bringer]

Right, thanks Caveman. Do you know of another opensource or otherwise free engine offhand? We've got a few in mind, but they're all commercial.

[Plague]

Wikipedia provides a somewhat comprehensive list of game engineshere.  It's somewhat interesting to note that almost half are derivatives based on iD game engines.

Best of luck on your project.

[Plague Bringer]

Thanks Plague. We've been looking through the engines listed there, and so far none of the free engines have all of what we're looking for. We're leaning towards the commercial C4 engine, but this being our first major project, we don't want to put too much of an investment into it.

We'll keep you guys updated with a Dev. Blog somewhere on the web if you're interested. Once I get one up, I'll post a link somewhere. We also might have some forums up eventually.

[benmachine]

I think Caveman was a little too defeatist, but it certainly wouldn't be an easy task.
Your first problem is where do you store all the information about each player somewhere where it can be retrieved at any time by any server
Secondly, how do you prevent servers erroneously or maliciously updating the records on this record server.
Thirdly, how do you actually code the damn thing.

I don't think it's impossible, but it'll be hard work, no two ways about it.

[Plague Bringer]

+karma'd all of you.

benmachine, this being our first big project, I assume that you'd suggest against attempting to overhaul the code to get a client that we want?

[Caveman]

Secondly, how do you prevent servers erroneously or maliciously updating the records on this record server.

That is something totally irrelevant, malicious servers will not survive for long as players tend to shy away from abusing servers

[benmachine]

That is something totally irrelevant, malicious servers will not survive for long as players tend to shy away from abusing servers

Depends. Abusing clients and abusing servers could team up together to artificially and unfairly inflate their stats. That'd be a case of a malicious server, but one that was not malicious against its clients.

edit: Plague Bringer: there's no harm in setting your sights high if you've got the motivation to see it through. Ultimately, you get out what you put in.
But yes, learn to walk before you can run I guess.

[player1]

Plague Bringer:

This sounds like a cool idea and again puts me in mind of Tribes, where players had packs, deployables, buildables, reactors, armouries, armor classes and etc. When a player logged in, he could create as many accounts as he liked, but each kept track of certain statistics. What you are describing sounds very much like (as you said) Halo, Warrock, GunZ, and Tribes. Again, I would think that the Torque engine would be of service here (since similar things have already been done with that engine). Hope this is of value to you.

P.S. I have an idea for a mod using experience points to unlock certain classes, 3 guildtypes (projectile, energy, nanobiotech), 9 classes, possible 3 faction option, multiple gametypes, etc. It's not on my new machine, but I'd be happy to type it back in if you want me to e-mail it to you for your amusement and perusal. It's pretty extensively thought-about (if not thought-out) for a person who will never code it. It's just sitting there rotting away, if you care to take a look...

[Plague Bringer]

I'd love to see your ideas. Feel free to PM to me, or if you can find my email, you can send them that way as well.

[player1]

I'd love to see your ideas. Feel free to PM to me, or if you can find my email, you can send them that way as well.

Copy that. Sorry for the delay. No time for considered replies. Non-virtuality intercedes. Happy Holidays to you, your squadmates, your tribe, your clan and your team. May your aim be true and your stamina bar quickly regenerate.

[Lava Croft]

I am currently part of a small team of people working on a game based off the Quake II engine. Join #quetoo on Freenode to come across some folk with some good experience with the Quake II engine.

Also, I am moving this to Off-Topic, as it has nothing to do with Tremulous.

[Paradox]

Bah, if your making a 2d game, use the marathon engine.

[techhead]

I think it might be possible with some rewriting of the server and client code, while keeping the game engine itself constant. In fact, an ET mod called East Front has a similar system in mind.
You could do something where PlayerIDs would be keyed to a username and password. Your PlayerID and info are saved globally on a master server, and when you queried the master server for the server list, it would only show the ones you were eligible to join.
Game servers would query the master server with the PlayerID for the XP info, and send info up to the master for every client connected when each game ends. GUIDs would be linked to computers, and separate from PlayerID, so you could have multiple accounts and keep admin info and bans across accounts.